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[White Paper]
Dynamic Business Communication Apps are Revolutionizing the Trade Show Experience for
Exhibitors and Attendees:
Evolving Technologies for Evolving Trade Show Needs
"Technology has the potential to dramatically streamline each and every stage of your business process—increasing both the return on investment (ROI) and the return on objectives (ROO). In light of these facts, a dynamic business
communication app such as that offered by Command.app is a musthave for effective tradeshow planning."
Introduction. The trade show booth is a timehonored exhibit hall fixture whose appeal shows no signs of waning. Booths and tables, staffers and pitchpersons will have always and will continue to play vital roles in showcasing industry wares. Likewise, trade show attendees will continue to crave swag bags filled to the brim with giveaway items.
That being said, as the times change, so too must the manner in which businesses interact with potential clients—a reality that has made itself increasingly visible across each and every industry across the globe. In the case of trade shows, it stands to reason that advancements in technology, inclusive of the abundance of WiFi enabled mobile devices to hit the market in recent years, have ushered in an unprecedented change in how companies communicate with and educate attendees. Moreover, the technological domain encompasses a vast array of novel approaches to streamlining necessary business tasks such as the promotion of products and services, acquiring detailed feedback, creating followup action items, and gathering and reporting data for the home office. In terms of return on investment (ROI) and return on objectives (ROO), those companies who are leveraging the available technology are enjoying far greater trade show successes than their counterparts whose tactics are limited to "drop off demos," sizzle reels, and free flash drive keychains.
Mobile apps are radically transforming the trade show experience by enabling exhibitors to show what can't be seen, bring what can't be brought, illustrate complex ideas in a matter of minutes, mobilize business communications, and present like pros. Trade show apps offer a spectrum of customizable features designed to optimize the process of introducing a product or service and enhance the experience of the attendee. A trade show app can transform an iPad into a dynamic, engaging demo that provides a 3D model and animations of the internal mechanisms of a product. The same feature can be employed to display information about a product that cannot be demonstrated in person because it is too large to transport or is still in development. Apps also offer the user the ability to create video demos, interactive 3D Models, and even educational games—all of which can help to convey the intricacies of a product or service in a matter of seconds. A trade show app also has the potential to dramatically streamline the process of connecting with attendees, offering a quick and easy way to collect contact information, build estimates, and capture followup items.
The Value of Trade Shows is Increasing. In any market or industry, trade shows are where the targeted prospects gather to learn about current industry trends, gather relevant information, evaluate different products or services against the competition, build connections with manufacturers or service providers, and—most importantly—make buying decisions. According to research conducted in 2012 by The Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), facetoface interactions at tradeshows and exhibitions are more valuable today than they were two years ago. Moreover, nearly half of the individuals surveyed (43%) stated that the setting for these interactions will gain an increasing degree of importance in coming years: "Attendees place high importance on facetoface interactions at all prepurchase stages, with twothirds or more ranking these interactions important for investigating, evaluating and narrowing
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down choices before buying," according to the CEIR article "The Role of and Value of FacetoFace Interaction." The researchers also found that in the wake of a purchase, "71 percent of attendees place high importance on facetoface interactions to maintain relationships with vendors."
Other studies further illustrate the critical role of trade shows in today's business world. For example, CEIR researchers found that the vast majority of trade show attendees —92%— are there to see new products, meaning that a trade show is an ideal setting for an industry to showcase everything it has offer. Furthermore, 81% of trade show attendees have the authority to make purchases, and approximately 78% of attendees will have travelled more than 400 miles to be in attendance. Thus, four out of every five individuals who pass by a given exhibition booth represent potential customers, and a substantial number of these people have the power to influence the national reputation of your product or service. As Exhibit Surveys notes, 67% of all trade show attendees represent altogether new prospects—which means that the impression you make is very important.
Given these statistics, it is perhaps no surprise that 99% of marketers identify trade shows as a uniquely valuable marketing medium in the area of establishing connections with potential customers, suppliers, and resellers. And it is for this reason that B2B exhibitions comprise such a substantial portion of B2B marketing budgets—39.2% in 2011. Yet it remains the case that budget and time limitations place a number of constraints on exhibitors. Many exhibitors are tasked with the quick sale of a product or service whose complexities cannot be easily detailed using words alone. Others are faced with the impossibility of demonstrating certain products in person owing to their size (average drayage rates having increased by 488% between 1982 and 2010). Exhibitors are thus required to strike a balance between promoting brand awareness, lead generation, and relationship building, on the one hand, and adhering to their allotted time and budget on the other.
The growing importance of trade shows for businesses is abundantly clear. Yet accompanied by this increased interest in trade shows is the need for new approaches to attracting the attention of, informing, and educating attendees. This is especially true in the wake of the recent economic recession—a period in which, as Diversified Business Communications vice president Mary Larkin notes, buyers have continued to frequent trade shows while growing ever more strategic. One can no longer simply set up a booth at an exhibit hall and wait for potential customers to materialize. Rather, the perceived value of one's product or service must be heightened, a task that requires understanding and addressing the needs of attendees.
The Needs of Trade Show Exhibitors and Attendees are Changing. In today's heavily wired, socially connected society, email, social media advertisements, and other forms of marketing messaging traverse the world at light speed, connecting companies and prospective clients located half a globe away from one another. Yet trade shows in exhibit halls remain a crucial business institution, continuing to offer opportunities for
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valuable facetime with prospects—many of whom, as noted, have travelled far to learn about current industry trends and experience new products in person.
Given that time with each individual prospect is short, it makes sense to optimize these facetoface interactions by utilizing technology that facilitates more meaningful interactions between exhibitors and attendees. Each attendee has different needs. And, moreover, each has a very limited amount of time to visit each booth and learn whether their needs might be fulfilled by the product or service therein. At the same time, each exhibitor has in mind a number of goals, including building connections with and ascertaining the needs of prospects and making a focused and relevant presentation. Facetime is valuable. But technologies such as the Command.app Trade Show iPad Kiosk App are captivating the attention of the event industry. Why? Because Command.app Trade Show Apps add new dimensions to conversations, allowing exhibitors to access and present specific product information or materials tailored to the potential customer's needs. The onesizefitsall product pitch is a thing of the past. Today's trade show attendees want to know what's relevant to them, and to acquire this information in a timeefficient and easily comprehensible manner.
The Way We Consume Information has Also Changed. In the past twenty years, we have witnessed dramatic changes in the way we consume our content. Thanks to the rise of the Internet and the accompanying ability to "search"—be it via a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, an individual website, or a smartphone voice command—we prefer to consume only what's relevant to us and have little time (or patience) for anything else. Successful exhibitors must understand that trade show attendees expect content that is relevant to their interests. But they should also be privy to the reality that different audiences prefer to consume information in different ways. Some individuals are most inclined toward video demos. Others want to interact with 3D virtual objects that allow them to delve deep into specific internal product parts. Still others favor multimedia case studies. Many value the ability to work with booth staff to connect and build estimates that can be immediately sent via email to their home office. And whatever their individual preferences for engaging with a product, virtually all trade show attendees want to consume information both efficiently and quickly.
Technology is bringing about exciting new changes to the way attendees consume at trade shows. There's little doubt that attendees can seem impatient, hesitant, and forgetful given the immense pressure they feel to experience so many products or services under tight time constraints. For exhibitors, remaining competitive in this environment means creating an experience that holds the attention of attendees and, in turns, keeps them coming back for more.
Leveraging Technology to Attract, Educate, and Connect Differently. A business communication app such as Command.app—which offers a powerful yet userfriendly assortment of tools for optimizing your trade show experience—can help to set your product or service apart from the countless others featured on the exhibition floor. Whether you're striving for utmost convenience in the form of a dynamic handheld iPad
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sales app or looking to dramatically enhance your product demo with an interactive booth kiosk, Command.app's trade show solutions can thrust your product presentation into the realm of cuttingedge.
Command.app empowers exhibitors to take their presentations to the next level by incorporating video demos, interactive 3D products, multimedia case studies, and more into their show room spaces. This technology, which can be used on or offline, can foster more productive communication with current and prospective clients by providing trade show attendees a multimedia educational experience tailored to their specific needs. Moreover, Command.app can yield fewer lost business opportunities by placing product information and other materials at the user's fingertips—a necessity in the fastpaced world of trade shows, where a moment's delay in acquiring the information he or she needs can be enough to dissuade a potential customer. Command.app can also be employed to streamline every aspect of the exhibitor's experience, enabling him or her to capture contact information and even build and share estimates, all while demonstrating to prospective customers an unmatchable degree of respect for their valuable time. Command.app can help you to:
Improve your Business Processes. The powerful Command.app Digital Briefcase optimizes each and every step of the sales process, from showcasing your product to managing customer relationships and data. By enabling the user to customize a presentation in realtime, this tool empowers you to address the specific needs of your prospects as you identify them. Gone are the days of the oneway presentation; our tools facilitate meaningful conversation. Moreover, Command.app makes timely, accurate followup quick and easy by integrating with your existing CRM system.
Communicate Effectively and Efficiently. The iPadbased Command.app makes it easy to achieve the perfect balance of effectiveness and time efficiency in your communications with customers and prospects. Instant access to uptodate information on all your products and services means that the answers to any questions that might arise are at your fingertips. And by taking advantage of the ability to create video demos, 3D models, and multimedia case studies, you can demonstrate your key selling points visually so that potential customers can really "get the picture."
Collect, Integrate, and Distribute Information Instantly. Command.app's expanded features make it easy to gather information and media and incorporate them into your own presentations at any time. Furthermore, this information can be conveniently relayed to other units within your organization, ensuring that all of your company's communications are uptodate and convey the same message to potential customers. Command.app thus facilitates seamless internal
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dialogue within the company while also fostering the flexibility required to compete in today's consumeroriented business world.
Wherever your travels may take you, the Command.app Trade Show Apps can manage your marketing materials, supporting documents, and media files—including almost any image, video, or 3D rendering file format, as well as PDF, PPT, and MS Office files. The Command.app Trade Show Apps are also equipped to manage information related to the products and services you offer, and to organize this information for different market segments and stakeholders. In other words, with Command.app, everything you need to present your product or service—and to cater your presentation to the audience at hand—is on hand anytime, anywhere.
Staying Mindful of your Business Purposes and Goals. Running a business can be an arduous task. In addition to offering a desirable product or service, a successful businessperson must possess the finely honed abilities to manage budgetary and time constraints, tailor communications to the needs of each potential customer or market segment, and provide ongoing customer service and support. Incorporating technologies into your process shouldn't add to the already heavy burden of running a business; rather, it should alleviate it.
Business communications apps such as the Command.app Trade Show App are designed to do just this by providing dynamic, powerful, and eminently userfriendly tools that can help you to streamline your business processes and achieve your marketing and sales goals. By putting technology to work, these apps aim to help businesses construct more agile, capable marketing machines—and then, to take them on the road. Moreover, apps such as the Command.app Trade Show App give exhibitors not only a cuttingedge advantage, but also an avantgarde appeal based on their adoption of innovative, attentiongetting tactics that place them miles above the competition.
Who uses Dynamic Business Communication Apps such as Command.app?
Business communication apps are ideal for any company seeking to integrate dynamic, tabletbased presentations into their showcases and simplify the process of capturing customer information. Moreover, those who offer complex product lines, as well as those whose products cannot be physically transported to a trade show, can benefit greatly from the abilities to create video demos, 3D virtual objects, and interactive presentations.
Communication apps also offer major advantages to businesses seeking to capture information from the field and incorporate it into their existing marketing strategies. Likewise, such tools can dramatically streamline the processes of creating marketspecific messaging and providing remote teams with the most uptodate product information. The following case study details the experiences of just one of the many organizations that have incorporated business communications apps into their model.
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Case Study: WireCo WorldGroup
The Client: WireCo WorldGroup is the world's leader in manufacturing, engineering, and distributing wire rope, synthetic rope, specialized assemblies, wire products, and electromechanical cable.
The Challenge: WireCo WorldGroup consists of 13 different brands and product lines, and faced the problem of presenting multiple solutions in a simple and visually appealing format. They also needed to be prepared to speak directly to each individual market segment and visitor to their booth at the 2015 OCT trade show. Booth visitors had their own unique needs and information requirements, and a dynamic, interactive solution was needed to help make the complex WireCo WorldGroup story clear, and to empower their representatives with access to all of their detailed product information in one beautifully designed iPad app.
The solution had to…
Be able to incorporate multiple file formats and multimedia content Be capable of last minute content updates Be deployed to remote teams Be accessible without Internet access Be designed in a userfriendly and intuitive manner for use at a kiosk and by
firsttime users Be projected on a large flat screen Be a tool that individual company representatives could take with them anywhere
they went
The Solution: WireCo WorldGroup employed the trade show app development services of Command.app in the creation of a unique and visually appealing frontpage 2D image of all products and brands, inclusive of their position within the offshore oil and gas industry equipment and use. The WireCo brands and solutions were positioned in a way that made sense to their prospective customers and clients, and linked directly to a deepdive of relevant information via supporting documents, multimedia videos and files, and other available content on the particular subject.
The Results: Measurable, numeric results were achieved. In 2015 the program returned 250 leads, a 50% increase in the number of leads gathered in 2014. Furthermore, exhibit traffic increased by 30% compared to that of the previous year's booth.
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Summary and Conclusion:
When working a trade show, exhibitors want to get the most for their time and money. Creating the ideal experience for potential customers can be an arduous task, but technologies such as Command.app can go a long way toward achieving this aim. From conveying information in an engaging, comprehensible format to providing instant answers to any questions that may arise, making efficient use of a prospect's time to capturing critical data to further grow your business, technology has the potential to dramatically streamline each and every stage of your business process—increasing both the return on investment (ROI) and the return on objectives (ROO). In light of these facts, a dynamic business communication app such as that offered by Command.app is a musthave for effective trade show planning.
With 50+ years of collective programming, multimedia, marketing and sales experience, the Command.app team has developed a platform to help transform your business communications. Command.app encapsulates a communications philosophy developed over decades by interactive media and marketing professionals. The Suite is designed to improve your strategies for sales, marketing, training, and overall client communications by equipping your teams with an engaging and interactive mobile app. With the ability to addon custom features, the Command.app can take your business communications to the next level. Equip your sales team with the right presentation, for the right customer, at the right time—in one seamless app. To find out more, speak to a Command.app representative today by calling (816) 8427390 or visit http://commandapp.com/ to view a full demo and learn more about our capabilities. Command.app A Barnstorming Apps, LLC Company 7327 West 79th Street Overland Park, KS 66204 Main: (816) 8427390 Email: hello@commandapp.com
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