In a perfect world, all tradeshow managers would have these skills – and more. But we know that a perfect world doesn’t exist, right? So if you have most of these you’ll probably do okay!
People (read: sales) skills. There’s a lot to be said for having the power to get along with people and being able to kindly persuade people to do things for you. In a chaotic tradeshow world, the one leadership skill that stands out above all others is the ability to ‘get along with others.’ Just like in kindergarten.
Social media skills. If you’re still wondering how to tweet or post to Facebook, you’re probably not right for the job. Beyond simple social media skills, are you able to shoot a Flip video and upload it within a few moments? Can you grab a photo of a client with your product and get it out on Facebook before they get on Facebook on their iPhone? Can you figure out how to promote special deals via Twitter, FB and YouTube before you head for the show? Do you know how to listen to the chatter on social media about your product, company and industry?
Number-crunching ability. Budgeting in today’s economy is more important than ever. Being able to determine a show’s budget based on last year’s numbers (or no comparable numbers at all), getting a realistic look at the show’s ROI and putting together a final show budgetary report and analysis for the CFO will go a long way to keeping you in your position.
Organization. There are so many moving parts in a tradeshow manager’s job that your organizational skills have to be top notch. Showing good time management skills, for instance, is a big plus.
Understanding your product and market. A familiarity with your company’s culture, products, competitors, clients and customers is a must to executing a great tradeshow experience.
Being flexible and resourceful. Things go wrong. In a tradeshow when things go wrong, you’re not only in a chaotic environment of a show floor, but you’re away from home and you’re under a time crunch. Not to mention the microscope of clients and management. If you can come up with rapid workable (not necessarily perfect) solutions under those conditions, you’re golden.
Jack of all trades. As a tradeshow marketer, you are called on to wear so many hats your head will spin. ‘Nuff said.
You don’t have to be a fan or even like Yoko Ono to learn from her.
And I say that because most people I know that have expressed an opinion about Yoko don’t have too many nice things to say about her.
“Yoko broke up the Beatles….”
“How can you stand her singing voice?”
“And that weird stuff she calls art…”
But I’ll come clean: I’ve liked Yoko and admired her art and music since the late 60s when my older brother started buying her albums. Yes, she put out weird music. Avant-garde. Different. But there was something in there that appealed to my young sensibilities.
And I never bought the story that Yoko broke up the Beatles. They would have broken up at about the same time anyway from what I can gather. They had matured to the point as people and musically where they all had to move on. It’s like getting out of college and getting on with your life. The crazy energy, the partying, the creative juices eventually all have to go in a different direction.
We looked at the marketing prowess and lessons learned from the Beatles awhile back on this blog, and thought it might be fun to look at what we can learn from Yoko Ono.
Yoko had early training as a classical musician, was from a well-to-do family that was reduced to begging on the streets during World War II, and went on i the early 60s to collaborate with avante-garde artists such as John Cage and Ornette Coleman.
She cuts a unique figure in the world of music and art. Her early films and performance art were simple, elegant and broke a lot of the rules. But they made a simple point. The famous story about John Lennon’s first meeting with Yoko went something like this: It was November 9, 1966 at Indica Gallery in London during a performance art installation by Ono. he had been enticed by the gallery’s co-owner, John Dunbar (ex-husband of singer Marianne Faithfull), who had told him about a “happening” that would be taking place there, featuring a Japanese woman from New York in a black bag. As John revealed to Playboy interviewer David Sheff, this sounded to him like something to do with sex: “Artsy-fartsy orgies. Great!”
After being introduced to “the millionaire Beatle,” the woman handed him a little card that said simply, “Breathe.” John, although puzzled, responded politely with a quick pant. Next, his eyes settled on a ladder leading up to a canvas suspended from the ceiling, with a spyglass hanging from it on the end of a chain. Climbing to the top of the ladder, he looked through the spyglass to read a word printed in tiny letters.
“You’re on this ladder — you feel like a fool, you could fall any minute — and you look through it and it just says ‘YES,’ ” he told David Sheff in 1980. “Well, all the so-called avant-garde art at the time, and everything that was supposedly interesting, was all negative; this smash-the-piano-with-a-hammer, break-the-sculpture, boring, negative crap. It was all anti-, anti-, anti-. Anti-art, anti-establishment. And just that ‘YES’ made me stay in a gallery full of apples and nails, instead of just walking out saying, ‘I’m not gonna buy any of this crap.'”
As a marketer, Yoko let her art do the talking. It either succeeded or failed on its merits. And it was often so unusual it generate enough comment to draw a crowd.
Once she and John became a couple, the two of them were able to use John’s star power: the Toronto Bed-in after their Gibralter wedding, where John recorded ‘Give Peace a Chance’; the ‘War is Over (if You Want it)’ poster and song campaign in 1972.
Among her many artworks of the past 30 years, Yoko flooded the city of Liverpool with banners, bags, stickers, postcards, flyers, posters and badges, with two images: one of a woman’s naked breast, the other of the same woman’s vulva. The piece, titled “My Mummy Was Beautiful”, was dedicated to Lennon’s mother, Julia, who had died when Lennon was a teenager.
On October 9, 2007 she officially lit the Imagine Peace Tower on Viðey Island in Iceland, dedicated to peace and to Lennon.
Her art and media have drawn worldwide attention. You could say it’s mainly because of her association with John Lennon, but her work is considered to be very good – and spare: as David Quantick wrote for Uncut: “Yoko Ono’s art came from an uncluttered place; nobody save possibly John Cage has ever used so much space, and whiteness, and silence in their work.”
‘Ms. Ono’s well-preserved air of naïveté — and the license it gives her to say things simply and primally — has been her artistic gift since the ’60s, first as a conceptual artist and then, with John Lennon’s impetus, as a rocker and songwriter.’ –
So what are the marketing lessons we can take away from examining Yoko’s life, art and music?
Don’t worry about what the press thinks. Think about your market instead.
Be true to yourself.
Simplicity and elegance lead the way.
Use the tools at your disposal to the best of your ability (using her celebrity to promote her favorite causes, for example).
It’s a marathon, not a sprint (still going strong at 77). Persevere.
Overcome adversity in whatever form. What other choice do you have?
I love productivity tools, and love sharing them with friends and colleagues. I got to thinking the other day that I’ve never actually compiled a list of those tools and posted it. So here ’tis: some are old friends, some are brand new tools. All of them help me do what I need to do with my online and offline world.
So…in no particular order or preference (all links open a new browser window)…
Online:
Freebinar.com: Do free webinars for unlimited audiences, follow-up with attendees and registrants. Download data from the webinars.
FedEx print online: Only had to use this a few times as I can usually print elsewhere, but on those occasions this service has knocked me out with how easy it is to use. Upload files, tell ’em what you want and when you want it, and go pick it up.
Photoshopsociety.org: I realize that my Photoshop skills are lacking – but this membership site has proven to have the goods with tons of tutorials, downloads, web and WordPress templates and more.
Bluehost website hosting: All my sites are hosted by BlueHost.com. Unlimited bandwidth, unlimited domains, thousands of e-mail addresses, one-click WordPress install and updates, and more bells and whistles that you can every use. All very easy. Great customer service when needed. And dirt cheap.
Aweber and Ratepoint e-mail marketing: I’ve used Constant Contact, which is a solid service. But they didn’t have a few items that AWeber did. I was pitched RatePoint one day and checked it out. I use it for my Tradeshowguyblog.com newsletter; I use AWeber for everything else (CommunicationSteroids.com, DigitalAudioWorld.com and others).
Eventbrite.com: Got a live or online event and want to track attendance, sell tickets, mine data? It’s all here. I’ve used it a couple of times and was very pleased. Looking forward to using it again.
Feedburner: If you have a blog, be sure to burn your feed with Feedburner. Tons of additional stats and tools with this free Google tool.
YouSendIt: Need to send a large file to someone that doesn’t have an FTP site? YouSentIt.com does it for free for most files.
WordPress: The best (in my humble opinion) blogging platform around. Tons of customization options.
Google Chrome: Chrome has taken over Firefox as my favorite web browser. It’s faster; the search-in-address-bar feature is easy, and there are more and more themes, plug-ins and extensions available all the time.
Carbonite back-up plus iPhone app to access any document at home or work from anywhere. My favorite new cool tool!
Google Calendar (and syncing to home and work PC’s); with Google Calendar iPhone app. No matter where I update a calendar from, it populates across all calendars. I also use ACT! which syncs with my Outlook calendar at work, so I see everything on all calendars no matter where I input it.
HARO: Peter Shankman’s HelpAReporter.com is tops in connecting sources with news (and blog) outlets. Free.
GoToMyPc: remote access to your computer from anywhere you have a ‘net connection. Just remember to leave your computer ON!
Software:
Software995 to create and edit and combine PDFs. They have a free version, but if you spring for the few bucks you don’t get sent to their website after each PDF you print.
Camtasia screen capture program: Version 7 kills. So many different ways to use it. I produce video, screen captures and more with this intuitive, easy-to-use tool.
Adobe Audition: multi-tracking audio recording software with more effects than I’ll ever use.
Photoshop / Picasa: Both are great for manipulating photos; Picasa has an online storage and sharing tool; PhotoShop is the king of photo manipulation.
ALZip for creating compressed files for emailing or uploading.
AudioShell and MP3Tag for editing MP3 ID tags. I’ve used AudioShell for years with Windows XP. With my new Windows 7 box, it doesn’t work, so I found MP3Tag which does the trick. Not as neat and unfussy as AudioShell, but workable. I only hope that the folks at SoftPointer make it work with Windows 7 64Bit soon!
Skype: I’ve used it off and on for years, and with my new Windows Life Cam (below) it’s becoming more of a regular thing.
iTunes: when iTunes first came out I was a big Winamp fan. Years later I can hardly recall Winamp.
UltraEdit: A super-powered notebook text editing tool. On steroids. I’ve used this for a few years and can testify it’s a great program. Not for everyone; you have to get used to how it works, but for creating simple text-only copy for copying and pasting to other documents it’s a great tool to avoid the underlying coding issues you often get with MS Word.
Hardware:
Flip Video camera: bought this a couple of years ago and love it. Easy to care, easy to use with a single stop-start button; it creates digital files that are easy to edit and post on YouTube or your blog.
ScottEVest coat – high tech clothing. Ran across this thanks to Peter Shankman. The best travel clothing. More pockets than I can use. Even lost my wallet in my coat once. Knew it was there, couldn’t get it out for five minutes until I found the right zipper.
Microsoft Lifecam (hi-def): My friend Tony Marino turned me on to this cool webcam which I’ve had less than a month and love it. Great quality, easy to use, powerful microphone built-in. About $55 if you look around.
Since I’m known on Twitter for having information on green marketing, my friend “Tradeshow Guy” Tim Patterson asked the question, “Are there items in the promotional giveaway world that are truly ‘green?’ And if not, that’s a story in itself!” It sure would be.
It really comes down to how do YOU define a “green” promotional product? Currently, defining what is green is all over the place. One can call a reusable bag or water bottle green because it would be reused several times and not immediately make its way to a landfill. For the most strict green marketers, a reusable item is a cop out. They might not be happy until the item has been made of plastic derived from organic non-food supply corn grown in the United States in a factory powered by sun or wind that is employee owned and gives 10 percent of its profits to charity.
Because it is so difficult to determine if a giveaway is green, some time back I developed the Green Promo Score Sheet which is available for free download at GreenPromoScoreSheet.com. It helps you assess the “green-ness” of your giveaway based on over a dozen factors such as if it is reusable, recyclable, biodegradable, organic, fair trade, etc.
If you do decide to go down the green giveaway path, make sure that you select a giveaway that matches your objectives or purpose. For example, if your company is promoting that you are using alternative energy, don’t give away something that uses standard batteries! You might want to consider a flashlight that uses dynamo power (usually a crank which you turn to provide power) or solar.
When purchasing green promotional products, ask your supplier if he tell you what makes the item green or ecofriendly if specific claims are not made in the offer. Here is an example that I saw at an area business’ expo. They were giving out “natural” canvas tote bags to hold literature. Kudos for using a reusable product. But that may not have been the optimal choice for this event that was touting green products. Here’s why…
A lot of people think that if it’s cotton, it’s natural and therefore organic. Not so! Standard cotton production is not very environmentally friendly. It uses large amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and water. Organic cotton production uses non-GMO (genetically modified organism) seeds, manual or natural weeding, and water saving techniques.
Watch for vague words in product descriptions such as natural, ecofriendly, or green. These need to be defined.
The number of green tradeshow giveaway items available is increasing all the time. While labeling standards are still in a state of flux, it pays to find out why a product is green before you spend your green.
About the Author
Heidi Thorne is a promotional products and social media marketing consultant, specializing in ecofriendly, USA and union made products. A variety of more ecofriendly promotional products is available at her PromoWithPurposeShop.com shopsite. For more information on how to green up your marketing, visit her blog at PromoWithPurposeToday.com.
A roll up banner stand is an excellent way for a company to make the most of their presence at a tradeshow or exhibition. By controlling every aspect of your customer’s experience at your booth, it is possible to manipulate how they perceive you. However, in order to be able to do this, there are a lot of things that you are going to have to keep in mind. In order to properly take advantage of the benefits of banner stands and banners, you will need to have a very close attention to detail. All aspects of the banner set up should be considered, including lighting and assembly of the unit.
The first thing you should keep in mind when purchasing a roll up banner stand is that not all stands are created equal. There are stands that are ideal for businesses that travel frequently. These stands are fast and easy to set up, require very little in the way of assembly, and pack down into small, lightweight cases that are easy to transport. For those who need a larger set up, there are larger stands that are heavier and bulky, but are compatible with larger sized banners. This can be useful if you are planning on doing a long term branding campaign at one location. When you are selecting your stands, you should carefully consider how much money you wish to invest and how often you wish to travel. These factors will make a big difference in which stands will best fit your needs.
In addition to picking the best roll up banner stand for your needs, you will also need to take care to pick the best banners. Having banners that match your stands is very important. However, having banners that successfully pass the message you want and demand interest in your business is vital if you want your investment to be profitable. When you go to purchase your stands, you will have the option to order banners at the same time. Many businesses choose to take advantage of this option. If you do not have a design completed, you may also be able to request assistance in making a design for your banners. When you pick your design, you want to make certain that you are able to control how your clients perceive your company. If you are branding, you want to make certain that your logo and company name are both clearly visible. In many cases, a simple design is much more effective than a cluttered and busy design. Take your time picking your banner design as this is one of the most important aspects of your purchase.
Once you have purchased your roll up banner stand, you will need to make certain that you properly care for it. Whenever you finish with a stand at an event, check it over for damage. If either the banner or the stand gets wet, dry it out completely before putting it into storage. Damp equipment can cause health problems, discolorations on the banner and odours. Taking proper care of your equipment can help guarantee that it will last you for years to come.
Visit TSNN.co.uk to place a quick quote for Roll Up Banner Stand for conference, meeting and other events from display boards suppliers. TSNN.co.uk is the largest UK conference and event website and by submitting a quick quote, your requirements will be sent to multiple suppliers so that you can find various items including exhibition stands and display boards.
How can you engage your customer so thoroughly that you’re sending shivers down their spine?
It doesn’t happen all that often, and admittedly, to get a real spine-tingling moment is rare. But it can be done.
It happened to me yesterday – and it wasn’t something I expected.
In reading some Facebook updates, a FB friend was telling the story of seeing Jimi Hendrix at the Monterey Pops Festival in 1967. You know the story (or maybe you don’t): it’s where Jimi – a virtual unknown at the time – had been given a slot AFTER The Who – who were arguably the biggest draw at the show. But somehow the promoters saw fit to put Hendrix on after the Who.
“…He took a total piece of crap in “Wild Thing” and made it heavy. Serious. In the middle he diddled out the melody to “Strangers In The Night” in a minor key, which got a laugh out of the crowd, then let the music swirl into another feedback meltdown. Now he was down on his knees controlling the feedback with the Whammy bar. I can’t see from where I am, but Jimi douses the Strat in lighter fluid and drops a match on it.. Whoosh. The feedback takes on the wailing tone of a Stratocaster burning to death. The Who finale was Angry…but this guy is sacrificing his guitar for us….”
As an old rock ‘n’ roller, this description literally sent chills down my back by projecting me back to ’67 and imagining what it must have been like.
Can you do that to your audience?
A good demo onstage might (no, you don’t have to sacrifice a Stratocaster!). A terrific story certainly could.
People react to stories. If your story is compelling and hits your audience in the gut, the reaction may be visceral. There’s no better way to get someone’s attention than with a powerful story.
The downside is that for most people it’s difficult to tell a story. And it’s even more difficult to tell a story in a compelling, arresting way.
Start collecting stories about your products and your customers. Ask them how your product or service impacts them. Why did they buy? Why do they keep coming back?
The more stories you collect, the better chance you have of finding that one nugget that succinctly tells the story of your product.
Once you’ve got that, find a powerful way to tell that story to your prospects. Engage them. Enlighten them.
What do people see when you send out a tweet, newsletter, blog post; put up a tradeshow booth…what is the perception of what people see?
Are you seeing through the eyes of your visitors, or through your eyes?
It’s not an easy question to answer as we all have our own vantage points. And no matter how hard we try, we can’t completely get outside of ourselves and see things objectively. Especially if we had a hand in creating the sales tool.
But it’s a good question to ask – and to try and find an answer. Or two, or three: what do other people see when they look at your ‘stuff?’ Do they see what you want them to see or do they see something else?
If your goal is to get a tradeshow booth visitor to see that you’re a fun company with an engaging product, is that coming across? If your goal is to get a visitor to see your company as conservative in your approach to the marketplace with your offerings, is that what they’re really seeing?
When you start peeling back the onion of your marketing message, it may take the eyes and ears of a third party – an ad agency, a colleague – to help you see things more clearly. And it may take the services of a professional to craft that message in a way that resonates with your visitor.
Creating the marketing message with the help of an experienced pro may be the best money you’ve ever spent. She might see things that you’re blind to. She can help with a subtle nuance in your message that makes a big impact.
On the other hand, no one knows your company, product or service quite like you – especially if you created it and live it on a daily basis. Even if you’re ‘just’ a tradeshow marketing manager, you still work and live and breath the company’s culture everyday, which gives you insight and a bird’s-eye seat into how you can reach your customers. In a perfect world, the collaboration between you and a professional (writer, designer) will result in a message that touches your potential customers in ways that move them to action.
The most successful tradeshow booths are the result of collaboration between several people, giving each person a stake in the message, but not surrendering to the whim of an individual. But committee meetings can only go so far: any successful message has to have a passionate advocate who has an understanding of the product/service and the impact that a customer feels when they commit to your company by pulling out their wallet.
So. Get a second opinion. And a third. Feed their comments and opinions into the hopper, chew them over and let them inform your creation, but not control it.
And remember it’s all fluid: markets, products, people. What works today may not next year. Or vice versa.
Now that a lot of your audience are carrying around smartphones, are you even able to reach them anymore with email, blogging and your social media outlets?
Probably – at least you should be able much of the time.
But an ideal scenario is literally in your hands: reaching your audience with text messaging.
Here’s why text message (or mobile) marketing is worth considering:
First: approximately 97% of all text messages are opened and read! Yeah: wow, 97%!
Next: your competitors are probably NOT doing it. Yet. But chances are they will look at it soon.
Also: Texting can spur instant action because of the immediacy of the medium.
One comment I often hear when the subject of mobile marketing comes up: “…but who wants to get spam text messages?”
That’s the beauty. It’s not spam. Your audience has opted-in to your messages through your website or advertisement, and they can easily opt-out if they change their mind.
Let’s say you have a booth at a tradeshow, and you’re going to surprise your audience with a special deal, a celebrity guest, or some other reason to get people to head for the booth. By timing your text message, your audience can open the text (remember, it’s immediately sent), see the invitation, and come by the booth.
If you can narrow your market to a select group of show attendees, chances are good that you’ll get many of them to respond.
“Your only restriction with mobile marketing is the numbers of characters, so my best advice is consolidate and pack a punch with your message,” advises Van Allen, a leading business marketer and business author who uses text and SMS (short message service) technology to grow several business.
So the next question on your lips is (at least it was on my lips): how do you do this?
The difficult, and manual, way would be to send each message out individually.
Nope, you can see right away that’s not gonna work. Not with all you have to do to keep the booth running, right?
Sign up for a service such as Boomtext, Message Buzz or Moto Message, log in to your account, set up your message and when you’d like it go out and you’re set.
Some services I’ve seen have the ability to segment your audience. For instance if you put out an advertisement on “organic yogurt” you might have readers opt-in to get message specifically about organic yogurt. Other readers might want messages only about fruit-flavored yogurt. It gives you a chance to send extremely targeted messages based on the desires of your market.
Once you start thinking, the ideas on how to tie mobile marketing into your tradeshow marketing start tumbling over themselves.
Phone coupons, time-sensitive offers, opinion polls, welcome messages, games, video links…what can you think of?
If you have sent out or received text messaging, what’s your experience been?
What did you learn from your last tradeshow appearance? Did you learn that you, well, perhaps shouldn’t have even been there?
Sometimes that’s the best lesson you can learn: that the money you spent on the show was wasted and you won’t do that show again.
Or will you? Maybe the lessons you learned included the fact that this particular show was wasted, but that you learned enough about the show to make adjustments and refocus for the next go-round.
Let’s face it: even the most expensive marketing mistake comes with a lesson. Sometimes it’s hard to find, and other times it’s staring you in the face.
It could be that you learned that the show’s audience is not for you.
I recently teamed up with the Salem Business Network and Communication Steroids for the Salem Chamber of Commerce’s ShowBiz 2010, a business-focused day-long tradeshow. We prepped and planned, created and executed. And when it was over, we evaluated the results.
First, we couldn’t point to more than a handful of actual leads for Communication Steroids. And we had about 20 sign-ups for the Salem Business Network. As it turns out, signing people up via our laptop in a busy, chaotic show was more time-consuming than anticipated. So even had everything gone according to plan, the sign-ups would have been fewer than desired.
But luring people to sign up for something FREE isn’t always easy. You’d think so, but it’s counter-intuitive. When people hear that something is FREE, they often thing there’s a hidden catch or that the service is not worth much anyway. After all, they must reason, if it’s free what value can it have?
We also didn’t quite understand the audience that showed up to the show: instead of business folks, it was mostly (probably 90%) people ‘trick-or-treating’ to grab free samples and handouts at a lot of the booths. To their credit, the Salem Chamber of Commerce has tried to dampen that portion of the crowd by charging $5 entrance fee – but it still didn’t seem to have much effect. So there were few people at the show that we could actually describe as serious prospects.
Given all that, it’s hard to know how things will unfold over the next year. We did have a handful of folks we met who liked the offerings, and if any of them develop into a good client in the next 12 months we can say the minimal investment in booth space rental and graphics was worth it. But we can’t say it yet.
Every opportunity to get out into the marketplace is a chance to learn; to understand your market better, to research the wants and needs of your market, to understand the show better, to see how your people work in a chaotic sales situation.
Given that tradeshow marketing is not cheap, your best approach is to learn as many lessons as you can on as many different fronts as you can.
A recent LinkedIn discussion focused on ‘What questions do you ask yourself when deciding on an exhibit for a tradeshow event?’
There were a lot of answers and discussion on the topic, and after I chimed in with my two pennies’ worth, it got me to thinking: what does it take to even commit to a tradeshow marketing effort?
If you’re a new company looking for marketing opportunities and markets to tap, or a company that’s never done a tradeshow, it’s an interesting question to ponder.
In other words, what is the lead-up to the question asked in the LinkedIn discussion?
To my mind, the decision to even get into tradeshow marketing should begin with a handful of questions:
Can we reach a valuable market via tradeshows?
What will it cost us in terms of money and resources?
Is it a short-term or long-term effort?
How will it affect our image in the industry? In our market?
If we get involved, who’s going to do it?
After this, you’ll evolve to questions that may be particular to your company, but those are good questions to kick off your internal discussion.
Tradeshow marketing can be an incredible boon – or bust – depending on how well you do it.
You’re laying a lot on the line. Take time to examine it from all angles before jumping in the pond.
