Trade Shows comes with loads of benefits, not only does it help to spread your word to your audience but also is a great opportunity for you to keep an eye on your competitors. Size up your competition and how you measure up to them. To make the most of this moment it is good to put together a checklist to evaluate your competition.
Make a list of competitors
Prior to the show make sure that you have a clear idea of who your competitors are. Make a detailed list of the competitors and their products and offerings. This will help you to make your evaluation easy.
Marketing Activities
Every trade show participant some a pre-show marketing to get the word out and attract many new customers. It is important to keep a close watch on everything your competition does to spread the news, it may be social media or press or something else. This will help you to gauge your position against the competition.
Trade show presence
Against each of your competitor names write down the names of trade shows and events that they have been spotted in, and how frequently do they attend these shows.
Visual exhibit
Your trade show success is determined by your booth display and exhibits. Evaluate and rate all your competitor's displays on a scale of 0 – 10 or 0 – 5.
- Visual Impact
- Corporate Image
- Layout of the booth
- Graphic and product displays
- Lighting
- Other branding and visual elements
Promotional items and giveaways
Keep an eye out for what your competition to doing to draw attention to the booth. What are the promotional activities, are they doing some lucky draw with a fancy price or giving away branded shirts, tees, pens and flash drives. Make a note of everything, even small gestures make a great impact.
Seminars and Events
Is your competitor involved in any kind of seminar, conference or lectures in the show? Is he part of any session as expert advice and discussion panel? Or has he got an industry expert backing him in the booth? The answers to these questions will determine how much of thought leadership your competition has in the industry.
Trade Show staff
Your trade show staff can make or break the show, determine how many staff do your competitors have in their booths. What are the different roles that each of them are playing? This will help you understand their team structure and individual strengths. Evaluate the staff on the following criteria
- Sociability
- Expertise
- Professionalism
- Corporate Image
- Self-presentation
Visitor Engagement Activities
There are many innovative ideas that trade show exhibitors come up with to keep their visitors engaged. Interactive displays, charging points, use of technology to deliver personalized content to their visitors and much more. Here are a few things to check,
- New software/ technology used
- Engagement activity/ Games
- Avg. no. of visitors in the booth
Though this may seem like a lot to keep track of, trade show data collection tools such as GoSurvey makes it very easy, with premade templates available for everything. Once the show is over compile all the data and analyze your position against your competitors. In the end, it is important that you plan and have the checklist ready to make the most of your trade show.
