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Business marketers have a lot of weapons in their arsenals but they often overlook some very important ones. So, let’s do a quick inventory.

Of course, you already have a company name, a positioning statement, logo, stationery, business cards and a website.
Right?

The next thing I suggest is an employee survey. Ask them about what’s happening where the company meets the customer.
Find out how employees feel about the company. A recent survey shows that employee attitudes have a huge impact upon a company’s bottom line. Motivated employees provide great service, and great service can separate you from your competitors.

Next, develop a customer retention program. It costs five times more to develop a new customer as it does to keep an old one. E-newsletters are an essential part of my customer retention program and should be a part of yours too.

Finally, here is a random list of other items that can be considered part of your marketing arsenal.

your reputation

advertising

consultations, demonstrations, seminars, samples

community involvement, cause marketing, philanthropy

media contacts, bylined articles, op-ed pieces

guest speaking program

great working environment

employee training & development program

networking, referrals

contests

customer surveys

special events

If your time for marketing related tasks is limited, take some advice from my marketing mentor: pick three things from above and do them right.

Harry Hoover is managing principal of Hoover ink PR, http://www.hoover-ink.com. He has 26 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Brent Dees Financial Planning, Duke Energy, Levolor, North Carolina Tourism, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX and Verbatim.

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If you are planning to exhibit at an upcoming exhibition or event, then there are many ways in which you can further promote your business and stand, in addition to having the stand at an exhibition. You can in effect, achieve far more than just having your stand present at an exhibition. Several ideas are discussed below.

Promote your presence at the exhibition
There is usually an official website designed for most exhibitions, at least for exhibitions which take place at most of the major venues, These websites also very often have a page dedicated to a list of exhibitors and sometimes the exhibitors name is linked to their own website. If exhibiting at an event, check that your company is listed and if possible, try to get your website name linked to your website

Promote your website at the exhibition
When at the exhibition itself, promote your website so that people will check your services and products in the future. You can use your business cards, literature or writing on the stand itself, to promote your business. The sales campaign need not end as the exhibition finishes. As people get home and hand their children the free balloons they were handed (with your logo and website address on) your website address might float around a persons home for days. Giving out free pens, with your website address written on the outside of the pen, is another inexpensive yet effective tool. The literature you hand out an event can also be used to get your website address out into the public domain.

Get listed on the venue websites
Many of the top exhibition venues sometimes have a dedicated page listing suppliers of exhibition stand equipment and services. The NEC International exhibition centre in Birmingham, UK’s, website for example, has an ‘Exhibition Suppliers Directory’ and the site has very high visitor numbers. Fees are sometimes charged to advertise on such a site, but this expense can be relatively low compared to other media and is thus worth considering.

Using your own website
You can also use your own website to promote and highlight your intention to exhibit at an event. By using your own website, you can communicate with potential customers to let them now of your presence at certain events. An even more effective and direct way to communicate with people is via E-newsletters. By having a simple database and an opt-in area on your website, you will then have the ability to target people directly.

Portable, pop-up, modular and custom-made exhibition stands

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Knowledge is power. This is the information age. Blah blah blah.
We have been brainwashed into thinking that we can buy our way into riches.
Well, nobody ever learned to ride a bike by reading an e-book!
Of course, we are hungry for information and are willing to pay for someone else’s research. The problem with this is that we become information consumers, unwilling to get up from our digital couches in order to exercise our brains.

If you come across an ad selling a special report, e-book or course, READ it carefully!

Make a list of all of the key phrases mentioned in the ad copy. Be sure to read the testimonials, as there are key phrases in many of them.
Identify the top three benefits being offered.
Now you have everything you need to go out and get the information yourself!

Using Google as a starting point, search for the key phrases and the benefits. You must be able to weed out the irrelevant results - if you can’t, then you probably don’t need to be purchasing the information!
The results can be classified into three broad categories: industry-specific, user-specific and vendor-specific. Tackle each category in that order.

Industry-Specific

Industry, in this context, simply means marketing segment. Some examples are Broadband, Web hosting, Auto-responders, Lead generators, Affiliate marketing, e-commerce, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Copywriting.
Browse the sites, and learn the terms. Make sure that you are not reading information from a vendor, because their views are probably biased toward their own products and services. The more you understand about the particular industry, the better you’ll be at determining what’s truth and what’s hype.

User-Specific

Every product and service that has a base of dedicated users has at least one corresponding users’ group. Try to find one that is independent of the vendor’s website. Although a vendor’s website may have an excellent support forum, you can’t be certain that the vendor isn’t censoring the content. Lurk in the forums - if you can, some forums require that you register first - and focus on the NEGATIVE comments. If you can get a feel for whether the criticisms are valid, then you’ll have a better idea of the value of the product or service. Pay attention to the responses to the criticisms. There may be clues that signal that the product or service may be more beneficial to experienced users. Beware of reading too much into the negativity, however. Many times, people just don’t understand how to use something. Rather than ask for help, they prefer to disparage a product or service in a public forum.

Vendor-Specific

As you review the results, count how many times you see ad copy for essentially the same information. How much value can you attach to information if its benefits rely on the exclusivity of access? (Think about stock market tips versus insider-trading!)

Summary

The value of products and services is not being questioned here. The only question is whether you should pay for the information RELATED to their purported value.

Generally, purveyors of information derive the most value from that information - by selling it to others!
Once you understand what is being offered, you can obtain this information free of charge. Simply ask any reputable vendor for it. If you’ve done your research, the vendor’s information should be sufficient for you to make an informed decision about their product or service.

Caveat

Here is paradox: what do you do when a vendor’s service is the sale of information (Lead generators, for example)? You have to step back and ask yourself, “Where does the vendor get this information?” If the information source is not readily accessible to you (for technological, legal or financial reasons), and you perceive the value of this information to be greater than its cost, then you should base your purchase on that perception. Otherwise, you may be better off “cutting out the middleman” and doing it yourself! That’s not always practical, but it’s an option only if you are informed.

Mitchell Allen is an advocate for cross-networking: synergistically linking multiple social networks in order to increase membership exposure.

He writes for fun and profit at WritingUp.com

He maintains The Vertical Blog Tunnel Network at the social network, Ryze.com.

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