Friday, September 28, 2012

Think Event Organizers Don't Need Trade Show Training? Guess Again - Key Benefits This Tool Delivers

As a marketing convention organizer, you understand that not only do you have to successfully manage the many event logistics to ensure flawless execution, but you also have to consistently draw in the exhibitor crowd. Like any business, convention competition is fierce. With so many competing expos, it's imperative to secure participating businesses at your venues to keep them from working with the opposition next year. In an effort to effectively beat out other organizers vying for the biggest slice of the exhibitor pie, savvy event coordinators often opt to partner up with professional trade show training organizations.


Trade Show Training: Not Just For Your Exhibitors


When discussing the many positive results that trade show staff training delivers, it's often (wrongfully) assumed that this powerful tool only benefits a function's participating exhibitors. This is simply not the case. Teaming up with a trade show training professional delivers an outstanding assortment of critical benefits to venue coordinators as well. Wondering if utilizing a trade show training firm makes sense for your plans? Check out some of the key features and benefits you'll receive to make an informed decision.


What To Expect From Your Training Experience


First and foremost, working with a trade show staff training expert can prove a key differentiator between your events and other companies trying to make a name for themselves in the convention circuit. In today's tumultuous economic times, hard pressed businesses may decide that the fees and expenses associated with these promotional events don't deliver enough ROI to make them worth the capitol venture. However, not only will your expos deliver ample opportunity for face to face crowd engagement, offering staff preparation exercises will help ensure that they effectively maximize each and every encounter in a myriad of ways. In short, these services can truly be the determining factor for your clients in deciding whether to participate or to pack up booths and exhibits until a later date.


Additionally, a reputable provider will also deliver customized services to ensure your company can optimize results with exhibitors. They will work closely with your team to best understand the goals and objectives of each event based on industry, size, venue setup, etc. From there they will create a made-to-order strategy to ensure your participating companies receive the personalized attention they require. From web seminars and live sessions to actual event-day prepping, these qualified specialists will offer all the necessary instruction to not only please your participants this year, but also make your function the talk of the convention circuit to entice future exhibitors to check out your venue.


Finally, a professional firm will also offer your event attendees various options for trade show metrics. Compiled after the function itself, these exhibitor audits consider a comprehensive assortment of critical event components to determine overall return on investment. Your engaged customers will love receiving a third-party, unbiased evaluation that not only tells them what worked for them at the function, but also outlines specific areas that may require tweaking to further enhance results yielded at next year's convention.


Marketech 360 delivers customized trade show staff training for both exhibitors and event organizers. If you want a results-driven program with measurable trade show metrics, Marketech 360 can help. Contact the company today and create your perfect trade show training fit today!


Saturday, September 22, 2012

Deciding What Your Business Is Worth

Lately, we've noticed some small business owners who were are designing websites for are confused about who their company is regarding their pricing. We find a lot of people saying that they can't compete on price anymore because there are too many other companies that are underbidding everything and their prices are below margin or some ridiculously low number that doesn't even make sense on how they can make a living charging.


Say our client, let's call them Reputable Services, has been in business for 15 years and stands by their product/services, treats their customers well, and was lucky enough to be around when the economy was looking nice. Business used to be great and then the economy went bad. Now let's say that Reputable Services now is in the position where they must go out and find new business.


Well because of the bad economy, many other businesses are in this position as well. Let's say there is another company called "Stinky Pete's". So Stinky Pete's likes to low ball every price for his product/service. Their strategy is to beat all prices in town and therefore get the job/order every time because "hey why pay more, right?" So now Reputable Services thinks that Stinky Pete's is going to bankrupt his business because he keeps getting undercut on price.
Well, no. That's not going to happen. You see if you are ever wondering "how can they afford to price their product/service that low??", guess what. They can't. Every business is in just one business, the business of making money. These companies forget one thing, customers aren't stupid. We know as consumers that the lowball guy isn't going to produce a good quality product because why should he? What's in it for them? It's not profit, obviously.


So what IS your company worth? I recently found this really good article:
Deciding What You're Worth - A very important key in starting a business is deciding what to charge for your services and/or product. There are many things to consider when setting you.

The most important thing in understanding what your worth is understanding what your customers are worth. Remember business is an exchange. You are trading a service/product for a monetary figure of money. The two items being traded must equal the same amount in value, otherwise the deal is a bad one. So if Reputable Company prices his services for what they are worth in value they provide their customers, then they'll be just fine.


For this and more visit: Simple CMS Design


Justin Throngard
Simple CMS Design
(208)740-1534
http://www.simplecmsdesign.com/


Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Amazing ROI in Brochure Printing for Roofing Companies

Competition is steeper these days with the advancement in technology, especially for building contractors and for this reason it is necessary to hire the services of brochure printing for roofing companies.

Why Companies Should Take Advantage of Brochure Printing for Roofing Companies

Big companies have a sure way of penetrating the market through big budgets appropriated for promotions and advertisement in media and print ads. However, small and medium-scale building contractors who specialize in trusses, canopy and building coverings should find a competitive edge to get a sufficient share of the market. There is no better way but to look for alternative and affordable sources of marketing tools and strategies that give the market all the information they need to make a favorable decision to purchase your products and services. One of these alternatives is brochure printing for roofing companies.

What Clients Require these Days from Building Contractors

When you start considering brochure printing for roofing companies, you have to take into account all the necessary information that these printed materials should carry. You have to consider your market. If you are catering to different companies and you belong to the SMEs or small and medium enterprises, it is important that you focus on the excellence of your service that is satisfaction guaranteed. It is also necessary to highlight that you are using the same premium quality products for a lower cost. The biggest advantage that you can provide is a more personalized service commitment. Taglines are also important as this captures your company's motto and the principles you live by. These taglines help establish trust and confidence for your clients. However, you should be sure that you can deliver whatever your brochure printing for roofing companies promises in the taglines and maybe even more.

What One Gets from Taking Advantage of Brochure Printing for Roofing Companies

Faster ROI or return on investment from brochure printing for roofing companies can be expected. If you are checking the efficiency and effectiveness of different marketing tools and strategies, you would be glad to note that while media is a powerful tool in exposing your company, services and products to the public, everyone still needs printed materials to base their decision on. Clients need to see if what you are offering matches their requirements and pamphlets, leaflets and handouts need to bear all the necessary information so they can contact you. Unlike the high cost of advertising online or via TV and radio stations, printed advertising is very affordable and yet it influences potential clients the most. You print once and the pamphlet can be handed from one hand to another and seen and read as many times as possible. If lucky, you can derive big projects right away as a small- or medium-size building contractor when information provided by a brochure printing for roofing companies lands in the hands of decision makers.

There is no better solution but to contact Conquest Graphics so that brochure printing for roofing companies will benefit you in every way.



Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Best Occasions for Giving Corporate Gifts

Presenting corporate gifts to clients and business associates is a good way to strengthen relationships and improve brand recognition. Gifts are also a good way to reward employees for achievements and recognize career milestones.

When selecting corporate gifts it's important to choose items that are practical and thoughtful. If a client is an avid golfer provide them with imprinted golf balls or club covers. If employees love to BBQ provide them with logo grilling tools or a personalized apron.

Everyone enjoys receiving a considerate gift that shows the gift-giver is aware of their hobbies or lifestyle. While presents don't have to be expensive they should be of good quality so recipients can enjoy them for a long time.

There are many occasions that are perfect for corporate gift giving. Some of the top reasons include: welcoming new employees, clients, or business associates, employment anniversaries, career promotions and achievements, thank you gifts, birthdays, and holidays.

Welcome gifts: Providing presents to newly hired employees, business associates, and clients is a good way to strengthen relationships. Popular items include custom USB drives, screenprinted T-shirts, imprinted pens and notepads, eco-friendly tote bags and drinkware.

Gift baskets make ideal welcome gifts. They can be stuffed with gourmet food items; coffees, teas, and mugs; branded clothing; writing pens, notepads and desk accessories; or computer accessories such as a personalized mouse pad and thumb drive.

Recognition gifts: Rewarding employees with gifts that recognize their efforts and achievements is a great way to create strong bonds. Not only do employees appreciate having their efforts acknowledged, gifts can also motivate other staff members to be their best.

Recognition presents can be provided for all kinds of employee achievements. A few of the more common reasons include setting sales records; exemplary customer service; and solving troublesome problems. Providing corporate swag is an affordable way to show appreciation.

Thank you gifts: Expressing thanks with business gifts can go a long way toward building lifelong relationships. In today's competitive market it's more important than ever to express appreciation for a job well done and customer loyalty.

It's a good idea to add company logos, slogans, or contact information, but don't go overboard. Keep branding to a minimum and make an impact by providing something unique and practical. Recipients will be proud to show off their gift and use it on a regular basis.

Holiday gifts: Handing out presents during holidays is a long-standing tradition. Companies often give the traditional holiday gifts of fruit baskets, sweet treats, gourmet foods and desserts. The problem is a lot of businesses give fancy food baskets, so stand apart from the crowd and present unique items.

Corporate gifts are generally reserved for special occasions and shouldn't be used as a promotional item. While it's best to keep branding to a minimum, it's a good idea to imprint your company name and logo in a visible area. That way when recipients show off their present they perform marketing for you.

Providing unique corporate gifts to customers and business associates is an affordable and effective way to enhance relationships. Gorilla Marketing offers a unique line of business gifts, promotional items, and trade show giveaways that can make your company stand apart from competitors. Find out how affordable it is to get started by visiting us at http://www.gorillamarketing.net/.



Thursday, September 6, 2012

Big Value In Real World Reviews For Affiliates

Don't let the idea of a review site scare you. If you put together a quality web site, that is a true valuable resource, you can rank well in search engines and provide a great buying experience to your readers. Showing your readers that you are the authority on products and how they work will give them a reason to keep coming back and to buy from you!


We have all been to those so called "review sites" that are nothing more than some reviews pulled from RSS or other online sites and slapped together as nothing more than a quick affiliate site. These can make a dollar or two, but when it comes down to it, with recent search algorithm changes, these sites are low quality and can be very hard to rank. If you are an affiliate marketer and you want to stand out from the crowd and grow your website traffic organically, you may have to put a little more time into your effort, but you can build a high quality review site.


How To Build A High Quality Review Affiliate Blog or Web Site


Use the following tips to really add value to your content and give your readers a reason to keep coming to you for more information on the products that they are interested in. If you can produce high quality content, even on a review site, you can build huge email lists and grow your readership very easily. Just remember that making good content is neither fast or easy, but it can prove to be profitable if done correctly.

Offer Truly Valuable Information - Give your readers a little more insight than just this product is awesome. If you can give a real world example of the good and bad this can help people make their own educated purchasing decision and this means a lot to your readers.
Show Product Pictures - Yes, you may add images from the product manufacturer, but box opening shots and images of the product in action really can be worth a thousand words as they say.
Go Beyond The Features - Laying out the standard features and options of a product is useful, but remember people can get this anywhere. You want to discuss alternate uses, undocumented features and what they can do with a product that goes beyond how many buttons it has. This is where you really do need to do some investigation and some real product testing to give that extra value.
Videos Are Big - We all know that video has become a preferred medium on the internet. This is just one reason that providing product videos is a great idea for review sites. Videos can help you draw in traffic from many different sites as well as help you get your information viewed in areas that would otherwise be hard to penetrate. People love videos, so give them what they want.

These are just a few quick ideas to help you really gear up your product review affiliate site. The real secret is adding big value, being honest and giving a lot of images and examples will help you prove to your readers that your site is where they need to be to get buying information and this is exactly what you want!


Get more helpful affiliate marketing tips on the Webmaster Business Plan website. This is one of my biggest online resources to help webmasters and online marketers succeed, so make sure to check it out and everything is free, no sales pitches here!


There are many different ways to boost your sales and conversions, but choosing a high quality Amazon WP theme that is setup specifically for marketers can instantly boost your returns on your efforts. Tweaking and testing sites can also help, but this can save you hours of setup and get you going fast. Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave comments or questions below.


Nick Simpson


Saturday, September 1, 2012

Telehealth: The 7 Deadly Sins of Telehealth Marketing - Are You Guilty?

Do you experience any of these challenges with your telehealth program, product, or service?


* Painstaking process of getting people to buy-in to your telehealth or telemedicine program?


* Slow uptake for your telehealth technology or service?


* Difficulty getting hospitals or other customers to join your telehealth network?


While you could cite a variety of reasons for these struggles, it's highly likely that you have a marketing problem.


This article covers some fundamental marketing mistakes ("sins") that are common to many industries in addition to telehealth and telemedicine. If you find that you are guilty of any of these sins, you have a golden opportunity to eliminate them from your marketing strategy, so that you can edge out your competitors and get the PR, patients, and profits you deserve.


Marketing Sin #1: Field of Dreams


The movie Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner is built around a central premise that if the character played by Mr. Costner builds a baseball field on his farm, then legendary baseball players who have long since died will emerge from the cornfield in their youthful form to play on his field. "Build it and they will come" says his advisor played by James Earl Jones.


Let's face it. "Build it and they will come" only works in the movies.


Yet too many people are guilty of thinking that if they start or build the next great thing, everyone will be lining up to use it. Marketing is a fundamental requirement for the success of any "business" or "venture".


Even Apple doesn't subscribe to the Field of Dreams. They put a lot of time and money into market research, strategy, developing market buzz, etc. before the launch of the iPad 3 and its predecessors.


So if you are a telehealth company, telehealth consultant, or telehealth program, you absolutely need to market and promote your offering in order to attract and win customers, patients, participants, etc.


How do you know if you are suffering from the "Field of Dreams syndrome"? Just answer these questions...


1. Do you find yourself wondering why everyone just doesn't get what a great solution you have to offer?


2. Did you put out a single press release about your new product or program and get surprised by the lack of response?


3. Do you find yourself procrastinating about putting together a newsletter, sales letter, promotion, etc. for your telehealth solution?


4. Are you "uncomfortable" selling yourself or your services


Marketing Sin #2: Random Whim Marketing


Statistics have shown that a potential customer has to see your ad an average of 7 times before they even notice it. Assuming they are even interested in what you're selling, they have to see the ad another 7 times before taking action.


That means you have to get your message in front of the potential customer an average of 14 times before they might even think about getting in touch. This is why ad agencies typically suggest that you run ads for 13 issues.


So your #1 goal is to make sure people recognize and remember your solution. This is why consistency is key.


While you may not have the budget to run an ad 14 times, the real lesson here is that your marketing materials need to create consistency in several forms:


* A consistent look and feel, so people learn to recognize you and your brand


* A consistent message, so people remember what you do, who you do it for, and why you are better than your competition


* A consistent delivery schedule, so people see your name and message often enough to recognize you, remember what you do, and have you at the top of their mind the next time the problem you can solve hits a critical point for them


Are you guilty of Random Whim Marketing?


1. Do you tend to market primarily when business is slow or an opportunity happens to present itself?


2. Have you avoided putting together any formal marketing plans, strategies, or goals?


3. Are you putting together advertising and marketing materials at the last minute?


Marketing Sin #3: Me Too Marketing


If you are guilty of Me Too Marketing, potential customers don't have a compelling reason to do business with you instead of your competitors.


You need to define your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) by answering the customer's question (which may be spoken or unspoken): "Why should I do business with you among all the choices I have in your category, which include doing nothing?"


What is it that makes your products, services, or business different from everyone else's? Search online or in your region (if it applies) to see what your competitors are saying in their marketing.


If your marketing materials and sales promises sound just like your competitors, then you are guilty of me-too marketing. That's OK. Now spend your energy figuring out what's different or how you can be different.


Marketing Sin #4: Being Ego-centric


Humans are egocentric by nature.


We approach everything from our own perspective. And we spend most of the time thinking and talking about what's important to us.


It's only natural since we all spend our time dealing with our own life, family, health, and body.


But guess what? Your customers are no different.


While you, by your nature, want to talk about yourself and what you do in your marketing materials, your clients really want to talk about their issues so they can get some resolution and move on. What your clients really want to know from your marketing materials is "What's in it for me?"


If you came across a website whose message was something like this:


"Acme Telehealth is the premier developer of robust tele-presence applications for small to mid-sized hospitals to practice telehealth. Our company is made up of fifty of the nation's top engineers who specialize in creating powerful tele-presence technology and decision-support software for telehealth in multiple disciplines..."


- you'd likely click away.


But what if you end up on a page that says:


"Hospitals... Get started with your telehealth solution in 30 days and become the clinical center of excellence in your region. Designed for small to mid-sized hospitals, this full function solution takes all the mystery out of telehealth and enables you to get started with a complete playbook, equipment, and tools."


If you didn't have a telehealth solution already and were thinking about it, you'd at least want to take a look.


Marketing Sin #5: Focusing on features


This is absolutely the worst way to talk about your offering and ties into the ego-centric nature of most of the unremarkable marketing that is out there.


Unless you're talking to IT staff who assume the benefits of specific telehealth features, the worst things you can do are talking about the technical features of the solution: technical protocols, bandwidth, security, software and hardware specs, etc.


The basic formula is this:


1. Choose a product or service (or your business as a whole) and list all of its feature


2. For each and every feature, ask yourself, "So what? Why would someone want this?" The answer to this question is the benefit.


To put it another way, don't just tell what it is; tell what it will do for your client.


Marketing Sin #6: Missing the target


The basic question is this: "Who is your target market?"


If your answer is like any of the following...


* "I don't know"


* "Anyone with money"


* "Anyone who will listen to my pitch"


* Something really broad like "hospitals" or "physicians"


... stop all your marketing and advertising right now! And don't spend any more time, energy, or money marketing your business until you've found the real answer.


Why? Because you are definitely guilty of "Missing the Target".


People buy products or services that solve a problem, fill a need, or help fulfill a dream. And everyone's problems, needs, and dreams are different.


If you try to speak to too broad a market, chances are that you won't be speaking to anyone with any specificity that makes sense.


Marketing Sin #7: Marketing Insanity


What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results.


If you answer "Yes" to any of the following questions, you are probably guilty of Marketing Insanity:


1. Do you do marketing or advertising without tracking results?


2. Do you have several months' data showing you that you are not on track to reach your goals, but you haven't done anything about it?


3. Do you find yourself complaining about the same problem three or more times without making a change


4. When you are presented with a new idea or system for your business, do you hear yourself saying "I don't want to change anything", or "it will never work for my business"?


The Last Word


It's clear that these 7 deadly sins of telehealth marketing can apply more broadly to many industries and areas. That is because the tough job of marketing has many common pitfalls, regardless of industry.


And because marketing is a tough job, you have a potential edge over your competitors who are likely guilty of one or more of these sins as well - and unaware of it. You could be one eliminated sin away from edging out your competitors and getting all the telehealth-related PR, patients, and profits you want.


It is a fact that in virtually every industry, better marketers win!


Great telehealth marketing strategies can have a powerful impact on the growth of your telehealth program, product, or service.


In addition to superior marketing, there are a number of other strategies that are absolutely critical to being successful in telehealth and telemedicine. That's why it's important to make sure you address them all.


To learn more about these winning telehealth strategies, download the free eBook "The 10 Secrets of Telehealth Success" at http://www.handsontelehealth.com/freebook


A few testimonials -
"A must read for both the novice and the experienced involved in telemedicine."


"Clearly and succinctly articulates the key points that every telehealth program should follow point by point. His experience, knowledge and analysis display an outstanding insight into how a successful telemedicine program or network should work."


"Very Good resource, practical, easy read and has captured most of the issues that one needs to consider for Telehealth. I will be referencing it for some documents I am creating internally"


http://www.handsontelehealth.com/