Your year is winding down and the new year is about to begin. Your annual show plan is your guidepost to continuous improvement. It is an opportunity to get your event marketing team together to ask the big questions: Were your 2010 shows and events worth the investment? What can we do more efficiently and effectively in 2011?
Your plan starts with four questions:
- Why do we use face-to-face marketing in our marketing mix?
- Who are the target audiences we are trying to reach and are we reaching them?
- What messages are we trying to communicate and are they being received?
- What is our measure of success and did we accomplish our goals? Did we change any buying behaviour, help increase brand name awareness, enter new market segments, generate new business or enhance any relationships through our efforts?
These core questions can lead you to what strategies and tactics can be employed the next year to more efficiently and effectively achieve your marketing objectives.
Done in a vacuum, plans are worth little more than the paper on which they are printed. But when developed by the team of internal customers you serve, it becomes a team-building process that creates buy-in and commitment. The plan is more than numbers, it is a strategic interpretation of what you are trying to achieve as an organisation in face-to-face marketing.
Marc L. Goldberg, Marketech Inc.
Learn more exhibition and event marketing tips, attend Skyline’s Eye Power seminar.
