Month: July 2013

Is your company making the most of the opportunities live shows and exhibitions offer? Exhibition marketing gives you the chance to approach new clients, increase brand awareness and cultivate business relationships – so why aren’t you making the most of it? The shows are a chance to hand out promotional products and branded merchandise and make more of an impact before your next big corporate event, so should be crucial dates in your calendar. If you’re keen to attend an event in the near future but you’re unsure of how to approach it, you needn’t worry; Stay Sourced promotional idea specialists have compiled this best practice guide to help you get the most from exhibition marketing this year… 

Scout motto: Be prepared

Preparation is key when it comes to live shows and it can take quite some time, as there’s a lot to consider. With human resources needed to organise the logistics of setting up an exhibition stand and putting together the perfect team – not to mention accumulating the merchandise, the biggest mistake you could make would to be leave it all until the last minute. If you act fast and give yourself enough time to plan ahead, you’ll have an increased chance of reaching your marketing goals this year with quality products. 

Where’s the ROI?

In order to be able to give yourself a reasonable budget, you must first have a clear objective. This will help you to plan your marketing activities and be able to put them into action cost effectively. You also need to determine what you want to achieve while you’re there, whether it be to simply raise brand awareness or to win more clients. This will help you to effectively plan your promotional giveaways. Knowing your final goal will help you to assign how much value it will return, which will help you to set how much investment will be required. 

Sing from the same hymn-sheet

Exhibition marketing is not just about handing out giveaways and branded items, it is a chance to present to potential customers and clients a professional, legitimate and friendly team. Appearances are very important, so investing in branded clothing such as polo shirts and promotional jackets available from Stay Sourced bearing your company logo that match your exhibition stand design and any promotional material will ensure people will recognise who you are and what you do at a glance. 

Stand out for the right reasons

If your company boasts a dedicated environmental policy as one of its key selling points, choosing an eco-product is likely to make people smile. On the other hand, passing out countless ill-designed flyers that are only likely to make it as far as the bin may make them scratch their heads and question whether that policy is just there to make you think more of them. Exhibitions are crowded spaces, so choosing products that people are more likely to pick up will help you to be remembered well into the future. 

Exhibition marketing does not have to be over complicated, in many ways it all boils down to good old fashioned politeness. Having an attractive exhibition is one thing, but having approachable people around them is priceless. If you create a comfortable environment this will put people at ease and allow them to take in the message you are trying to convey. It is also important not to have too many people as this would be over crowded. Less is sometimes more, so always keep this in mind when planning your exhibition and the staff that will be representing. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail, planning is the absolute key to successful exhibition marketing.       

Consideration was provided for the editing and publising of this article.

Interviews can be a great way to understand and share the expertise of authority figures within your industry. To your readers, you give them access to the knowledge and know-how of veterans that have plenty to share which can be used in their efforts. As a site owner, you too gain a benefit because it helps build a working relationship with the individuals and, in many ways, allow you to create a sense of authority within your niche because of the association with said person.

Step 1: Choose the right service

There are many, many services at your disposal if you’re conducting interviews. Programs such as Skype can be a great starting point. Google+ hangouts, too, are a great alternative. If you’re trying to do a group interview and need to make an international conference call then you may want to seek professional hardware that can handle the load.

The best service is the one that works for your purpose.

Make sure it can handle the call and that you’re able to record the conversation.

But, before you can begin, make sure every individual in the interview knows that their voice may be used within your business which may have products, services, or offers. Putting this information on the table, figuratively, will prevent any hassle and let everyone know what’s to happen.

Step 2: Identify the key players

Spend the next day weeding through your list of contacts, top ranking websites for your industry, known authorities, published authors, and anyone you feel would be an ideal candidate for an interview. The goal, here, is to go after the ‘big guns’; they’re the ones that command a huge audience (you’ll want to get in front of these individuals).

Then do the following:

·  Begin lurking on their website and keep track of their projects and insights

·  Slowly integrate yourself into their community by joining conversations & providing feedback

·  Send over an email (or call them) with your idea for an interview

Yes, this takes just three steps but each is vital.

The first two, joining the community, will allow you to understand the individual so you can make an accurate guess as how to approach them. The latter is simply getting in touch. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to find many individuals completely open to the idea of an interview because they’re easy to conduct, quick to produce, and can quickly grow their brand because it extends their reach.

Step 3: Ask the hard-hitting questions

Now is the time to ask the hard-hitting, difficult questions (depending on your interview-type, of course).

Traditionally, you’ll see many interviewers dodge a lot of the tough questions because they have a fear they may anger the interviewee but the problem, with this, is that you end up getting the same interview they’ve already done because it often involves the same questions.

Instead, let go of the ego and status and begin asking the questions you want to hear. Better yet, let your community know you’ll be holding an interview and have them submit the hard questions. The point is to get the most out of the interview which is often buried beneath the fluff.

Step 4: Edit and package the recording

Once the interview part is said and done it’s time to move onto editing.

Editing, contrary to your gut reaction, is actually quite easy using tools like Audacity (free) or premium programs like Adobe Audition. Whatever your choice it just comes down to cutting off the pauses in the front and back of the recording; you may also want to remove certain sections if the conversation goes off the rails.

To add some extra “oompf” you can purchase stock audio and create an introduction for the recording which will add a layer of branding (which is always helpful for your projects and efforts).

Export the piece in a format such as .MP3 and you’ll now be ready to begin sharing it!

Step 5: Publish and share to your network

Lastly, it’s time to push the interview live to your community (and the rest of the Web).

Some of the actions you may want to take include:

·  Writing a blog post with the interview (along with show notes and a transcript)

·  Reworking the audio into a video format for sites like YouTube or Vimeo

·  Taking the best quotes and information and sharing them through a slideshow on SlideShare

·  Updating all of your social media accounts with the new recording

·  Contacting your close network to encourage the initial sharing

There are many different platforms to share your interview and plenty of options to change the format and media so take full advantage of these options if you wish to have it distributed as far as you can.

Bonus: Do a follow up

Go back and thank the individual, see if they have anything else to add, and leave a passing note before you write off the interview and put it into the archives. The goal is not just to have some content to publish but to build a relationship with this individual which may sprout into a profitable opportunity whether it’s working with them, directly, or simply gaining advice and feedback that will allow your projects to flourish.

As you can see – doing interviews isn’t entirely difficult. All you need to do is make the leap to audio and you’ll unlock an entire world of fresh opportunity to reach your audience (and the people that are movers and shakers in the industry).

Article contributed by Jenna Smith