If you want your trade show to be a success, you have to start at the very beginning: knowing your goals. This may seem obvious, but there’s more to establishing a successful trade show goal than you might think.

How do you establish a goal that will lead to a great trade show? Successful exhibitors know that a good goal must be measurable, realistic, and well communicated to your team. Such a goal should lie at the center of every plan you make for your exhibiting event, which is why it’s important to establish your goal before you make any other plans for a trade show event.

Set Yourself Up For Success by Setting a Goal You Can Measure

When you ask new exhibitors about the goal of their trade show, many will say they want to “increase sales” or “generate brand awareness.” These aren’t bad goals, but what vague goals like these lack is the ability to measure whether or not the trade show actually helped increase sales or generate brand awareness. You can’t know if your trade show was successful unless you know how well you achieved your goals, and that requires a goal you can measure in numbers.

For example, if you’re attending a trade show to generate brand awareness, a good goal might be to gain a certain number of new followers on social media or increase traffic on your website. Once the trade show has ended, you will be able to see if you’ve reached the goal you set, or if you need to adjust your strategy to come closer to meeting your goal next time.

Only Set Goals You Can Really Meet—Without Breaking the Bank

While it can be tempting to set big goals that will motivate you to work even harder, it’s critical that you realistically assess your trade show audience, your available resources, and your budget at the earliest stage of the planning process. Be sure to set goals that you can really meet without going over your budget. After all, a trade show should be an investment—not a drain on your revenue and resources.

When deciding whether a goal is realistic, ask yourself these questions: How many people can you realistically reach at your event? What resources do you currently have, and what will you have to purchase? How much of your budget do you actually have to spend, after you take into account any unexpected expenses?

This can be difficult for new exhibitors, who often don’t have a lot of pricing requirement experience to draw on. Partnering with professionals like GLM Displays is a great way to determine whether your goal is realistic and on budget. (Photo courtesy of Len Wilkes - DeFranco Creative)

Don’t Just Know Your Goals; Know How to Achieve Them

If you know your goals early in the planning process, you’ll be able to approach your trade show with a well-grounded strategy. As with any marketing effort, every aspect of your trade show exhibit must work towards achieving your goal. That means developing print graphics, promotional materials, and engagement strategies that will bring you closer towards your goal.The advantages of having a concrete goal are not simply hypothetical. GLM Displays’ recent customer spotlight on Secure Digital Solutions details how they met their trade show goal of increasing brand awareness and networking with potential new clients by hosting a giveaway raffle that required a business card to enter. They also partnered with GLM Promotions to reward repeat customers with specially embroidered backpacks bearing the Secure Digital Solutions logo. Knowing their goals from the start allowed them to focus their planning on how to measurably grow their pool of potential clients and increase brand awareness.The results of their strategy speak for themselves. Their backpack raffle generated hundreds of potential sales leads, and the free giveaway backpacks continue to spread brand awareness across seven different states, and have been spotted in offices and public transportation all around the country.

Establishing a concrete, measurable goal is the first step anyone should take when planning a trade show. A good goal will allow you to strategize effectively and optimize your resources to save time, money, and frustration. 

Did you find this article helpful? Check out my complete guide "10 Steps for a Successful Trade Show". It's absolutely free and full of practical advise to help you achieve your goals.