For the past 12 years, MSDynamicsWorld.com (MSDW), has dealt in the realm of real and quantifiable online demand generation. Every campaign we run on behalf of our ISV and VAR clients is strategic and hyper-targeted to well-defined segments of the Dynamics channel. Together we can easily calculate their ROI more precisely than they ever could in the days before data-driven online marketing.
So when clients ask us for our opinion about aligning our digital marketing programs with their plans to sponsor trade shows, we’re often at a loss about what to advise. Whereas we are accustomed to dealing in a real and quantifiable world, trade shows tend to operate in a much less precise world — in some respects, a world of perception over reality.
Think about how trade shows are marketed. Just like a casino trying to lure you in with the possibility of winning big, trade shows stress the concept of FOMO (fear of missing out). They want you to think that trade shows are the only place where people in the Dynamics channel congregates, and that if you aren’t sponsoring, you will miss out on deals, will be perceived as not supporting the channel, or perhaps will be seen as having financial difficulty. This is all speculative, of course, since there’s no data to support any of it.
Here are three specific concerns we have about ISVs and partners over-committing their marketing budget to trade show sponsorships:
- Too many booths in the exhibit hall. In a sea of hundreds of exhibitors, the only way to try stand out is to spend even more money, and there’s zero data to support whether you’ll generate more or better leads from that increased spend. It’s a huge gamble.
- Putting the cart before the horse. You’re expected to reserve a booth prior to even knowing specific details about how many of your prospects will attend. Just because a trade show might have 1,000 attendees focused on Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations doesn’t guarantee they are decision makers or influencers, or if their solution needs even align with what your solution does. Like a casino, it’s a huge gamble.
- High cost per lead (CPL). Just because a trade show has a lot of attendees doesn’t mean those attendees will even visit the exhibit hall, and if they do, they might not even be able to find your booth, or maybe they’ll just visit your competitors. Let’s say there are 1,000 AX users attending the show. Out of those, 100 (10%) could be good prospects for you. Your sponsorship (including travel costs) is $15,000. Now, the entire success of your $15,000 sponsorship relies on just those 100 people making their way into the exhibit hall and finding your booth. In reality, not all 100 will go to the exhibit hall, so let’s say that 75 of those make it to the hall. Out of those 75 people, 30 actually make it to your booth. Your cost per lead is now $500, which is insanely high, and 10x more than what the average CPL is at MSDW.
Our advice is to demand that trade show promoters provide hard data about the demographics of attendees in terms of their decision-making authority and Dynamics products interests. If you continue to pay for smoke-and-mirrors, then spending money with some trade show organizers will continue to be akin to going to a casino.
