In Trade Show Basics, David Daniels high lights some good advice for planning and building a stand at a trade show/expo. David identifies that one of the most overlooked opportunities of a trade show is to conduct market research. It’s cost-effective and can yield answers to questions that can drive product innovation, and validate assumptions about the market. It’s also a great way to get an insight into new trends and directions.

I can’t agree more with this statement and having supported a clients survey at an expo last week I have some additional insights into how to take full advantage of the opportunity.

We ran an online survey on a laptop that was available for participants to fill in. As we had developed the survey for the show, the online platform allowed us to make any changes to the survey should they be required. In addition, many visitors to the show were too busy to fill in the survey at the time. In this instance we were able to take their contact details down and then email an invitation to the survey to them. It was also a great way to add people to the clients regular newsletter. In some cases respondents indicated that they would willing to receive further information regarding the clients product. The beauty here is not only does the client have the respondents permission to contact them to discuss their product in greater detail, they also have the respondents attitudes, behaviour and opinions on the product the client is selling.

A great incentive to encourage participation is to give respondents the option to receive a copy of the final research report. Not only does this increase active participation but it has the additional benefit of building and strengthening the relationship between your organisations and the respondent.

It should be noted that there is sometimes a fine line between market research and sugging. The best way to mange this conflict is to be completely transparent about who is conducting the research, the purposes of the project and how any future communication will be managed. In this instance it was quite clear that the client was undertaking the research project and the respondent had clearly indicated their willingness to participate and to be contacted regarding the clients product.

What I did notice at the show was no other organisations had taken the opportunity to use the event for research purposes. The most sophisticated the lead generating seemed to get was a large glass bowl for visitors to throw their business card into in the hope that their card would be drawn for a bottle of champagne. While this is a great way to collect a miscellaneous collection of business cards it is a very poor way to generate qualified leads. Just ask any poor sales person who has been lumped with a gigantic pile of cards from the glass bowl and told to go and sales.

In summary, your investment at any trade show is considerable, market research can offer a great way to engage with visitors, create qualified leads and create long lasting relationships with respondents.