Tradeshow metrics for measuring success

If you and your team have invested a huge amount of time and money into marketing through a tradeshow or exhibition, it makes sense to invest some more time into establishing whether it was a worthwhile exercise or not. For many, their first and often last stop for measuring success is a list of contact emails, but it shouldn’t be! Here are 6 of the most important metrics to monitor.

How many new leads did you get?

For most businesses marketing at a tradeshow, the primary goal is to collect leads, so the first metric they are going to check is the number of leads gathered throughout the event. Using some kind of lead capture app will help keep leads organised and make it easier to attribute specific leads to specific events and even individual staff members.

Taking detail about the lead will help you establish how warm it is and at what stage of your prospecting funnel it is.  Details should also inform your personalised follow-up strategies, resulting in a more useful metric to measure and saving you time following up with the wrong type of message to people who aren’t ready to buy.

Understand your cost per lead

Cost per lead = Total cost of trade show/total leads gathered

Knowing your cost per lead will help you work out how event marketing compares to your other lead generation efforts.

Did website traffic change?

If you don’t already monitor your website traffic, you really should start! Understanding your normal web traffic levels will help you spot spikes more easily. Successful events will often result in a boost to organic and direct traffic (visitors searching for you via a search engine or typing your website URL into the search bar) as people look you up after the event.

Be sure you have the detail and information they are likely to be searching for easily accessible on your website, as this will help move them through the sales funnel.

Was there a boost to social media engagement?

Tradeshows are great places to boost your social metrics. Stand visitors can easily become new, engaged followers with the right encouragement. Scrutinising each social media account should provide the numbers you need to spot changes and make future plans. Finding the network that worked best is good for planning for future events, helping focus your time and social activity.

How many demonstrations did the show team do?

Measuring the number of demonstrations your team did during the show is a great way to measure success. If people were agreeing to, or asking for, demonstrations, then you can assume they were interested in what was on offer and are definitely worth a follow up. Also, knowing demonstration numbers at previous events will be helpful for spotting how well this event worked for you and whether it’s one to attend in the future.

Did any convert into customers?

While traffic and leads are good, the most important metric is how many new customers were gained from your tradeshow efforts. Understanding the lifecycle of each lead is vital for this. Compare the number of people you spoke to and took details from to the number of people who later visited your website or landing page, and then again to the number of people who eventually became new customers. Understanding exactly how many end up working with you, will help you gain an idea of what your ROI is.

Once you know your tradeshow ROI, you can decide how useful it is as a marketing method for your business. If successful it may inform future marketing budgets!