A trade show is expensive: stand, travel, staff time. And yet many companies would be hard pressed to say what it brought them, because they did not track contacts from the first day to the last.
Through this example, here is how to manage a marketing campaign with a CRM, from preparation to calculating the return on investment. The method also applies to a breakfast event, a webinar, a catalog mailing or an advertising campaign.
The team behind our flexible, automatable CRM tells you everything.
- Create the campaign in the CRM before the show, with its budget and objectives.
- Enter contacts as you go, not the following Monday.
- Link each contact to the campaign, including existing customers and prospects.
- Follow-up happens in the days that follow: after that, the contact goes cold.
- Return on investment is measured on deals signed, not on business cards collected.
Before the show: preparing the campaign
It all starts with creating the campaign in the CRM: title, dates, forecast budget, objectives in terms of contacts, meetings and expected revenue. Without this step, no calculation will be possible later.
Preparation actions already feed the campaign:
- invitations sent to customers and prospects, with meetings booked at the stand;
- presence in the catalog and on the organizer’s website;
- taking part in conferences or workshops, which attract a more qualified audience than the main aisle;
- stand activities.
Invitations are prepared from CRM segments, which makes it possible to target by region, sector or declared interest. Good sending practices are detailed in our article on personalized email campaigns.
During the show: entering data as you go
Contacts arrive through several channels: business cards, forms filled in at the stand, scanned badges, the visitor list provided by the organizer. One piece of advice stands out: do not leave data entry until the end of the show. Entered the same evening, contacts keep what makes them valuable: the need mentioned, the timeline, the tone of the conversation. A week later, only a name remains.
Each contact is linked to the campaign. This also applies to visitors already in the CRM, customers or prospects: their visit to the stand is a marketing action towards them, which must appear in their history.
A word of caution about data. Collecting contact details at a trade show does not exempt you from data protection rules: you must inform people of how you will use them and allow them to object, especially for the prospecting mailings that will follow. The topic is covered in our article on GDPR and your CRM data.
After the show: following up and tracking
Sales reps take over. A contact not followed up within the following days is largely a lost contact: the visitor met dozens of exhibitors, and the memory of your stand fades quickly.
From then on, the CRM makes it possible to track in real time:
- the leads generated by the show;
- the accounts and contacts that resulted from it;
- the deals opened and signed with these accounts;
- the actions carried out: calls, meetings, proposals.
Measuring return on investment
After a period set in advance, suited to your sales cycle, calculating the return on investment becomes possible. It compares the actual cost with the budgeted cost, and the revenue achieved with the expected revenue.
Other indicators complete the picture:
- cost per lead;
- cost per sale;
- conversion rate of visitors met;
- average time to close deals;
- sales trends in the period that follows.
By comparing these figures from one campaign to the next, the company finally knows which actions are worth repeating. Benchmark marketing indicators are detailed in our article on marketing performance, and the place of events among other levers in the one on lead generation.
Your questions about tracking a trade show in the CRM
Should you enter all contacts, even poorly qualified ones?
Yes, with a status that flags it. A contact of little interest today may become interesting, and it counts in the cost-per-lead calculation.
How long should you wait to measure return on investment?
As long as your average sales cycle. Measuring too early systematically underestimates trade shows.
How should you handle the list provided by the organizer?
First check what visitors agreed to. The conditions under which it was shared determine how you can use it.
Should you have one campaign per trade show?
Yes. One campaign per action is the only way to compare trade shows with each other.
Does this tracking apply to online events?
In exactly the same way. A webinar is a campaign, with its registrants, attendees and deals.
