Category Archives: Trade Show Marketing

Trade Show Workshop Secrets

Trade show workshopI am presenting a Trade Show Workshop created to help Sales and Marketing Professionals exhibit at a trade show with the best sales results called “Trade Shows: Secrets for Sales and Marketing Professionals” on Saturday January 9, 2016 from 9:30 – 11:30 am at the lower level conference room at the Braewick Professional Buildings, 2108 Braewick Circle, Akron.

If you are responsible for your company’s trade show activities and are local to Northeast Ohio, you may want to learn more about this workshop.

Attending a trade show can bring positive results, new contacts, added customers and increased market share for a company. Exhibiting at a trade show can be intimidating, expensive and a bit overwhelming. This workshop will guide sales and marketing professionals to confidently achieve their best trade show results.

In this workshop, marketing and sales professionals will learn:

  • How to cost effectively create an inviting atmosphere for their exhibit
  • How to leverage the existing materials to multiply your marketing effectiveness
  • How to use 3 of the highest impact tools of the show that are available to everyone, but exhibitors rarely use them
  • How to smoothly introduce yourself, your company, and your new products to attract new customers

Trade Show Workshop

Attendees will find that they’ll be able to attract, influence, persuade, connect, and ultimately convert that prospect into a customer.

The trade show workshop includes a workbook with frequently asked exhibitor questions, a trade show attack plan and a checklist.

I feel so strongly about this, I’ve created some powerful tools to help trade show exhibitors. In my book, SIMPLE STEPS, BIG RESULTS, I devote a whole chapter to Trade Shows. And now I’ve pulled out part of that chapter and developed a workbook to pair it with this two-hour trade show workshop where I will share all the secrets of a successful show.

Whether your goal is to introduce a new product, connect with potential customers or simply reconnect with existing customers… this workshop will help you to confidently have your best trade show.

Space is limited. Click here to sign up before the end of the year to get a 15% early bird discount.

Last Minute Marketing Ideas for a Trade Show

how_to_exhibit_at_a_Trade_showMarketing ideas for a trade show abound, but generally only in the 11th hour do they get put into action. Have you ever been planning for months about going to a trade show?

Ever find that the last week you get a terrific brainstorm of great ideas on what to show at your booth, the press release you must send out and people that you want to meet with?

That is a perfect example of how to blow your marketing budget.

Do yourself a favor and plan your last minute ideas.  You won’t have to pay double or triple rush charges, worry about typos or final approvals that didn’t happen from customers.

How to do that?

Marketing Ideas for a Trade Show

Try an inexpensive download of my book: How to Exhibit at a Trade Show available on Kindle. Heck, it costs less than a coffee at Starbucks and will help your blood pressure as well as your marketing budget.

Here’s the link to the “Best in Trade Show: How to Exhibit at a Trade Show” ebook if you don’t use a Kindle.

 

Trade Show Marketing Checklist to Review your Trade Show Booth Now

Trade Show Marketing at the CES 2012 Do you have your another trade show coming up in the next few months? Or is this year your very first attempt at a trade show?

Whether you’re an experienced brand manager going to your 25th marketing trade show or a newbie going for the first time to your company’s industry show, pre-planning is the key to having a successful show.  Developing a game plan ahead of time can make a huge difference.

Perhaps you have a huge booth to pull together.  Maybe you’ll be using a QR tag.  Or a digital video on your chest.  Maybe you’ll just use a small retractable banner with literature.  Now is the time to pull out your booth, set it up and decide what needs to be revised.

Does your literature have an old phone number? Does your retractable banner refer to an outdated product? Can’t find one of the literature stands that you’re sure you packed away in the storage room?

Don’t wait until a few weeks before the show!  Use this handy Trade Show Marketing checklist right now as a starting point for reviewing your needs to help you have a successful trade show result. 

YOUR TRADE SHOW EXHIBIT BOOTH
__ Exhibit booth
__ Retractable banners
__ Table cloth in company colors
__ Business cards
__ Literature, brochures, price list
__ Product samples, if any
__ Pens
__ Highlighters
__ Stapler
__ Lead sheets/log book
__ Enter to Win drawing box with display sign for give away
__ Logoed golf balls, clips, flash drive or other appropriate individual give away
__ HDTV monitor cable to plug into Laptop with looping PowerPoint
__ Candy and candy dish

PERSONAL ITEMS TO TAKE TO THE SHOW
__ Comfortable shoes - most shows have a thin piece of carpet on top of concrete. You’ll be glad to have good shoes!
__ Purell hand wash - to increase your chances of staying healthy when shaking a lot of hands!
__ Facial Tissues
__ Bottled Water - stay hydrated
__ Band-Aids - dry air makes for paper cuts.
__ Energy Bars - you won’t want to be eating in the booth, but if you leave, you might miss an important contact
__ Breath Mints
__ Cell phone
__ Calendar
__ Confirmation numbers for hotel, rental car, airline
__ ID, credit cards and cash
__ Logo shirts if appropriate
__ Digital camera (don’t forget to take a photo of the booth)

REPAIR/CLEANUP - BE PREPARED FOR PROBLEMS
__ Strong duct tape - cover over that extension cord so you aren’t tripping over it
__ Sewing kit
__ Scissors or pocket knife (not carry-on)
__ Cloth or paper towels
__ Trash bags
__ Screwdrivers
__ Appropriate wrench
__ Extra fasteners (screws, nuts, etc)
__ Extra extension cord
__ Powerstrip
__ Extra light bulbs
__ Electrostatic duster with extension

MAKE RETURN SHIPPING EASY
__ Pre-printed shipping labels for return shipment
__ Packing tape
__ Instructions for return shipment

Good luck with your show!  Let me know how it went — Did you forget something that I should have listed on this tradeshow checklist??

Image courtesy Creative Commons Flickr: popculturegeek

Conversion Conference 2012 March 5-6 in San Francisco

Are you attending the Conversion Conference on March 5 and 6 in San Francisco?

I’m speaking at 11 o’clock on the first day of the conference and I’m really excited to participate in all the great sessions!!

Click here to get my speaker discount and view pricing.

Dates: March 5-6, 2012

Location: San Francisco Marriott Marquis, 55 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

About: Optimizing the conversion rates of online campaigns. Experts and authors in disciplines ranging from web design, email marketing and persuasion principles to multivariate testing and usability converge for two days to discuss the latest tools and techniques available to help website owners and marketers increase the effectiveness of their online marketing efforts.

Will you be there?  Leave a comment below or send me an email!

Capturing Readers’ Attention Earns NNEP Award for Best Ad

Congratulations to NNEP and Sassafras Design Services!

The National Network of Embroidery Professionals (NNEP) President Jenni Cox asked graphic designer Sarah Sawaya of Sassafras Design Services to create an ad for NNEP for a national trade magazine for marketing their upcoming Embroidery Mart trade shows. NNEP just received word that the ad she designed WON as the best ad in the magazine when they had their annual national ad review process in June!!!

The ad captured the highest percentage of the readers’ attention and was rated as the best ad of the publication.

According to Ed Koehler, Associate Publisher:

Every June Stitches Magazine conducts an Ad Readership Study. The study is conducted by Readex which is the premier firm for magazine publishers. This year, the National Network of Embroidery Professionals ad in the June issue was rated the highest among all other advertisers. The NNEP ad’s score was 102, where the average for all other ads was a 94.

Their ad scored very well in “information value” as well as ‘believability.”

NNEP will be receiving a plaque from Stitches Magazine ad for their effective advertisement.

I think that’s great. Isn’t that the purpose of an ad, to capture the readers’ attention and draw them in? So often I hear of ad agencies winning awards from ad clubs made up of other ad agencies. This is an award presented by an independent group based on REAL results of what the reader’s saw and remembered. Good work!

Congrats to both Sarah Sawaya and Jenni Cox. I’m especially happy for them because they are both Northeast Ohio business friends of mine as well as outstanding business professionals!
For more information about NNEP visit the NNEP website or NNEP blog. For more about Sarah Sawaya of Sassafras Design visit her LinkedIn profile here.