Debuting Your New Software Product at a Trade Show – Some
tips for a successful launch
by Holly Stapleton, Fairhaven Solutions, LLC
Introduction
So your company has developed a new software product and you, as your company’s
marketing executive, are looking for a way to introduce the new product into the
market in a BIG way. Launching your new product at a trade show is one way of
making a big splash in the market. In this white paper, I’ll discuss some “tips and
tricks” to help you and your company successfully debut your new product at a trade
show.
Not All Trade Shows Are Created Equal
Your company is going to spend a lot of money exhibiting at a trade show. By the
time you add up the cost for your booth, renting a booth space, producing marketing
materials, purchasing trade show giveaways, travel and hotel expenses – these are
just a few of the costs – you might be suffering from “sticker shock”.
In order to get the biggest “bang for your buck”, you need to target the appropriate
trade show to release your product. Targeting the appropriate trade show for your
new product release is very much like targeting potential customers. After all, what
is the main purpose for exhibiting at a trade show? Trade shows are vehicles for
reaching your target market.
In order to make sure that a trade show is the appropriate venue for showcasing
your company and its products, you need to analyze the attendees of that particular
trade show. Thankfully, the various companies who organize trade shows take care
of that for you.
If you visit the web site of any of the major trade shows, you’ll find a section of the
web site devoted to attendee demographics. Study those demographics and study
them carefully. If you plan on releasing a product at a trade show, these figures are
particularly important – you want to ensure that the trade show attendees are
responsible for making purchasing decisions for their companies.
Following are examples of desirable demographics to look for when evaluation trade
shows. These examples are taken from ProjectWorld’s web site. ProjectWorld is a
trade show that is specifically focused on project management and the processes and
tools that surround that discipline.
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80% of ProjectWorld attendees make/heavily influence buying decisions
ProjectWorld attendees spend an average of $400,000 on project
management solutions alone
Over 50% intend to spend an average of $100,000 in the next year on project
management solutions
Try Before You Buy
Before signing that contract to become an exhibitor at a specific trade show, do your
homework. Many of the major trade shows are hosted in different cities during
different times of the year. For example, COMDEX is held in Las Vegas, Vancouver,
Atlanta, and Montreal this year. If you’re planning on releasing a product at COMDEX
in Atlanta, and you’ve never attended COMDEX before, you should definitely attend a
COMDEX show in another city prior to exhibiting in Atlanta.
While attending a trade show that you are considering exhibiting at, consider the
following questions:
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What is the average exhibitor booth size?
Are any exhibitors launching a new product at the trade show? If so, how are
they drawing attention to their booth?
What is the general atmosphere of the trade show? Is it bustling and noisy or
quiet and more composed?
Are some of your company’s competitor’s exhibiting at this show? If so, how
are they showcasing their products?
What promotional opportunities are available to exhibitors to help advertise
their companies and products?
How is the media handled at the show? Do exhibitors have the opportunity to
interact with the media?
Take Advantage of Special Marketing Events
All trade shows offer special event marketing opportunities to assist companies in
advertising their products and services. If your company has the budget for this,
definitely take advantage of some of these opportunities.
Two excellent opportunities to advertise a new product launch are holding a press
conference and participating in product “face offs”.
Press conferences
First of all, you need to identify the relevant trade media that cover your company’s
industry. It’s a good idea to do a pre-show mailer to the media. You may simply
include some background information on your company and its products and inform
the media that you will be launching a new product at the trade show. Or, you can
put together a press kit.
Press kits are easy to assemble. Make sure that you have enough hard copy press
kits for the pre-show mailer and enough to stock the press conference room at the
show. Additionally, you should post an electronic copy of your press kit on your
corporate web site.
A good press kit will include the following:
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A one page company background. Include the name of your company, who
formed the company and when, the products and services your company
provides, your company’s locations, number of employees, and client
testimonials.
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Images. Include a glossy, full color portrait of your company’s president. You
may also include diagrams or pictures of your products and electronic copies
of your company’s logo.
A press release. Write a single page press release introducing your company’s
new product.
Contact information. Provide the name and contact information of a media
representative – either from within your company or from an advertising
agency that represents your company. The media contact should be
knowledgeable about your company and be able to put reporters in contact
with the appropriate people within your organization for editorial purposes.
Schedule your press conference in advance, as time slots are limited and fill up
quickly. At the actual press conference, the most important thing is to be prepared.
The person or people you choose to represent your company at the trade show
should be dynamic, well-spoken individuals who are well-versed in your company, its
history and culture, and the products and services it offers.
Product Face Offs
Normally, trade shows that are industry-specific, and product-driven offer product
face offs. Product face offs are events where a representative from your company
“enters the ring” with representatives from competing companies that produce
similar products.
Questions about each product and its features and benefits are posed to each
company representative. A panel of judges rates each competing product based on
the answers given. The best product wins the product face off.
Demo, Demo, Demo
When launching a new product at a trade show, perhaps the most important thing to
have available is a working demo of your product. Let’s face it – no one wants to buy
a software product based on a list of features and benefits alone. People want to
take the product for a “test drive”. A demo serves that purpose well.
You can either plan on conducting individual demos with each attendee who stops by
your booth, or you can conduct periodic demos throughout the day to a larger
audience. Both options have their pros and cons.
Individual demos make for good one-on-one sales opportunities. Potential buyers
enjoy the individual attention that a one-on-one demo provides. It also offers your
company’s sales reps the opportunity to gauge the prospective buyer’s reaction to
the product and respond to any questions or objections the prospective buyer has.
However, with one-on-one demos, you may not reach as wide an audience as you’d
like. Many companies simply don’t purchase booths large enough to conduct more
than three demos simultaneously.
That’s not an issue if you conduct periodic demos throughout the day to a larger
audience. With this particular option, however, your company will need to purchase
additional space to afford seating for an audience of ten to twelve and purchase or
rent the necessary audio visual equipment. With a larger audience, your sales reps
will not be able to gauge the audience’s reaction, answer questions, or counter
objections as well as with one-on-one demos.
Trade Show Giveaways and Freebies – Do they work?
Yes, they do – if, and only if, they are well thought out and handed out with
discretion.
Effective giveaways provoke questions and provide booth visitors with a reason to
stay in your booth long enough to learn something about your company and its
products. Pens, coffee mugs, hats and t-shirts are common trade show giveaways,
but they’re not very original – everyone gives those types of items away. Be
imaginative! Develop an overall theme for your booth and integrate the giveaways
into the overall theme.
There are ways you can ensure that your giveaways are not being nabbed by mere
“freebie-seekers” and instead, are placed in the hands of potential customers:
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Hand out giveaways individually. Don’t make them available to just any
passerby.
Make a game out of it. For example, only give freebies out to visitors to your
booth who view a web-based demo of y our product. After viewing the demo,
ask the visitor a “test question” about a feature of your product. Award
freebies to visitors who answer the question correctly.
Capture Information about Attendees and FOLLOW UP!
Whether you are simply collecting business cards from booth visitors or you rent a
badge scanner to scan visitors’ badges, it’s very important to capture information
about the trade show attendees who visit your booth.
Even more important than capturing information about booth visitors is how you use
that information after the trade show is over. You’d be surprised to discover the
number of companies who go to the trouble of collecting information about booth
visitors and do absolutely nothing with that information – no follow up letters or
phone calls.
Consider the information you gather about booth attendees as important
information. Make sure that someone from your organization follows up with a phone
call, a letter, or both. Integrate the information into a CRM application and make
sure that you maintain contact with booth visitors regularly.
If you qualify your booth visitors properly to ensure that they are serious potential
customers, the continued contact you have with them should result in some sales.
Conclusion
That’s all there is to it. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It really is. If you take advantage
of some of the “tips and tricks” outlined above, you and your company will achieve
success launching your product into the market.