January 5, 2011

What Gets You Noticed at a Tradeshow?

After walking the floor of many a chaotic tradeshow, I’m always interested (and somewhat amused) by what catches my eye. And what doesn’t.

So what works to bring ’em in? What is like honey to the fly?

Here, in no particular order, are several things that made me stop and take a look at a product or service:

demonstrations: a professional presenter with a 5-7 minute presentation can do wonders for a tradeshow exhibit
eye candy: this can be large colorful graphics, something moving (rotating or spinning graphics/wheels/etc), booth babes, anything that says “STOP! LOOK! NOW!” Admittedly, the booth babes drew my eyes but rarely connect me to an actual product!
celebrity: whether it’s Muriel Hemingway or Dr. Andrew Weil or anyone else that catches an eye, a celebrity gives your booth credibility and power – at least to a certain amount of the audience.
unusual product: a new or unusual product, even in a lousy-looking booth, can be enough to draw me in.
unusual booth design: a stellar, spare, unusual booth design is a very attractive piece. If it’s unusual enough it’ll have people stopping regardless of the product. Again, the product has to be worth the attention or the booth design fails. But with the right combination, POW!
giveaways or free samples: a typical giveaway gets me to stop for a heartbeat. A cool/unusual/clever giveaway that ties in with the product gets me thinking. If it’s damn yummy I will come back for more and figure out where to buy the product when I get home.
smile: a pleasant smile and non-threatening greeting from a booth staffer does wonders in getting people to stop and examine your offerings.
action in the booth: video or audio interviews draw a crowd. A simple camera/microphone set-up makes people curious. Curiosity helps draw a crowd.

The initial goal of your booth is to get a visitor to stop. Once they’ve stopped, they’ve mentally committed at least a smidgen of time to your offerings. From that moment, it’s up to your (highly trained) booth staff to positively engage them, qualify or disqualify them, grab contact info if interested and move them into the sales funnel.

Easy, right?

November 12, 2010

Tradeshow Pre-Show Publicity Guide

If you want to get the most out of your tradeshow exhibit, you should do your utmost to let people know before the show that you’ll be there by using a tradeshow pre-show publicity guide. Not only will it give those folks who can’t attend the show a chance to learn about your new offerings and the fact that you’re going to exhibit – it also gives attendees something to look forward to.

Key goals include:

letting people know about new products
cluing the media in on your new products and your upcoming appearance
alert people to access to your key people: CEO, designers, managers, etc.
schedule interview with media and bloggers onsite during the show
generate buzz
generate new sales leads
get your CEO or other lead person on the speaking schedule at the show

Are there any press-only pre-show functions that you, as an exhibitor, can attend? Are there awards programs that you can participate in? Should you hold a press conference at the show? All of these are good questions who’s answers may lead you to new opportunities for exposure. And if there’s anything you want MORE of at a tradeshow, it’s EXPOSURE.

How’s your online press area? Your press kit should have information on the latest products that you want to push, and should be available in many formats: text, audio interviews, video demonstrations if appropriate and photos. The more ways you offer the information, the easier it becomes for the press to use your information.

If you choose to issue a press release, keep in mind that you’re competing with dozens or hundreds of other press releases. To create a compelling press release, the most important thing is to create a compelling headline. Without a ‘hooky’ headline, you’re sunk because no one will read past a boring headline. Your press release – if related specifically to something going on at the tradeshow – should have the various points of contact for people in your booth.

Engage social media. Find out what bloggers might be covering the event. Ask colleagues (or even competitors) who they have seen covering the event in the past. Include links to your Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn outlets if available. Create event listings on LinkedIn and Facebook and spread the word through your contacts.

photo credit: roland

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October 22, 2010

7 Essential Tradeshow Marketing Skills

In a perfect world, all tradeshow managers would have these skills – and more. But we know that a perfect world doesn’t exist, right? So if you have most of these you’ll probably do okay!

People (read: sales) skills. There’s a lot to be said for having the power to get along with people and being able to kindly persuade people to do things for you. In a chaotic tradeshow world, the one leadership skill that stands out above all others is the ability to ‘get along with others.’ Just like in kindergarten.
Social media skills. If you’re still wondering how to tweet or post to Facebook, you’re probably not right for the job. Beyond simple social media skills, are you able to shoot a Flip video and upload it within a few moments? Can you grab a photo of a client with your product and get it out on Facebook before they get on Facebook on their iPhone? Can you figure out how to promote special deals via Twitter, FB and YouTube before you head for the show? Do you know how to listen to the chatter on social media about your product, company and industry?
Number-crunching ability. Budgeting in today’s economy is more important than ever. Being able to determine a show’s budget based on last year’s numbers (or no comparable numbers at all), getting a realistic look at the show’s ROI and putting together a final show budgetary report and analysis for the CFO will go a long way to keeping you in your position.
Organization. There are so many moving parts in a tradeshow manager’s job that your organizational skills have to be top notch. Showing good time management skills, for instance, is a big plus.
Understanding your product and market. A familiarity with your company’s culture, products, competitors, clients and customers is a must to executing a great tradeshow experience.
Being flexible and resourceful. Things go wrong. In a tradeshow when things go wrong, you’re not only in a chaotic environment of a show floor, but you’re away from home and you’re under a time crunch. Not to mention the microscope of clients and management. If you can come up with rapid workable (not necessarily perfect) solutions under those conditions, you’re golden.
Jack of all trades. As a tradeshow marketer, you are called on to wear so many hats your head will spin. ‘Nuff said.

photo credit: Meindert Arnold Jacob

September 13, 2010

Just Ask for What You Want!

Life lessons are sometimes slow to present themselves. It wasn’t until I hit my 40s that the idea of ‘ask for what you want’ really came true for me. Now I do it all the time. Well, when I think of it and when it makes sense.

But it is amazing what you can get if you ask. Now I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to tie this to tradeshow marketing, but I bet it can be applied somewhere. Perhaps to a vendor, a client, a potential customer…somebody. If you want something, just ask!

For instance, I’m a Comcast cable subscriber. I’ve heard that many people through the years have not been happy with the service. Truthfully, it’s always been great for me. The few issues I’ve had have been handled promptly and courteously.

I got started with Comcast when I signed up one of those service bundles. You know the kind: they package internet, cable and phone service and give you a sweet deal so you’ll buy all of them. And of course it’s a limited offer; the price will go up after a year.

So I bought it knowing that the price would go up after a year (this was several years ago, by the way). At the end of the year I got the latest bill in the mail – which showed the increased pricing – and I decided to give them a call, since the price was going to go up about $30 a month.

“Hi, I’m a customer of about a year and I notice that the price for my bundled service expires. I’m actually shopping around and am interested in what you can do for me.”

“Hang on a minute, let me check.”

I wait for a moment before the service rep comes back. “I see that you’ve been paying your bills on time every month and that you’re currently paying X for the bundle. I can give you the current bundle price. It’s not the same as it was when you signed on, but it will still save you $20 a month. How does that sound?”

“Great! Thanks!”

Another example:

One of the credit cards I’ve had for several years hit me with an annual fee earlier this year. I hear that’s happened to a lot of people since the new rules went into effect. So I got on the horn to the service rep and asked if they’d mind waiving the fee. I told them if they didn’t I’d probably cancel the card. The balance at that point was $0 and it wasn’t a card I used a lot. Made sense to ask them if they’d drop the fee.

They checked my history (“you’re a long-time customer and we appreciate your business!”), and after a moment said they’d be glad to give me a one-time waiver on the fee. That saved me $39. If they try to hit me again next year with the feel, I’ll ask again to have them waive it. May not get it, but if I don’t ask it’s certain that I won’t.

One more example – this time I got a great deal by keeping my mouth shut. Sort of.

I was at the rental car kiosk in Anaheim a couple of years ago. I had reserved a compact car. They happened to be out of compact cars and told me they could upgrade me for a small fee. I politely said no because I’d been through this before and wanted to see what they were willing to do for me. In a sense I was silently asking to see what they could come up with instead of quickly agreeing to his first offer.

After a few minutes of poking around his computer, the agent said he could upgrade me for no extra charge to a Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible – one of the few cars they had available. Would that be okay?

Uh. Yeah. That’d work.

So I drove with the top down in a hot little sports car for four days in LA. My suitcase didn’t fit in the trunk but I was able to wedge it in the back seat area so I didn’t care – it was all good.

Point is: keep on asking. As a salesperson, keep on asking your customers for the business. If you’re setting up a tradeshow booth, ask the show services folks how they might upgrade your booth. Ask for a better space a few days before the show – perhaps someone has dropped out.

Ask to be upgraded to a suite at your hotel for no extra charge. Ask for a complimentary meal.

Ask. Ask. Ask!

You may not get it even if you ask.

You will definitely NOT get it if you DON’T ASK!

August 27, 2010

Are You Flirtin’ With Disaster?

Are you flirting with tradeshow disaster?

You may recall a little rockin’ song from the late 70’s by the Florida band Molly Hatchet called ‘Flirtin’ With Disaster’ – and when it came on the radio the other day it got me to thinking that in many areas of our life that’s exactly what we are doing!

Flirtin’ with Disaster!

So, are you baking up a Recipe for Disaster with your tradeshow marketing?

For instance, does your tradeshow planning look anything like this recipe?

Ingredients

4 medium bars of budget confusion

1/4 c. selfishness

1 tablespoon lackadaisical approach to planning

2 teaspoons bad booth design

7 pounds of inappropriate giveaways

3 oz. untrained booth staff (may be substituted with surly and/or disinterested staff)

4 tablespoons of planning brain freeze

Directions:

Mix together for just a short time, spread unevenly on show floor and let percolate. For maximum results, feign interest in your visitors, discard most leads as ‘not for us’ and invent a story for the CEO as to why the show was unsuccessful.

Note: by using just a few of this recipe’s ingredients, you can still achieve a terrifically disappointing tradeshow experience!

May 5, 2010

Why the Beatles Were the Greatest Marketing Models of Their Time (and what you can learn from them)

The Sixties were an incredible decade. From the beginning to the end of that ten-year span our worldwide culture grew and expanded at an incredible rate that no one standing at the precipice of 1959 could have foreseen.

As a country we saw pop music go from bland to biting, the Vietnam War, political assassinations, the rise of the counterculture, recreational drug use, casual sex, JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream Speech”, civil rights legislation…

You can hyperventilate just trying to talk about it. Thousands of books have been written about the Sixties.

But this is not a book. I just wanted to set a little context for what the Beatles did with marketing their ‘brand’ in the 60s.

Well, maybe not their marketing exactly, but the essence of who they were. It’s what people saw, felt and heard. So in a way they were marketing.

The Beatles came out of working-class Liverpool. There were a lot of other bands out of the Sixties that started in similar circumstances – looking for a way out. Look at The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Yardbirds, the Dave Clark Five, Chad and Jeremy, Peter and Gordon, Freddie and the Dreamers, The Animals, The Zombies, Herman’s Hermits, Manfred Mann and other Sixties bands.

On this side of the pond we had Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, the Righteous Brothers, The Turtles, Tommy James and the Shondells, the Ventures, The Monkees, The Mamas and the Papas, Lovin’ Spoonful, Simon and Garfunkel and more.

But in looking back at the music, the photos and music chart listings from that time, very few bands were able to sustain anything beyond their initial ‘look and sound.’

Not the Beatles.

They evolved, changing from mop-top pop teen idols in ’64 and ’65 to experimental psychedelia in ’66 and ’67 that incorporated worldwide influences, to mature radio rock in ’68 and ’69 to a rootsy farewell in 1970.

From “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Ticket To Ride” to “Paperback Writer” to “Penny Lane” to “All Your Need Is Love” to “Strawberry Fields Forever” to “Rocky Raccoon” and “Back In The USSR” to “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” to “Come Together,” “Something,” “Octopus’s Garden” to “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” to the final LP ‘Let it Be.’ (Yes, I know that Abbey Road was recorded after Let it Be…don’t quibble…I’m on a roll)…

And that’s just the music.

How about the looks they incorporated?

Early 60s: skinny ties, identical suits, Beatle Boots, identical mop-top hair cuts that were more than cutting edge.

Mid-60s: casual, relaxed mod clothing, individuality…to the psychedelic look of the Sgt. Pepper album.

Late 60s: more individuality and variety. Paul moved to more conservative clothes, John let his hair grow (until he shaved his head in the early 70s); Ringo was always dapper; George was the uber-upscale hippie.

Few of their contemporary bands can claim that type of evolution in music or looks. Which is probably why they are much more ‘trapped in time’ than the Beatles, who remain timeless in many ways.

When you picture Paul Revere and the Raiders you conjure images of those three-cornered hats and the Revolution outfits. Think of the Dave Clark Five and you picture those black ties and coats. And so on.

By the time the rest of the rock bands of the mid-60s tried to play-catch up it was too late. They were already pigeon-holed to a time and place.

But not the Beatles. They led the way, changing fashion and music by being true themselves, true to their creative spirits and urgings. The ultimate test came in 1970 when, to continue to be true to themselves, they had to disband. They had been together for over ten years. They had changed the world. It was time to move on.

As a company or a personal brand, are you being true to yourself? Or are you jumping in the slipstream looking to catch a ride on someone’s coattails and hope that they eventually fade away and leave you standing alone?

It’s not gonna happen.

Evolve.

photo credit: JMazzolaa

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April 6, 2010

Five Things to Teach Your Staff Before the Tradeshow

Tradeshow staff training is often seen as the ‘missing gap’ between coming away from a tradeshow with an assortment of grungy leads and a stack of well-defined leads.

But experience has shown that most companies spent little to no money actually training their staff to do the right things at a show to accomplish those goal-gathering leads.

So I thought it might be a good thing to jot down a list of five – just five, that’s all – things that you should teach your tradeshow staff before the next show.

1. Teach your staff which products and services will be highlighted at the show. If you have a larger booth, note on a floor map where the products/services will be handled or discussed with the visitors, along with who the subject matter experts might be for those items. In this way your staff can handle inquires and direct the visitor to the right area or find the right answer to those questions.

2. Teach your staff to quickly and efficiently qualify and disqualify visitors. If the visitor is NOT a prospect, the sooner your staff member disengages with them and moves on to the next visitor, the more efficient they’ll be at gathering leads. This means asking the right questions, noting the answers, and asking correct follow-up questions that determine the level of interest and who and how to follow up with that visitors.

3. Teach your staff how to properly process a lead. If you have a lead form, have them practice filling it out. If you are using a badge scanner at the show, practice on it before the show starts. If there are specific questions that need to be asked, have them rehearse the questions.

4. Inform your staff the overall objective(s), goals and reasons for being at the show. If they understand the ‘30,000 foot view’ of why the company is at this show, they’ll have a better grasp of why those goals are important.

5. Let your staff know how important they are to the success of the tradeshow. Explain why they were chosen to represent the company, that they are the ‘front lines’ and the face of the company. Anything they do will reflect on visitors’ impressions of the company. Little things go a long way. Small things like smiles and politeness standard for many companies…but when you remind your staff how important those things really are (and how noticeable if you forget), it’s more likely they’ll remember to wear a smile and be polite all the time.

Is there anything you teach your staff that is missing in this list?

March 25, 2010

27 Un-Boring Things to do At Your Next Tradeshow

Bored at the tradeshow? Here’s a list of things to do that will lively up your experience!

I remember in my early days in radio a record promoter once told me that she loved my enthusiasm and willingness to drive 50 miles to see an unknown band that she was promoting. “So many of the other music directors I talk to are getting jaded…”

Whether you’re an exhibit or an attendee and you’ve been doing it for a long time, you might ask yourself: Am I Getting JADED?

Next time you’re at a tradeshow, take this list with you. Maybe by doing a few of these things it’ll help break you out of a rut (okay…some of these will take a little more preparation and execution before the show…but use ’em as inspirational thought-starters if nothing else).

Before leaving your office spend some time on Twitter compiling a list of people at the show that are Tweeters. Make a list of who they are and what booth they’re at. Stop by the booth and tell them you found ‘em on Twitter.

Draw attention to yourself and your company. If appropriate, wear a goofy hat, a pair of Mickey Mouse ears, Homer Simpson slippers. Anything unusual is a conversation starter.

Pick up literature from as many booths as possible. Read it that night in your hotel. Make notes about questions you’d like to ask. Go back to the booth and ask.

Take a Flip video camera and ask visitors to explain why they stopped by your booth. Or take it around the floor on your break and get a few comments from other exhibitors about the show and what their experience is at the show.

Take a camera. Take lots of photos. If you see a cool booth, ask permission for a photo first. If you connect with someone via Facebook or Twitter, be sure to take their photo and post it online.

Bring chocolates and instead of putting them in a bowl at your booth, hand them out as you go from booth to booth to other exhibitors. Tape your business card onto the chocolates.

Buy a half-dozen thumb drives and put your company information – brochures, current press releases, catalogs, website, etc. – on it and have it ready to hand out to a few well-qualified media contacts or potential clients.

Sit down with a professional radio person (!), have them interview you about your company. Create an audio CD with a nice label and title such as “All You Ever Wanted to Know About XYZ Company” or “The Inner Secrets of the XYZ Company Widget” and make a couple of dozen copies. Put a label on them that says “limited edition” and make sure that you qualify anyone you give them to.

If you typically don’t go to seminars, pick at least two and go to them. If you typically attend seminars, find one with an unusual title that you might not attend and go to it.

Make a note immediately on any business card you collect from a person (not a card you just picked up from a table). Write down a pertinent part of the conversation, a future follow-up or an item that will make you remember them. By the time you get back to your hotel, you’ll have forgotten what they even look like.

Are you typically a bit shy? Break that habit. Talk to people in buffet lines, restaurants, elevators. Come up with a few questions you can ask to break the ice. Have fun: these people don’t know you’re shy!

If you typically spend the day working the booth and greeting visitors, arrange your schedule so you get at least an hour or two to walk the show floor and schmooze with other exhibitors, especially those that might be potential partners and those that you would consider competitors.

Talk to a show organizer and ask her how this show compares to previous years…or find some other topic of conversation.

Bring three times as many business cards as you think you might need.

Go to the city’s visitor center and see what kinds of fun things you can do in your off-hours.

See how many booths you can walk by before a booth staffer invites you in.

Look up old friends in the event city using Facebook or Twitter and connect with them.

Smile at everyone. Even if they aren’t smiling at you.

Have a contest with fellow staffers to see if you can get visitors to say the magic word of the day. Those of us old enough might even remember this came from Groucho Marx’s ‘You Bet Your Life.’

Take notes about how much food costs. Hot dog and coke – $14!? Compare notes with fellow staffers. Boo and hiss the high prices.

Ask other exhibitors what they paid for drayage and shipping. Compare notes.

See if you can set up your booth before your neighbor.

Go a whole day without eating restaurant food by taking food snacks such as energy bars, fruit, trail mix, etc.

Bring a small white board. Write a Haiku poem about your company or product on it. Invite your visitors to add their Haiku.

Practice Extreme Customer Service. As if you were a Disney employee.

If the speaker at your seminar or breakout session is boring, create a game where you write down every word he says that begins with the letter M. Or T. Or draw a cartoon of the speaker. Post it on Twitter.

Ask other visitors what they do for fun. Take notes and incorporate their ideas into yours.

What ideas do you have to break those long days into more fun? Share!

November 17, 2009

Geek Love: Review of Peter Shankman’s “Can We Do That!?”

Now that I’m 95% finished with Peter Shankman’s “Can We Do That!?” I can safely tell you it’s one of the most inspirational business-promotion books I’ve ever found.

Peter, if you’re not familiar with him, is the founder of The Geek Factory PR Agency in New York City in the 90s. He’s since sold the business (but kept the naming rights) and runs Help A Reporter, the largest free source repository for journalists anywhere in the world, where anyone can sign up to be a source on any topic and get quoted in major media.

Now, to the book: a brisk read; I’m a little more than a week into it and have just the last chapter.

The most useful part of the book to me was to lift the hood on a handful of major successful promotions Peter and the Geek Factory pulled off, including the great skydiving adventure, the knitting shop promotion and his 30th birthday party in 2002 (among others).

For someone who’s never done those types of promotions from scratch, it’s great to see how they were hatched and ultimately executed.

Yes, this fun-to-read book gave me a ton of ideas, and I’m still making notes to incorporate some of those ideas into current promotions that I have on the drawing board.

A critical section of the book looks closely at how to deal with a PR crisis: what to say (and what NOT to say) to the media, how to keep the company employees in the loops, how to create a list of contact information for the key players in any company (no, it’s not just the company management).

In other words, when you get that 3 am phone call – which I agree with Peter are NEVER good – you know what to do, step-by-step to avoid becoming the latest company to get chewed up by media…who after all, are just following a story.

I’m almost sorry I will finish the book later today. Guess I’ll have to keep it handy for reference. Yup, I give this valuable little book 4 stars. Add it to your library soon:

Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work--And Why Your Company Needs Them

UPDATE August 2017: I’ve had the pleasure to be a member of Peter Shankman’s Master Mind Group “Shankminds” for the past several months. It’s an active group of over a hundred people who either are their own boss, or are working towards that end. Worth checking out.

May 11, 2009

Need a New Booth? Put Out an Exhibit RFP

Ready for a new custom booth, but don’t know where to start? You might consider putting together an RFP (Request for Proposal) and sending it to 3 – 5 exhibit fabricators.

Whatever your approach, make sure you have an internal company discussion that addresses your booth needs: size, branding, budget, function (needs may include display tables, food serving areas, AV equipment, laptop stations, etc.), transportation (what shows will you attend?), storage, extra signage, interactive items, etc.

Since you’re creating a custom exhibit that you’ll use for years, take your time: after every show, make notes about what works and what doesn’t with your current exhibit. Document what your employees and visitors say. Hold project meetings, get staff input and keep a file.

When it’s time to issue the RFP, make it as thorough as possible. Issue the RFP to a handful of exhibit house, be upfront about how many companies you’ve invited to respond, and make sure the budget and timetable are realistic for what you want. If you can pull that off the chances of creating a fabulous exhibit has increased a hundredfold!

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