Make Your Expo Displays Pay Off!
Whether anyone likes it or not, we’re living in an age where cold hard data often drives decisions, especially as the size of a company increases. If you want to keep putting up nicer expo displays – or keep exhibiting at trade shows at all – you’ve got to be able to show how they contribute to the bottom line. 
Now, it’s certainly nice if you can make some direct sales at your expo booth… but that rarely happens – most shows and display booths don’t even contemplate on-site sales – certainly not in the sort of quantities that allow a display to instantly pay for itself. Much of the value of your trade show displays comes indirectly, through the value of your leads and demographic data they generate for your sales team.
Getting the best leads, and the most demographic data, are the keys to getting a return on your expo displays.
Data Means Returns On Expo Display Investments
The virtues of leads and their value to a good sales team are obvious, so let’s focus on the data side of things. Demographic information on who visited and, especially, on who interacted with staff, is invaluable in targeting your marketing. These are the people you politely survey afterwards to find out how they viewed your company and your products. This tells you exactly what your target market thinks, and often in time to influence products in development.
Data brings happier customers, better products, and more sales.
Now, what does this mean for the on-the-ground reality of running a trade show display? Let’s look at a couple ideas.
Practical Data Gathering At Expo Displays
I. Have Someone be a “Know-Body!
At this point, having someone hanging around with a tablet or other smart device to help with lead management is pretty useful, especially in high-end expo displays. Make good use of your data management opportunities! It can be as simple as having a staffer quietly making tick marks in a note-keeping app like Evernote, or an inexpensive spreadsheet app, on their cell phone or iPad.
If they also make notes of who interacted with the other staff, they can compare notes with those staffers as they get a chance throughout the day. If you hit the end of the day with a clear picture of who visited, and what their interests were, and perhaps which staffers hit it off with them the best, that info can turn into great hooks for your sales team to work.
II. Stair-Step Your Data Gathering
It cannot be emphasized how good it is to have even a single piece of contact information for anyone with any interest in your product. With their email address, or a Facebook connection, or even just their Twitter handle, you can centralize your information on them personally.
Once you have a piece of contact information , you can stair-step how you add data to it, asking for a bit more with every new piece of content or freebie you offer. For some hints on what kind of information to gether, we’ve created a good starting point list here.
Never ask for too much data at once – try to keep it to just a piece or two per transaction. Harness the power of databases to make it add up to a lot over time.
Not to mention, many of the social networks like Facebook also give you easy demographic breakdowns of your fan base. All this can add to the overall picture you can build of both individual leads as well as the overall markets they represent.
Marks Are People Too
There’s one important caveat to all this: Even as you gather all this great information at your trade show displays, you have to remember that these are still people you’re meeting and dealing with. You’re not just getting abstract numbers for making pretty slideshows; you’re discovering what actual people actually want from your products, so that you can give it to them!
Similarly, as you look to harness the power of data, there’s another reason to remember its value: your customers know you’re asking for information that helps you! Never ask for information without giving something back in return. From initial interactions at your trade show displays to their later involvement at your website, there should be a sort of trail of breadcrumbs leading them around.
It works out well all around: You impress your leads, while gathering useful information from them, and repaying them with small bits of content or opportunities to interact. As long as everyone benefits – including the would-be customers – then it can become a self-reinforcing cycle.
Keep Up Your End
As you look to gather more demographic data at your expo displays, remember to always give back. Add content. Fuel further interactions. Create opportunities for creation.
Just remember: you’re gathering the best data you can so that you can produce the best product you can, and get it in front of real people who’ll appreciate it. Keep both goals in mind, and your expo displays will pay off!
For more, learn how to make your displays more professional and how to understand your customer’s personality.