Can you believe January is already behind us? Most businesses are revving up for a busy year of B2B trade events. Biztradeshows.com states: ‘Trade Fairs have evolved into one of the most important Buyer-Seller meeting platforms. Most of the leading manufacturers spend up to 10% of their total advertising budget on trade fairs, the figure reaching as high as 40% in case of companies operating in the B2B sphere.’

What is your plan for 2012? And will you max out the value for each initiative? To help you with your trade show exhibiting, here are nine important event marketing steps to increase your results.

1. Exhibit at the events that are right for your business. Decide which events can be profitable for your business based on your brand, target audience(s), competitor activity, location, and budget.
2. Send the right staff. Once you finalize your event list, ensure your business is represented by the appropriate staff. At a minimum, send an experienced staff person, ideally an extrovert, that can provide an elevator pitch about your organization, as well as be able to talk more technical.
3. Distribute effective marketing and technical information. Make sure your collateral addresses the needs of your audience(s) and their demographics. Btw, a call to action is a must.
4. Give away an item that relevantly connects you with your audience. A trade association could offer technical information in a clever format; a home renovation company could offer a branded carpenter pencil or free software app, etc…
5. Brand your booth. Take a fresh look at your booth. Does it need an upgrade, does still represent what your business is about? Order carpet, drapes, table cloths that match your brand colours. Your booth should have the same look and feel throughout.
6. Educate your staff. Trade show events usually offer seminars – a fantastic opportunity to gain the newest industry information. After the event, disseminate the summaries to all staff.
7. Get the 4-1-1 on install and dismantle. Get the most life out of your booth. Save staff time and money: teach your staff the proper way to pack and unpack the booth. Duct tape should not be an option.
8. Promote. Plan visits for your team with key customers or members, pre-arrange dinners with key stakeholders, host a meet & greet in a hotel mini-suite to create an opportunity to foster greater loyalty and/or initiate new connections. Use social media to create incentives for them to see you at event and to keep audiences informed about event happenings (give your connections more reasons to value your organization).
9. Measure results. It’s good to know staff enjoyed the trade show but attain hard numbers to validate next year’s participation. This can include total attendance, audience demographics, total number of quality leads (and later, conversion rates).

Most organizations participate in the same trade show events year after year. This can be profitable, but it is important to remember that these are strategic marketing initiatives and its value needs to be continually proven. It is also good business to experiment with new initiatives and new markets. Organizations that do not have the resources (experience or staff time) to evaluate the benefits of trade show exhibiting, usually contract out this service to an experienced marketer. Due diligence reports appeal to stakeholders and these actions cultivate more trust in the executive decision making process.

Infuse Five is dedicated to helping people reach their business goals through innovative marketing strategies. Get more information about how you can generate more value into your programs. Inject some fresh ideas into your marketing plan.

Why not get in touch with us today?
Email Sandra directly at sandra@InfuseFive.com .
Sign up for the newsletter at www.InfuseFive.com.
Tweet with us: www.twitter.com/InfuseFive .
Please share this article with others of whom you think could benefit.

Do you have any trade show exhibiting tips you’d like to add to this list? If so, what are they?

Be profitable with your marketing!

Sandra

Sandra M. Hamway
Founder, Marketing Strategist

A business Tweeter needs to understand and follow the corporate brand – s/he is a brand ambassador. The quality of the posts can help to generate interest and business only if the tweets are engaging. The quality of the posts plays a significant role in Twitter. If it is not interesting enough, or your audience perceives that you are trying to sell directly to them, this can cause negative response, which can have widespread effect and very quickly.

5 easy Social Media steps to get your business started with Twitter:

1. Set it up. Set up a Twitter account. Here’s an example of how you can use it: For your annual convention, promote your Twitter account ahead of time so that your event participants are aware of your Twitter name and presence, so they can accept the Twitter invitation.
2. Define objectives. In this same example (in #1) provide objectives and key guidelines for its use to a group of your onsite staff (or committee). Adding competition between staff for generating responses can help boost staff engagement and help to increase responses.
3. Experiment. Twitter, if used effectively, can be a lucrative area to strengthen your brand and promote your organization, without the added media dollars that traditional media can cost. It is worth investigating. Explore it and find out how your industry partners and competitors are using this medium.
4. Educate yourself. The Twitter world can seem daunting and overwhelming. There are acronyms (RT= retweet), tools to shorten web links (to save character space), and slang words hashtags (#tag: way to organize your updates for Twitter search engines). However, it is well worth the investment of time – it is not going away. Smart phones have provided a strategic way to reach your audience virtually anywhere (pun intended).
5. Get started today. The easiest way to enter the Twitter world is to create an account, check out the Twitter help guide for basic information then complete your profile (tip: you might want to set up an alias identity until you have a basic knowledge of how this medium works). Next, explore, add followers, and have some fun with it.

Twitter can be a powerful tool to learn more about the interests of your readers or followers. It has the feature of tracking within it and can give you the opportunity to test business ideas or to gain feedback instantly.

Be innovative: Twitter is just one of many online social networking services out there.

It’s no wonder that retailers are now starting to integrate technology to help track the movements and habits of (traditional) shoppers.  The market research results from tracking shoppers’ physical movements can be very lucrative for a retailer. The results can also be a valuable marketing tool for American and Canadian businesses, associations, and event planners.Winning brand strategies can be based upon the results of this type of research.

Starting on Black Friday and continuing through to New Year’s Day, there will be two U.S. malls (one in southern California, the other in Richmond, Va), that will track its guest’s movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones. Data is said to be anonymous, and will follow shoppers’ paths from store to store. This data will show, as an example, how many Nordstrom shoppers stop at Starbucks, and for how long they spend at each stop. Also, tracking will uncover what areas in the mall are least frequented. The U.S. has tracked similar information in the past, but this is the first time they key into cell phones to access personal shopping paths.

Though this can be a marketer’s dream: learning what stores couple well with each other (potential cross promotions), length of time a shopper spends in a store (create future testing opportunities), and personal habits based upon geographic and demographic info, there are a myriad of concerns. Big Brother may need to duel it out with the Privacy police.

The malls do state that no personal data is being tracked, and there will not be any analysis into individual shoppers. There is also signage notifying people as they enter the malls. However, it may raise concern on how this type of accessibility is permitted and whether individuals should have the right to deny access to this information. Currently, the only way to deny permission is to turn off the phone. Alternately, a future consideration may be an opt-in method (BTW, this is where Canadian anti-spam law is heading).

The tracking system is called FootPath Technology and it works through a series of antennas positioned throughout the shopping centre that capture the unique identification number assigned to each phone (similar to a computer’s IP address), and tracks its movement throughout the stores. Retailers like JC Penney and the Home Depot are now on board to work with this technology. This could be a great tool to track its shoppers habits within its retail outlets, and to learn about its shoppers habits and paths in different city centres. There is already technology in place online, that tracks customers, and targets them with ads that suit their individual interests (based upon past websites visited) and, based on this historical data, continues to show ads on webpages even after the shopper has left a retailer’s website.

Let’s face it, Thanksgiving is a consumer driven holiday. Black Friday and now Cyber Monday (special online sales) create hysteria amongst Americans. If you recall, last year, there was a woman who died being trampled upon at a Walmart. Is $400 savings from a flat screen T.V. worth it? Apparently so. Retailers yearn for this time of year, it is the blast-off moment to motivate holiday shopping.

As a marketer, it is fascinating to learn new ways on how retailers can persuade consumers to shop at their stores. This technology can definitely become a valuable tool for retailers but could also serve to help event planners, associations, and other businesses. As the technology becomes more accessible, it can help uncover how people move through a special event, or trade show (what booths are visited the most), or how long they stay onsite and in certain locations, at an event.

There is a lot of debate regarding the ethics of information gathering and the predatory-like behavior of ‘Big Brother watching’ from George Orwell’s book, 1984. Both Google  and Apple have been caught using tracking software. Facebook is also guilty. Hungry for more information on this? Check out what other cellular operators and cellphone manufacturers are doing.

We look forward to finding out the results from the mall tracking experiment. What do you think, would you turn your phone off upon entering a mall?

Best wishes to our American neighbours! Have a safe and fun Thanksgiving with family, friends, and football.

Here’s the idea (i.e. secret marketing strategy):
For smaller organizations, enlist your President or CEO to write a personal note in a holiday card to each staff person thanking that person for their hard work (specific project success, etc…) over the course of this past year. It can be one sentence or one phrase. Either way, the sentiment will show the staff member how s/he is appreciated and viewed as a valued member of the team. For larger businesses, a senior staff person or supervisor can do this.

Your internal staff can be your greatest brand champions. They certainly have all the tools in place to take on this role. Many staff members interact directly with your target audience and a happy staff member is a productive one. Why not nurture these relationships?

Want proof?
Thomas Wright, a researcher and professor of management at Kansas State University, found that when employees have high levels of psychological well-being and job satisfaction, they perform better and are less likely to leave their job, making happiness a valuable tool for maximizing organizational outcomes.

Example (some numbers to back this up):
In a sample of management personnel with average salaries in the $65,000 range, Wright found that being psychologically distressed could cost the organization roughly $75 a week per person in lost productivity. Have 10 employees? That translates to $750 per week in performance variance. Have 100 employees? The numbers are $7,500 per week or $390,000 per year. [source: Kansas State University (2009, February 3). Happy Employees Are Critical For An Organization’s Success, Study Shows. ScienceDaily.

We all know when employees have low levels of well-being and job satisfaction, they are more likely to quit their job. And, employee turnover could be costly.

Now is a perfect time of year to show your ‘soft’ values.

5 Engaging Activities You can include at this year’s Holiday Party:

1. Trivia contest (each table of staff is a team)
2. Raffle (examples: future pizza party for dept team, gift of 1-2 extra paid days off, gift card for health-related item/activity)
3. Scavenger hunt (use of their smart phones, or traditional methods) with items at different tables (could be centrepiece item, getting staff knowledge, etc…)
4. Passing around a tablet, paper scroll, or other and have each person write what they like most about the organization. This can be compiled and emailed later to all staff (with or without their names).
5. Set up an area where staff can get photos taken (on a budget: a volunteer staff person handy with a camera). This can be posted later with captions or staff input.

The more you do that can engage your staff, the more potential you create to strengthen your brand’s value.

Infuse Five helps associations and organizations inject smart marketing into their business programs without hiring a full time employee. Learn more about how Infuse Five can help your business, contact Sandra Hamway for a free consultation.

The move from cards to phone payments is upon us. Who wants to carry multiple cards in a bulging wallet when your loyalty/credit cards can all be virtually stored? Starbucks has figured out and implemented the technology and marketing strategy across North America. Starbucks understands the value of innovative marketing – and it continues to demonstrate how it is an expert in brand management (and the important role social media plays).

Their ‘surface’ objective is to simplify the customer experience, so shoppers would not need to carry so many cards and keep up with membership reward numbers in their wallets, etc… Here’s what Brady Brewer, Vice President for the Starbucks card and brand loyalty had to say, “We’re providing them with the fastest way to pay.”

How the App works:
Using the Starbucks app, you hold your phone up to scan in a bar code that appears at the cash register when you go to pay. The code automatically ensures the correct payment is taken off the registered Starbucks card that you have linked to the app.

9 Quick Facts of what the Starbucks App can do:

1. Check your card balance and reload your Starbucks card
2. Track your Stars in the My Starbucks Rewards program
3. Scan bar code on your smartphone at the register
4. Search nearby store outlets, based on amenities offered
5. Learn about their coffee beans
6. Find nutrition information
7. Build your own perfect drink
8. Share location or favorite drink through Facebook and Twitter
9. Search for a job at Starbucks

Yes, the app is robust (pun intended). However, I suspect there is another angle. Starbucks wants to stay relevant and continue to engage its customers in new ways. They know their target audience and continue to find new ways of reaching them.  They are focused on smartphone owners, which it says make up a third of its customers.

Part of this marketing strategy is how Starbucks has embraced social media into their marketing programs. Whether you are in the trial or strategic stage, social media can be a valuable tool in converting leads to sales. Social media is about getting others to tell your story. What is your story?

Marketing Tip: The trick is to know your audience and to be relevant.

NewsFlash – Starbucks jumps into juice market
Starbucks is all about customer experience using innovative and wholesome products. Announced yesterday, Starbucks Coffee Company  acquired Evolution Fresh, Inc. Starbucks has been making the move to healthier products by expanding their menu items – they want to deliver nutritious, on-the-go options that consumers seek. With this acquisition, Starbucks plans to reinvent the $1.6 billion super-premium juice segment, its significant next step in entering the larger $50 billion Health and Wellness sector.

Leveraging Starbucks unique business model – retail footprint, CPG grocery distribution channels, digital breadth and in-depth customer engagement – Starbucks believes it can take a currently undifferentiated, commoditized product segment and introduce a unique, high-quality product that will redefine and grow the super-premium juice market.  By the way, Jamba Juice, founded in 1990, has over 700 locations worldwide and in 2010 saw $254.5 million in revenue.

“Our intent is to build a national Health and Wellness brand leveraging our scale, resources and premium product expertise. Bringing Evolution Fresh into the Starbucks family marks an important step forward in this pursuit,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks Chairman, President and CEO. “Over the last year-and-a-half we have looked comprehensively at possible opportunities and chose Evolution Fresh because it stood above anything else in terms of premium quality, nutrition and potential for growth.”

It’s no wonder that it dropped its Starbucks Coffee name from the logo. Now the brand can exercise its freedom to diversify.

First made by Denso Wave, a Japanese manufacturer of automatic data capture equipment, QR codes were created in 1994 to originally track car parts. Yes, car parts. However, this nifty way of compacting information is now being used on everything from concert tickets to scavenger hunts to tombstones.

What exactly is a QR code, you ask?  QR is short for Quick Response, it is a 2-D barcode that can be scanned by a smart phone’s camera and transfer information. Based on the type of code it is, it might direct the viewer to a website, make a phone call, deliver a vCard or more.

How do you use it? You need a smartphone and need to install a QR reader application.

How popular are they? Very! According to a JumpScan infographic on Mashable (and these stats are from eight months ago), QR code scanning increased 1200% from July to December 2010. Starbucks is even starting to use QR codes for payment.

How can you use it? Wine companies use it on their labels. A restaurant patron can scan the bottle and find out more about the wine, vineyard, and links on where to purchase it or have it delivered, all within a matter of minutes. Associations can use it to help with event promotions, as a means to provide more information onsite at events, or to help add new subscribers to an email signup. Other businesses can use it on their promotional material to support a campaign, guerilla marketing tactics, or to supplement retail space. The possibilities are endless and people are having fun scanning with this accessible technology.

8 Advantages of using QR codes:

1. It’s free to create and use – open sourced technology
2. Scans fast
3. Compact with a high error tolerance
4. Data can be ANYTHING
5. Hard-linked codes can connect to variable data
6. An intimate targeted experience
7. Already widely used in Asia – thus a capacity for global integration
8. Will encourage the adoption of mobile web content and design

Be seen as a leader in your industry. If you can integrate QR codes into your current IT and communications strategy, there is a large potential return, at a minimal investment.

InfuseFive loves helping people reach their business goals through innovative marketing strategies. If you’d like more information about how you can integrate QR codes into your program or would like to meet with Sandra to discuss ways you can inject some fresh ideas into your marketing plan contact us today:
Email: sandra@InfuseFive.com  Tel: 613.884.7714. www.InfuseFive.com .
And, why not follow Sandra at www.twitter.com/InfuseFive ?

First, conduct proper research and briefly summarize. Define your association’s historical data, the industry climate, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, challenges) analysis, competition for revenue (or volunteers, donors, etc…) and member perceptions, needs, and wants. Staff perceptions can also play an important role. Also, what is your unique selling feature? What is it about your organization that makes you different from others? This is the foundation for your marketing plan.

Second, based on this information determine the best ways to reach your audience. Determine timelines and budgets that fit your organizational landscape. All tactics and measures need to be in line with your corporate objectives, branding and image.

Third, get your staff engaged into the project.  Human Resources, Finances, and IT services need to be involved, too, as they can make or break progress. The plan is a living, breathing document. That is, it will change as your business climate changes. Your staff members are your ‘right-hand’ ambassadors. If they do not believe in the bones of your plan, chances are this attitude will, in some ways, get translated to your stakeholders.

Many times organizations have just enough staff to implement tactical activities. Short term successes may be achieved but it is investing in the proper marketing plan with step-by-step benchmarks that will lead to lasting effects.