The
right trade show can be a huge boost to any reseller's prospect
list. The trouble with tradeshows is that they can also be a giant
waste of time and money if you've chosen to present at the wrong
one. In determining whether or not to invest marketing dollars into
a tradeshow, there is a simple list of issues that will help guide
your decision process.
1. Cost per Attendee. Find out from the
conference how many total attendees will be in
attendance. Take the total cost to do the
tradeshow and divide that number by the total number of
attendees (Total Cost/Total Number of Attendees).
This will give you your marketing cost per attendee.
Around $1 - $2 per attendee is an acceptable number on
the hard cost, but there are a lot of other factors that
must be considered before you can know if that will be a
good investment of your time and marketing dollars.
2.
Booth Placement. Where will your booth be?
Will it be visible to all the attendees? Will you
be in a high traffic area? Make sure that your
booth is one that will have maximum (or at the very
least, acceptable) visibility or it will not matter how
many attendees will be present - because they won't find
you.
3. Face Time with Attendees. Find out
exactly how much time the attendees will be in meetings.
How many hours of potential face time will you have with
the attendees? If they are in meetings or
workshops all day and you only get to see them on
breaks, this will be another factor in choosing whether
or not to market at the conference.
4. Geographic Residence of Attendees. Is
the conference you are attending a national conference
or will most attendees be from your state? If it is a
national or regional conference, it may make sense to
work with your vendor and/or partner with several other
resellers from other geographic areas. If it is a
local conference, make sure that a good amount of the
attendees will be from areas that you cover.
5. The Practice Specialties Represented at the
Conference. If you have a $100,000 product you are
selling and you attend a conference for small
chiropractors, you will probably not have success at the
conference. It is important to know that the
practice specialties in attendance will be potentially
receptive to your product and price point?
6. Total Number of Vendors Present. How
many total sponsors/vendors will be in attendance?
Sometimes spending a little more money to be one of only
a couple sponsors can result in a lot more success than
being one of a hundred vendors tucked away in a sea of
booths.
There are other issues to consider when preparing for a tradeshow
as well.
Finding a Reputable Tradeshow. There are a number of
sites that can help you find a reputable tradeshow in your area
where you can invest in marketing. One such site I've recently
became acquainted with is the Canadian Website – Doctor’s Review:
http://www.doctorsreview.com/cgi-bin/medical_conferences
Support
from your Vendor. Ideally, your Vendor should have a
tradeshow booth, marketing materials, demos, financial support,
personnel, and/or other resources you can pull from when doing a
tradeshow. Ask your vendor about any resources they might have
in order to maximize your tradeshow results.
Fishing for Leads. Once at the tradeshow, putting a
fishbowl out to gather business cards and having a drawing is a
tested and true way to harvest a large prospect list. Perhaps
you give away an iPod to one lucky doctor and receive 1000 business
cards from attendees in the process. That was $200 well spent
on developing your latest marketing list. Don't be afraid to
get creative and differentiate yourself from the other competitors
in attendance.
In the Healthcare IT industry, tradeshows are an important part of
any marketing campaign. With literally hundreds of tradeshows
and conventions looking for sponsors you can afford to be a little
choosy. It simply has to be the right tradeshow for the right
price.
-- Kevin Burdick,
InvestMedLLC.com
