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THIS WEEK
Business - 10 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Next Tradeshow
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
| Business - 10 Tips to Get the Most Out of Your Next Tradeshow |
Many small business owners take part in trade-shows and networking events. But how should you prepare yourself to get the maximum return on your trade show investment?
Here are our top 10 trade show tips
1) Know your details
The first thing you need to know is the projected demographics of the trade show. How many people are they expecting? What ages are they? Work out whether they are there in a buying or browsing frame of mind.
Next you need to know the specifics of your display area.
- How much floor space do you have
- Do you have walls behind and around you or no walls
- Is furniture provided in the package or do you need to supply your own
- Is there electricity and a phone point (if you need it)
- Do they supply table-cloths for any table they provide
2) Plan your furniture for your display
Once you know what is supplied you can then plan your furniture layout. This will depend on the people who will be coming to the show and what you are displaying. Common layouts include:
- A number of small bar tables (if you are getting people to fill in forms that you will use to follow up later on).
- U-shaped tables around the inside of your booth if you have a lot of stock to display. The challenge here is many people won't enter your booth to look around, but those who do enter are generally interested in what you have to offer. You will get less foot traffic, but more qualified leads.
- A table across the front. This is the most common layout for small booth trade shows. For larger spaces the options are only limited by your imagination.
3) Use your walls
People walking past will look at your wall display to determine whether or not they will stop at your booth. Your displays should be colourful, bright and eye catching. For one second think about billboards on the side of the road ... limited text, colourful images, attention getting headlines. Your walls are just like billboards. Keep your messages clear and to the point.
Your signs should look professional – handmade cardboard or paper signs generally don't convey a professional impression. Invest in some professional signs you can re-use at future events that include your company name and logo – it makes a world of difference to your results.
You may also want to consider a pull-up banner in a corner to add colour and visual interest.
4) Arrange your information in tiers
Information needs to be arranged so people can see it. Having your brochures and flyers all flat on the table is visually uninteresting and people won't pick them up. Get some Perspex display holders, use plate holders and arrange to the tallest items are up the back with smaller items at the front. Make sure your business cards are easily accessible.
If you are selling items make sure all prices are clearly marked and your display is tidy.
5) Colour and movement is great
Consider having a TV, laptop portable DVD player or even a digital photo frame on your table displaying images or a presentation about your business. It needs to be short, easy to read, colourful and professional looking to get attention. Colour and movement grabs the eye of passing people and helps to make them stop for a moment at your booth.
6) Run a competition
Competitions are a great way to gather an extensive database for your business. Make sure you run them in compliance with all local laws and regulations. Check out my "Lucky Door Prizes" article for more ideas on how to run an effective competition.
7) Professional handouts and marketing material
Many small businesses try to cut costs by just having photocopied information at their display. With the changes to digital printing in the past few years professionally designed and printed brochures and flyers are now very affordable.
But all the investment in your printing and design is worthless if your words on your flyer or brochure are less than convincing and have no strong call to action. Copywriters (like Heart Harmony) can help create compelling copy that combined with professional design and printing will help you generate more interest and sales.
You also need to make sure you don't run out of business cards and marketing materials, so keep a good stock on hand. Professional name badges also help to reflect your brand.
8) Giveaways
Consider if you are going to offer giveaways to people visiting your booth – pens, magnets, stress balls, balloons etc. These can be quite expensive, so consider the return on your investment carefully. Some businesses only give a promotional item in exchange for contact details (through the competition entry) or after talking with a consultant.
One savvy furniture business owner I have worked with has very colourful helium balloons tied to all his furniture at his display. The balloons are branded with his company name and are in all the popular kids colours – purple, red, pink, blue etc. Kids see the balloons the other kids are carrying and pester their parent to visit his stall to get their own balloon (and of course see his furniture in the process). He usually has one staff member just filling balloons for the kids at his stand.
Another company I have observed gave away t-shirts in exchange for watching a short video. If the person wore the t-shirt while they walked around the event they could be the lucky "shopper" of the hour and win an I-pod. This company ended up with hundreds of people walking around promoting his stall each day as a result.
9) Create your own buzz
Don't rely on show marketing to generate business. Promote heavily your attendance at the show to your database. Let them know precisely where to find you and offer them a show discount or special offer if they visit you at the show. The idea is to create buzz about your display – the more buzz, the more other visitors will pop in.
Get a list of other exhibitors you want to touch base with and make appointments for them to see you at the show at your booth (again offer an incentive to do this). Pop around before the show opens and visit all other exhibitors and give them a special exhibitor only offer to visit your display. Offer to get your neighbours coffee if you are getting some.
Run some demonstrations at your booth – people love to see how things are done. The idea is to make it interactive and interesting.
10) Follow ups
Follow up all leads promptly. Every person who gave you their details needs to be contacted, or sent some marketing from you within 7 days after the show. The faster you follow up, the better the experience that person will have of you as a company to do business with.
Trade shows can be a great source of leads and contacts if you carefully plan for your event.
I have negotiated a great trade show/expo package deal with my colleague Jo Pollard from Wild Dog Designs ... just for readers of the Heart Harmony newsletter.
Trade Show Essentials Package:
Total Price $1 400 inc GST (Includes graphic design, production, 2 sets of changes per item, printing and delivery in Brisbane).
- 1000 DL Flyers (full colour, double sided)
- 1000 Business cards (full colour, double sided, quality stock)
- 2 Corflute Signs (full colour, 450mm x 600mm, high quality)
- 2 Name Badges (full colour, gloss finish, magnetic back)
Trade Show Essentials Plus Package:
Total Price $2,100 inc GST
(Includes graphic design, production, 2 sets of changes per item, printing and delivery in Brisbane).
- 1000 DL Flyers (full colour, double sided)
- 1000 Business cards (full colour, double sided, quality stock)
- 2 Corflute Signs (full colour, 450mm x 600mm, high quality)
- Pull-up Banner (high quality, reusable skin, stainless steel look, 2 metre tall)
- 2 Name Badges (full colour, gloss finish, magnetic back)
- 500 “Concorde” Ballpoint Pens (1 colour print, 1 position, black ink, variety of pen colours available including silver, comfort grip)
To take advantage of this special offer, contact Jo Pollard from Wild Dog Designs (07) 3325-2265 or drop her an email.
You can check out Jo's website www.wilddogdesigns.com.au.
* This offer is only valid until the end of September 2008.
| HR Tip - Staffing Your Trade Show |
 If you have taken a booth at a tradeshow one of the key decisions you need to make is how to staff it effectively.
How many people you need to include depends on the length of the show. A half or one day exibit you are are generally fine with one or two people if your booth is standard size. If the show extends over a number of days or goes from longer than 8 hours in one day, you need to arrange a roster. Even the most extroverted person needs a break!
The people you select need to not only know your products and services in great depth, they also need to be warm, confident and outgoing. Someone with great knowledge is useless if they hide in the back behind a desk and will only speak if directly approached.
This is not the time for office juniors because their wages bill is lower! Your trade show team need to be your top team members as they are directly representing the brand of your company.
Finally - make sure you look after your team. Have bottled water available, provide them with regular coffees, buy meals for them & celebrate their successes. It will pay dividends.
Business of the Week - Handwritten Envelopes
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Regular readers of my newsletter and blog know that I love niche businesses - the quirky business entrepreneurs who have identified a unique gap in the market and have set out to fill it.
Recently I discovered a company in the USA that was the ultimate home-business.
To give you some context you need to know that in the direct mail industry a lot of research has been done on how to improve direct mail letter open rates.
This is really important for freelance copywriters like Heart Harmony. If we write brilliant copy we want people to actually open the letter to read it!
What has been found is letters are more likely to be opened if:
- they are in a plain envelope with no identifiable markings
- they have a stamp on them (they are not franked or postage paid)
- there is either no return address on the back or a person's name and address but no company name
- the envelope is addressed to a person's name
- the writing on the envelope is handwritten (and no - computer font handwriting doesn't work)
So what does this business do? They get the list from the direct mail company and hand address envelopes and stick a stamp on them! They can even match the writing to the age of the person getting the mail - older person, teen etc.
The direct mail companies love the results and are willing to pay a premium to have someone write their envelopes out because they know that the increase in sales will more than pay for this service.
Now this niche will never make this person a millionaire, but it really makes you think about what other hidden niches are out there. If some businesses can make a good living out of addressing envelopes, what are you not seeing as your potential business niche?
We are knee deep in the 30 day challenge internet marketing course. This list came from day 1 and is a list of 54 places across the net to help you research business trends and new niches. Definitely worth saving into your favourites and Google reader!
Why keywords are critical for your website and your copy
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's blog also included posts about using e-books as a tool for marketing, the small business time juggle and stop blaming circumstances!
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