Building ROI on good data: SC&RA comment August 2019

With 94 exhibitors booked for this year’s SC&RA Crane & Rigging Workshop, attendees and exhibitors alike will enjoy the chance to meet and mingle with the crane and rigging industry’s leading manufacturers, wire rope suppliers, publishers and service providers. The annual Workshop exhibit represents what many attendees feel is the number one place to meet customers face-to-face and directly experience the latest in services, software, technology and equipment within the crane and rigging industry.

Many of those 90-plus exhibitors, however, will be tasked with trying to analyse data to properly measure the return on investment (ROI) on their Workshop presence. In addition, how will that data be managed, and what plan will be put into place to use the data to make actionable decisions and drive desired results?

Truth be told, if you’re an exhibitor in any capacity – at any show – if you can’t tie the data back to a well-developed plan, or worse, if you don’t have a plan in place, then you’ll never really know what the data says, or how your business can benefit from it.

Key tips

With the increasing use of powerful data-management tools and a focus on data quality, businesses can now generate numbers that demonstrate real value around trade show participation. They can also leverage those data management tools to profitably extend relationships with customers and prospects from the event far beyond the initial booth visit.

With the appropriate third-party data-quality tools in hand, a plan for collecting and maximising data and an accurate CRM (customer relationship management) database, businesses can position themselves to collect leads that are not just robust but actionable. The results can be an ROI that is provable and trade show follow-up that is successful.

Modern data refers to multiple aspects of an organisation, including production analysis, quality analysis, marketing, sales and more. Companies should have such information at their fingertips, along with sophisticated and impactful processes in place for analysing the data.

This is often easier said than done but it starts with sending a team or individual to the trade show that is well-versed in gathering data. They should also be well educated in how to apply that data to a workable post-show plan.

A key tip for at-show capture of data for proper post-show follow-up is to know the data that needs to be collected. For example, if your plan is to send follow-up campaigns targeted by industry, you’ll need the people working the booth or collecting data at a presentation to be asking for industry information.

In addition, after capturing manual information and data – business cards, conversations, etc. – team members should use a real-time e-mail verification API (application programming interface) within your CRM software to ensure the accuracy of the e-mails being entered. This will help prevent typos and bad data from entering your database and streamline post-show communications.

Lastly, a third tip is to collect as much data, preferably verified, as possible. You can always apply high-quality data cleansing tools to fix the data later.

Ultimately, if you focused on data quality and strong management of data collection in your marketing and execution plan for the trade show, then you’ll have minimal work to do when you get back. This means marketing and sales efforts can be focused on landing those leads instead of figuring out how to contact them.