Providing measurement to prove the worth of your trade show program and help you save (or grow) your budget, has been the drum I’ve been banging for years. But providing measurement also demonstrates your own personal worth and may be important if you want to grow your salary.
Arming yourself with strategies and measurement for your trade shows demonstrates that you’re not just a “worker bee” that will endure working long hours while your salary stagnates, but are a vital member of the marketing team interested in the growth of the company. Even if your boss isn’t asking for metrics now, she/he is likely to eventually, and by then it may be too late for you to save your budget and maybe even the whole program. Rather, prove that you’re a go-getter and start providing metrics and measurement even if no one is asking. You can start with some small metrics like, putting an actual number of how many leads you expect to get at a show and then reporting on the number you actually got, and how many of the leads are identified as target audience. Creating a one page wrap-up report to give it to your boss at the end of a show also demonstrates your commitment to making the trade show program an integral part of the company’s marketing mix. This can include metrics such as:
- Top ten (or other quantity) lead status – identify and assign ownership
- Year to year (or show to show) comparisons (where it applies)
- Problems (what they are and how you’ll fix them)
- Competitive/emerging trends
- Seminars that you (or others) attended, presented or sponsored
From there you can work with your sales and marketing team to grow the metrics and measurements that you provide.
I of course can’t promise you’ll get a salary raise, but you have a better chance at making a case if you can demonstrate the impact of your trade shows and prove the value that you bring to the table as the strategic planner of the program.
About Susan Brauer
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