How to Get the Most from an Expo

I gave a presentation recently to a local chamber of commerce on 'how to get the most from an expo.'  Over the course of my business career I have worked many expos, trade shows, festivals, etc.  First I will say, they are a lot of hard work and the results are not always seen immediately.  Plus, expos can be very expensive and time consuming.  So if that doesn't give you pause, then lets talk about about what can be done to ensure you do your part to make it as successful as possible.

Before signing up for an expo, trade show, festival, etc., think about why you are doing it. 

What are your expectations?

• Get Exposure
• Get Leads/Referrals
• Build Relationships
• Sell Products
• Who is your Target Market?

Based on your answers, determine if the expo in question will help you attain your expectations.  Once you have decided and signed up to do an expo, prepare and plan in order to maximize your results.

Before the Expo - Prepare and Plan  

• Obtain and Read the vendor/expo rules
• Determine how much area you will have to display
• Are there any restrictions?
• If possible request ahead of time the most optimum space for your display, i.e. against a wall, corner space, front/back of the room, near the food/drink, etc.
• Will you need electricity?
• Floor covering
• What will be provided, i.e. table, table covering, back drop, etc.?

 Before the Expo - Determine Needs

• What marketing printed material will you need? i.e. brochures, flyers, business cards, etc.
• Signage - banners, stand up signs, etc.
• Promotional products, give-a-ways
• Lead generation forms
• Door Prize(s)

***Get all of these materials ordered in ample time to receive before the day of the expo.***

Before the Expo - Advertise!

Do Not depend on the Expo planners to generate all the traffic to your booth.  If your place of business is within a 100 miles of the expo, be sure and do the following:

• Notify ALL of your Customers and Prospects
• Offer a gift/discount if they come by your booth
• Put up a sign in your place of business
• Post on ALL Social Media Platforms often and up until AND the day of the Expo
• Hand out flyers at all the networking meetings/events you attend prior to the expo
• Put flyers in all orders prior to the expo

Tips for Setting in Booth -

• Make it welcoming and inviting
• Make it colorful
• Less is More - Don't display to much to the point that it looks cluttered
• Have it be interactive - Have a reason for them to stop, look, converse.
• Offer a special offers/discounts just for the expo
• Have a candy dish/bowl
• Have a 'fish bowl' and lead generation forms to collect prospects information - Offer a door prize
• Have your door prize prominently displayed - Make it showy

Preparation -   

• Solicit help for the day of the expo to help set up, man the booth, break down, and pack up
• Train your helper(s) ahead of time so they understand what you want them to do as well as what to say when they are manning the booth for you
• Do a mock set up of your booth ahead of time to ensure you can display within the guidelines of space provided
• Make sure you have all your 'props' and material together ahead of time
• Make a 'what if' kit for anything you might need the day of the expo, i.e. pins, tape, scissors, hammer, pliers, screw driver, etc.

Day of the Expo -

• Dress appropriately
• Wear comfortable shoes
• Arrive early to set up or set up the day before if possible
• Make friends with your booth neighbors
• Get set up in plenty of time to visit the other vendors.  (Depending on your business, they may be your best prospects.)
• Wear a name tag
• SMILE!  It's Show Time!

DOs and Don'ts -

DO -

• Do wear a name tag
• Be ready to meet and greet
• Greet people and start a conversation
• Keep your table/booth area free of trash, etc.
•  Have Helper Take Photos and Post on Social Media
• SMILE!  Have a Good Time!!
• Stay until the End - I have met some of my best prospects at the end of many events
   

Don'ts -

•  Don't sit behind your table
• Don't be on your cell phone
•  Don't have so many helpers that prospects
  can't get to Your Table/ Booth
• Don't be over aggressive and/or pushy
• Don't stand around talking to your neighbor
  

  and/or helpers and not paying attention to prospects
• Do not eat at your table
• Don't break down and start packing up early

After the Expo - The Fortune is in the Follow Up

Did you know that 80% of trade show vendors do not follow up?

In fact, check out these statistics -  

• Follow Up Within 24 to 48 hours
• Email ALL Prospects a Thank You for stopping by your booth
• Announce Winner of Your Door Prize in your email and on Social Media.  Include a photo if possible.
• Call all HOT Prospects within 24 to 48 hours
• Mail Thank You Cards to those who purchased
• Add prospects to distribution lists
• Continue to Keep in Touch - Sometimes prospects don't realize they have a need until sometime later.

Many of the items in the outline above are some of the services we provide especially around follow-up and keeping in touch.  See our list of Services on our website. 

  

I hope you found this information helpful.  If you have a group that would benefit from this presentation, contact me for information on scheduling.  I recommend the presentation be scheduled to be presented about eight weeks out.

If you have questions or suggestions to add, please let us hear from you.  We would love to hear your stories about successful and not so successful events.  We can always learn from those experiences that weren't as successful as we thought they should have been.

 

Your comments and feedback and welcomed and appreciated. You can provide feedback on our Facebook page as well as here on our blog.

Happy Expoing !
Annette
Painted Lady Enterprises

All Work and No Play

Labor Day serves as a day of rest and as a reminder that the summer is drawing to a close, but that doesn't mean you should relax your marketing efforts. This is a prime time for snagging holiday shoppers eager to get the last bit out of summer and/or prepare for fall and winter.
Consider using the theme of 'All Work and No Play' as a Labor Day theme for marketing ideas when planning your early September promotional materials.

Labor Day was originally set aside as "the working man's day," and you can still draw on these themes in postcards, brochures, and flyers. This is the day when your hard-working customers can enjoy a sizzling barbecue in the company of family and friends, so your marketing designs could include images that conjure the same feel good and break-from-the-workday emotions associated with family cookouts. Consider targeting your prospects' emotions: "You work hard to secure your family. Isn't it time to relax?" would be a great pitch for a life insurance or investment firm.

Labor Day itself isn't always enough to drive traffic to your footstep, but there are plenty of things associated with this time of year that bring in a lot of sales. Children are going back to school, for instance, and they need new supplies, clothes, computers, credit cards, cell phones and many more items. Try using  a postcard designed as a backpack brimming with whatever your company is offering or a screen shot of your website.

This is also the time of year when high school, college, and professional football teams head back to the field; opening plenty of opportunities to demonstrate how your company is the "winning team."  Even better, send a calendar that includes your local favorite local football team's schedule to help keep your information ‘Top of Mind.’  There are many other sport’s related promotional items that could be used for a ‘Winning Team’ theme.

Labor Day marketing doesn't have to be bland, and it doesn't even have to be labor related. When designing your next marketing postcards, brochures and flyers, be creative and combine some of these ideas with a great offer and persuasive call to action, and you'll be well on your way to whistling while you work this year.

 Happy Maketing,
Annette
Painted Lady Enterprises
"Helping You and Your Business Look Good"

Acronyms Don't Work - Computer Associates Learns the Hard Way!

The following article is from my favorite marketing and branding expert, Liz Goodgold with Red Fire Branding.  She gives some great advice in picking a name for your company.  Alphabet soup doesn't always work. 

Acronyms Don't Work - Computer Associates Learns the Hard Way!

 

Five years ago, Computer Associates got tainted by a big accounting scandal and decided to vary its name to CA. Ooops! Try Googling CA and guess what you get? How about the State of California? Cocaine Anonymous?  Repeat after me: Acronyms Don't Work!

Now, CA has seen the light and is rebranding again as CA Technologies with a $200 million budget. Hard to imagine stakeholders are excited about this naming fiasco.

What's the lesson here:  Shortening your name to letters and creating alphabet soup is a recipe for disaster. Here are a few key reasons:

1.    Acronyms are less memorable than real words
2.    Sounds of letters are easily misheard ("did you say B or D?)
3.    Letters don't imbue any brand personality - they are as vanilla as, well, the alphabet!


Want a complete discussion of naming missteps and secrets to success? See Chapter 3 entitled Name Dropping: How to Build a Brand That Sizzles in Red Fire Branding. 

Duck Sizzling Example - American Family Life Assurance Co. catapulted its domestic name recognition from approximately 2 percent in 1990 to approximately 80 percent now, thanks to the famous AFLAC duck. The duck is so famous that even Ben Affleck, during an appearance on David Letterman's show, starting making fun of his own name! Keep in mind, however, that this acronym sizzles because the company turned the acronym into both a word and an enduring mascot.

The above article "by Liz Goodgold, Branding Expert, Author, and Speaker. Sign up for her FREE Brand Finale  newsletter with valuable information at www.redfirebranding.com."
In appreciation,
Annette
Painted Lady Enterprises
"Helping You and Your Business Look Good"

Advertising Specialty Promotional Product Study

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It’s important to show our clients that we appreciate their business. After all they are our best sales people. At this time of the year we begin to think about gifts that we can give that will show our appreciation. Imprinted ad specialties provide a gift of appreciation as well as a gift that will keep on giving impressions to your client as well as to new prospects.

Here are some highlights of a study done by the ©Advertising Specialty Institute on the impact of promotional products. It provides some interesting information to consider when selecting imprinted ad specialty gifts for your clients. If you would like to see the entire study, let me know and I will send it to you in its entirety.

The purpose of this study was to understand how advertising specialties influence end-user’s purchasing decision; determine the number of impressions of popular advertising specialties; and analyze the Cost Per Impression (CPI) of advertising specialties compared with other popular advertising media.

Respondents were asked if they had received any promotional products in the last 12 months. Most respondents were business/professional people and all were age 21 or older.

Summary of Conclusions:

• Instant recall: 84% respondents remembered the advertisers of the promotional products they had received.
• Very Impressionable: 42% had MORE favorable impression of an advertiser after receiving the item. And 24% said they are MORE likely to do business with the advertiser on the items they receive.
• It’s all business: 62% have done business with the advertiser on a promotional product after receiving the item.
• Pens are in: Writing instruments are the most-recalled advertising specialty items (54% recall owning them), followed by shirts, caps, and bags.
• User-Friendly: 81% of promotional products were kept because they were considered useful.
• Staying power: More than three-quarter have had their items for more than 6 months.
• Bag It!: Among wearables, bags were reported to be used most frequently with respondents indicating that they used their bags an average of 9 times per month. Bags also deliver the most impressions: Each bag averages 1,038 impressions per month.
• Most Impressive: The average CPI of an advertising specialty item is $0.004; as a result, marketers get a more favorable return on investment from advertising specialties than nearly any other popular advertising media.

Commonly owned advertising specialty items:

• The most commonly owned promotional products among all respondents were writing instruments (54%) followed by shirts (45%) and caps (31%)

Usage: How often do you wear/use the item per month? (Asked to those who had shirts, caps, other wearables, and bags).

• Shirts – 4.32
• Caps – 6.06
• Other Wearables – 4.62
• Bags – 9.33

Number of Impressions:

Impressions were calculated based on the number of times items were worn or used per month and the average number of people that came in contact with the user.

• Bags made the highest number of impressions (approximately 1,038 per month) followed by caps (approximately 476 per month).
• Among non-wearables, writing instruments made the most impressions, with 363 per month.

Length of Time an Item is Held:

• More than one year:
o Bags – 42%
o Wearables – Shirts, caps, etc. 39%
o Other – 37%
o Recognition awards – 34%
o Glassware/Ceramics – 26%

Frequency of Use:

How often do you use the item? (Asked of those who had writing instruments, glassware/ceramics, desk/office/business accessories, and other promotional products).

• Nearly one-third (32%) of glassware/ceramics items received were used once per week and another one-quarter (25%) were used once per day.
• 40% of writing instruments were used at least two times per day.
• On average, writing instruments were used most frequently per month (approximately 64 times per month).

Are you able to identify the advertiser of the item?

• Respondents were able to identify the advertiser the vast majority of the time (84%).
• Wearables were the most often cited product where the recipient was familiar with the sponsor.

Why do you keep the item you received?

• The majority (81%) of promotional product items were kept because they were considered useful, i.e. bags, writing instruments, wearables, glassware/ceramics, desk/office/business accessories, and calendars.
• Receivers of wearables items were more likely to keep these items because they were considered attractive, i.e. bags, wearables, calendars, caps, and shirts.

Which of the following best describes your impression of the advertiser after receiving the item?

• Among respondents of all promotional products received, 42% indicated that their impression of the advertiser had become either significantly or somewhat more favorable after receiving the item.
• This was especially true among receivers of bags with over one-half (53%) reporting that they viewed the advertiser more favorably.

Since receiving the item, have you actually done any business with the advertiser?

• Among respondents of all promotional products received, 62% indicated that they had done business with the advertiser after receiving the item.

Total Impressions/Cost Per Impression (CPI):

• The cost per impression of ad specialties is very low, with fractions of a cent per impression, i.e. 0.004 average.
• Advertising specialties are less expensive per impression than nearly any other media.

Caps – 0.002
Bags – 0.002
Writing Instruments – 0.002
Calendars – 0.003
Glassware/Ceramics – 0.004
Shirts – 0.005
Desk/office/business accessories 0.007

Excerpted from 13 page 2008 study ©Advertising Specialty Institute. All Rights Reserved.

Again if you would like a copy of this 13 page report, let me know and I will send you a copy.

As you consider gifts for your clients and prospects this holiday season, consider ad specialty promotional products imprinted with your company logo. These are gifts that will keep on giving. A useful product your client will use with your contact information at their fingertips so they can call you for more business and/or refer you to others.

I also have some BOGO specials right now that I can also send or you can search for your perfect item at www.LesterBMartin.com Let me know what you are interested in and I will be glad to get it ordered for you. Also, while you are on the website, be sure and register to win $1000 in promotional products. Be sure and list that I referred you.

I would also like to hear what advertising specialty item you currently have that is your favorite and why.

Happy Marketing,

Annette
Painted Lady Enterprises
“Helping You and Your Business Look Good”

Analogies Must Be Relevant

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The following is from my very favorite marketing expert, Liz Goodgold, branding expert, author, and speaker.

"As I was exercising at the gym last week, I literally laughed aloud when I saw the latest commercial from Cinergy Health Insurance.

After lengthy voiceover announcements about the importance of good medical care, preventive care, prescription coverage and lab benefits, this unthinkable analogy was heard: “For less than the cost of a pack of cigarettes per day, you can get health insurance.” What? I’m still gasping for breath!

How can you possibly compare the cost of health insurance to an item that is 100% proven to deteriorate your health? And, with only 25% of Americans smoking, what non-smoker even knows the price of a pack?

What’s the hot lesson here? Analogies do work, but they must be relevant to your target.

Wal-Mart’s recent ad shows how making ice cream Sundaes at home 3 times per month vs. going out will save your family over $220.00 per year. Now, that is a relevant and appropriate ad in this economy. And, it’s even more compelling because it gives the specifics; it doesn’t just tout “save money at Wal-Mart” - it gives the exact amount.

Your turn to act: Find a comparable analogy to help your business.

Sign up for Liz's FREE BRAND FINALE newsletter with valuable information at www.redfirebranding.com.

Liz also posts to the Mogul Mom's blog each week which is also one of the blog's on our list shown in the left column.

Do you have an analogy that you use for your business? We would love to hear it. Your comments are welcomed and appreciated.

In gratitude,
Annette
Painted Lady Enterprises
"Helping You and Your Business Look Good"