There are numerous options to market and promote your products and services. Some of your options include:
telemarketing, classified and display ads, signs, door-to-door, newspapers, magazines, internet, brochures, phone books, television, radio, bill boards, direct mail, flyers, post cards and many more.
Participating in Trade Shows, Expos, Festivals, Seminars, Exhibitions, Conventions, Conferences, Fairs and Swap Meets is one of the best ways to expose your business. You can call it whatever you want. Any event that allows you to have the opportunity to display and showcase your products and services face-to-face with potential new customers in your target market gives you numerous benefits and advantages.
Instead of chasing down cold leads, you now have a large number of people in your target market coming up to you. You are not chasing behind them. You will be able to start building friendly relationships with people when they come up to you to ask questions, get your marketing literature, exchange business cards, watch you demonstrate your items and/or let them try samples.
As you look at this list, you will see that most of these options involve one form or the other of cold calling. Eventually you may be able to close a deal from cold leads, but it is much easier to follow up on warm and hot leads from the people you either met at an Expo or people you were referred to by somebody you talked to at the event.
You have to find the right kind of Trade Show or Expo for your business that has a large enough attendance record so you are not wasting your time, money or effort. There should be at least a few thousand attendees. You must confirm that the people expected to attend are in your target market.
These people made an effort to come to the event. Most charge some type of an entrance or admission fee and usually a parking fee. So you have people who willingly and voluntarily paid good money to attend. In many cases they gave up their entire day, or their evening, or morning or possibly their whole weekend because they want to be there.
People walk in the door already very interested in your products and services. This is your very rare chance to be face-to-face with the decision makers. They could be the president, vice-president, CEO, executives of a corporation, or it could be the two spouses in a family.
You will also get high quality referrals. If you meet some people at your booth in the expo that have no need for your products or services, they will still refer you to their friends, relatives and business associates who they think would be interested. They might even recommend you. It is more likely that these people will be willing to do business with your company through a friend's referral than you trying to cold call them.
When you give attendees your marketing materials at an Expo, there is a better chance that they will actually read it, or at least spend some time looking it over, unlike them getting junk mail and standing over the trash can immediately throwing it away.
Every company should have some type of an idea what their competition is doing and the prices they are charging for the same or similar products and services being offered. It is a good way for you to check out your competition and other exhibitors. Take advantage of the networking opportunity. There may be a way for you and other exhibitors to mutually benefit like exchanging links on each others websites.
Participating in an Expo is fun and a relaxing atmosphere. The high energy generated on the Exhibit Floor among the other exhibitor and the attendees contributes to your motivation and success. |
