Lessons From The Best Marketing Books of All Time

When it comes to creating great trade show displays, it’s easy to make mistakes. There is so much to learn, and on top of that, you need to keep your finger on the pulse of the market or risk becoming irrelevant. With so much to remember, it’s easy to let some of the basics fall through the cracks. Whether you’re new to the field or a career designer trying to brush up for a new year, these five common mistakes made when selecting giveaways for your trade show exhibit will help remind you of what’s important when your company runs a promotion.

Mistake #1: Confusing Low Cost With Great Value

Just because an item has a very low cost doesn’t mean it’s a good value. If you’ve visited conventions before, you’ve almost certainly run across that one trade show exhibit that gives away pens that won’t work. They might hurt your hand, they might break, they might leak, or they might just never write at all, but they’re not good quality. In all likelihood, the person who decided to buy them thought the company was getting a great deal, but did that item strengthen the company’s brand? Remember that every item you give away will reflect back on your company. Only pick things that you know are going to leave a positive impression of your trade show booth.

Mistake #2: Failing To Quickly Sort Qualified Leads From The Merely Curious

Giving away anything is a great way to draw traffic to your trade show displays. The problem is, if you can’t sort through that traffic once you’ve got it, you’re going to end up giving away products and time to leads that won’t pan out. People are naturally attracted to anything that’s free; if you just give out free stuff left and right, you’re not going to see good results. Instead, train your trade show booth staff to quickly and effectively learn to qualify leads. They should be able to tell virtually at a glance whether someone is likely to buy or is just visiting trade show displays for free merchandise.

Mistake #3: Giving Something For Absolutely Nothing

Don’t make your visitors pay money for your giveaways, but make them give you something in return: their contact information. When they take something from you, whether it’s a pen or a coffee mug, you want to make sure that you can contact them about it later. Get their business card, or have them fill out a contact sheet, right there at the trade show exhibit. If you let them walk away without getting their details, you won’t be able to follow up and drive the sale home.

Mistake #4: Forgetting To Distinguish Your Loyal Customers

Whenever an existing customer visits your trade show booth, you should have something special to give them that shows how much you appreciate their business. Whatever you give them should always be nicer than what you’re giving away to new prospects. You want them to understand how much you appreciate their business. Never forget that while new leads will propel your business, your old and loyal clients are your foundation.

Mistake #5: Losing Track Of Your Goal

The most important thing to remember when you pick out and give away any kind of gift at a trade show exhibit is what the gift is meant to do. It’s something that keeps your company name in front of the eyes of visitors, reminding them of who you are and what you offer. That goal should dictate what kind of thing you choose to give, and what quality you choose as well. Forget that, and you could see greatly diminished profits no matter how well you avoid these other four mistakes.
By Chris A. Harmen

It’s all to easy to make nice, easy to read exhibition stands – but if it doesn’t make an impact and stand out from the rest, then consumers won’t be drawn to your products or service.

There are 5 top tips ITR suggests you can follow to make your exhibition stand and your product jump out from the crowd, starting with making it an exciting visual for anyone walking by. Use bold colours and don’t be afraid to use less words – a few well placed words can make all the difference, and by not giving too much away, people will be intrigued and drawn in.

Secondly, offer out some freebies to anyone who signs up, or enquires about the product. Even something as small as a branded pen will attract people in and promote your brand in a widespread way. Imagine a few months later a person is searching for a pen and comes across yours…they will be reminded of the service and are more inclined to get in touch!

Be sure to have some (budget friendly) treats on offer – a bowl of chocolates or sweets is generally a good starting point, and if it so happens that your business is all about healthy eating or living, why not put out bowls of fruit or snacks like rice cakes?

If your budget allows, try to invest in some technology such as touch screens or presentations. People are like magpies – drawn to shiny, exciting things, and if there’s an interactive element, it encourages the public to come on over and give it a go.

Another one for those with a larger budget is to try to include a small bar or café area. This will keep the area buzzing and get people talking.

Finally, be bold with people and don’t shy away from speaking to crowds – your product is worth shouting about, and if your exhibition stand is bold, colourful and loud, it’s only right that you should be too!
By Vanhomrigh Robertson

We are working our way through a series of success principles to help you succeed in a network marketing opportunity.

If you are looking at options among the established network marketing products and services, but have not yet settled into one company, this series is for you.

Knowledge works wonders when it is applied. We can learn from the successes and setbacks of others. Isn’t it great when you can avoid problems and create opportunity by knowing something in advance? This series discusses patterns of success in network marketing so that you can have knowledge in advance of your journey.

Here is what I’d like to suggest in this piece: think carefully about the “fit” between who and what you are and the product/service you will sell.

More specifically: make a choice that is a good “match” for you.

How do you know what is a good match? Let’ talk about that.

The idea here is to not let your initial reaction get ahead of your reasoning, such that you jump into an opportunity without thinking about how you will feel about marketing the product/service, and how well it fits your style and character.

Get involved with something that has resonance with your past experience, skill set, preferences, and overall personality. For example, if you have no interest in nutrition and find the whole subject boring, working with a nutritional products company might not be your smartest choice. On the other hand, maybe a “consumable” is perfect for you, given your interests and passions.

There are hundreds of opportunities out there covering a wide spectrum of products and services, so you have a lot to choose from.

Now I know that if you are powerfully motivated to start and succeed in your own business, you can learn to like a product/service, especially if you like and respect the company. I get that.

But do remember that you start with a BIG advantage if you move into something that you can really get excited about….something that you believe in. When you like and trust what you are representing and selling, you can learn to do so with ease and comfort. You see it as something that brings genuine value. When you deeply believe in the company and the product, you have vastly simplified your life in network marketing.

There are people in network marketing, just as there are in other endeavours, who are out of sync with their product because, for a variety of reasons, they are not emotionally attached.

If you are still looking and have not settled into one company give some serious thought to how well it fits with you as a person and as a professional.

You can get a quick reading on this just by listening to your own intuition, and what your “gut” tells you, but here are a few questions that may help:

• Does the organization’s core values match my own?

• Does the product/service itself speak to anything I feel passionate about?

• Does my past experience and skill set have any synergy with the product/service?

• Does the culture of the organization – as best I can assess it through the people I have met – seem to be harmonious with my values and goals?

I say again….you can be successful by learning to appreciate a product or service that is based on quality and value. But you want to at least make sure that you find a few primary features of the organization and its product/service that are compatible with your essence. If you don’t find something to like now, there is a good chance you won’t find something to love later.

You won’t be doing yourself or your potential sponsor any favors if you move into something that you are fundamentally incompatible with. On the other hand, you will feel great if you take the time to learn about the organization and what it offers. After doing your “due diligence” make a decision based on how well the overall opportunity fits you, as well as how well you fit the opportunity.

If you do so, you will be adding one more big factor in your favor. Of course, there is more to network marketing success than a good fit. We will continue identifying the success probability factors in the next article.

Fran O’Neal (Ed.D.) helps small business owners achieve lasting success by consulting, researching, writing, and “thinking out loud” about the issues of strategy, leadership, team building, and customer experience for small business owners and associates.By Fran O’Neal

Brochure printing is more than just designing trifold brochures. If you want to print brochures for your business more effectively, you will want to know exactly what kind of brochures you want. You have to know the perfect color brochures that will help you with your goals in your business.

Let me help you figure all these out by describing to you the different kinds of custom brochures that can be used for a variety of business objectives. More than likely you will find that a few of these different types should be applicable for your goals. So read on and see.

Brochures for increasing sales

If your goal is to make money and increase sales from a product or service, then an advertising custom brochure is what you need. Color brochures like this are all about product detail as well as images for advertising. It is all positive talk of course, with prime feature of the brochure being the product itself. You can think of this as more of a glorified flyer really but with the added features of being more durable and sometimes being able to carry an order form if need be. So if you want to sell a lot more products, this kind of brochure should be your first priority to print.

Brochures for uplifting your business image

If your goal is to develop a certain business image and make your whole company and its line of products more appealing to people, then public relations brochures are what you need. Color brochures in this arena are typically made more for impressing people. This means high quality materials in terms of paper and inks, plus good quality images and text that explain precisely the vision, mission and objectives of the company. This is a more long term investment for a company, but it is well worth printing these types of custom brochures especially if you want to reach out to investors, partners and loyal customers.

Brochures for information campaigns

Now, if your project is basically to inform people about something, you should try to print information brochures. Brochures like this are typically larger, with more text integrated into the layout. Of course, the text layout itself should be quite effective, with efficient use of lists, diagrams and charts as well. This kind of brochure is perfect if you want to explain a certain type of service, procedure or even a big issue that you want to convey.

Brochures for instructional training

If you want a quick training reference of sorts for your staff, employees or even for customers, then you will want instructional custom brochures. These brochures are basically simple brochures that have step by step instructions printed into them. It is best to use an equal amount of text and diagrams in this type of color brochures so that people can read and simultaneously see what they need to be doing. This type of custom brochure is perfect for businesses with services that customers need to learn about first, or if your business has complicated and unique business processes which people need to train for fast.

Brochures for recruitment

Finally, if recruitment is your priority for business, then form brochures are what you need. A form brochure is basically a brochure where people can write on to fill up their information. The great thing about this is that you can promote your company or your services right on the page with the application form. This means that you can encourage more people to sign up for you since you have extra advertising messages in the brochure form. This is perfect if your business has a high turnover rate of people and you want to keep recruiting people fast.By Janice Jenkins

In all growing businesses, their clients are the highest priorities when it comes to services, benefits, activities, and programs in their facilities. Each client deserves the right to be treated in an equal holistic manner that is integrated under the management’s care. Most businesses improve their servitude to their clients by promoting customer satisfaction through the implementation of equality and fair treatment.

Clients are part of a businesses’ integral system. Since clients come in different shapes and sizes, the business owners should accommodate to their every possible need. The diversity among people with regards to their race, gender, religion, and disabilities, should not be a factor that will hinder them from receiving equal treatment inside a business’s premises.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a law that was enacted in 1990 and amended in 2008. This law was formulated primarily to protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination, making the businesses compliant in providing ease of access and services that would otherwise be difficult for people with disabilities to avail.

Businesses that did not previously provide ease of access to their establishment or services are liable, and will receive penalties, if they do not make the modifications mandated by the ADA law to their establishments.

The common modifications in a business establishment include:

• Building ramps for people in wheelchairs

• Allowing access for animals that are used by people with disabilities (such as seeing-eye dogs) where they used to be prohibited

• Providing handicap parking signs

• Adding signs to your establishment to make people with disabilities aware of where such parking spaces are located

For business owners, modifying the establishments may mean additional expenses to the budget that would seem as unnecessary when looking at their businesses’ finances. However, there are almost 200 million Americans with disabilities between the ages of 16-64 and over 23 million of them are employed. This means additional profit for any businesses.

People with disabilities are potential customers and like non-disabled clients, they should be the top most priorities as well. Therefore, these modifications can make the businesses feel more welcoming to those who are disabled and handicapped.

There are also advocacy groups or organizations that support people with disabilities. They can promote the businesses that have good accommodations for the disabled people, making these businesses’ reputation stellar to the community.

Businesses that gain a good reputation from their handicapped clients are assured of loyalty, which in return make their profit grow steadily. Having disabilities may limit an individual’s physical and mental capacity, but it must not limit them from engaging in the services, benefits, activities, and programs rendered by these businesses.
By Arlyn Descalsote