Cost of Exhibiting at a Trade Show: Top Tips to managing finances
When you or your company decide to take the plunge and exhibit at a trade show, you need to consider the financial implications of exhibiting. To put it bluntly, if you’re not quite in the position to spend a few thousand to make an impact, you would be best to wait until you can. Even attempting to do a trade show “on the cheap” is still an expensive game so why waste any money before you can afford to really make it worth it with a nice stand design and build.
Whilst there are obvious costs to exhibiting, there are so many other costs that need to be considered in order to manage your finances and budget effectively. Keep reading this blog for a guide to managing your finances when exhibiting at a trade show.
Breaking down the costs of exhibiting
First things first, let’s talk about the more obvious and necessary costs that come with exhibiting at a trade show. The very first thing you need to do is reserve your space in the exhibition hall of your chosen show. This could cost anywhere between £200 and £500 per square metre. The next thing you want to consider is your stand for this space. You want to make a big impact with whatever budget you have and there are a variety of stands that can fit these spaces that start from around £4000 for a custom build. Consider what marketing materials you will require for the show e.g. giveaways, business cards, demonstrations etc. Then you need to consider how many staff members you will need to man the stand at the event, and if there’s any staff training needed beforehand.
Budgeting for success
The best tip for budgeting for success when it comes to trade show costs is to plan early to ensure that you have saved the revenue to fulfil everything you require, or to give you that push to do so. As said above, booking your stand space alone can be costly, for example a 6m by 3 m stand will cost you roughly £6000 for your reservation only. Remember that your stand needs to fill this space, so a good rule of thumb is that you will spend more “dressing” your stand than you did for the space (at least the same per square meter but could be up to triple dependent on what you are able to budget). For example If your reservation fee was £300 per sqm, and your space is 6m x 3m, expect your stand to have an overall cost for the stand of a minimum £12,000.
Once you have the bigger, necessary costs out of the way, you may find it is easier to budget for the rest of your trade show costs. Things such as staffing, shipping, transport, hotels (if applicable), marketing materials etc can then be allocated.
Maximising Your investment
Maximising your investment at a trade show should be a very important factor when you’re first considering exhibiting. The first thing to maximise your investment is to be organised and start planning early to avoid last minute panic buying and large express delivery charges. When designing your stand, you could think about how you can reuse this for future events such as changing graphics or small elements on the stand rather than changing the entire design. Consider what promotional materials you will need and how much is necessary to your exhibition success. It’s always worth asking whether you can upgrade elements of your stand instead of forking out for a brand new design. Finally, a great way to lower your expenses and maximise your investment is to keep it local as you eliminate hefty travel costs, hotels and food expenses as well as shipping costs for your stand.
ROI measuring success beyond financials
If your goal of exhibiting is to increase brand awareness or gain more leads, measuring your financial KPIs won’t give you a clear picture of how successful these campaigns were. Non financial KPI metrics you can track are website traffic, social media engagement, mentions, articles and many more. If your goal is lead generation (lead gen), you should have an idea of how many leads you want to generate from exhibiting and then comparing this to the amount of leads you collected on the day. Non-financial metrics are an extremely important tool in your overarching strategy especially if your reason for exhibiting is non-financial as they give more context and clarity to your financial KPIs.
Hidden trade show costs and how to avoid them
Make sure you don’t get caught out by hidden or unexpected costs! You need to account for things like electricity or rigging (if you have a hanging banner) at the venue, transport costs for your stand/staff, subsistence costs, insurance, lead retrieval software, marketing items/freebies and cleaning in your initial budget planning. You should also be mindful of unexpected costs and allocate a portion of your budget to this. Things can go wrong in the lead up to and on the day like unexpected repairs, a flat tyre, transport delays etc.
Whilst the exact cost of exhibiting at a trade show will be unique to you and your business, these tips should give you a good starting point and help to guide you through the process. Insideout Events Ltd are a UK based exhibition service provider that cover trade show stand design, creating, delivering, building, dismantling and storage. If you are exhibiting soon, do not hesitate to contact us to see how we can help you and your business at your next show.
If you’re considering exhibiting at a trade show soon, we’re here to help! Contact us for more information.