Trade shows can be an important part of your business if you generate leads and sales from exhibiting at them. However, exhibiting at trade shows is also a big expense. Do you know how much return on your investment you get from the trade shows you have exhibited at? Are your trade shows even profitable? A recent survey showed that almost 50% of trade show exhibitors don’t even measure their trade show return on investment. This is a very important metric not only because it is a big expense you could be wasting, but also because if you know where your problem areas are, then you can make remedies and increase your ROI and make your trade show booth more successful.

How to Measure Your Trade Show ROI

Here are 4 tips for measuring your trade show ROI:

  1. Define what you will measure, how you will measure those metrics, and be specific about your goals. If you exhibit at different trade shows, this should be done for each trade show because the expenses will be different, so all other metrics and goals will be different.
  2. Use a CRM tool so that you can easily update new leads, contacts and customers and keep track of them as well.
  3. If you have no already done so, calculate the lifetime value of your customer. This key metric is important to know in order to be able to understand the full value of how much impact a new customer acquisition can have on your business. Without that metric, it may not look like you make as much as you do when you gain a new customer at a trade show.
  4. Continue measuring and optimising as you go. Metrics change overtime along with costs, expenses, and pricing. Each change impacts your bottom line and careful attention must be paid to each and every detail.

 

Summary and Takeaways

Trade shows are likely an important part of your business. It helps you get out and meet your customers or acquire new ones while also staying on top of the latest trends and at the forefront of your industry. However, all of that must be profitable for your business. Even if you are making a profit at trade shows you exhibit at, if you aren’t measuring all of the aspects of your ROI, you may be losing money somewhere along the way. Be specific and change your goals for each trade show you attend.