As a B2B marketing person I’ve always loved trade shows.  Where else do all the trade press and your competitors and customers converge in one place—all with common interests?  People who are looking to buy are all in the same room with people who are looking to sell.  Trackable sales leads are flowing like a river from an identifiable source.  Gotta love it.

But according to a Forbes article, trade show revenue in the U.S.—about $12 billion annually—was expected to contract nearly 7 percent last year.  Trade shows require significant investment—booth space, exhibit design, videos, collateral materials, and most expensive of all—travel and expenses for the sales team.  No wonder people don’t think they can afford trade shows.

There is, of course, a cost for not participating—lost opportunity.  You can’t get sales leads from trade shows if you’re not there.  But now, with virtual trade shows, you don’t have to be physically there.  You can “man” your booth from your office computer, or, well, any computer anywhere.  That saves a bundle in T&E.  Other things are cheaper, too, in the virtual world.  Entry fees, exhibit design and build.  All you need is one representative from your company to be on deck to instant message visitors to your virtual booth.

I do still like the visual, physical, meet-and-greet trade show.  There’s no substitute for seeing faces, talking to actual people in person.  But if it’s a luxury your company can’t afford, check out the virtual shows.

Tags: accountability, B2B advertising, B2B branding, marketing, marketing ROI, sales leads, trade shows

This entry was posted on Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 10:46 am and is filed under marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.