Benefits of submitting your website to directories

Posted on February 18, 2012 by VMF

There are so many website directories on the Internet it can seem overwhelming to understand how or why you should list your business in a directory. Essentially a business directory acts as a catalogue of businesses in one convenient location and listing your business can provide in directories can result in a number of marketing/advertising benefits.  When determining which directories to submit your website to, it is useful to do a little research and try to find the directories most matched to your target audience (niche directories) or those with good organic search returns and therefore likely to help you reach first page ranking in the Search Engines.

 

Listed below are some of the benefits to be gained from submitting your site to a directory:

 

  1. Getting your website indexed.

Search Engines like Google and Yahoo sent out robots/crawlers/spiders that search the internet for new information and websites. Getting your link on an established website is a good way for the search engine’s to find your business and start indexing it and the pages within it.

  1. 2.     Directories offer one way links.

Inbound links to your site help to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and one way links are looked upon more favourably by the search engines than reciprocal links.

  1. 3.     The opportunity to add keywords to your link.

It is not easy getting links to your site especially links with your desired keywords. Directories can serve as the easiest medium to get a link to your site with the keywords that best help your SEO and search engine page ranking.

 

One of the biggest negatives with directories is that it can be time consuming and even costly to submit your website to the many directories available and you may not get the results you desire.

 

To improve your success rate with directories we recommend researching the available directories to find the ones that are most likely to deliver the results you are after. Here are some tips when trying to determine which directory is the best fit for your business:

 

  1. 1.     Look for niche directories whose target market is similar to yours. Niche directories are ideal in helping you build your brand and reputation within your desired market. Niche directories are also more likely to send higher quality leads through to your website.
  2. 2.     Look for directories that have a reason for the visitor to visit them and continue to visit them. Some directories provide only a directory where their functionality lies simply in providing a backlink and the subsequent SEO for your website. Other directories are more functional websites where they build up a loyal community and continue to improve their branding and reach within their target market. This is ideal as your listing is more likely to be seen, as more and more people are actively choosing to visit the site and look through its content, rather than stumbling upon it.
  3. 3.     Look for directories with a holistic approach. Look for directories that offer a number of ways to help your business achieve its marketing goals. While some will only offer listings with a backlink, others will promote their members/listers through their social mediums or offer other services such as a free sales advert or a review or competition as part of a member/lister benefit. This could provide your company with a much better exposure rate and a better ability to achieve greater results from your listing.
  4. 4.     Do a Google search on a few of your main keywords. Are there a number of listings popping up in the top 1-2 pages from a certain directory? (e.g. HotFrog) If so, this directory could help you to improve your page rank and search returns for your main keywords.

 

If you are still uncertain about which directories are the best, contact them and ask for a Media Kit or talk to their staff to determine if their business is the right fit for yours.

 

 

Written by Lorraine Salvi, director of Virtual Marketing Force (www.vmf.com.au) a marketing company specialising in business & marketing plans along with marketing assistance and brand communication. Lorraine has a Bachelor of Business Studies majoring in Marketing and Management from Monash University as well as a Diploma in Public Relations. She has experience in both Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B) marketing and has worked for both small local companies and large international conglomerates giving her an understanding of the abilities and limitations of each.

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New Year, New Focus

Posted on December 8, 2011 by VMF

As we welcome in a New Year many of us will be setting personal goals that we are aiming to achieve. We do this every year as it is a great time to re-focus and start anew with a clear vision of what we intend to achieve before the year starts running away from us again. So why not do the same with our business? The New Year presents the perfect opportunity to take advantage of a slightly quieter time to review your business, your goals and what you want to achieve for 2012. You can quickly and easily do a mini plan if you don’t have time for a major one. Here are the most important factors you should determine:

1.  What worked last year?

By reviewing what you did last year and determining what worked and what didn’t, you are quickly identifying what tactics to replicate this year and which ones not to waste your time, money or effort on.

  • Promotions. The first step in understanding how to grow your business lies in understanding what tactics worked and what didn’t work in the previous year. You can do this by analysing your sales throughout the year in conjunction with the promotions you ran to gain an idea of which ones worked or got a better result. Are there similarities between the promotions that worked or those that didn’t work? For the promotions that worked, jot them down into your marketing plan as promotions that you can replicate or offer again in the New Year (%off, BOGOF, trial units, etc)
  • Advertising. Did you have any stand out success or failures with any particular advertising methods? Which delivered a better result -online advertising, traditional media or a combination? Make sure to note what you have tried and how each one worked so that you learn from these and continually improve your efforts and the return on your budget spend.
  • Social Media. It is ideal to determine which social media options generate leads or traffic to your website and therefore should have time spent on them? We cannot invest all our time in doing everything so we need to use trial and error to determine which ones work for our business needs. As a guide with the two major networks, LinkedIn is traditionally better for B2B communication while Facebook is better for B2C communications.

2.  Who are you marketing to?

As our business grows many aspects of it change and our focus on who we want to reach can too. VMF recommends revisiting your target market to ensure that you are still marketing your business to the best audience. When determining your target market you should try to break the market down into smaller groups that have similar characteristics. Try to be fairly specific with this as market segmenting will help you identify how to attain a closer match between buyer’s preferences and your capabilities/products and it will also help you to compare your businesses strengths and weaknesses to those of key competitors.

An example of a good target market description looks at segmenting variables (age, gender, etc) and then also includes information about what drives them to purchase or what information are they looking for. For example: Mothers aged 25-45years old who work, suffer from time pressures and have the desire for increased confidence and time saving methods.

Having a clear understanding of who you are marketing your product/service to and what drives them will enable you to deliver tailored advertising messages more likely to deliver results.

3.  What are your goals?

Goals are important to business for many reasons. One of the key reasons we set goals is to understand what we want to achieve. Goals can help us to motivate ourselves as we are able to measure our progress and to celebrate success. They are also vital in helping you to create a direction for the business and in ascertaining whether particular strategies are working correctly or need to be tweaked.

When setting goals it is recommended to create SMART Goals. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Relevant and Timely. By setting smart goals you will be more likely to succeed and be more motivated. An example of a SMART goal is:

“I want to write a work book on “How to add 10 years to your life” that is at least 150 pages in length and get it completed by June 30th 2013. I will write at least 4 pages every weekday until I complete the book.”

4.  Create strategies to achieve your goals

Now you need to look at how you can achieve your goals. How can you reach and talk to your target market. What promotional methods are there? Which ones will work best for your target market? Online Advertising, Trade Shows, Magazine/Newspaper Advertising, Groupon specials? Perhaps your goal is to communicate with your Target Market and build loyalty so how best can you reach them? Online, through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or offline through sales representatives, meetings or flyers? Are you trying to improve sales? What do they respond to; % off, discount, buy one get one free offers? By understanding what you wish to achieve and by having a direct measure you can start identifying ways to achieve your goals. It is also here that you can create a promotional budget detailing what you are going to do and how much you are willing to allocate to marketing your business throughout the year.

5.  Monitor your progress

Lastly don’t forget to put in place methods to monitor your success. These will help you to identify changes that can be made to impact the results. If you’re not tracking your key performance indicators, poor performance, ineffective strategies and tactics can go unnoticed and by the time they are realised the business is heading in a different direction from your goals. Think about the metrics that you think are important to your business (website statistics, sales, ROI, market share, etc) and then how you can monitor them. It is also wise as this point to create base points against which you are going to monitor these factors to know if things have improved.

Join our 2012 Business Challenge – Keeping you on track:

We all know that it is hard in business to find the time to monitor your progress, so we want to help you. Join our 2012 Business Challenge and create 5 SMART Goals for your business to achieve in 2012 and email them through to helpme@vmf.com.au. The team at Virtual Marketing Force will review them, provide some suggestions (where possible) and contact you quarterly to see how you are progressing.

We welcome any questions you have on marketing and would be happy to have an obligation free discussion about your marketing needs and how VMF could help you.

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Preparing your online business for peak sale periods

Posted on December 8, 2011 by VMF

It was interesting to read a recent article by News.com.au on how differently retail stores and online stores get prepared for Christmas. Most traditional walk through retailers prepare for Christmas by hiring extra casuals to cope with the demand. Online retailers however have to think outside the box and prepare for a number of factors to ensure that they can cope with the increase in visitors and sales. So what should you, the online retailer, cover in your preparation for the forecasted increase of sales in peak sales periods like Christmas, New Year, EOFYS, Fathers Day & Mothers Day?

  1. Your bandwidth. What is the bandwidth that you hosting currently covers? Are you close to exceeding it currently? If so you should look to increase it for the peak periods.
  2. Delivery – Do you guarantee delivery? Where are you based? If you are looking to promote or offer a Special, make sure you get the dates correct so that you have the sales occurs within dates where you can easily make delivery in time for Christmas or the Peak Period. Do you have an option for the late shopper to get delivery on time? Perhaps they can check out with Express Delivery/Courier at a higher postage rate?
  3. Packing – are you prepared to go to the Post Office daily? If your sales significantly increase do you need help in packaging and/or gift wrapping presents, perhaps you need to hire some casual warehouse/packaging staff? It is likely that you will need to purchase increased amount of packaging supplies
  4. Updating your website – You are more likely to get a better result if you customise your website to promote your Sale and the peak period – in Christmas make the page look Christmassy and create a gift guide or stocking filler ideas. You will also need to have the ability to update your website to show Sold Out products straight away. Creating the customised look and ensuring that your site stays up to date will take time and you may need to organise with your IT department to have extra man hours available at these times.
  5. Customer Service Staff – do your customers like to talk to you over the phone? You should think about whether or not you will need extra customer service staff or offer longer hours of contact during these periods.
  6. Inventory – As with all sales or expected increases in sales, you will need to increase your inventory forecast. Ensure that you have forecasted an increased amount of inventory for the period and do not promote inventory that you have low stocks of.
  7. Advertising – Think of the options that you have to advertise your product/brand and/or sale in the peak periods. Do you need to increase your budget on your existing measures? Are their gift guides/special magazine coverage items that reach your target market that you can promote in? Creating specialised adverts which land on your Christmas ideas/Sale Page are ideal and you will need to organise these prior to the sales occurring and perhaps with the help of a graphics designer.
  8. Social Media – Social media is becoming more important as an advertising and selling medium for many online businesses and needs to be viewed almost as an extension of your own website. You will need to consider how you are going to update your profiles and answer increased questions. Who and how will you manage the extra man hours required for this?

As an online retailer you will need to ensure that you prepare for these issues within sales periods and that your team understands how important having everything run smoothly is for your business. IT needs to be on standby, Customer Service needs to be running on optimal and delivery cannot afford to be delayed. We wish you good luck in getting ready for your increased sales and hope that your business continues to grow. Contact us to discuss how we can assist your marketing needs.

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Without plans, businesses fail

Posted on September 17, 2011 by VMF

Many business owners will agree that profitability is a key indicator of business success and most measure their growth by tracking sales or market share improvements. Business owners are often on the look for new and improved ways to increase their business growth, yet many fail to see the link between long term business sustainability and business planning. For some, business planning is a tedious process that they do not have time for, others are unsure of what to do. This article we will help you to understand the key steps when undertaking the business planning process.

According to recent figures from Dunn and Bradstreet (August 2011), business failures have increased by 25% in the past twelve months. Tony Featherstone from the Sydney Morning Herald analysed the figures provided by an ASIC study (2005-2010) in relation to business failures and found that poor strategic management is the highest cause of business failure. It accounts for around 43 per cent of all external administrator reports and has remained constant over the past six years.

Strategic business planning is essential for businesses to grow and improve. It enables businesses to see upcoming trends and create pro-active strategies to gain the best results. The clear focus and direction that comes with a plan will help you understand who your key target market is and the message that you should use when selling your business/product/service to them.

To create an effective business plan you first need to identify or confirm the overall business strategy that you are pursuing. In general you will be following one of three generic strategies developed by Michael Porter in 1980 in his book “Competitive Strategy: Techniques for analysing Industries and Competitors”:

a. Cost Leadership – Here you sell at a low price with the aim to sell in high quantities to take advantage of manufacturing discounts.
b. Product Differentiation – This is where your product has higher perceived value to that of a competitor product. E.g. BWM & Mercedes both have a higher perceived value than a Holden or a Ford.
c. Market segmentation. – This is where you target your product specifically to a specialised market niche. E.g. Maternity Clothing – you target market is very specific – ladies who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant.

Once you have re-affirmed your strategy you need to do some external and internal analysis of the markets. With external analysis, a P.E.S.T.L.E. (Political. Economic. Social. Technological. Legal. Environmental) analysis is ideal to give you a good grasp on the market around you, the upcoming trends, opportunities and threats. A S.W.O.T. (Strengths. Weaknesses. Opportunities. Threats) analysis should then be carried out for the internal section. The S.W.O.T. analysis is a powerful tool due to its simplicity and effectiveness in helping to determine the critical issues to address and pursue. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal factors, while Opportunities and Threats are external and can be taken from your P.E.S.T.L.E. analysis. VMF also recommend that you include financial, competitive and channel/distribution factors within your analysis to gain the best picture of your market.

With the analysis completed you need to create your business goals. S.M.A.R.T. (Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Relevant. Timely) goals are recommended as vague goals will not drive success and can lead to employee dissatisfaction and incorrect business results which may lead your business astray. With your S.M.A.R.T. goals and your understanding of the market factors you now should determine the required factors for success. What resources (people, equipment, etc) do you need to fulfil your goals?

Following this you can start creating marketing strategies and tactics, including action plans for goal achievement along with how and when you are going to measure your progress for each factor (monthly, quarterly, etc).

The final and most important two steps are to implement the plan you have created and to monitor and continually evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies continuing to make minor adjustments along the way to improve their effectiveness in driving your business towards growth and your goal achievement.

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Business Planning Made Simple

Posted on September 6, 2011 by VMF

Most business owners believe that a business plan is important to their continued success; however it is often neglected as we concentrate on the daily tasks. VMF have launched their new 1 day Business Planning Workshop as a solution to this. We understand your time is precious which is why our workshops are designed not only to teach you about strategy but to go through and get you to complete the key tools so that you walk out having already done most of the work for your plan.   

 

It’s so easy to become absorbed by the day to day running of your business that you can loose sight of your original goals. Strategies can become redundant and tasks may not be working effectively and producing the desired results.

 

Business planning helps you to refocus and reconnect to your business vision, highlight problem areas and create plans to achieve your goals in the future. Business plans help ensure both you and your staff are driving in the same direction. The focus provided by a business plan will save you time and money as you’re not distracted by ‘dead-end’, ad-hoc projects or other ideas that seemed good at the time. In the end you’ll end up with specific, realistic and measurable results – that’s how you know what worked and what to replicate.

 

Key Deliverables of the VMF Business Plan Workshop

 

  • Understand the importance of strategy
  • Determine your total company strategy for pursuit
  • Become proactive with better market knowledge through a P.E.S.T.L.E. (Political.Economic.Social.Technological.Legal. Environmental.) Analysis
  • Identify Opportunities to pursue and Threats to minimise with a S.W.O.T. Analysis (Strengths.Weaknesses.Opportunities.Threats)
  • Understand Critical Success Factors to achieving your GOALS
  • Complete a gap analysis of where you are compared to where you want to be
  • Create goals that are Specific to your organisation, that are Measurable as well as Attainable and above all, are Relevant and Timely. Your S.M.A.R.T. Goals
  • Learn of tools to Measure your progress

 

No longer does planning for your business need to be boring or time consuming! These interactive, personalised, practical workshops are a great way to focus on your business growth and help you gain fresh perspective with the help of unbiased eyes. 

 

Spend 1 day planing for your business growth by booking into our Business Plan Workshop. Click here for upcoming workshop dates.

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Want a marketing plan in just one day?

Posted on September 6, 2011 by VMF

VMF have recently launched their new 1 day Marketing Plan workshop where you can get personalised coaching and build key elements of your marketing plan in just 1 day! Get focused and walk away with clear, measurable goals and strategies that you can start implementing straight away. This is not a passive workshop where we lecture you on what you should and shouldn’t do and you try to implement it 2 weeks later. This is an interactive workshop where we work with you to complete the key components of a marketing plan, so you walk out ready for action.

The 1 day workshops are each designed to give you personalised coaching and feedback specific to your company and we ensure this by limiting the number of attendees to 10 per workshop. Unlock new ideas and take advantage of our knowledge and marketing skills to build your plan.

Key Deliverables of the workshop

 Understand the importance of a Marketing Plan
 Determine your Target Market for targeted communication
 Undertake a Product Portfolio Analysis (which products should you invest in, which should you milk?)
 Identify Opportunities to pursue and Threats to minimise with a S.W.O.T. Analysis (Strengths,Weaknesses,Opportunities &Threats)
 Create goals that are Specific to your organisation. That are Measurable as well as Attainable and above all, are Relevant and Timely. Your S.M.A.R.T. Goals
 Develop Marketing Strategies
 Understand the relevant Tactics for achieving your goals
 Briefly explore methods to Measure your goals

These workshops are not only for start up businesses. Every business should review their marketing plan annually to ensure that they are on the right track and are focusing on tactics that providing the results desired. No longer does planning for your business need to be boring or time consuming! These interactive, personalised, practical workshops are a great way to focus on your business growth.
Most business owners believe that a business plan is important to their continued success, however it is often neglected as we concentrate on the daily tasks. We understand your time is precious which is why our 1 day workshops are designed not only to teach you about strategy but to go through and get you to complete the key tools so that you walk out having already done most of the work for your plan.

 

Take your company to the next level and book yourself into our Marketing Plan Workshop today. Click here to see upcoming workshop dates.

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A Business or Marketing Plan? Which one do you need?

Posted on August 16, 2011 by VMF

 

If you run a business and want to ensure the longevity and increased competitiveness of the business, I believe you should have a marketing or business plan.  So which one do you need? A business plan is ideal to steer your business in the right direction and to understand the bigger picture. It encompasses where you want to go, the resources required, environmental factors and more. A marketing plan on the other hand is designed to be more tactical. Who should you be talking to? How are you going to reach them? Which products should you focus on? The marketing strategies and tactics within this plan are the cogs, working to drive customers to your business wanting your product.

The form below lists the major deliverables from each of the plans. Read the deliverable and tick the column next to it if this is important to you. The last two column shows which plans generally cover these focus areas. After you have decided which deliverables are most important to you, see which plan fulfils your key requirements the best and you will know which is ideal for your business.

 

Plan Deliverable Required?  Business Plan Marketing Plan
I want to understand my overall competitive strategy (low cost, differentiated, focus)    X  
I want to understand the total resources required by my business.   X  
I want to understand the resources requirements by product segment/division.     X
I want to look at my products and understand which ones I should focus on.     X
I want to understand my target market   X X
I want to understand my competitive and market environment   X - in depth X - to a lesser degree
I want to understand my S.W.O.T (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats)   X X
I want to know what tactics will reach my target market     X
I want to understand the promotional budget recommended   X - total business level X - down to product division
I want to know where I am now and what the gap is to where I want to be (gap analysis)   X  
I want to create S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) goals   X X

The plan that suits my business needs best is a ____________________________

Generally in the larger companies each division will undertake a marketing plan for its products. From these marketing plans, the key elements in terms of resources required and financial targets are then rolled up into the higher level business plan so that the business plan encompasses all the requirements and the total company targets.

The size, structure and prior planning process of your company will affect the plan that is required and whilst the first plan may be very full on and in-depth, future plans are much easier to create due to the greater market knowledge and understanding and already having much of the information. You are also able to quickly discard certain tactics based on prior knowledge of their effectiveness.  If you are still unsure of which plan is suitable for you, contact Virtual Marketing Force to talk about your needs.

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Strategic Planning is vital to long term business growth

Posted on August 16, 2011 by VMF

Strategic planning and business reviews are important for businesses to provide timely and accurate insights into customer desires, environmental trends and potential competitor actions so that your business can create methods and tactical plans to achieve long term business success. Strategy reviews should be undertaken annually at least, to ensure strategies remain focused and in line with current business goals and direction. These reviews also provide a good platform to track and measure business results enabling businesses to understand the effectiveness of tactics in creating the desired result.

Each business has different requirements of their strategic planning process. Some businesses will need to create a corporate strategy, so your business plan. Your business plan provides direction on the overall company strategy (low cost, focused, niche), what your goals are for the total business, what resources are required to achieve these goals and what competitive advantages you can utilise. Other businesses, especially those simply undertaking their annual review are most likely to need a marketing plan. The marketing plan divides the overall business into segments (generally based on product groups). It then goes through which segments to target, what to offer to each segment, what tactics should work in each segment, right down to what prices are recommended for the products.

Planning is critical to sustaining long term profitable growth as they plans you create help you identify market opportunities, prepare for, and where possible avoid or minimise market threats while understanding and capitalising on your strengths and minimising weaknesses. They help you understand what works and should be replicated, what doesn’t work and should be avoided ensuring that you are not spending time and effort on tactics that are ineffective. Planning also helps to minimise risks by making calculated decisions based on data. Most importantly they give you the ability to track your progress, measure (and celebrate) achievements and have a realistic vision of what you can expect to achieve in the future, helping to manage expectations and avoiding large disappointments.

It is common practice for businesses to review their business and/or marketing plans annually. Generally this is done 2-3 months prior to the end of a calendar year or financial year (depending upon company preference) to help the company prepare for the year ahead by reviewing the effectiveness of the strategies implemented throughout the year, to understand the goals for the following year and then what resources; people, financial, logistical, etc are required to fulfil the gap (gap analysis) of where you are now, to achieving the goals for the following year.

It is important not only to create a strategic plan, but to review it annually as Strategic Inertia is becoming a major issue in today’s markets with the increasing levels and rates of change. Monitoring these changes is vital as they could affect the productivity of your business, the competitiveness of your product (quality, pricing, time to market, etc) as well as the effective methods to reach your target market. Social Media Marketing (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc) is a fantastic example of how technology has transformed the marketing field in terms of ways to reach and communicate with your target market.

Current economic conditions have made the competitive environment harder for businesses and those that are unprepared, do not understand their USP (Unique Selling Point) or are ineffective at getting their message across will find it more and more difficult to survive. Strategic planning is critical in creating a long term competitive position; effectively reach your target market and focusing your energy and efforts in the best, most responsive direction.

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Why bloging is critical to growing traffic

Posted on August 2, 2011 by VMF

Bloging and content creation is something that everyone is recommending – write a blog, create articles, content is king etc….but WHY should you blog? What could bloging do for your business? Here are three key reasons why bloging is beneficial for businesses

 

1. Increase website traffic, rank and overall visitor stats.
Articles and blogs are a great tool to help increase your organic website ranking by providing more avenues for search engines to find ‘relevant’ topics where your business information is the correct answer for the searchers. Statistics have shown that:
• 55% more website visitors for companies that Blog
• 97% more inbound links for companies that blog
• 434% more indexed pages for companies that blog
(source: Hubspot)

Once you have spent the time creating the content and articles for your site, you can help increase the reach of your site by creating interesting useful articles that can then be added to other online article/resource websites such as Ezine.com

2. Establish credibility
Having a blog can help your potential customers understand you. It is an opportunity for you to showcase your knowledge and abilities and why potential clients should choose your company. For professional services this is extremely important. You can become a thought leader in the industry and often prospects will associate expertise or your ability based on the blog content. Potential clients could also be more likely to utilise your services if they have found your blog insightful/helpful. It is also a way to show that you are on top on new trends and leverage key market topics within your site.

3. Build Rapport
For consumer services this is an opportunity to provide a value add and a reason for someone to go with your brand over your competitors. Your blogs/stories can also be used to build rapport with customers by helping to build a brand story, a reason for them to follow you or to trust you. It can also be useful as a way to find out more about your customers. What drives them, how can you service them better?

 

So now that you understand the benefits of bloging, is it right for your business? Bloging may not be the best solution for all businesses and it may not be the right solution for you right now. So consider your ability, the reasons behind why you want to blog and then determine if it is the right strategy for you.

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Trade Show & Exhibition Etiquette

Posted on July 25, 2011 by VMF

When attending a trade show it is important that you ensure that all staff representing your company/brand receives clear guidelines on the behaviour and key company messages they need to follow and impart to the show visitors. Here are a few key guidelines I recommend:

 

 

DON’T

  • Eat/drink on the stand in front of any visitors
  • Chew gum at all.
  • Sit down (unless this makes sense with the stand) on the stand in front of customers
  • Read product information off the brochure – the visitors can do this in their own time

 

DO

  • Be enthused! No one is going to get excited about your product unless your staff are.
  • Know your stuff. Ensure staff have good product knowledge prior to he show as they will get asked all the hard questions.
  • Get staff to arrive 15-20minutes prior to the opening time.
  • Have a prep talk prior to the beginning of the show each day in which you reinforce key communications points and tell new staff to the stand what they can expect.
  • Encourage staff to help each other and to ask someone else if they don’t know the answer.

 

Trade Shows can be a powerful marketing tool so it is worthwhile that you spend some time and effort to ensure you are achieving your desired goals.

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