the gridiron: making your investment count. getting the most out your exhibition spend

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A Strategic Brand Consultancy The Gridiron: Making your investment count. Or, what we think about when we think about exhibitions. Ali Nicholl Brand Strategy

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How can you ensure you get the most out of your investment? You probably spend quite a bit on your exhibition attendance, stand design and marketing materials. However, from working with clients across Manufacturing, Technology and Defence it is clear that there is a need for tools that can help ensure that that investment isn't wasted. Before investing a pound, dollar, or Euro you need to know the answers to strategic and tactical questions like: Why are you there? Who is going to be there? Who do you want to talk to? What are you going to talk about? How can we measure success? What does success look like? We've developed a simple tool to help set strategy, define tactics and assess ROI for exhibitions, trade shows, expos and beyond. Identify target profiles, outline interaction types and ensure that you are tracking where conversations are happening and what you can do to move prospects from Fence sitters to Shoppers. To download a copy of the Gridiron tool with handy cheat sheet visit makeitclear.co.uk/resources/the-gridiron

TRANSCRIPT

Title

A Strategic Brand Consultancy

The Gridiron: Making your investment count.Or, what we think about when we think about exhibitions.

Ali Nicholl Brand Strategy

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Exhibitions, trade shows and expos all cost money.

Unfortunately establishing the value of exhibitions isn’t as simple as “ turn up, take orders, subtract costs ”.

In the B2B world particularly, extended sales cycles and multiple touch points make establishing the ROI of events complex.

We've developed some simple tools to help set the metrics for success, judge the success of previous events, and plan future attendance.

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

The who, what and how

5 profiles

3 interactions

The Gridiron

How to use

Hints & tips

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Profiles

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

5 profiles

Profile types are at an individual, not company, level. One company may have multiple delegates at an event, each with different aims, objectives, interests and levels of engagement with you.

FFollowers Believers

BAggregators

AExplorers

EInquisitors

I

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Followers

Existing client contacts or prospects you already know.Followers buy from you, or are going to. They know what you do and how you do it and can be classified in most cases as pull rather than push sales. They already invest in your brand and may contribute to product or service innovation - asking for new offerings and solutions.

FFollowers

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Believers

Those that know there is something they need but don’t fully understand the opportunity or the solutions.

Believers know they have problems and have faith that there are solutions, but they struggle to describe, differentiate and decide what they are. Believers may also have misdiagnosed their problem looking for fixes in the wrong places. Crucially, they are open to being told this and looking at their situation in a new light.

BBelievers

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Aggregators

Visitors or delegates who are doing something, or have a specific tender set, but want to do it cheaper/better/more of the same.

Aggregators are looking for a deal. They have their shopping list (or existing offer) and want to source alternatives, either for a genuine comparison or as a stick to beat their existing supplier/partner. Where there aren’t like-for-like comparators Aggregators will be interested in benefits ; alternatively where products or services are common they’ll tend to only focus on features.

AAggregators

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Explorers

They want guidance and know they know nothing.

Explorers are heading off into uncharted territory. These often senior/c-level individuals are willing to accept expert ‘local’ knowledge and insights and want to discover what might be possible and how the future could look. They will expect nuanced and detailed explanations and information and are open to new experiences or ideas.

EExplorers

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Inquisitors

Individuals that ‘know’ everything and want to test, probe and compare specific feature sets.

Inquisitors are often senior specialists, in-house experts or consultants who have risen to the top by having a deep (but often narrow) understanding. They aren’t overly interested in the big picture and benefits where they sit outside their own expertise. They want to grill staff and service to drill down on specifics. They’ll challenge statements for evidence and press on anything ‘woolly’.

IInquisitors

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Observations

How do you reach people if not at events?

Followers already know who you are

Aggregators & Inquisitors are actively looking for you

Believers & Explorers are interested but may not know who you are or where to find you.

FFollowers Believers

BAggregators

AExplorers

EInquisitors

I

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Observations

What messaging do the profiles most want to hear?

Believers & Explorers - benefits

Aggregators - benefits & features

Followers & Inquisitors - features

FFollowers Believers

BAggregators

AExplorers

EInquisitors

I

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Interactions

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Interaction types

Tyre kickers Fence sitters Shoppers

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Tyre kickers

They already have an existing solution in place or lack funds/interest in progressing.

Note: One-in-a-million Tyre kickers will be converted to a sale. However generally they are either happy as they are, unable to make decisions due to seniority, influence or other constraints, or are simply looking for something so specific and esoteric that the chances of happening on it at an event are vanishingly small.

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Fence sitters

They may be short of time and unable to commit more at this stage, or they maybe looking for the insight or observation that moves them from ‘to be convinced’ to ‘engaged’.

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Shoppers

These individuals are open and willing to listen and will commit quickly to further conversations if they hear the right trigger.

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Observations

Believers don’t become Followers at a single event but a Fence sitter can become a Shopper.

A miracle ball might change a Tyre kicker to a Shopper but don’t bank on it!

Fence sitter

Shopper

F

F

F

Tyre kicker

Shopper

Fence sitter

E

EF

Followers Believers

B

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

The Gridiron

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

The Gridiron We have created the Gridiron as a practical tool.

This tool can simply be used to map who you want to talk to, who is likely to be attending, what materials and touch points you have at each level, who within your organisation

is best placed to field questions, what success looks like, or retrospectively as an evaluation of an event.

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

F

BB B

I

F

B I

Observations

Conversations/interactions may move up and down the Gridiron but not left and right. Interaction type can change over the course of an event, profiles don’t.

Any interaction can only move one square up or down.

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

What it might look like

Ideal (the best result in the best of all possible worlds)

Bad (a potentially wasted investment)

Good (the expected interaction type by profile).

The ‘Good’ line of best fit here is the expected, or most common, profile by interaction type. Inquisitors may take up time and grill staff but they are likely to be particularly interested in purchasing. Conversely Followers should be on the look out at all times for new offers or offerings that will benefit their business.

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

How to use the Gridiron

1 Strategy

2Tactics

3ROI

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Who do we want to talk to?

Who do we expect to be there?

Who do we want to minimise interaction with?

Strategy Defining what success looks like

Hint: Think about the profiles of who will be there and how this might be influenced by format (for example at a c-level conference you might expect more Explorers and Aggregators than at a general event).

Additionally, consider what you’re likely to be showcasing. If you are launching or discussing a new product or service you’re unlikely to meet Shoppers (the solution didn’t exist prior to the event).

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

REFER TO WEB

UPSELLCONVERT

WRONG EVENT

Strategy example

Who do we want to talk to?

Who do we want to minimise interaction with?

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Tactics Getting there

What tools do we have?

What are we going to talk about?

How do we follow up and who with?

What are the next steps?

Hint: With any interaction you can convert them one step along from Tyre kicker to Fencer sitter or Fence sitter to Shopper. If you have successfully converted a Tyre kicker to a Fence sitter what do you leave them with? What do they takeaway? How can you ensure that you can continue the conversation and move them from Fence sitter to Shopper?

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Tactics example

Pre-event

Phone call invite

HTML invite

Press ad

Web banner ad

Post event

Follow up email

Follow up call

Event report

Event newsletter

Event

Event brochure

Product brochure

Event website/app

VideoA E

I

B

B

FF

F

A

E

B

B B

F

F

F

I

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

FOLLOW UP EMAIL

VIDEO

FOLLOW UP CALL

STAND DESIGN

HTML INVITE

EVENT WEBSITE PRESS AD PRODUCT BROCHURES

PRODUCT BROCHURES

BANNER AD

FOLLOW UP EMAIL

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

ROI Evaluating performance

What conversion did we have? Where did leads come from? How could we reach types

we missed? Did we hit the targets per

interaction and profile type? Did attendance match

organisers profiling?

Hint: When you review if interactions, wherever on the spectrum, were predominately with Followers, could you in future reach them more cost effectively? You already know who they are. Conversely, you may not convert Believers and Explorers from Fence sitters to Shoppers but how much value is there in them now knowing about you? How else could you have reached them? What marketing spend would you have had to deploy to get the same contact or cut through?

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

ROI example

Tyre kicker

Followers Believers Aggregators Explorers Inquisitors

Fence sitter

Shopper

Summit event 2012

Size of shape denotes the amount of conversations / leads

Distributor conference 2013 Worldwide conference 2014

Conversations & leads

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Hints & tips

The interaction type is a continuum. An individual may be a mixture of Shopper and Fence sitter. Profiles are discrete any one individual (but not necessarily an entire company delegation) will be either profile A or profile B.

The Gridiron can be used retrospectively to look back over your events; how have the profiles or interaction types evolved? Where are you seeing return on your investment?

Strategy: Be honest e.g. not all actions will be with Shoppers.

Tactics: You don’t need a piece of collateral for every profile and level of interaction, but you do need to know what you’re going to say and what the potential follow up is.

ROI: Maximise value by tracking over time and at multiple events. Are you seeing a change in profiles? Over time you should see a rise in Believers from Explorers and interactions should shift from resolutely Fence sitter towards Shopper.

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Tools

If you wish to download this tool please visit: makeitclear.co.uk/resources/the-gridiron

makeitclear.co.uk The Gridiron and making your investment count

Established 1991 • Based in Old Street, London • 17 Employees

A Strategic Brand Consultancy

About the presenterAli Nicholl is the brand strategy lead at Make it Clear, the strategic brand consultancy.

[email protected]@ac_nicholl@make_it_clear