Five Marketing Nightmares and How to Prevent ThemWritten by Susan Freidmann
Five Marketing Nightmares and How to Prevent Them by Susan Friedmann The success or failure of your trade show rests heavily on how well you market your event. Marketing, when done right, can project a positive image of your event, entice exhibitors to sign dotted line, and attract loyal customers. However, critical mistakes in your marketing campaign can have opposite effect. Here are five costly errors that are common in our business, along with some sound advice on how to avoid making them. 1. You select wrong exhibition hall. You've got perfect trade show -- or so you think. The products are a great fit for demographics you're going to attract. The city you've selected is glamorous, loaded with cultural and entertainment opportunities, is easily accessible, and has ample hotel space near exhibition hall. And you've done a crackerjack job marketing your show -- you've sold all your exhibit booths and advance ticket sales are off charts. What could go wrong? Plenty, if exhibition hall you've selected is a poor fit. For example, suppose exhibition space is too small for crowd you'll attract. With thousands of people pushing and shoving each other to find exhibits, your show will quickly get a bad reputation as an uncomfortable event where it's impossible to see all products. And negative word of mouth travels almost as fast as speed of light. The solution: Do your homework! Get inside scoop from other trade show managers who have done shows at that exhibition hall. Find out what was positive about their experiences. Conduct an on-site inspection before committing to exhibition space, paying close attention to such factors as exhibit hall space, bathroom facilities, and air circulation. Consider location (is it in a dangerous part of town?), accessibility (are there traffic problems?), and service (are ticket counters adequately staffed?). Better yet, do your inspection while a trade show is going on at exhibition hall. You'll get to see for yourself whether shows operate efficiently there. 2. You compile an ineffective prospect database. You might be trying to cut corners by doing your data management in-house, but if you don't have database pros on staff, it's best to seek professional help! A list that has unlikely prospects or out-of-date addresses is a waste of time and money, and you'll lose precious opportunities to zero in on hot potential customers. You might hesitate to spend more money on a solid database management firm, but you could lose twice as much by failing to reach right target audience. 3. You construct a poorly designed Web site.
| | Four Essential Marketing Plan ComponentsWritten by Cavyl Stewart
Preparing a Marketing Plan for your product or service is a real eye-opening experience. While we all hope that our product or service will appeal to masses, truth is, that may not happen. Assembling a Marketing Plan first and foremost forces you to clearly define what you are selling. From there, you define demographics of market for your product or services. You research on-going or upcoming trends in industry, your existing and potential competition and whether or not market is already saturated. And time to analyze this valuable information is before you spend money opening door to your new business venture. A marketing plan is one valuable tool that will help your business survive. Analyze Market This section plays an important role in determining who will purchase your product or service, and why. You need to identify such attributes as gender, age group, where they live, their buying habits and their social values. This section also has you look at current economic climate including upcoming changes in laws or technology that might impact delivery and/or reception of your product or service. It’s also important to take a close look at your competition whether it’s around block or around globe. The more you know about your competition better prepared you are to deal with it. Know their hours of operation, their organizational structure, their promotions, their advertising outlets, whatever you can find out. Identify Marketing Goals and Objectives With information about your target market and your competition in hand, you can better outline your marketing goals and steps to take to achieve these goals. Identify what you think are your company’s strength and weaknesses, and resources you have available including staff and finances. Committing your goals and steps to a calendar will help keep your marketing efforts on track and provide you with direction.
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