TraceParts, one of the leading CAD platforms for engineering, industrial equipment and machine design, has released a white paper allowing industrial parts suppliers to calculate and compare the cost per lead (CPL) of a trade fair against the CPL from creating and publishing CAD models of their products on TraceParts.com.

Parts manufacturers and distributors are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after long being denied the opportunity of meeting their customers and prospects in the flesh. In some countries, trade fairs have gradually started opening their doors in recent months, although visitor numbers are still being restricted.

Trade shows may have been closed for months on end, but that has not stopped manufacturers from generating business opportunities. TraceParts actually saw the number of visitors to its CAD catalog platform rise significantly by 21% during the global Covid-19 pandemic. Consequently, TraceParts customers publishing their products on that platform have also benefited from the extra traffic and generated a higher number of leads.

This observation has prompted TraceParts to produce a white paper with the aim of helping industry professionals calculate the return on investment from exhibiting at a trade fair.

This white paper provides a highly detailed calculation of the cost per lead for companies exhibiting at Hannover Messe, a world-leading industrial technology trade show. The CPL from the fair is compared against the CPL for parts suppliers publishing their 3D catalogs with TraceParts.

The white paper demonstrates that the cost per lead (CPL) for a company exhibiting at an industrial trade fair amounts to €270 over a five-day period, whereas the CPL from the TraceParts platform is €1.30 for a year.

Industrial trade shows are still the preferred way for building and nurturing relationships with certain customers and prospects, but the calculations in the white paper reveal that this marketing action comes at a high cost. The CPL with a trade fair is 205 times higher than the CPL from publishing 3D catalogs on TraceParts.com.

This white paper can be downloaded for free from the following link: https://go.traceparts.com/guide-to-calculate-the-roi-of-an-industrial-show-vs-the-traceparts-cad-content-platform