March 1998

The Marketer's Almanac

Tips and timetables for planning your marketing program

By Robert F. James

Begin things right by developing a marketing plan and budget. Effective marketing plans always accomplish two things:

• Segments your audiences according to their different interests in participating in your show.
• Sets measurable objectives for each distinct audience group.

Marketing plans that address each audience's interests are targeted -- and therefore more likely to be both successful and cost-efficient.

Chart your progress, describing the specific promotional tools you'll use each month leading up to the show, as well as setting specific goals for each promotional tool. Without a thorough, month-by-month plan in place, last-minute decisions are often made that result in lackluster results and higher promotion expenses.

Your marketing plan should also quantify your objectives, for example, an attendance goal of 5,000. Besides providing a yardstick to measure success, quantifying objectives also provides a rational basis for deciding whether estimated revenues justify the cost of the planned promotional activities. Therefore, it allows you to add up all your attendance promotion costs to determine the acquisition-per-attendee cost based on your goal of 5,000.

To develop a budget, it's reasonable to use the marketing budget from your last show as a guide. The individual line items will probably apply, but simply marking up figures from another budget seldom produces accurate results. The only sound way to create a useful marketing budget is to research the current costs of every task proposed and factor them into your new budget.

Timely tip: When developing your marketing plan, consider the needs of your promotional partners, as well as your own. Exhibitors and related associations need extra time to integrate your plans into their own schedules. And publishers live by their deadlines -- not yours.

Enhancing your database is a continual process, but now's a good time to gear up for next year's show. If your attendee and exhibitor databases are segmented with vital sales information -- from names and sizes of booths, to buying preferences and booths visited at last year's show -- you can use database marketing to maximize your marketing dollars by reaching your best customers repeatedly with targeted messages while you experiment with new prospects.

This month, three major tasks need to be accomplished:

• Capture new names. New names are vital for growth and to counter the inevitable attrition due to downsizing, mergers, business failures, budget cutbacks and competitive shows. The most fruitful place to look for new names is recent inquiries and previous dropouts. Additional sources, in order of importance, include related industry associations that cover your show's field, exhibitors, magazine and directory publishers, and mailing list brokers.

  When renting a mailing list, it's critical to ask: What's the source of the list? Is it a compiled or a "response" list? When was it last updated? What percentage of delivery is guaranteed? And what are the restrictions on use?

• Tier prospects. For effective database marketing, you can't simply accumulate all your prospect names in a file -- you have to differentiate or tier them. Among the most common characteristics for tiering prospects: prior show attendance, job title, product interest, industry, company affiliation, geographic location, purchasing authority and source of name.

• Begin the process of cleaning your database. Even the best names on a list have a nasty habit of "going bad." The U.S. Postal Service offers free programs to flag bad addresses, correct street-name misspellings and add "Zip Plus 4." Off-the-shelf software, or an outside service bureau or lettershop, can perform more sophisticated "hygiene" on your names and merge/purge lists, so even the most hard-to-find duplicates are eliminated.

Timely tip: During the year, do at least one first-class mailing to every name on your prospect database. It's the most efficient way of correcting names and addresses and makes the cost worth incurring.

Time to think globally -- and act globally. You'll need lots of lead time to convert overseas prospects, whether they're potential attendees or exhibitors.

Since economic conditions change constantly, this is a good month to revisit your sources and determine your show's best prospects, those overseas markets in which you'll want to concentrate your marketing efforts.

To reach exhibitors successfully, review the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) National Trade Data Bank (phone: (800) STAT-USA, Internet: www.stat-usa.gov) to identify the countries whose top 10 exports include your show's products. Once you've identified the target countries, touch base with the trade specialists in their consulates in the United States. Will their government sponsor a pavilion in your show? Will the consulates assist you in promoting booth sales? You should also strike promotional partnerships with trade associations in the target countries and decide whether to recruit and retain local agents or sales representatives to work on your behalf.

To reach attendees successfully, survey your exhibitors to find out where they are most active internationally, and tap the services of the DOC trade development industry officers (phone: (202) 482-2000, Internet: www.doc.gov) to help you identify the countries with the largest import potential for the products in your show. Your list of target countries will emerge directly from your research. Then, begin to cultivate promotional partnerships with trade associations and travel agencies in the target countries. Ask the U.S. embassies and consulates, as well as the chambers of commerce, in the target countries for support. Contact publishers about advertising, direct mail and public relations opportunities.

Depending on the size of your prospect base, you may want to translate your promotional materials. Either way, prepare to begin mailing international promotions during the next three to four months.

Timely tip: Don't overlook marketing exhibit space to overseas manufacturers' sales agents and reps in the United States, who can become your ally in persuading manufacturers to take space in your show since they get a commission from U.S. sales. To find the sales agents that serve your prospects, you can call the overseas company directly. If that doesn't work, you can also review industry-specific directories of manufacturers' reps, or check your industry's manufacturers' directory for rep listings.

If your goal is to close as many sales as possible for next year's show on site during this year's show, you'll need to prepare your exhibitor prospectus now. Since you don't have the upcoming show's attendee demographics yet -- mandatory in a persuasive prospectus -- you can produce a preliminary document and insert the demographics in a future printing.

Corporate exhibit managers agree that more than half of all prospectuses fall short in delivering enough information about why and how to participate in trade shows. At a minimum, your prospectus should profile your attendees by job title, geographic origin, primary business, product interest, budget size, purchasing authority, time spent on the floor and repeat attendance history.

Your prospectus should also detail your promotion plans for attracting attendees. Specify the size and frequency of advertisements you'll place, the number of direct mail pieces you'll drop, the size of press lists for your public relations campaign, and so forth. To pass muster, your prospectus should include these other essentials: an accurate floorplan that allows utility and service orders to be planned; a list of past exhibitors to indicate the show's actual scope and market; and pricing, scheduling, labor and housing information -- the basic data an exhibit manager needs to budget for your show.

Timely tip: To reduce your printing and mailing costs, you might want to produce an inquiry generator, such as a postcard, that targets prospective exhibitors and offers respondents your full prospectus. You can use the simple mailer to maximize your reach among new, untested segments -- without a dramatic increase in your expenses

Selling in earnest starts on site. By closing day of a successful show, some organizers have obtained commitments for as much as 70 percent of the floor space at the following year's show. This should be your goal, too.

Selling a prospective exhibitor -- particularly a company that has never exhibited in your show -- requires from six to eight contacts, delivered in a variety of formats. This series of contacts begins now and continues at least monthly during the next six to eight months. In addition to the prospectus, use advertising, telemarketing, targeted direct mail, newsletters, seminars and exhibits at competing shows to move prospects toward "yes."

Timely tip: Show organizers stress the importance of immediately signing up bellwether exhibitors, those leading companies that anchor the exhibit floor and help draw in competing and closely related companies. Gain and retain their support now by including their representatives in advisory councils and panels to help plan future events.

Since exhibit sales are underway and your exhibitor prospectus is circulating, you should update your Web site with information from the just-completed show and make sure it sells this year's show. Provide the most recent attendee demographics, press releases and promotion generated from the last show, as well as newfloorplans, exhibitor lists, pricing, scheduling, etc. Include as much information about this year's show as you have available. Continue to update the site, and let users know when to check back.

Timely tip: When your show ends, update your Web site to indicate that your event is over. To create post-show interest, create an online photo gallery that features pictures from the event.

After capping off last month's show with a wrap-up news release, it's time to focus exclusively on your upcoming event.

Review your media list to be sure it includes not only all the first- and second-tier publications covering your show's industry, but also the publications serving emergent fields and categories new to your show floor. To enhance your media list, use a directory, such as Bacon's Publicity Checker, and comb through attendee and exhibitor surveys to learn which magazines they read. To segment your list and target your media materials, contact the managing editors of the publications one by one to find out the names of the editors and writers who cover specific areas.

This is also the month to contact important publications in your show's industry to confirm the key deadlines, such as when publicity materials are due for their show preview issues, and to promote the concept of a special advertising supplement devoted to your event.

Your news release targeting the calendar editor should be sent this month and followed up by a phone call to ensure your show is listed as early as possible.

It's also the month for fleshing out your plans for monthly media releases. Early on, you can concentrate your releases on noted speakers. Six months out, focus on conference programming and on industry or association meetings and special events that will be held in conjunction with your event. Closer to your show, zero in on your exhibitors and their new products and services. All your news releases should be targeted to the specialized reader interests and editorial range of each publication.

To spark editors' interest in the weeks prior to your show, consider sending a list of "25 compelling reasons to attend," a summary of "top trends," or a "story angle tip sheet." (Proposing story ideas is critical to attracting the general media, less so the trade.)

Timely tip: Editors prefer news releases that tell them not only what an organization is doing, but also why the activity is significant. What trend is the organization responding to? What economic or technical factors lie behind the announcement? Be sure to include your rationale in your news releases if you want to capture media attention.

This month, renew old partnerships that worked and create some new ones. If your event is open to the public, contact local television and radio stations and barter show tickets for air time and work out the terms of promotional tie-ins between the stations and your show. If your show is a trade-only event, find key industry-related publishers to be its official sponsor or co-sponsor, and approach related international, national, regional and local associations and clubs to be co-sponsors of specific portions of your show, such as an educational workshop series. You'll build credibility and gain access to new audiences.

Like advertising, your attendance promotion's effectiveness relies heavily on repetition. Three or four brochures from you may not be enough to convince a prospect to attend, but brochures from you in combination with invitations and name-mentions in your partners' outreach vehicles will assure attendees that your show is a must-see.

Timely tip: Make arrangements with a travel agency to offer special packages for pre- and post-show excursions that you and your partners can promote to prospective attendees. This increases the allure of your event -- particularly among the international set.

Line up your above-the-title, or official sponsors, and below-the-title, or co-sponsors. Then roll out your program for additional sponsorship opportunities: coffee breaks, lunches, dinners, entertainment, education, message centers, lounges, shuttle buses, tote bags, badge lanyards, help desks, press rooms, sporting events, spouse programs and so forth. Major, big-ticket sponsorships will be sold with targeted proposals. For the rest, produce a mailing that includes a list of opportunities, pricing, rules and regulations, and a contract. Prepare to follow up with a telemarketing and broadcast fax campaign.

Timely tip: Combine your sponsorship sales campaign with the effort to sell other promotional opportunities to exhibitors. Savvy exhibitors are open to using any tools you can provide that will build booth traffic. Approach them simultaneously with offers to place ads in your show directory, buyer's guide and show daily; to buy outdoor and transit advertising, as well as banners and signage inside the exhibit halls; to rent your mailing list; to piggyback literature with your attendee mailings; to purchase VIP tickets; or to have a presence on your Web site.

First, nail down your attendance promotion creative themes, copy approach and graphic look. Next, lock in your media schedule. Remember to give priority to frequency over reach -- your ads must be seen three to four times to make an impression. Review the directories published by Standard Rate and Data Service and draft your initial schedule.

Contact the publishers whose magazines you've selected and try to work out barter arrangements. Seek to leverage the money you're able to bring to the table by offering complimentary booth space and sponsorship opportunities. Your barters should yield a value of about $3 (in advertising space negotiated) to $1 (in hard dollars invested). You can take a similar approach to outdoor, broadcast and general print media if your show is for consumers.

Your trade advertising schedule should be front-loaded and run until one month out from your show. When advertising to consumers, it's most effective to run during the month preceding your show and to back-load your schedule, so that the vast majority of ads run throughout the week before your show. Of course, your ads should be targeted to each audience segment.

Timely tip: When negotiating barter arrangements, make clear to media organizations that a booth at your show -- given the immediacy of the contact with customers -- has greater value to them than the ads have value to you. If the barter were accepted, each organization would incur relatively minor costs in accommodating the other's end of the bargain. And from the viewpoint of exposure and sales, both stand to gain. But if your negotiations slide into dollar-for-dollar comparisons between booth rates and advertising rates, you'll come out holding the short end of the stick.

This is an opportune month to begin intensive outbound telemarketing to tightly defined segments of your audience -- first-time exhibitors, new-to-market companies, power buyers and VIPs, prospective attendees within driving distance of your show, and so forth. Similarly, your objectives should be narrowly defined. Telemarketing experts agree that the statement "to increase booth sales" is not an objective because it doesn't bring to mind a target audience or a sales message. Instead, your objective should be, for example, "to increase the number of first-time exhibitors by 10 percent."

Pay special attention to attracting power buyers -- those few hundred individuals whose participation will, in the eyes of exhibitors, mean the difference between a good and a great show. Compile a list of power buyers' names by asking exhibitors. This audience should receive a personalized telephone invitation to attend, plus as many perks as your organization can offer. Show organizers favor a variety of VIP amenities, including complimentary registration, exclusive meal functions, ground transportation via limousine, pre-scheduled appointments with exhibitors, access to free business services -- even complimentary travel planning.

Timely tip: Structure your telemarketing campaign targeting power buyers as an event and coordinate it with telemarketing efforts by your exhibitors. Prospects will receive calls about attending your show not only from the show organizer, but also from a number of exhibitors, all in the same short time frame -- heightening awareness of your show's importance.

Prepare and mail your first attendee brochure. Most trade show organizers agree that you should send at least three direct mail pieces to attendees, the first six months out, the second four months out, and the third two months out. A "reminder" or "last chance" postcard mailed one month out is also effective. Consumer show organizers favor using postcards and simple folders, mailing them approximately two months out and one month out.

Include as much information about your show as you think is needed to persuade busy prospects to pre-register and attend. Emphasize new products, new and exclusive show features, special offers and -- most importantly -- the reasons why prospects should attend your show. Employ compelling headlines, attention-grabbing photos, easy-to-read layouts and graphic design that communicates a high-quality image for your show. And be sure to segment and target your prospects with customized brochures, brochure covers, brochure wrappers, cover letters, outer envelopes, and so forth. Don't go to all the trouble of segmenting your audience and then send a generic message about your show.

Timely tip: Work out an arrangement with leading industry-related magazines to include your attendee brochure in an upcoming edition, making the registration "compliments of the magazine." Inserts or outserts such as this can be negotiated as part of your advertising program with the publication. Often, publishers can control which subscribers receive your brochure, so targeting within the magazine's readership is feasible. Consumer show organizers can accomplish the same thing using local newspapers.

Although your entire program schedule may not be confirmed, at the least, update your Web site with attendee information to coordinate with your direct mail campaign. To increase the likelihood of capturing registrations online, build your site around your registration form, making it the central focus for anyone navigating the site. Allow visitors to link to exhibitor listings, educational programs and destination information directly from the registration form. If you allow online registration but not online housing, make sure there's a link from your registration form to housing information.

Design your navigation bar so it provides visitors an easy way to explore your site. Don't overwhelm them with choices. Besides the ones mentioned, you might also consider including links to: the e-mail address of a contact in your organization; request show updates via e-mail; request show information via the U.S. Postal Service; request a telephone call from your staff; and frequently asked questions(FAQs). Always include benefits for each audience segment. Display them separately for attendees, media, exhibitors, sponsors, advertisers and so forth. Don't forget to include the full name, dates and location of your show on your home page, and be sure that your site reflects the same high standards your print communications do.

Gear up your virtual show to create excitement for your upcoming show and to reach those who can't attend your physical show. Some features your Web-based show can include: an extensive buyer's guide that includes your exhibitors' profiles, product literature and hot links; news releases about your show; photo highlights; audio clips; and video clips. The more sophisticated show organizers provide real-time broadcasts of keynote and major conference sessions; online chats with keynote and celebrity speakers; online show dailies; and online surveys and opinion polls.

Timely tip: Use push technology. Allow visitors to subscribe to a free e-mail show newsletter once, and continue sending it automatically unless they cancel the subscription. Over time, you'll convert a lot of prospects at a very low cost. To increase traffic at your Web site, give visitors the capability to create personalized schedules to see exhibits and attend educational programs. Special discounts off your registration fee work well, too.

Because they're close to the customers, your exhibitors can do more to extend your promotional reach than any other partners.

First, build your list. Acquire the names of all key marketing personnel inside the exhibitors' companies (the best way to get the names is to include the request on your space application). Titles you'll need include marketing manager, sales manager, advertising manager and exhibit manager. If the company uses an outside advertising agency and PR firm, you'll want the names of the account supervisors, as well.

To motivate exhibitors to promote to prospective attendees, create and send all of the people on your list how-to marketing manuals and monthly newsletters. Reinforce the mailing of the manual with a personal phone call. Encourage exhibitors to include mentions of your show in their pre-show advertising; send direct-mail invitations to their customers and prospects; telemarket customers and prospects; and promote their participation in the show through advance publicity. Set up a pre-show promotion hotline to help answer any questions about tactics and opportunities. Many show organizers provide incentives for exhibitors by running contests and competitions or by offering rebates on the price of booth space.

Timely tip: Ask exhibitors to donate the names and addresses of prospects and customers to your pre-show promotional efforts. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the number of companies willing to supply customer lists -- provided you give them clear assurances about the security of their names.

The hour has arrived to devote your energies to solving those special problems that, if neglected, could detract from the results of your other marketing efforts. For example, building traffic in the dead spots or ensuring attendees discover that you've added a new section to your show in a new hall; boosting attendance on the last day of the show; and attracting local media coverage.

To build traffic in a new or otherwise off-the-beaten-path area, apply retailers'standard tactics: use greeters, grand openings, games, giveaways, stunts, entertainers and bold directional signage. To boost attendance at the end of your show, collaborate with exhibitors to offer attendees coupon books that feature at-show specials on the final day. To persuade the media to cover your event, raise your visibility: hold a theme party on the slowest night of your show (tie the party into a local charitable or social cause and raise your visibility even further).

Timely tip: Don't give away gifts for their own sake. Choose premiums that are useful to trade and consumer show attendees right on the exhibit floor, and you'll increase the advertising impact.

The value of editorial coverage, as all marketers realize, is somewhere between two and a half to three times that of paid advertising. Your goal is to create interest in your show as "the" event for the industry, as well as help your exhibitors build their image and promote new products. Roll out the red carpet for the media. Set up a full-service on-site press room, with food and beverage available. Have a special registration area to welcome them, and set up a time for personal tours of the show floor before the event opens to trade or consumer attendees.

Timely tip: Provide media with a comprehensive show kit. Consult with exhibitors about their press conferences and post a schedule of events in the show press room. Display exhibitor press kits alphabetically and provide information on new products, industry statistics and sources.

On site, don't forget to promote next year's event with "soft" advertising. Make sure there's plenty of signage with next year's show dates and location. In addition, place ads in show dailies and programs, make announcements at general sessions and other key events, provide staff with buttons displaying the show information, and include on specialty gifts such as registration bags.

Timely tip: When preparing your on-site promotions, don't forget to feature other products your organization might offer attendees -- seminars, books, reports, subscriptions, software, audiotapes, videotapes, memberships, etc.

Robert F. James is an independent commercial writer based in Washington, D.C. He frequently explores trends and topics in the exposition industry.

March 1998 EXPO