Moving Your Small Business Forward: Exhibitions and Trade Fairs

If you own a small business and you think it’s time start boosting your sales as well as your profit margins, then look no further than business exhibitions. In today’s competitive market, it’s vital that you make the effort to get your brand name out there. This guide will tell you exactly how business exhibitions can transform your small business and its future, helping you move towards those profits and sales you always dreamed about.

Of course before you read on it’s important you know there are a few setbacks to exhibitions, all of which are expenses based.

Trade fair
Image by US Mission Canada / Flickr

The first of these is the cost of entering your stand into the exhibition, which is generally a fair amount (however it should come within your marketing budget). Secondly, you may be charged for overheads such as electricity, Internet and phone lines, as well as expenses like shipping products and display material to the convention centre. Don’t let these costs intimidate you though, exhibitions are great for small businesses, and here’s why:

Sample and promote a new product/service

If you’re entering a new product or service onto the market, sampling is of a high priority. Finding out what people think about it, what’s good? What’s bad? How can it be improved? Whilst you are asking people to sample your products, you are also marketing your product and your business which is why it is so important to make a good first impression.

Discover new leads

Business is all about communication, and communication can come through many different mediums. With exhibitions you have the opportunity to communicate with many new potential customers/clients, and creating these contacts for your company is vital. This is true especially when searching for new customers, as well as to aid growth and expansion. It is also important to replace those customers that over time have drifted away from your business, helping you to keep a strong customer base.

Chase after your new leads

It’s all well and good talking to people and taking business cards at these exhibitions, but what’s more important is the following up process. In this sense, exhibitions will provide you with an assist towards your main goal of making long-term contacts. With these new relations you can build further links “it’s not about what you know, it’s about who you know”. But you MUST follow up; don’t leave those business cards gathering dust. You need to know from these new leads which ones are likely to buy soon, and which ones may buy in the future. Qualify them, and follow up, tailoring your approach for each one accordingly.

Meet powerful people

Sometimes everyone needs a little dose of inspiration and incentive; try achieving this by talking to influential figures at exhibitions. This will help you to gain some perspective and insight towards your outlook – a few words of wisdom can go a long way. So push aside any feelings of nervousness, feel confident and put the success of your future first! Plus you never know when you might need some powerful contacts in your industry…

Receive media coverage

The media has become such a prolific part of today’s society that most media attention you can get is (normally) good marketing. With the current rise in just Social Media alone, you will find plenty of opportunities to receive media coverage for your small business at numerous commerce exhibitions. But remember, you need to contribute to this – use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on to publicise your presence at an exhibition. And have a press kit handy, in case you get a chance to speak to any journalists.

Practice makes perfect

As your company grows, you as a boss will need to do a fair bit of public speaking to important people such as investors or new clientele. Whilst you have the opportunity to do so, carry out some pitches at exhibitions to build your poise and self-belief in talking to powerful people. It’s a much smaller audience, but they’ve most likely come over to your stand because they’re interested in what you do, so it’s an excellent opportunity to practise. Another thing to remember is you may do some paid speaking in the near future, so get some free training in early whilst the chance is on the table!

About the Author: Astro Exhibitions are a firm of exhibition stand designers based just outside Manchester. They have built custom exhibition display stands for companies from all round the world for events across Europe.

 

How to Carry Out Market Research

Effective market research can help you to figure out whether there is demand for your product or service, and can also help you to identify the right target demographics (which can sometimes be different to what you originally expect), as well as which stores to place them in, and how to market the product.  Whether you’re doing pharma market research or trying to promote a TV show, asking the right questions and interpreting the data you get back correctly is the key to success:

Finding a Research Partner

If you’re launching a new business on a shoestring, then you’ll probably end up doing most of your market research by yourself.  However, once you’re fully up and running, you may find that you don’t have the time or resources to do market research efficiently in-house.  Finding a market research specialist that works within your vertical is a good idea.

There are some general market research companies out there, and they can work if you just want help running surveys or focus groups, however for specialist market knowledge, hiring a pharma market research company or an industry expert is a  better choice. If it’s secondary research you’re interested in, rather than information about attitudes to one of your existing products, then they may already have the data prepared and up for sale.

Researching Yourself – Mystery Shopping

Following market trends is important, but if you’re convinced that you’ve found a gap in the market, but you’re not seeing the demand you expected, then maybe you’re looking in the wrong direction.  Don’t focus all of your research efforts on “the industry”.  It’s always a good idea to spend a little time looking at what your own company is doing.  Mystery shopping, sample orders, and quality testing are just as important as surveys and infographics.

Don’t make the mistake of focusing on a list of things that you think consumers want when you’re doing quality checks and mystery shopping.  Some companies waste resources sending mystery shoppers to fill out a checklist of items such as “Were you asked about a loyalty card? Did you get offered insurance?”, but that endless list of questions is precisely why the store is empty.  Let the shoppers go in with an open mind, and then ask them what they liked and disliked about the experiece.

Competitors and Colleagues

It’s all too easy to get so absorbed in your way of doing things that you let the rest of the market pass you by.  One way to prevent this is to hire someone to mystery shop your competitors, and take notes on what they’re doing.  In addition to shopping with your immediate competitors, why not visit some companies that trade within your niche, but aren’t direct competitors – either because they’re trading in a different geographic area, or aiming at a different segment of the market.  Keep an open mind to the things they’re doing, and look at how you can use their ideas within your niche.

You might be surprised at how open other companies are to answering questions and offering help – as long as you’re willing to reciprocate.

This guest post was brought to you by James Harper on behalf of Hall and Partners, specialists in innovating pharma market research. Find out more by following them on Twitter.

Increase your Brand Awareness with Banner Advertising

Banner advertising is one of the most effective marketing strategies you can use to promote your business, event or product. Banner advertising has a number of advantages over more common forms of advertisement, and has become quite popular as a result.

The first advantage of banner advertising is its cost, as it is relatively inexpensive compared to the many other types of available advertising. Banners are able to be used until they are worn out, and you only have to pay for one banner at a time, giving you a value for money advertising system. Other forms of print advertising such as magazines and newspapers require you to pay for each time you want to advertise in every different issue. Television advertising holds the same problem.

Another advantage of banner advertising is its high visibility. Banners come in a variety of different shapes and sizes, including amongst others, tear drop banners and flag banners. This allows you to cater for the type of space or area in which you wish to advertise. Due to their large size, banners are instantly eye catching, especially when designed with large words and bright colours in order to make people take notice. Customised banners such as the tear drop and flag banner, allow you to place them in areas with high traffic, whether that be vehicle or pedestrian in nature. Banners are likely to be seen by thousands of people every day in some situations, and if they are effectively designed, they will give your message a lot of attention and greatly increase your brand awareness to the general public.

Banners are also able to be easily set up and transported. This allows you to take your advertising with you to a number of different areas and events to help spread your message in a wider area. Banners are easily portable in carry bags, and can be quickly set up and secured via the use of accessories such as pegs, stands and weights. This allows you to effectively and efficiently advertise in and move between multiple areas, using a variety of different banners available including tear drop banners, flag banners, sail banners, pop up banners and many more.

Banners have been proven to be an effective marketing tool in a variety of different situations. Whilst not everyone watches television, or reads newspapers and magazines, they will leave the house to travel to work shop or socialise, which gives indoor and outdoor banner advertising a great advantage over other more conventional advertising methods.

About the Author: Joseph Caley is a proficient blogger and reader always on the lookout for information on different ways of marketing and advertising, helps to add insight to the designers creating Tear Drop Banners, Advertising Banners and Banner Stands.

Giving Cards to Your Visitors and Customers to Get More Business

Using cards is a fantastic way to get repeat customers and to generate leads and gives your business a far more professional seeming edge as well. Despite this, handing out promotional cards is something that many companies don’t consider and is generally one of the lesser methods used for marketing. Here we will look at it in detail, and at why it is such an effective form of promotion.

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What Are Promotional Cards?

Essentially promotional cards are cards that you can give to a customer or a lead in order to try and increase their interest in your business or to get them to come back. The card can literally be a flier or an advertisement, or it can offer someone money off or a special deal. Lastly it might be an ‘ID Card’, a ‘Loyalty Card’ or a card that they can buy as a gift card for someone else.

Benefits

There are many benefits to this. First of all, even if your card is simply just a promotional one for your business with no special deal or membership attached, this is still a highly effective way to market. This is because it gives your client something to remember your company buy that they are more likely to keep on them. If you give someone a flier, then this will mean that they probably simply fold it up and put it in their back pocket in order for it to ultimately be ruined in the washing machine. Likewise you might give someone a promotional flier and find they quickly bin it.

However a card is of course made from a much more high quality and sturdy piece of material. This then means that someone who has been given it is much less likely to dispose of it and far more likely to keep it permanently. Chances are with a card that they will slip it in their wallet which will mean that they see it each time they go to get out money and which will mean it avoids the bin as an eventual destination.

...and a ProCare card! Because the card is high quality too, that then means that the promotional card will be seen as a high quality product – which in turn will mean that the association with your business becomes a favourable one. They will look at your card and they will think – this is a high quality business. And of course that’s what you want them to think.

Furthermore, if you then include a special deal or an offer on this card, then that means that they will likely have it to hand when they first think about using your business and this in turn means that it will actually encourage them to use your company – as of course is the intention in the first place.

Meanwhile these cards are also able to be given to other people and that will mean that someone can actually actively promote your business for you. A gift card or a discount card is a nice gift to give to someone (which a flier is not) and so it’s a perfect way for you to attract more business to your site/shop/restaurant.

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And finally if the card has an ID element, such as the person’s name or a picture (if you have facilities for your own card printing) then this will enable you to make the person feel ‘involved’ in your business and even almost committed to using your services.

This guest post was written by Brian. He recently got his company to use membership cards for their customers and needless to say the loyalty points got customers coming back for more.

The Different Types of Advertising Mediums

Advertising is the promotion of a business service, product or event carried out primarily to increase brand awareness, improve sales or raise awareness about certain products and events. Advertising is an essential part of any company or business, and is usually allotted considerable support, resources, strategy and funding. There are many different advertising mediums, all of which serve a variety of different purposes in different locations.

Advertising is mainly centred around achieving the following aims and goals for the majority of businesses:

  • Increasing the buzz-value of the brand or the company.
  • Increasing the sales of the product/service.
  • Introduction of a new product, service or event.
  • Creating and maintaining a brand identity or brand image.
  • Communicating a change in the existing product line.

The main forms of advertising used to achieve these are print, broadcast and outdoor advertising.

outdoor advertising

Print Advertising  (Magazines, Brochures, Newspapers, Fliers)

Print media advertising has always been one of the most popular advertising options, mainly due to its audience reaching capability and proven history. Newspapers and magazines sell advertising spaces in various parts of the publication to businesses who wish to promote products, events or make announcements. The cost of print media advertising can vary considerably depending on the location of the advertisement in the publication (front page, above or below the fold, full page/half page etc), the quality of the materials that wish to be used (glossy ad or plain paper and colours) and the amount of times the advertisement is to be featured over time.

Broadcast Advertising (Internet, Radio, Television)

Broadcast advertising has risen in popularity with the expansion and improvement of audio/visual technology over the decades. Television and radio advertising has been popular since it was first available, and the internet is now one of the most used forms of advertising. Broadcast advertising can rely on eye catching images, videos and audio to gain attention and popularity, but is often the most expensive form of advertising available.

Outdoor Advertising (Flags, Banners, Building/Fence Wraps, Billboards, Events)

Perhaps one of the most effective and cheapest options, outdoor advertising is a popular and reliable form of advertising. Outdoor advertising has the advantage of being constantly on display, allowing for greater reach to a wider audience who might pass its location every day. Outdoor advertising can be used in a variety of different ways to raise brand awareness, promote new services and products, or provide information about upcoming or current events. Outdoor advertising utilises creative and eye catching designs of various logos, colours, images and sizes to gain attention.

Outdoor advertising can be tailored to specific purposes, and be used over a wide area to promote a business to a greater audience of potential customers. Particular types of outdoor advertising include event signage, building wraps, construction signage, fence wraps, vehicle signage, banners and flags. Outdoor advertising is also effectively used to promote events that are up and coming, or provide information and attract attention to specific amenities and services during the event itself.

Advertising in these mediums is a great way to improve and expand your business, and each variety can provide different results to different audiences and locations.