A Meaningful Memento at Your Next Trade Show

Business headshots make a hit trade show giveaway

In chatting with you about trade show giveaways, I’ve encouraged you to get your money’s worth by placing value in whatever you choose as a trade show memento, by avoiding gimmicks and trinkets that end up decorating landfills, and by providing something that your busy clients and potential customers truly want and need. Something they will remember you for and that will put your company in the front row of their thinking when considering services and products such as yours.

The world is a blur of business entities. Entrepreneurs understand that thanks to personalized marketing forums such as social media, the individual counts. So much of contemporary business is carried on between people who never meet face to face that it’s beneficial to let your customers “see” you. Nothing achieves that better than a professional headshot, just like actors use in their portfolios.

A headshot makes you human, visible, real. Continue reading…

How to Use “The Marshmallow Principle” For Your Trade Show Success

I’ve just returned from attending this year’s National Speakers Association convention in Orlando.  What I love to do at this event is to listen to the speakers and presenters and search for universal messages that can easily apply to the trade show industry.

One of the many I heard this year, came from my friend and colleague, Joachim de Posada, CSP, who wrote the best-selling book, translated into over 20 languages, Don’t Eat The Marshmallow Yet!: The Secret to Sweet Success in Work and Life.

The book explores “The Marshmallow Principle of Success,” a concept that extols the virtues of experiencing the pain of discipline or else suffer the pain of regret.

Hearing this message struck me like a flash of the obvious.  Isn’t this what exhibitor preparation is all about?

I often end my exhibitor staff training programs with the phrase “proper, planning prevents poor performance. Taking the time, and having the discipline of pre-show planning, is for many exhibitors, a painful process. However, for those who do it, the payoff can often far exceed the effort.

Kathy Seid, one of the creators of the Minibük, took time to prepare for her first trade show, and reaped the benefits with quality leads that far exceeded her expectations.

Many of my clients come to me after they’ve suffered the pain of one or many bad shows. My question is always, “why have you waited so long?” The common answer, “we’ve been doing this for years, and thought we knew what we were doing.”  This common misconception lies at the foundation of many exhibitor experiences. Just because you’ve been doing something for years, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve been doing it right. Because the market is changing exponentially, what you found worked well in the past, often doesn’t work now. The change in what influences the buyer decision-making process, means a change in your approach to the market.

Many clients come looking for the magic bullet, or shortcuts to trade show success. The key to the magic exhibiting bullet can be found in basic planning and preparation – knowing what you want to achieve and then creating a road map to get you where you want to be.

What’s your road map to pain-free exhibiting?

Susan Friedmann, CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, internationally recognized exhibit marketing expert working with companies to increase their profitability at trade shows. Author: “Riches in Niches: How to Make it BIG in a small Market,” “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Target Marketing,” “Meeting & Event Planning for Dummies” and many other titles. For more great information on trade show marketing strategies that work, and for a complimentary copy of “Exhibiting Success,” visit http://www.thetradeshowcoach.com. Click to download the “Riches in Niches” app.

Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History

David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan present the most compelling case study in the history of social media and inbound marketing based on the band that pioneered it all.

Long before the terms ‘inbound marketing’ and ‘social media’ were coined, the Grateful Dead were using these strategies to become one of the most successful bands of all time. They made a series of difficult and often unpopular decisions in order to differentiate themselves from their competition by providing the highest quality service to their fans, not just a product.

Deadheads and marketing strategists David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan explain how smart businesses can learn from one of the most successful rock bands of all time in MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE GRATEFUL DEAD (Wiley; $21.95; August 2010). The Grateful Dead broke almost every rule
in the music industry book and profited as a result. The lessons—and the effect the band had on the music industry and their fans—apply to businesses of all kinds.