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.
Fishing versus catching — a lesson in business
This past week I went out fishing with my good friend Ken “Bear” Cole. Ken owns and operates Fishing With Bear, a fishing guide service for the Portland Metro Area. Over the past several months I’ve helped Ken with his website and business blogging effort and I’ve gotten to know him as a friend, but I’ve also learned a lot about my own business through our relationship.
Fishing is a LOT like running a business. Everything from the type of fishing line, the type of rod and reel to the hook and bait make a difference on your being able to catch. Also, hooking the fish doesn’t mean you’ll close the deal. Sometimes the fish fights back, leaps from the water and spits out the hook; leaving you to start over again after expending effort. The last time we went out fishing I hooked 13 fish, but only got 8 in the boat. Still enough to feed my family, but those five fish that got away will never bite on my hook again.
How do we react, as business owners, in the same situation? We invest money in fancy web-sites, expensive trade show displays and slick marketing materials and end up in a dance with our prospects that sometimes ends in miserable failure. We justify the loss with sayings like, “you can’t win them all” or “every no leads me closer to a yes.” Most of the time we fail to learn from our mistakes only to doom ourselves to repeating them over and over again.
While on the boat, after having lost my third fish off the line, Bear gave me some great advice, “don’t fight the fish too hard, let him have some line and reel him in slower.” I was over pulling the line and ripping the hook right out of the fishes mouth. I pull my line back in the water and almost immediately hooked another fish; this time getting it into the boat. Ken held up the fish with the hook in his mouth and pointed out that I was actually hooked on the outside of the fishes mouth. Had I pulled hard, the hook would have pulled through.
Sometimes we catch our customers with a slick campaign but misunderstand success to mean the program works, when in reality the hook wasn’t set and the customer never does business with us again. Business, like in fishing, requires a solid connection with the customer. Building a trusting relationship requires time and patience and that always costs money. Targeting a single sale with any one client isn’t building a long term relationship, making sure the hook is set in the right place will make for a stronger connection and a better bond with the client.
Business blogging through a Personality Based Approach gives the customer a better insight into you as a person. Knowing “you” is an important product or service differentiation. If your client is presented with two competing opportunities to fill a need, but likes your views and believes, you will have the long term advantage.
The moral of my fishing experience with Bear is understand why the fish got away and you’ll be better equipped to bring the next one into the boat. I also learned it is good to get away from the office from time to time and see my business from a different perspective.
Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
To learn more information about how Personality Based Marketing can help you and your business, please call me at (503) 709-1454.
Designing Retractable Banner Exhibits
Retractable banner exhibits are a very affordable way to create a full back wall graphics presentation that works equally as well on the trade show floor as the local chamber of commerce event; all at a fraction of the price of other trade show display options. There are a few considerations you should keep in mind, however, when designing a retractable banner exhibit so as to maximize the functionality as cost effectiveness of your display.
Avoid designing a display for a single function! Every display designed should be laid out such that it could be used at any type of event. Either as a back drop when making company presentations, as a lobby marketing enhancement, a trade show exhibit, or an identity display at a public function. While retractable banner stand displays are very affordable, during times of recession portable exhibit designs should stretch your marketing dollar to more places. The goal, during a recession more so than normal time, is to get out and market your business more for less and retractable banners give your company a professional image at affordable prices.
Layout your graphics such that replacing only one of the banner stands allows for a new message. In a typical three banner display exhibit, we like to have one banner for company identity, one banner for expanded corporate branding and the last banner with the specific product or service message. More often than not the two branding banner stands act as book ends to the specific message, but in the case of a multi-division business each branding banner stand can be its’ own unique (but coordinated) layout.
Be careful when crossing the banner breaks. The gap between banners will vary based on the type of banner stand, but you should always try to limit cross seam text or images so as to avoid the awkward visual presentation should environmental conditions prevent perfect alignment. For example, many conference centers have low points in the floor to allow for flooring control should the fire sprinklers accidentally discharge.
Booths don’t sell, people do. Put another way, people do business with people, not back wall displays. Your graphics presentation should be immediately representative of who you are and what you do. You should avoid using retractable banner exhibits to communicate long messages (there are a few exceptions) and instead keep your back wall display general. One exception is when you are creating an information exhibit–say for a museum or a special event. Retractable banners are a very affordable way to present event information in the middle of a lobby or registration area without requiring special rigging.
Lastly, your retractable banner stand should be kept simple. Don’t try to get the extra brochure attachments, lights, shelf’s, etc. Most retractable banner stands weight less than 15 lbs and this lighter weight display makes for easy and affordable transportation; adding extra attachments complicates matters and decreases the portability factor. One exception, of course, is if the banner stand is going to be staying put for a while and you want to include collateral materials.
Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
Zenith Exhibits is a full service, internet base trade show display solutions provider. We specialize in lightweight, affordable trade show displays and internet marketing. For more information about our products and services, please call (503) 709-1454 or eMail info@zenithexhibits.com.
Using tradeshows to find new customers
Tradeshows are like door to door selling, only at a trade show it is the customer that walks from house to house. Most people are automatically drawn to the big houses (exhibits) because of the extra lights and activities/amenities, but your smaller house can attract new prospects too. You need only slow them down long enough for the prospect to find out what you do.
The trade show attendee has purchased a ticket to get into the exhibit hall: so they are already interested in the general theme of the event. Home and Garden shows, computer fairs, business expos, and holiday showcases are just a few of the general audience type events taking place in every major city. Attendance does not automatically qualify one as a prospect for your business, but the attendee has the expectation that they will explore the possibilities. Your task, in the seven to twelve seconds it takes for the prospect to evaluate you and your exhibit, is to engage, enlighten or entertain.
Image driving down the street and seeing a sign outside a vacuume store that reads, “Henry the Magician Performs Magic, come on in!” Would you stop? More than likely not, but change the setting to the trade show floor and the answer changes to probably. Entertaining the prospects gives you more time with the show attendee.
When enlightening your prospects, you are giving them knowledge that can be useful outside of the exhibit hall. Some products are very difficult to understand, setting up a theater setting and giving 5 or 10 minute demos may be necessary for people to understand what you do. The down fall of in booth presentations is the loss of information gathering. Sometimes you need just a little bit of information about your client in order to advance the sale, but if you do all the talking you’ll never gain important information.
Engaging the prospect is the act of striking up a conversation. Too often I see exhibitors use one liners to try and start a conversation, but truth is people don’t like slick sales pitches. Script out your questions. Meet with you team in advance of the show and make sure every one asks the same intro questions. Create your questions to gather information, not just give out sales pitches. Let me put this another way, you’ll get paid for the information you gather, not the information you give.
During recessioniary times, trade shows will be one of the most effective ways to build trust with you prospect. Meeting you face-to-face will make the difference between you and your competitor, but only if your meeting is memorable. So when Engaging, Entertaining or Enlightening the prospect, make sure you do so such that they don’t forget you the moment they leave your booth.
Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
Zenith Exhibits is an internet based full service trade show display solutions provider. Our mission is to provide first class service at internet prices. For more information about our products and services, please call me at (503) 709-1454 or eMail me at ed@zenithexhibits.com.
Writing Blog Articles to Promote Your Business
Social marketing via business blogging is the process of publishing articles the consumer base wants to read. Last week week we took a big picture look at the process of picking your topics. This week we will dive deeper into how to format your article such that the search engines and the consumer base like what you write.
The key to this process is knowing the associated keywords for your main topic. We’ve constructed an example page on our business blogging wiki site that teaches you how to cross reference associated keyword phrases. This process involves finding those keyword search phrases the search engines consider related; then including these associated keyword phrases in your article.
Including known associated keyword search phrases help bolster the relevancy rating of your article. High relevancy ratings equals higher search engine visibility. There is, of course, a catch. The article you write must be interesting. You can not just list your keywords in bullet points and proceed to make a sales presentation.
How do you make your article interesting?
You can take a position on something related to the keyword search phrase and make a professional statement; then support your reason for this position. This blog site you are reading is one example of this type of approach.
You can write in a fictional character to help tell a story that supports your ideas. You can see an example of this process by visiting my personal blog site.
You can present your personal history which led you to your chosen profession. As the editor of the East Portland Chamber of Commerce Business Blog, I help chamber members structure their articles in this format when they are hosting a chamber event. Visit the chamber blog site to see numerous examples of this style of writing.
Writing interesting articles is a learned art and requires practice. Start by writing things that interest you and find a friend or close confidant to act as your proof reader/sounding board. Don’t talk about your article with your friend. Write it out and allow them to review your written product. I will write more on this concept in the next article, but think of your writings as a pressure cooker. if you let out the steam you lose some effectiveness.
Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
For more information on how to use business blogging to help promote your business, you can reach us by phone (503) 709-1454 or eMail Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm PST.
Marketing your business via business blogging
Business blogging is topically focused social marketing. We have created this site to help business owners understand the power and cost benefits of including business blogging as part of your over-all marketing strategy.
The basic premises behind business blogging is to capture readers who are surfing the web for things of interest. More often than not, internet users browse the web as a source of entertainment (Pew Research study 2003). if your business isn’t valued as something entertaining, then more than half of all internet searchers will skip you and your message.
Who determines if your article is entertaining? The search engines exist to present searchers results that satisfy the search topic. Knowing the facts as stated by the Pew research group, search engines add more weight to the articles that are topically focused, popular, and relevantly balanced. If the secret search engine equation says your article is entertaining, then it is shown high in the search results.
What constitutes written entertainment? Since search engine spiders still cannot make a personal judgment call, the process is broken down into a mathematical equation. Search engine companies keep a very close guard on their formulas, so nobody really knows for sure how they measure article value. We are assuming the Flesch Reading Ease formula is at least partially in play.
Skipping over the formula, I believe there is an easier way to determine entertainment value. When you give it to your personal editors, do they like it? At the end of the article, does your reader have more knowledge, feel happier, or want to read more? Then it is entertaining.
Before you can write an entertaining article, we must first make sure we are writing on a topic people are searching for on the internet. Using free tools provided by the search engines, you can look up average searches per month for any keyword search phrase. Start by picking five or six different article topics and then use Google’s keyword tool to see if there is enough traffic. How much traffic is enough traffic will vary based on your industry. If you are in a very competitive market, then you many only need a few thousand searches per month on a longer, more specific keyword phrase.
The last consideration for topically focused social marketing is making sure you keep your article focused. Write on one topic at a time. Don’t try to introduce multiple topics in a single article because the over all relevancy rating will be significantly lower. Again, keeping in mind that the search engines are in business to give searches what they are searching for in as few searches as possible, the clearer your article is on topic the better.
Let’s recap. Business blogging is a very viable marketing tool, but to be effective, your articles must be:
2. Entertaining
3. Single topic focused
Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.
If you are interested in learning more about how Zenith Exhibits can help your company start business blogging, then please call us at (503) 709-1454 or eMail me at ed@zenithexhibits.com
