Review your target audience.

It is common practice to measure success by the number of leads generated. With the marketing focus on 'the more the merrier'.

The trouble with this common approach is that too much of the pre-show budget is spent on attracting just about anybody, on buying freebees and giveaways that may end up attracting the wrong audience to your booth, and losing you money (as key targets are dissuaded from trying to talk to you).

What you need to do is:

1. Understand exactly who your best customers are, and if these are who you wish to target and talk to at the exhibition/trade fair.
2. Then decide whether you are looking to convert:
   
   
   • Suspects into prospects?
   • Prospects into customers?
   • Customers into committed customers?
   • Or rewarding committed customers? (corporate hospitality)
3. Next, agree how you plan to identify them, and categorise them - e.g. hot, warm, cold, or A, B or C type leads:
   
   
   • 'A Leads' might be decision makers who will buy within 30 days, are familiar with the product and are talking to the competition.
   • 'B Leads' might be influencers who could buy by year end and are familiar with the product.
   • 'C Leads' might be influencers who are unsure if they will purchase and are already using a competitor product.
4. Then agree how you plan to communicate with them pre and post the exhibition/trade show.

   The pre-show communication can be a way to categorise your audience (via a questionnaire?) or you may already do this as part of your database strategy/analysis.

5. Now look at expected attendance figures (also use historical data) and set your objectives for the numbers of leads from each category that you want to meet/speak to each day.