How to Measure Trade Show Success in 2024: The Impact on the Pipeline

The real tool to measure the success of your show in 2024: the pipeline impact!

Trade shows continue to be a crucial strategy in any marketing plan. But when it comes to measuring the success of these events, the process can be complex, even if it seems simple. While ROI and ROE (return on experience) are among the most commonly used metrics to measure “success,” they often fail to capture the full extent of a trade show’s impact on the sales pipeline.

That’s why we recommend focusing on “pipeline impact,” which offers a much more holistic view and a concrete measure of your trade show success. (Something we all need in the middle inflation and rising costs.)

Introduction to the impact of pipeline in event marketing

What is pipeline impact? In its simplest form, pipeline impact measures the impact your portfolio of shows and events has on your sales pipeline. Pretty simple, right? But instead of just measuring the immediate sales that come from your exhibiting efforts, pipeline impact gives you a holistic view of how those events are driving long-term growth for your pipeline. Pipeline impact includes new deals, accelerating existing deals, and reviving old customer relationships. When you can capture these details, event marketers can better understand the true value of their efforts.

Net New Transactions: The Cornerstone of Trade Show Success

New deals are often considered the best indicator of event success. When new, never-before-contacted prospects interact with your brand at a trade show and enter your sales pipeline, it means you’ve done something right, and it becomes a tangible data point to demonstrate ROI.

Why Net New Transactions Matter

1. Brand exposure:Trade shows provide a visual and convenient platform to introduce your brand to new audiences.
2. Lead generation:Events are a fertile ground for profit. Attendees go with the express purpose of purchasing products now or in the future and you have unfiltered access to capture these leads.
3. Market expansion:Penetrating new markets (geographic or vertical) for your service or product becomes much easier thanks to the visibility offered by trade shows.

Accelerating Transactions: The Role of Touchpoints in the Buyer’s Journey

Every business needs new leads to operate, but capitalizing on existing leads and accelerating them through the pipeline can improve your sales efficiency. Trade shows achieve this because they present the most unique opportunities for real, meaningful interactions with your prospects, which can result in closing deals faster and easier.

How Transaction Acceleration Works

1. Quality interactions:Face-to-face meetings allow for deeper conversations between your sales team and prospects, where you can address pain points and clarify uncertainties.
2. Building trust:Interpersonal interactions build trust in your business. This is a factor that cannot be overlooked or underestimated.
3. Immediate impressions:Instant, real-time feedback from prospects that is tracked and communicated to the right team after the show, i.e.: deal tagging, which we’ll talk about in more detail later, can help you tailor your approach to prospects in the future.

Transaction Tagging: Understanding the Nuances of Event Interactions

As we said above, deal tagging is the process of recording the interactions between your sales team manning the trade show booth and your prospects. Not all interactions are created equal, and having a good plan for how you do deal tagging will help you track and analyze every touchpoint a prospect has with your brand. (Here’s our 10 tips to achieve this!)

So, no matter the interaction, whether it’s a chat, an email, or a social media engagement, the data your team collects becomes invaluable in understanding your customers and measuring the impact of your pipeline. However, it also helps you identify which touchpoints are actually working for your trade show strategy and which ones you may need to adjust. Getting the right insights and being able to refine those insights into a comprehensive strategy for your future marketing efforts will undoubtedly lead to better sales results.

The Importance of Transaction Labeling

1. Holistic view:Deal tagging provides a comprehensive, instant view of how trade shows ultimately contribute to the sales process by breaking down each interaction into digestible chunks and observing how those interactions move through the sales pipeline.
2. Data-driven decisions:Transaction tagging helps make informed decisions about future event investments because it tells you what’s working and what’s just wasting time and money.
3. Performance indicators:Transaction tagging provides precise information about the types of interactions (booth visits, dinners, workshops) that were most effective and are likely to continue to be so in the future.

Customer Resurgence: Boosting Existing Relationships at Events

Trade shows may seem like they exist only to introduce new prospects, but that’s not true. They also provide an opportunity to rekindle relationships with existing customers, and sometimes even past customers. Good, helpful interactions can lead to upsells, cross-sells, increased customer loyalty, and sometimes a return to your product or service.

Benefits of Customer Resurgence

1. Rekindled relationships:Face-to-face meetings, especially when personal information is kept up to date, can revive dormant customer relationships that could otherwise be thriving.
2. Upselling Opportunities:Trade shows provide your team with the opportunity to discover new needs your customers may have and provide additional solutions to their problems.
3. Consumer loyalty:Rewarding your customers’ loyalty with special perks or private dinners at a trade show can strengthen existing relationships with them and can lead to better customer retention rates.

Adopting Pipeline Impact to Measure Trade Show Success

Measuring the success of your trade shows through the lens of pipeline impact may be new to you, but it offers a holistic and strategic approach to event marketing. By focusing on net new deals, deal acceleration, deal tagging, and customer resurgence, companies can better understand the real, current value these events bring to their sales pipeline.

As you prepare for your next trade show, consider measuring your success using these specific metrics. This will give you a clearer picture of your event’s ROI and help you make data-driven decisions that improve your overall marketing strategy.