Event Marketing Lessons from a Midwestern Home Show

marketing

While I’m certain that every audience has heard of the global event based phenomena known as “the Michiana Home Show”, I’m also certain the masses are teeming with anticipation to read about my experiences as an exhibitor.

Truthfully, anytime I’ve done event based marketing - I feel more anxiety than any other format of marketing. Therefore, in order to continue growing from my experiences rather than just having them, I make an effort to document lessons learned while also conducting the on-site work. This blog post discusses the lessons and observations made while planning, organizing, working, and reflecting upon the 2022 Michiana Home Show.

who doesn’t love free merch?

the unsung hero of lead GENERATION.

Running a booth at small town trade shows:

things that worked.

If you Google the benefits of working a trade show you’ll find a number of articles that list brand awareness as a benefit. I really don’t believe in brand awareness as a key performance indicator in any advertising. Instead, I look at specific indicators for specific goals at specific times in the campaign.

Here’s my trade show KPIs:

  • Total Booth Conversions: the number of People who submitted their information to let us contact them.

  • Total Booth Lead Conversion: the number of people who actually requested work and paid for it after they submitted their info.

  • Total ROI: the total return on all non-hourly expenses after leads converted and paid.

Once you have your targets, you can form a strategy around your targets - because inevitably you’ll have to answer the question:

“how did we do?”

- everyone who wanted but barely helped with the event.

So here’s the short of it: we barely made it. If you’re interested doing an event for just the branding (a terrible reason), don’t obsess over the results. If you want results, don’t do events.

That’s just my opinion formulated from three kinds of trade shows. If you want a breakdown of my trade show/event marketing experience, here it is:

  • First Trade Show: MrKet, Las Vegas, Clothing trade show booth for J.L. Rocha Collections.

  • San Diego Polo Club 2014/2015: Brand booth for J.L. Rocha Collections.

  • Fashion Week San Diego: Spring Showcase Market Booth for J.L. Rocha Collections.

  • Agenda Trade Show: New York, Attending for J.L. Rocha Collections

  • Michiana Home Show, South Bend, Indiana: shared booth for Asscher Roofing Company & A+ Plumbing Heating Cooling.

Now, you might be interested to know: I recognize no substantial gains from any of these trade shows.

But what do the numbers say? Here’s a breakdown of my KPIs specifically related to the Michiana Home Show 2022:

  • Total Booth Conversions: 25 for A+ PHC / 9 for Asscher Roofing.

  • Total Booth Lead Conversion: 2 for A+ PHC / Zero for Asscher Roofing

  • Total ROI: Spent (not including hours) $1,713.25, Acquired $15,200, ROI. Return = $13,486.76 (not including overhead)

If you’re a business owner, you might look at the ROI and think “wow what a success!” But here’s a few other KPIs you might find interesting.

Based on the above we can determine:

  • Cost per lead from Home Show = $50.38 per lead. $18.59 cheaper than total last year average of $68.97

  • Cost per lead sold = $1,713.25/per sale vs total LY average of $108.63/per sale.

So based on the numbers, is event marketing better than digital marketing? No.

One could argue, average ticket sale was much larger, but one could also argue that was luck. Because if we hadn’t sold that one job, we would have a negative ROI. That makes sense, but maybe some of you are also saying:

“there are more benefits to a home show/trade show than sales!”

- anyone justifying event marketing without quantifiable numbers.

And hey, I don’t disagree, but we should deep dive regardless.

More than just math,

what else do events teach us about marketing?

Lessons from the Michiana Home Show

everything beyond the math.

I’m not a jerk, I just appreciate more efficient uses of my time. My career in digital marketing has soured me against the effort that is planning, setting up, and working in any trade show/event. My personal belief is that I can get more out of the web from well targeted ads instead of a whole weekend at in front of a random audience. Regardless, even I have to admit there are lessons to be learned from event marketing.

Here are some of the lessons the Michiana Home Show 2022 taught me:

1. Never underestimate the value of going for it.

Our in booth conversion wasn’t really good to start off: the staff was nervous and unprepared, and I wasn’t interested in what I thought would be a failing endeavor. What really helped our in booth conversions was Richi Sanchez and his go-get-em attitude.

When you just flat out ask someone “are you interested in these services” you’re at least forcing an impression and getting a response. It’s not that 10/10 people you ask will convert; it’s 10/10 people you don’t ask will never convert. Seeing this attitude in action was a great reminder for me and the staff that an enthusiastic effort makes all the difference.

2. Never underestimate the value of free stuff.

Hands down the thing that inspired most audience response was our giveaway, our prize wheel, and the free apparel. We hosted a number of free items in our booth including an air purifier + installation for an ongoing online giveaway along with unique sweatshirts and t-shirts available as prizes on our prize wheel. Here’s what I gathered:

  • Our giveaway generated more entries at the home show than it has so far online. Showing the community interest in air quality, as well as the fact that it’s psychologically less work to submit your info in person than online.

  • Our prize wheel was a smash hit, children love spinning a prize wheel, and we had candy bags for them in case their parents didn’t want to submit their info.

  • Free apparel was the most exciting opportunity for parents. On multiple occasions, parent submitted their info exclusively to spin the prize wheel. Additionally, multiple entries that spun the wheel and won free services opted instead to get a sweatshirt or t-shirt for the brand they liked.

But none of these two examples are the reason we really generated conversions. I’d say the reason why and most important lesson is:

3. Lead with your lesser focuses, not your big ticket items.

When it comes to actual conversion, here’s where things get interesting. The brands we exhibited offer HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical service (in A+ PHC) as well as Roofing and Exterior Services (for Asscher Roofing.

We had 12 roofing competitors present, and 3 HVAC competitors. But we generated potential business as well as closed business from our lesser known services. Electrical services generated our only sale of the Michiana Home Show, a service we weren’t promoting and only had listed on our banner. In the case of roofing, while we haven’t converted any leads as of today (April 6th, almost one month later) - the key to driving home show leads was often roofing services in Michigan which we were poised to begin April 2022.

So what’s the final outcome here?

closing notes:

When it comes to event marketing, small town trade shows might be something you want to consider. The gentleman in the booth across from us at the Michiana Home Show exclusively does home show marketing because he sells completely built four season rooms to attach to your home. He says all his business comes from home shows, and word of mouth.

If you have a solid digital foundation, you should consider event marketing against your goals and your budgets to determine if you’d be comfortable with a negative ROI and additional costs per acquisition.

When considering trade shows to drive business, always take it with a grain of salt. It’s incredibly hard to utilize S.M.A.R.T. goals when conducting event marketing, but you might get lucky and hit a home run.

It’s easy to see that my team received some benefits and inspiration while being at the home show; but it’s also easy to see how the numbers barely paid off. One thing is certain: If your goal is to receive ground breaking business, buyer beware, because there’s no substitute for consistent positive work.

Let me know if you think I covered event marketing right, or if you have any other suggestions! I’d love to get a multitude of voices to chime in, until then:

Stay Fancy, Friends.

Jose-Noel Rocha