Special Quote #2

Marketing creates wealth, but marketers have to prove it.

Tips to Have a Trade Show Booth that Draws Potential Customers

The key to great trade show exhibiting is marketing - Having a strategic exhibit marketing and tactical plan of action is a critical starting point. To make trade shows a powerful dimension in your company's overall marketing operation, there must be total alignment between the strategic marketing and your exhibit marketing plan.

Here are a few points to make your trade show booth popular in the exhibition:

• Think neatness and visibility when putting your trade show display together.
  Use a display board to hang some of your products at customer eye-level to draw them into your display. Make sure your display is organized and tidy; customers will be turned off by messiness or by having to do too much searching to find what they want. Have all your prices clearly marked.
  

  
  

• Build the impression of demand into your trade show display.
  
  Customers will want your products more if they think they're in high demand. Place a strategic sold sign on one or two items. You might even leave a display spot empty, giving the impression that you've been too busy to restock.
  

• Pull a crowd to your trade show booth.
  
  Use an interactive display, such as a quiz or game on a computer, a contest draw, a scheduled demonstration; it doesn't need to be fancy to draw people's interest and get them to cluster around your trade show display rather than the others. At a gardening trade show, I once saw over 50 people crowding around to watch an exhibitor demonstrate how to turn compost!
  

• Have a stock of promotion items that you can use as giveaways at your booth.
  
  Small items that people can take away and use (while being reminded about your business) are best. Be sure you place these items in a location where people will have to walk into or through your trade show display to get them.
  

• Use a prize draw or contest.
  
  Having some kind of prize draw or contest is a great way to collect contact information from booth visitors. You can give away promotion items to encourage people to participate.
  

• Make it easy for booth visitors to get information.
  Use signs in your trade show display to give information about prices, minimum orders, shipping costs, or any other basic information they might need to know, to save them the trouble of having to wait to ask when you're busy with another potential customer.
  

• Make sure you have plenty of promotional literature on hand.
  
  You'll want to have a good supply of color fliers and brochures as well as order forms, price sheets and business cards that you can hand out to booth visitors so it will be easy for them to find all the information they need about your business later. You should also have a press kit prepared for the trade media.
  

• Be ready to do business.
  
  Be sure you have a good supply of order forms, pens, credit card slips, or anything else you need to conduct sales and keep track of people's orders.
  

• Have your trade show booth manned at all times.
  
  Someone has to be there to greet browsers, engage them in conversation, and take their questions. If you can't be there every minute the trade show is open, you'll need to have at least one other person help man your booth.
  

• Actively engage trade booth visitors.
  
  Give people who approach your trade show display a friendly welcome, and let them welcome their questions. Be sure your body language is friendly; don't stand there with your arms crossed over your chest, for instance. "Chat" with booth visitors, and find out what aspect of your business they're most interested in. Be prepared to offer specific solutions to their questions. The trick is to draw them in without intimidating or overwhelming them.
  

• Follow up promptly.
  
  Send out email, regular mail, or make the phone calls to follow up on the contacts and leads you made during the trade show as soon as possible. The faster you send them out, the more your business will stand out from the rest.
  
  Trade shows can be incredible sources of contacts and customers for your business - if you choose your trade show venue carefully and plan in advance then you will have a successful trade show experience.
  
  Author: Kishor Nayak is a Business Consultant working with International clients.

Ten Key Shopping Trends

Ten key shopping trends Porter Novelli encourages retailers and marketers to consider right now:

1. Willing to Wait. Consumers want to buy, but in this economic climate they're willing to wait until the price is right. For marketers, it's imperative to identify specific areas of pent-up demand: Who is waiting to buy which products, and what will trigger them to spend?
   
2. Decidedly Undecided. For many consumers, it's not that they don't want to buy--they have the urge. It's that they don't know what they want. The implication for marketers: For some consumers, the emotional high that comes from acquiring the purchase is more enticing than the item itself.
   
3. Discount Dash. With millions of Americans deciding whether to spend a little or spend nothing at all this holiday season, the outlook seems bright for discounters. That means non-discounters need to compete on value, because they can't compete on price.
   
4. One for Me, One for Me. The International Council of Shopping Centers found that 81% of Americans who planned to shop on Black Friday weekend intended to buy something for themselves--up from 69% in 2007. With funds limited, consumers are asking themselves, "Should I be altruistic...or narcissistic?" Either answer adds up to sales.
   
5. All in for Next-Gen. Familiar technologies such as computers and music players are facing likely sales declines of 10%, but newer products such as Blu-ray players, smartphones and HDTVs are expected to do well. To build sales, marketers should consider bundling the old with the new.
   
6. Online on Top. More consumers than ever will be shopping online this year, looking to save time and money, avoid crowds and find a better selection of products. Companies who can make online and interactive marketing work even smarter and more efficiently will win.
   
7. Text to Shop. Scarborough Research data shows text messaging delivers a young, multicultural audience for marketers by providing a very locally targeted vehicle. Amazon.com is already tapping into texting over the holiday period to deliver its Deal of the Day, which recipients can purchase using their phone. The critical point for text marketing pioneers is to figure out how to use this tool without becoming a nuisance.
   
8. Future Tense. Black Friday retail performance was better than expected, but all signs point to tough times ahead for retailers. If sales contract and retailers scale back, marketing communicators will need to work a lot harder and a lot smarter to earn their keep.
   
9. Just Saying No. Not long ago, consumers blithely made impulse buys with cash or credit. But the less secure about cash flow shoppers become, the more they will have second thoughts. Retailers and product marketers must become adept at engaging with "second thought" consumers; they are likely to see a lot more of them.
   
10. The Cause Effect. As consumers shift from impulsive frenzy to second-thought hesitation, the notion of supporting a good cause may just provide a means to convert those second thoughts into buying mode. In a post-boom, post-greed retail climate, incorporating social and/or environmental responsibility into purchasescould be the acceptable new version of instant gratification.
    

Excerpt from Capital Communicator.

Hiring a Small Business Marketing Firm

A small business marketing firm can lead you out of troubled waters and into your field of dreams. A small business marketing firm should take an integrated marketing plan and put into place a strong foundation for you to build your growing business upon. That is the key in finding a successful small business marketing firm that will help to grow your business. Integrating graphics, copy and growth ideas is what will make or break your business plan. Finding a small business marketing firm that has a talented and easy to work with staff will be important in your decision to work with them. With staggering small business failure rates, having a marketing firm that is ahead of the game will keep you in the game. Work hard to find the right small business marketing firm that will help you work smarter and at a reasonable cost.