Pairing your Trade Show Data and Market Research
When it comes to trade shows, most reps think of a place to take the same-old display, products, and marketing collateral, and just go through the motions. If this is you, you’re missing huge opportunities to get first-hand product and market data from your trade show audience.
Most organizations attend multiple trade shows per year, with each attracting a different audience and providing a different offering, likely in different locations. But with trade shows being historically branded as opportunities for in-persona interactions, trade show data has often gone forgotten.
Still with these variables in play, trade shows can serve as a serious driver of market research if you employ the means to capture the necessary data and a commitment to analyzing and acting on it. With that proper planning and a little help from technology, your trade show booth can be activated to conduct A/B testing, similar to your website or marketing initiatives. Here’s how to get started.
Control: Identify your “control” or what you want to test. With your trade show booth, you’ll likely look at data for your booth as a whole, as well as data for individual products, displays, or interactives within your booth that will lead you to gather intelligence into how your visitors and the market at large feel about your offerings.
Metrics: Choose the data and metrics that matter. These include entries into your booth, visits to different product displays, the length of time at each display, conversations with representatives, conversions from pre-show reach-outs, or leads obtained. Even if you’re not focused on certain metrics, it is still valuable to capture them for future use.
Test: Setup some simple testing scenarios. Alter the design of your booth, swap out new displays or messaging, showcase different products, and identify other variables that can provide you with valuable insights into what your audience is interested in.
Track: Employ a means to track trade show data. Depending on your goals and metrics, different types of technologies will help you track different levels of trade show data granularity. Learn about some of them here.
Analyze: Commit to analysis. Between shows, record the trade show data you’ve captured, and manage your data and analytics in a manner when it can easily be compared to previous shows. Leverage your analysis for more testing and changes in your booth.
Example:
Control: New Product Display
Metric: Visits to area, duration of stay, visits to trade show booth
Tests: Move product to different area of booth
Track: Scanalytics SoleSensor
Analyze: Change in visits, change in visits/entry to booth
With a commitment to continuous testing, analysis, and adjustments, your trade show booth data can give you an opportunity to present and test new products and messaging to a controlled environment. You’ll learn more about your customers and audience at a fraction of the cost of traditional market research and risk of full-scale launches and make the most of your trade show investment.