Marshall Yard:

Thank you Brad Trnasvsky of Sales Management 2.0 for hosting this weeks carnival

Several of the pieces that were included I have to strongly agree with.   Jim Logan of Accelerate Business Group, LLC   discusses Customer Loyalty.

With the following statement:

 ”I believe the foundation of customer loyalty is trust, predictability, and dependable quality”

Adding to those, I believe with innovation, efficicency, growth & quality, customer loyalty can become the solid foundation of any business plan. 

If you are planning on a business venture there is some smart advice about the marketing scheme of your business name that can be found over at Yes to Me.  I enjoyed this article because of the fact that we are in an “instant” society, with everything right in front of us for quick action. 

This made alot of sense in planning and strategy for marketing.  The best laid out plans seem to have the largest impact when it comes to exhibiting, we feel the time line for a successful exhibit as well should be well thought out so this article struck a cord with me. 

I have to agree with the post from Changeologists as well, being ready and being prepared for change.  That falls into my growth part of a business plan, if you have ever been in a company that is stagnent, you will agree with this article as well.  Change is inevitable, the only constant in life.  Being able to hurdle over several of the obstacles to expand, is a business challenge, and does need to have attention to detail. 

Thanks to Small Business Essentials for hosting this weeks Carnival of the Captitalists, with some interesting information on Word of Mouth Marketing , I agree with this article and I do think it is a necessity in any market, I also have to say it is not easy and it is time consuming. 

If a customer is happy and satisfied, there is no better advertisement, agreeing with the following statement from Word of Mouth Marketing,  I also feel that this is relevant to  social media and blogging:

The problem with word of mouth marketing is the breadth of buzz needed in order to see an increase in business–and the passive nature of the method itself. 

Blogging does not have to be passive, but blogging to drive business to your website is an on going process, it takes time and it takes readers to make it a success.  Offering your readers something to remember you by and something that they will begin to rely on you for.  But getting the word out can be a challenge.

PR Marketing Trends is another article that caught my attention, we don’t want to admit it, but things could slow down economically and often times, it is the marketing department that suffers.  I really liked the simplified tips that were written at Business and Blogging - simple, direct and to the point.

As the busiest season is just upon us, there are many tips and ideas for your upcoming trade show success.

When you start to plan for your upcoming exhibit, finding a marketing partner that will consider your message is the beginning steps of a successful outcome.  By knowing what it is you are trying to accomplish will make it much easier for the exhibit house to understand the avenues in which to take you; to get you across that finish line with the first place ribbon.

Time is always of the essence when it comes to adding value to your marketing strategy and plans for success.  We all know that there are last minute opportunites that come up and sometimes we may not know that we will be at a particular show until the it presents itself.

Establishing a time line for an exhibit whether it is a , 10’ x 10’s trade show booth or 10’ x 20’ trade show booth, should be approximately eight weeks before the trade show event opens.   If you are planning on larger exhibits the time line should increase slightly.  The last thing you want is to get strapped with rush fee’s for deliveries – which are staggering with the price of transportation and gas.  

Printing time increases as well for graphic banners and turnaround times can become more delayed and leave little time for last minute changes.  With custom trade show display rentals, you have many more options and a lot more flexibility. 

The benefits of trade shows:

Maintaining relationships

Transmitting messages to key accounts

Remedying service problems

Stimulating add on sales

Determine needs

Transmitting messages and

Committing prospects to a callback or sale

Plan early!

Plan smart!

By: Susie Kleiner 

I recently pulled up Make your Business Stand Out  and I found some profound statements written.  Brand Awareness continues to be at the fore-front of many marketers minds as it should be in the competative arena for any business.  Award winning trade booth design has always been the approach that has worked in our industry.

Being Different as stated in the article written by Nikole Gibbs in the marketing section caught my attention, because if you leave an impression and give your potential clients, something different, they will not only become repeat clients, but they will become loyal clients. 

When you give your clients solutions they will remember the product and service that you have provided.  3D marketing can speak to an turn your company into a trade show superhero.    

One of our clients was questioned, in a pre-show survey, and stated they thought that just 26 percent of attendees considered the company a market leader. But after the CEO was in the booth at the exhibition talking about the industry, and the research and development staffers were talking about new products during the show, 96 percent of those surveyed post-event perceived the company as a market leader.

Rule number one in any marketing plan should be questioning your clients and gathering feedback from potential and current clients.  People in general love to hear themselves speak, and they also love to hear that their opinion is wanted.  Without information, and in the information age, if you don’t..shame on you. 

If for a moment you forget that on the other end of the phone, email, conference call or contract is a human being, you could have lost a potential project.   27 Exhibiting Do’s and Dont’s by Susan Friedmann has some very valid points, and I enjoyed #10-Don’t” “throw up” on attendee’s, it made me laugh, but it validates my point, ask them questions, let them talk.  They are going to be the one’s using your product or services.  Do not tell them constantly what you can do for them, let them tell you what they need done, and collectively come up with a solutions.

Designing exhibits for upcoming trade shows, can be a challenging task, listening to our clients, and understanding what they are trying to convey in their industry can only be learned by hearing what the client has to say.  

I have been thrust into the portal of my cubicle which is now a nice private little suite, thinking and learning different areas of marketing.   In the past few months, I have learned about blogging, social media, digg, bloggingzoom and just recently Blog Engage, this is similar to the other sites, but I for one have found it easy to use, and to understand. 

Within a short time after I engaged, I got comment back on one of my posts from the master engager! Thank you too for that.   I write here about the smart marketing for trade shows and trade show exhibits, trying to give clients that are searching an inside look with a personal touch about the people at Catalyst Exhibits.   Blog Engage has an easy feel to it, I have seen some of the faces and names throughout some of the forums and other sites. 

I look at myself as a novice blogger, learning, and I truly didn’t realize I had the writing skills in me, but it has been a fun process, and thanks to good folks like major engager Brian at Blog Engage, I have another tool that will help me get my name and my blog out there.  The more I read, the more I learn, what a great community out there in the blog world!

I ran across the Ten Trade Show Exhibit Best Practices on About.com - I agree with the many of the points that Darrell Zahorksy points out in this line-up. Stressing in a few of the articles I have written I firmly belive that the “create a buzz” that he speaks of is one that should be at the top of this list. By spending time informing potential clients of your appearance at an upcoming trade show helps them plan accordingly.

Also pointed out in the article is training your trade show team, trade show floors can be like downtown Chicago on Christmas Eve at Macy’s..yes, Macy’s, no more Marshall Fields. The aisles of the convention center are often times packed with prospective clients, not only with buying power but alot of heavy hitters and decision makers. If you don’t educate your booth team and give them the proper mental equipment for proper boothmanship the outcome can be detrimental in a final decision for a prospective client.

Susan Ward says to plan your exhibit in terms of your audience, another statement that I highly agree with in terms of amazing trade show displays and results there from. In order to draw in your potential clients, you must understand what it is they are looking for, and why it is they are attending.

Steve Woodruff from Small Business Branding wrote: Above all differentiate, you are competing for limited time and memory. That simple statement of eleven words gives you a base to build upon when you are entering the ever growing industry of trade show marketing.