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Ace Tips: How to Maximize your ROI at Trade Shows
When it comes to boosting ROI at events, the first idea that often comes to mind is cutting costs. While trimming expenses can help a little, the real key to ROI is multiplying your investment, not just cutting spend back.
In this blog, we’ll share five proven strategies to maximize your ROI and make a meaningful impact on your event’s success.
1. Define your Goals and Set KPIs
Before choosing displays or packing giveaways, ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish.
Your goals should be SMART:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-Bound
Here are some goals with corresponding KPIs:
2. Choose the Right booth strategy for your goals
It’s important to match your display type to your goals. If your focus is brand awareness or lead generation, Backlit Displays help you stand out.
If your goal is to run product demos or highlight product features, kiosks with screens or tablets are great.
If you’re showing off physical products or handing out branded items, shelves and counters make your booth feel open and approachable.
No matter what display you choose, make sure your graphics are clear and high quality.
3. Train your team to engage
Before the event, ensure all staff know your goals and key talking points. Everyone should know how to greet attendees, qualify leads and actively engage–not just attend.
Set aside time to prepare your team for anything they’ll encounter at the event. This may look like:
- Role-playing common questions
- Practicing elevator pitches
- Booth etiquette training (entering and exiting conversations and body language)
- Walking through the lead capture system (scanners, apps, forms)
- Assigning clear roles (greeter, presenter…)
- Training on how to invite attendees to demos or presentations
In addition, some businesses incentivize teams with bonuses or internal contests.
By taking time to prepare, your staff will feel confident during the event.
4. Use Purposeful Giveaways
To impact ROI, giveaways need to be used strategically. Below are a few examples of goals with corresponding giveaways.
5. Post-show follow-up
Optimizing for ROI doesn't end when your event does.
Segment your leads into three groups:
🔥 Hot Leads: ready to buy or schedule a meeting
☀️ Warm Leads: interested, but not ready to buy yet
❄️ Cold Leads: minimal engagement, but still worth connecting with
Follow up within 48-72 hours of the event with different follow up content to meet your audience where they are in the buyer journey.
Final Thoughts
Whether preparing for your first trade show, or your tenth, you’ve got this. These simple steps will keep you and your team on track to multiply your investment and reach every goal!
If you need help along the way, our team is happy to answer any questions you may have so you’re fully prepared to hit the ground running.
About Ace Displays
In 2006, Ace Displays was founded in Southern California with the desire to provide quality products at competitive prices with the fastest delivery times in the industry. We believe purchasing an event display and its accessories should be an easy and exciting experience. Leveraging our short lead times to differentiate ourselves, we exist to connect people by providing event solutions that create conversations and lasting impressions.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide the best event & trade show displays at budget-friendly prices with unparalleled service to ensure we exceed our clients expectations and to foster an environment our employees are proud to work in.
The Ace Method
We are excited to work with you - from meeting your budget to meeting your deadlines - we will help you create a display that looks great and asserts your presence. To aid in what can be a rather laborious process, Ace has developed a 6-step method to get you a display quickly and easily so you can focus your time on other areas of your business and upcoming events.