Trade show exhibiting is like setting up a lemonade stand where all of your potential customers are already gathered.

If you’ve never exhibited at a trade show, you are missing out on a unique opportunity to showcase your business in a way that allows your customers to personally experience your product or service.

Today Bev Gray, CEO of Exhibit Edge, is going to show you why, how, and where you can get started with trade show exhibiting.

Trade Shows Promote Your Business

What better way to create a buzz about your business than a creative display at a local event? Develop an inventive and unique way to represent your company or the solution you offer and then follow it up afterwards throughout your social media channels.

By meeting your customers face-to-face, you are able to qualify viable leads. You can better understand your market, their needs, and how your offering can best appeal to those already showing an interest. This is also your chance to collect contact information from those leads and use it to follow up and continue those relationships.

If you have chosen to exhibit at a trade show, so have some of your competitors. This is the perfect opportunity to scope them out! By conducting competition comparison on their trade show exhibits and strategies, you can better understand what you need to do to stand out above them. You can see their promotions, their latest news, and how attendees are responding to their exhibit. Learn from this research and take the lead in your market!

If you are selling a product, you can shorten the buying process by implementing a Point of Purchase into your exhibit. Check out JuniorBiz’s article “9 Magnetic Offline Strategies that Attract New Customers” to see when a POP can be a valuable strategy for your business. While you have your potential customers excited about your product, make the sale right then to avoid giving your competitors a chance to steal them away!

Perhaps the most important advantage to exhibiting is the ability to distribute samples or showcase your services. As we focused on before, the best way to have your company become your customers’ favorite is to let them experience you. Be sure you make a notable first impression and give them something useful to take home to remember you.

So, you’re convinced you need to exhibit — now what?

How Much do Trade Shows Cost?

Costs for the actual trade show or event vary greatly and can range from $75 to $4,000. These costs depend on the appeal and focus of the event. For example, local Chamber of Commerce shows will be significantly cheaper than an industry-wide B2B event. If these costs seem high to you, consider volunteering or bartering to help lower the expenses.

Your exhibit costs will depend on your desired materials and scope. They range from $0 (if you are creative) to $3,000 (if you want it “over the top”). Your local exhibit company, such as our team at Exhibit Edge, can help you create a display within your budget that you can be proud of!

Where can I Find a Trade Show in my Area?

Stay current on local events going on in your community and check out the websites below. Remember to stay open-minded and come up with creative avenues to showcase your business!

The Trade Show Calendar

Trade Show News Network

Conventions.net

Are you thinking about exhibiting at a trade show?  Or, have you recently exhibited? If so, please share your thoughts and experience in the comments below. We’ll be around to provide answers to any questions you have.

Image by ZachStern

Attracting new customers is one of the three ways to make more money as an entrepreneur. It’s also the most challenging.

What’s the best way to get new customers?

That depends. Since it depends, I’ve made a graphic that you can use to determine which offline strategies you should and shouldn’t use to attract new customers for your business.

1. Networking

It doesn’t matter what you do or what your business provides, every entrepreneur needs to network with other entrepreneurs and potential customers. People do business with people they know and trust.

By going to events with entrepreneurs or your target market, talking about your business whenever you can, and asking people to refer you to other people, you’ll naturally create a network of people who want to do business with you.

• When you SHOULD use networking: If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to attend networking events/conferences and take advantage of opportunities to talk about your business.
• When you SHOULDN’T use networking: The only situation in which it might not be beneficial to attend networking events is if you are the CEO of a nationally recognized brand and it’s not worth your time to meet an extra hundred people or so. If you have a nationally recognized brand, you’re not reading this.

2. Referral Programs

Referral programs are when you offer existing customers an incentive to refer you to other customers.

Let’s say Andrea refers you to three of her friends who then become consistent customers. In that case, you should provide your product or service to Andrea for free. Three then free is the ratio you should use because it shouldn’t cut into your margins too much and it gives Andrea enough of an incentive to talk about your business.

This sounds like a raw deal for you, but it’s not. Acquiring customers is expensive. Do whatever you can to get your customers to talk about your business. Word-of-mouth is the best form of promotion. Word-of-mouth is the best form of promotion. Word-of-mouth is the best form of promotion. Three times should be enough.

• When you SHOULD use referral programs: Referral programs work best when you provide a recurring service that has high profit margins.
• When you SHOULDN’T use referral programs: When you sell a product with a low profit margin to a one-time purchaser. You can use referral programs to sell products, but it’s challenging to develop professional relationships with one-time purchasers and keep track of who refers who.

3. Media Relations

Media relations consists of promoting your business to media and news outlets with the goal of having them give you a free news story.

This one is tricky. To be successful, your business has to be newsworthy and you have to convince the reporter why their readers will want to read about your story. If you’re successful, make sure you follow-up with that reporter by thanking them. It’s ‘media relations’, not ‘get a one-time favor from a journalist’.

• When you SHOULD use media relations: When you’re a young entrepreneur. That’s a natural hook for a journalist. Just remember that their job is to break interesting, timely stories.
• When you SHOULDN’T use media relations: If you’re a normal person who started a normal business during a normal time of year and you’re only interested in getting a plug. Reporters don’t publish normal information.

4. Print Advertising

Print advertising consists of everything from hanging up posters around town, to going door-to-door with fliers, to leaving informational pamphlets with complementary businesses or organizations, to purchasing an ad in your newspaper.

It’s more expensive than most promotional tactics and it’s geographically constrained to your local community, but it can be effective if it’s done strategically.

• When you SHOULD use print advertising: Print advertising is most effective when you have a local business with a tangible product and you can elicit a specific response through a direct promise. Print is used best when they can show you a picture of a product.
• When you SHOULDN’T use print advertising: If your target market is geographically dispersed and if you provide an intangible service. A poster couldn’t possibly reach enough of your target market (at least at the beginning) if they aren’t tied to your community. It’s hard to portray the benefits of a service with a picture.

There are two important factors to successful print advertising.

1. It has to be visually appealing. You have to make people want to look at it.
2. There has to be a specific call to action. Your goal with print advertising is to get someone to do something. Whether it’s giving you a call, visiting your website, or using your coupon – it’s far too expensive to use this tactic without getting a response. This is also called direct-response advertising.

5. Multimedia Advertising

Multimedia advertising primarily consists of TV and radio commercials. Similar to print advertising, this tactic is expensive, geographically limited, and it must have a specific call to action. As an entrepreneur, there are few situations in which it’s beneficial to implement a multimedia advertising campaign, at least at the beginning.

• When you SHOULD use multimedia advertising: Like I said, there aren’t many situations. Maybe if want to sell your product on QVC or through an infomercial. Or maybe if you offer an expensive product or service with high profit margins and you can afford to only get a few additional customers through an expensive advertisement.
• When you SHOULDN’T use multimedia advertising: If you have a small budget, inexpensive product or service, little experience with multimedia or a geographically disperse target market. You should also consider how a potential customer could go from digesting the ad to completing the call to action.

6. Direct Mail

Direct mail is similar to both print and multimedia advertising in that it’s expensive. Except, you can be a lot more targeted as far as who is exposed to your advertising.

This tactic entails finding or developing a list of addresses from people in your target market and mailing them an irresistible offer. Then you need to follow-up that offer with a phone call if you want it to be super effective.

• When you SHOULD use direct mail: If you have the ability to develop a list of addresses that is limited to your target market and if you have a sizeable budget. Depending on what you want to mail, it’ll be around $1 per person. Direct mail works best if you can offer them something exclusive or make a limited-time offer. People like exclusivity and their motivated to act by a limited-time offer.
• When you SHOULDN’T use direct mail: When you have a product or service with a small profit margin or if you can’t compile a targeted list. The list of people you mail is critical to the success of your direct mail campaign.

Traditionally, direct mail is perceived as ineffective. If you get a 1% conversion rate, you’re a marketing rock star.

Personally, I think there are plenty of situations in which direct mail is appropriate as long as you follow-up with a phone call. Start that conversation by, “Did you get my package in the mail?” If they threw it away (which they probably did), then they feel guilty and will be more willing to talk to you. At this point, you can begin your personal selling spiel.

7. Professional Selling

If you’ve seen The Office, Dunder Mifflin is a great example of a company that is suitable for professional selling. This tactic involves answering consumer questions, making personal phone calls and giving sales presentations. Selling is an art. You need a persuasive sales pitch and a knack to handle objections if you want to be successful with professional selling.

• When you SHOULD use professional selling: This tactic is typically used to sell relatively expensive products or services where people need a lot of information to make a purchase. This is called high involvement. Professional selling is time-consuming and won’t be worth your time unless you make a lot of money per sale.
• When you SHOULDN’T use professional selling: When your offering is inexpensive and/or the potential customer doesn’t need that much information to make a purchase. This is called low involvement

8. Sidewalk Advertising

I’m sure you’ve seen people dressed up, dancing and holding a sign on a sidewalk as you drive around town. This is surprisingly effective at capturing someone’s attention while they are monotonously running their errands. It’s especially effective at raising awareness for a new business, specifically, the location of a new business.

• When you SHOULD use sidewalk advertising: When you have a new business with a storefront and you’re trying to attract local customers. $100 for materials and $8 per hour is a small investment to reach thousands of people in a day.
• When you SHOULDN’T use sidewalk advertising: If you don’t have a storefront or if your target market is geographically disperse. Or if your budget is extremely tight.

9. Point of Purchase

Point of purchase (POP) is when you have a display for your product or service where you actually sell your product or service. A lemonade stand with a sign and a pitcher of lemonade is a great example of a POP display.

Companies also pay a lot of money to put up POP displays in retail stores. Walmart charges a pretty penny to put a product on an end cap (the shelves at the end of the aisles) because it’s prime real estate for a POP display.

• When you SHOULD use point of purchase: If you have a simple stand for your product (e.g. lemonade) or if you pay for a booth at a conference/event.
• When you SHOULDN’T use point of purchase: If you don’t have a specified location for selling your product or service.

The Best Way to Attract New Customers

The most important thing that you can do to build your business is to network with other people. This is important for three reasons:

1. They can teach you things.
2. They can introduce you to other people.
3. They might become customers.

Don’t Miss This…

Discover these time-tested, battle-hardened offline networking tips:
How to Network as a Young Entrepreneur: Offline >>

Photo by Joe Shlabotnik

Money-hungry Googlers search for “marketing tips” 110,000 times every month. They’re looking for the latest tricks to get more customers and make more money.

I have a secret for you…There’s no secret! Marketing isn’t tips, tricks, and secrets. It’s a process that starts well before you have anything to sell.

Wrapping red-dotted lines around your “Add to Cart” button and auto-playing your sales video might increase your conversions. But none of that matters if you start with a crappy product or service.

Today, I’m going to do a marketing magic trick to prove why you need to spend less time searching for the secrets and more time developing something people actually need.

Marketing Magic Trick

Answer this question:

What’s the first word that comes to mind when you think of “marketing”?

Your answer: advertising (<– double-click)

Did it work? Let me know in the comments below.

Marketing Myth

Entrepreneurs think they can create something, then just advertise the heck out of it and sell millions.

In non-fantasy-land, marketing starts way before you put an ounce of effort into creating your product or service, let alone trying to advertise something you’ve already created.

Marketing Process

Have you created your mission statement yet? If so, great. You’re done with the first step.

If not, your mission is your purpose as a business. It’s what you’re in it for. Once you have a purpose, you can continue with the marketing process:

1. Select a target market.
   This is the ideal customer for your mission. Get to know them.
2. Create a product or tailor a service for that target market.
   Every feature and facet needs to have your target market in mind.
3. Sell to that target market.
   Since you’ve created the perfect product/service for that target market, this will be a cinch.

Marketing Tips, Tricks, and Secrets

I’m not telling you that there aren’t ways to boost sales with tactics and strategies, because there are. But too many people want the tips and tricks before they have any concept of what marketing actually is.

In its purest form, marketing is creating something that’s valuable.

Spend less time worrying about how you’re going to advertise it and more time creating something that will “advertise” itself. [<- tweet that out!]

Ray didn’t amass McDonald’s with tips and Walt didn’t build Disney with tricks.

Don’t Miss This…

Find out how Ray and Walt became good friends before McDonald’s and Disney:
How World’s Top 25 Brands Got Started >>

Photo by ExpressMonorail

Exactly four months ago I interviewed a 17-year-old, bestselling author with more than 100,000 followers on Twitter.

Twitter has been all the rage over the last year or two. But does Twitter still deserve to be “all the rage”? According to one of the few people in the world with more than 100,000 followers, there is a better solution to your social media struggles.

I’m going to share Stanley’s secret tip, explain what we changed, and detail how this change has boosted our Facebook traffic by 356% with almost zero additional effort.

Before Stanley Tang

Prior to picking the brain of Stanley Tang, like most website owners I put almost 100% of my social media effort into building my Twitter account. I put several hours per week into tweeting, retweeting, replying, searching, following, listing, and perusing the Twittersphere. With all that, I managed to extract 4.6% of my traffic from Twitter in the four months leading up to Stanley’s interview.

What Did Stanley Say?

“Over the past year, the effectiveness of Twitter as a marketing tool has decreased slightly. Before, when I had 10,000 followers and I sent out a link, I’d probably get the same amount of clicks as I get today – and I have over 100,000 followers. Twitter has gotten kind of saturated.

“I would start with Facebook, as opposed to Twitter. Mark Zuckerberg has done some amazing things, including the open graph project, which is a great idea to connect people. Facebook is going to be the next Google.”

What Did We Change?

I realized that I’ve experienced the same thing, except on a smaller scale. When @JuniorBiz had about 800 followers I would get anywhere from 5-15 clicks within 10 seconds of posting a tweet. Now with 2700 followers, I’m lucky to get a few clicks per tweet over a matter of days.

So I immediately looked into how I could more effectively integrate Facebook with my site. I found the Like-Button-Plugin-For-WordPress plugin and installed it. This easily customizable plugin puts the nifty “Like” button at the top of every post (or page too, if you want). Here is a working example of the “Like” button:

Click it and comment to see how it works.

We also created a Facebook page for our book, but this was meant to drive traffic back to the book site, not JuniorBiz.

What are the Results?

In the last four months since interviewing Stanley Tang, our Facebook traffic has increased by 356% and the only significant change we made was adding the “Like” button to our posts. We have 2,739 followers on Twitter compared to 110 fans on Facebook. Yet, Facebook now drives 406% more traffic and I’m still spending more time on Twitter.

Stanley Tang was Spot-On

Two paragraphs in Stanley’s interview helped us increase our traffic from the 2nd biggest site in the world by 356%. There are eight other things that Nick and I are working on right now as a direct result of Stanley’s advice.

He continues to detail exactly:

• How his business got him into an Ivey-league school half-way around the world.
• How he launched his book as an instant best-seller.
• Why he is getting out of internet marketing.

And this is just one of the 25 interviews in our book. Reading it is the only way to learn the proven money-making secrets from the world’s top young entrepreneurs. When you buy What it Takes to Make More Money than Your Parents, we guarantee that you will be inspired and find practical advice on every page — or your money back.

Photo by: Daily Herald

Seek. Find. Hide. Pounce. Kick. Choke. Ninja star throw. Vanish.

All too often, ninjas and entrepreneurs describe their products or services by the features. I’m not going to hire a ninja to seek, pounce and vanish. I’m looking for the stealthiest of individuals to carry-out a mission without leaving a trace so they or I don’t get caught.

People pay for advantages and benefits, not features. When describing your product or service, you need to follow the FAB structure (Feature-Advantage-Benefit) if you want to portray the real value of what you provide.

Feature

What are the attributes of your product or service? What is it made of? What are the specifications and special functions of the product? What do you do?

For example, let’s say you run an internet marketing/web development company. The main features of your services are that you make websites, optimize them for search engines, integrate social media, and build in systems to capture contact information.

Advantage

How is your product or service better than your competitors? What makes it the best product or service on the market?

Continuing with the same example, you could inform potential customers that most web development companies stop at simply building the website and explain that just having a website is pointless. Your service is better because it has three other vital components.

Benefit

What is the core value that your product or service provides to your customers? What problem does it solve? How will your customer’s life improve as a result of paying you?

Back to your company, the benefit to your internet marketing service is that your customers will capture more sales leads and attract more customers as a result of your superior service.

FAB Product or Service Description

When the FAB model is used effectively it is a stealthy, yet powerful, sales move. Check out the before and after descriptions for your internet marketing company:

Features: “We make websites, optimize them for search engines, integrate social media and build in systems to capture contact information.”

Features-Advantages-Benefits: “We develop professional-looking websites, drive traffic through search engines and social media, and we’ll build systems to capture their information so they keep coming back. Most other web development companies stop at just building your website. We’ll integrate SEO, social media and conversion forms so you can capture more leads, attract more customers, and make more money.”

The small business owner doesn’t want a website.

They want to make more money. A website just happens to be a great way to do that. If you can show that your internet marketing service will result in more money for your customer than you charge them, it’s a no-brainer. They’ll hire you every single time.

When to Use FAB

All day, every day. The FAB technique should be plastered all over your fliers, posters, website, packaging, and strategically placed throughout your sales pitch. Any time you’re trying to convince someone to do something, you need to use it because people only respond to benefits (“What’s in it for me?”).

How We Used FAB on Our Book Cover

Feature: 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs (Volume 1, Interviews 1-25)
Advantage: The world’s top young entrepreneurs share the secrets to their success.
Benefit: What it Takes to Make More Money than Your Parents

If a ninja wants to make a website that will attract more clients (rather than just being a really cool website), then that ninja needs to utilize the advantages and benefits of their services.

Photo by: Lilley1