It’s one of the great conundrums of business: Exactly how valuable are trade shows, in terms of leads made, follow-up done and orders shipped? What happened to all those business cards in the fishbowl at our exhibit? And can you show your answer on a flip chart at our next strategy session, please?
That task can be made easier by using a fully integrated lead retrieval and analysis system designed for trade show exhibitors, such as the one just released by Expo International Inc. [http://www.expo-intl.com]
Already known as a provider of information technology services to the trade show and exposition industry, Expo has announced a new fully integrated lead retrieval, tracking, cross-analysis and fulfillment system for trade show exhibitors. Called Global Campaign Management, the system is supposed to enable exhibitors to capture high quality data on visitors to their trade show booths and immediately identify and follow up on qualified leads.
The system is designed to let exhibitors analyze their trade show efforts and overall marketing campaigns in real time, review post-event follow-up performance and compare multiple trade show results in order to maximize their specific trade show ROI.
There are other lead capture systems around, to be sure, but GCM has the twist of being the first to combine the Dun and Bradstreet corporate information database with the Internet for timely information and responses. It matches information gathered from trade show prospects to the Dun and Bradstreet database, allowing companies to enhance the information on each lead in order to further qualify the prospect or customer. This nice level of fine-tuning helps exhibitors identify top-tier prospects by level of interest and buying authority, hopefully contributing to overall response costs.
GCM is also one of the few systems that bring lead capture, analysis and fulfillment into a single system. Based on user-determined selection criteria, Expo International can respond on the exhibitor’s behalf with personalized electronic messages with embedded graphics or through traditional direct mail campaigns. Individual responses, which directly address prospects’ interests, can be sent under the name of the appropriate sales representative. The GCM database can be merged with the exhibitor’s sales management system to provide a single optimized corporate lead system.
By using GCM’s Web integration, an exhibitor’s corporate management can also access up-to-the-minute booth activity statistics and summary reports, simply by logging onto a secure Web site from the home office or anywhere in the world. This capability is coupled with the ability to analyze previous trade show performance data.
Several levels of reporting are offered, including:
- Data Collection/Analysis. Collects hourly and daily visitor counts by buying authority, provides hourly count reports, demographic breakdowns, and product interest breakdowns, develops qualification reports based on custom logic and the D&B database and generates action reports.
- Cross Show Analysis. Compares and reports multiple show effectiveness on a cumulative basis and cross-tabulates quality and number of lead counts across multiple trade shows.
- ROI Reporting. Analyzes overall market penetration and compares exhibitor’s “visitor penetration” vs. overall show. Analyzes the effectiveness and financial return of tie-in promotions and other pre-show activities to the lead capture information.
