A picture is worth a thousand words…
When doing our small business planning and building our business advertising program, our natural tendency is to fall back on the old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. We hire graphic designers to create business logos, pretty brochures, and beautiful websites (with lots of animation and cool looking stuff). Certainly graphics help, but more often than not they become our crutch.
Almost all forms of marketing is devoted to an active audience and on the internet carry very little long term recognition. Static small business advertising on the internet loses search engine value and falls further down the list and away from the consumer. A new online marketing method must be adopted to help draw consumers in from other interest channels and maintain high search engine visibility.
Simple versus inexpensive
I was teaching a class at the Small Business Development Center today and one of my students approached me during the break to ask about trade show displays. She exhibits as gift type fairs and wanted a display that was easy to transport and use at indoors and outdoor events. While I would love to produce a list of a dozen different options, reality is no such display actually exists.
Building a display for both indoor and outdoor events are a liability situation. Making something that is heavy enough to NOT blow over in the wind yet light enough to easily move creates a potential for people getting hurt. Pop-up displays have 78 square feet of surface area and are VERY susceptible to gentle winds knocking them over. While popups are light weight and not very likely to hurt someone, they are very likely to damage adjacent exhibits and thus become a liability.
This leaves exhibitors who also show products at their events to their own devices. More often than not the exhibitors get a hold of grid wire panels (typically used in retail establishments). While these are very effective for showcasing product, they are very heavy and awkward to setup.
Popup display frames can sometimes be used to hang and showcase product, but they are only good for a dozen or fewer display items. If you have a large number of items to showcase, grid wall panels are your best option, especially since they usualy can be purchased for about $30 per grid panel (typically 24″ x 84″).
If your display products are long and bulky, you might consider PVC piping. PVC pipe can use built to act as a free standing display stand and even painted or graphically wrapped. With slip on PVC fittings, your full height display column can be broken down to fit in to the trunk of a small car. By drilling holes in the PVC pipe, you can use wire hangers to display your product. You can connect a larger diameter pipe section to the base and fill with sand to help keep the display unit standing in moderate winds. The best part is PVC piping is very inexpensive, easy to service and replacement parts are available everywhere. No getting stranded because one part breaks!
My point is trade show displays need not cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. By being creative and using common hardware store items, you can create an attractive trade show display that can be used in any venue. While I would love to sell you an expensive display, in many cases the best solution is more affordable from your local hardware store.
Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
Life Happens?
As business owners or managers of departments, we will always face higher priorities when deciding to market our business. The reasons for not taking time today will be great reasons. Obviously anyone in your shoes would have made the same decision to hold off on marketing right now and instead deal with the fires. “Life happens” is almost a curse when it comes to marketing. Believing this means you’ve won half the battle.
On my story blog site, Bashful Bill struggles with life, take a look at the lesson he learned:
“I’m letting all the distractions of work creep into my life because I don’t really want to write in the first place. I would rather dig up a broken sprinkler pipe than market and build my business. Maybe that is why I had to let Paul and Jose go.”
Internet Activities and Blogging
Search engine visibility is based on time and content relevancy to the search phrase. Search engines, like Google, Yahoo and MSN, make money from advertisers buying time with searchers. The more searchers, the higher the value for the ad space. Internet users value speed and accuracy from their search engine. Not speed as in how long it takes to produce a search result, but how long it takes to find what is desired. When business blogging correctly, the search engines value the content higher than traditional webpages. The question of why requires some statistical analysis for complete understanding.
Pew Internet & American Life Project reports 70% of American adults use the internet on a daily basis. Pew also reports 49% of all daily American adult internet users turn to the search engines for information. With more than 110 million search site users everyday, capturing those eyes have become big business. Teams of programmers have created complicated algorithms to evaluate your internet content against what internet users are searching for. Blog technology has a leg up with the computer generated content review programs because they are time and content rich.
Tradeshow displays are NOT just for tradeshows
Recessions are the best time to build your client base. To build a client base, you need to get out and market your business. Exhibiting at Chamber events, local business fairs and other regional functions is a low cost way to be seen.
Tabletop displays and retractable banner stands are very affordable exhibiting options that you can use almost anywhere. When exhibiting in non-standard exhibit spaces, exhibit size flexibility is critical. For example, I am a member of the Gresham Chamber of Commerce. Twice a year the chamber hosts a business showcase for new members. There are usually about 40 businesses exhibiting in a small meeting hall. The tables are only 18″ x 60″.
The challenge you face when exhibiting at smaller events is the balance between professional image and over-kill. Attendees at small business fairs are much more likely to stop at every booth. Your exhibit should convey the basic information about your business. Don’t try to answer ALL of your prospects questions with your backwall. Also, keeping your display general will allow it to be useful in many different types of venues.
Small, portable displays need not cost and arm and a leg. If your budget is between $50 and $200. Your best option is a cardboard tabletop display board (available from most office supply stores.) Create your business message on your computer and have them printed on paper. The cardboard display and paper graphics are only usable once, but you entire presentation can be produced for very little money.
Vinyl banners are a good next step. Keep the size to no wider than 6′. A standard 2′ x 6′ Vinyl banner with grommets can be found for as little as $120. Hanging the banner in some venues may be a big challenge, but in a pinch, you can always hang your banner from your exhibit table.
Hosting you local Chamber of Commerce business meeting is another way to get out in the community and be seen. For example, in the East Portland Chamber of Commerce, in addition to a ten minute presentation, the Chamber also helps you with internet marketing in advance of your meeting. Smaller events must try harder to bring in exhibitors. More often than not you can find excellent deals.
The most important factor for exhibiting in small venues is be creative!
Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
For more information about trade show solutions, please call me at (503) 709-1454 or eMail me at ed@zenithexhibits.com
Click here for a two part article on dealing with recessions.
Feeding Your Business Blog While Economic Times Are Tough
Business blogging is often a narrative of your current business trends. If times are good, then your blog articles will have a positive, “can do” spirit. If times are rough, then you are more likely to write articles with a tone of desperation. Which type of article do you think your reader is more interested in?
How do you prevent negative tones from creeping into your publications?
Planning and organization. If business blogging is a reflection of current business trends, then add a new spin to your business plan. Writing about new business opportunities can be an effective way to pull your mood out of the doldrums. Sit down with a note pad and pen and write five things you wish your business could do. Pick one of the five and write a mini business plan. Using the business plan as a blue print, start blogging.
Business Blogging with the Three E's
Business blogging is about giving something of value to the reader. Discounts on your products or services do not count. The reader has given their time to your thoughts, reward them with something entertaining, enlightening or engaging.
An April 2003 Pew study found that 56% of all internet users consider the internet a source of entertainment. How? The same why you already tell fun stories to your best clients. Right now you probably wouldn’t share a story about your children with a total stranger, but you would with a valued client; why? Valued clients value us as people and as people, we have stories to share. Entertain your readership with insightful stories about yourself and how what you do for a living has changed you outlook on life. Do try to teach a lesson or draw a parallel with buying from you. On a blog site it is acceptable to just share news.
Greeting Show Attendees
Trade shows are excellent venues for meeting new prospects. Consumers value trust higher than price, meeting you face to face in a non-threatening trade show environment is preferred by most consumers. Plus, show attendees paid an entrance fee to attend, so they are already qualified prospects; but how you greet them will make or break your relationship.
First some rules.
- Do not eat in your booth
- Always smile
- Look professional at all times
It is sometimes difficult to avoid breaking the first rule, but even if you are working your booth alone, greeting people while chomping on a sandwich will turn people off. Standing for hours on end is hard work. Your feet will hurt, you back will ache, and you are going to hear a lot of rejections, but under no circumstances should you be unhappy. Prospects don’t want your problems, they want your solutions.
What is your opening line? “How are you doing?” is not a very good greeting. Get to the point, “are you in the marketing for {fill in the blank} at this time or will you be considering {fill in the blank} in the near future?” People attend trade shows to get information and find products or services, very few people walk up and down the aisles of a show just for the exercise. Trying to trick them in to stopping and talking insults people and wastes your time.
Script your questions. You get paid for the information you gather, not the information you give. Don’t recite the encyclopedia, asked the prospect questions that elicit a response that either advances the sale or disqualifies the prospect. You need to have an easy to use data capturing method. When you ask a question, make a note. While this might surprise the prospect at first, when it comes time to set an appointment to further the sales process the prospect will appreciate your preparedness.
Make sure everyone on your booth staff asks the same questions. Without consistency in the questions, you will not have any basis for making improvements.
Booths don’t sell, people do. Put another way, people don’t buy from your trade show booth, they do business with you. Let your trade show booth answer the big questions, who are you and what do you do (in as few words as possible). Let your questions qualify the prospect for advancement to the next step; a post show meeting.
The trade show meeting is the beginning of your relationship with the client (even if you sell something in your booth). You can be certain the moment the prospect walks away from your booth they have forgotten you. It is your job have memory of the meeting and it is your job to follow up with the prospect immediately after the show.
Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
Zenith Exhibits, Inc. is a trade show display solutions provider. For more information about our products and services, please visit our display solutions website: www.zenithexhibits.com or our BusinessBlogging.net website.
Getting past economically induced writers block
Today is election day and by tomorrow (hopefully) we will have a new President, but the problems facing business owners will not end when we swear in a new leader. Recessionary times call for an increase in marketing activity and if you are already blogging you may be struggling with what I call, economically induced writers block. How do you write business blog articles when every minute of phone silence is nerve racking. Seeing employees sitting around with nothing to do and machines not running conjures up horrible thoughts of layoffs and salary cuts. Feelings like these suppress creativity and allow panic and worry to creep into articles your publish. Your readers feel your pain and, out of self-defense, seek other more happier articles to read.
Here are a few tips and suggestions for dealing with economically induced writers block.
