Is a Trade Show for You?

Written by Susan Dunn, Marketing Coach and Consultant


Are you considering taking part in a trade show forrepparttar first time? It can be quite an investment in time and money, so getrepparttar 108833 answers torepparttar 108834 following questions first.

1.Isrepparttar 108835 trade show focused?

You want to make sure it will be attracting your target market. Talk withrepparttar 108836 people who are putting onrepparttar 108837 trade show and find out.

2.Askrepparttar 108838 promoters how they plan to promote it.

Billboards, TV, radio and newspaper ads, trade journals? Make sure its going to be well publicized.

3.Getrepparttar 108839 history.

How many trade shows have they done inrepparttar 108840 past and how successful were they? They should have numbers to show you.

4.Getrepparttar 108841 names of people who have participated inrepparttar 108842 trade show inrepparttar 108843 past and make some phone calls.

You’ll get a lot of un-censored information from actual participants, but do talk to several.

If you decide, from your research, that you want to participate inrepparttar 108844 show, dorepparttar 108845 following:

1.Visit a couple of trade shows to become familiar with what’s going on.

Observerepparttar 108846 displays, howrepparttar 108847 people work their booths and attract people to come visit,repparttar 108848 giveaways, etc. Take a notepad and make notes. Observe what works for you – what makes you approach a certain booth. Is itrepparttar 108849 display? The person? The wayrepparttar 108850 person is dressed or how they’re standing or sitting? 2.Plan to work with a partner.

Running a booth is a two-person proposition, for many reasons. You’ll need relief to take breaks, one of you can walk around meeting other people whilerepparttar 108851 other person staffsrepparttar 108852 booth, people are more comfortable approaching two people than one. Also your equipment can be cumbersome. One of you can droprepparttar 108853 other off atrepparttar 108854 door for setup and go parkrepparttar 108855 car. 3.Prepare your booth display and materials.

You need something eye-catching that can be see from15-20’ away. There’s whole industry supplying these materials, which include displays, booths, portable trade show exhibits, pop-up displays and exhibit booths in various sized (20’ – 6’), and floor-standing or table-top models. Check them out onrepparttar 108856 Internet. Here is one: http://www.showstopperexhibits.com/. It’s a sizeable investment, but you will need to be competitive.

Paying Online – Pros and Cons

Written by Lisa Hood


Paying Online – Pros and Cons

I’ve been seduced byrepparttar convenience of online shopping! I’ve bought movies, clothes, stamps, groceries, prescriptions, books and jewelry online. Duringrepparttar 108832 Christmas Holidays, I wait with peppermint breath for Saint UPS Driver Guy and his bag of goodies. While others fight mobs of angry shoppers, I browse through product descriptions at my leisure. I feel relatively safe providing my credit card information despiterepparttar 108833 horror stories of fraud and theft. I only buy from reputable merchants, those that are well known and publicized. That’s not to say I couldn’t be fooled. It’s nearly impossible to tell whose who onrepparttar 108834 Internet. Sure, a professional site may be one indicator, but anyone can hire a web designer. Recent research estimates thatrepparttar 108835 number of households shopping online grew to over 18 million in 2001. Here are some tips to help you decide if you’re dealing with a trustworthy merchant:

Use a secure browser - software that encrypts or scramblesrepparttar 108836 purchase information you send overrepparttar 108837 Internet - to help guardrepparttar 108838 security of your information as it is transmitted to a website. Secure websites will have URL address HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) rather than HTTP.

Checkrepparttar 108839 site's privacy policy, before you provide any personal financial information to a website. While these statements contain lots of small print, it’s important you understand if and when your information will be used or shared with others. Also checkrepparttar 108840 site's statements about their security policies.

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