Three Key Partnerships That Can Make Your Business Trade Show Exhibits Even Better

Veteran businesses working the marketing convention circuit understand that while there are many factors that go into measuring overall return on investment, the total number of guests that visit their trade show displays is the most critical. Without a consistent, streaming line of visitors to company trade show booths, generated leads, networking opportunities and prospects for closing business all diminish significantly. Thus, strategically-minded business leaders constantly endeavor to ensure that their trade show exhibits are armed with all the necessary tools to garner and hold the crowd's attention.

Don't Be A One Man Show With Your Business Trade Show Displays

While the quest to help your businesses' trade show booths can feel overwhelming, particularly for organizations making their initial foray into this promotional arena, it doesn't have to be. In addition to having aesthetically compelling and informative displays, companies can also strategically align themselves with affiliated partners that offer services that enhance overall crowd participation. Understanding three key partnerships to strike when participating in trade show displays can help ensure that your team best leverages every opportunity and maximizes return on investment at each event.

Affiliations Can Draw In The Crowd And Help Keep Them Engaged

Interactive Attraction: One of the best ways to entice visitors to your marketing stands is to offer an event that helps your booth stand out from the competition also working the function. When strategizing an exhibit draw, consider teaming up with an organization that specializes specifically in traffic building at these events. These vendors offer fun items such as golf simulators, prize wheels and even money machines to pique the interest of the attending guests and have them clamoring to get a closer look at what your organization offers. Whenever possible, work with a provider that not only offers services where the event is being held, but also offers a comprehensive assortment of options so your trade show displays can always offer something new and different at each event.

Keynote Speakers: Aligning your company with a team that specializes in keynote speakers can also help boost booth business. Offering seminars and speeches from industry experts is a great way to generate a little convention buzz and get the crowd excited about what you have going on. Again, always try to align your team with an organization that offers various speaking formats and presenters with a wide range of expertise to always keep the vibe in your stand fresh and current.

Staff Trainers: Finally, getting guests to your exhibits is only the first half of the success equation - keeping them engaged is the only way to generate leads and network. Partnering with a firm that offers staff training for these marketing conventions can play a critical role in the overall result. Work with an organization that offers various training models and customization options to ensure that your team hits the event floor poised to turn every conversation into a lead for the ultimate event experience.

Looking for award-winning innovations in trade show displays to help your business make a big impact? Skyline Canada can help. Offering cutting-edge options for trade show booths throughout Canada, Skyline knows how to help your trade show exhibits get the attention they deserve! Contact them today to hear more!

What Is Near Field Communication?

Near Field Communication, typically abbreviated NFC, is a technology that establishes radio communication between devices in close proximity. While NFC technology is not yet ubiquitous, it is being incorporated into more and more smart phones as well as into advertising campaigns and store checkout points. NFC allows a smart phone user to touch his phone to any other device with an NFC chip in it to establish an instant connection. Using this technology, two smart phone users could exchange contact information or files, or even play a two-person game together simply by briefly touching phones.

Another use for NFC technology that both retailers and consumers are excited about is making purchases by simply touching your phone to an NFC-enabled device at a point of sale terminal. This eliminates the need to use credit or debit cards, which could easily be lost or stolen during the checkout process. The two NFC devices do not actually need to be touching for a connection to be established, but they do have to be within an inch and a half of each other, which makes it difficult for any other devices to pick up on the information being transmitted. Additionally, when used for transmitting payment information a secure channel and sends encrypted data to further reduce the possibility of a third party stealing the information.

NFC chips can also be utilized in a passive manner and may eventually take the place of QR codes in some advertising campaigns. Static NFC chips can be embedded in posters, displays or virtually anywhere. When a smart phone user touches his phone to the chip, the phone would collect information or files from the chip. This time of communication is one-sided, which means the phone can gather information from the chip, but the chip cannot collect any information from the phone.

Several cell phone service providers are exploring the possibilities of NFC technology, as are credit card companies, PayPal and even Amazon. There are even a few rumors going around about Apple incorporating NFC technology into the iPhone 5. As more and more smart phones become NFC enabled, you'll see an increase in the number of businesses utilizing NFC technology to collect payments and provide information. Once this technology becomes more prevalent, you'll be able to leave your house each day with just your smart phone in tow. No longer will you need to carry around a bulky wallet filled with credit cards, debit cards, discount cards and transit passes. All you'll need to do is touch your cell phone to an NFC device and you'll be set.

Chris Jenkin is a CEO for Gotcha! Mobile Solutions, Inc. He writes/blogs during his free or spare time. Writing about Mobile Marketing and QR Code Technology. You can visit Gotcha!'s blog for more informative articles relating to Mobile Marketing.

How Lawyers Can Use Marketing To Identify And Sift Out Hot Prospects

One reason why many lawyers don't like marketing or think it is not worth the effort is because they have not done it properly in the past.

This could be for a whole lot of reasons, but more often than not it is because of a lack of time and expertise.

There is also the confusion many lawyers have about marketing and sales - i.e. should marketing result in new clients signing up immediately or should it be separated totally from the sales function?

I want to answer these questions by focusing on what marketing should be...

Marketing should help lawyers identify prospects that are looking for specific legal services and have the money to pay to achieve their desired goals.

Given this, any marketing by law firms should focus on sifting out hot prospects as soon as possible so that the appropriate communications and resources are directed to them.

This does not mean prospects that are more likely to buy later should be ignored. Marketing for these means nurturing them until they are ready to buy, as they should be handled differently because they are at a different stage of their purchase cycle.

When people get confused about marketing and sales, a simple way of differentiating them is this...

Marketing identifies the hot prospects, and sales converts them into clients.

They are linked - to be honest, many successful lawyers don't even bother to separate them out as marketing and sales fall into one 'business development' function with defined steps to guide prospects through sales funnels.

One reason why lawyers need to identify who is most likely to buy their legal services soon is because it stops them blanketing everyone with the same message, something that is pretty useless and wastes money.

So how can lawyers identify the hot prospects in the first place?

There are some key steps they have to go through to get this right consistently:

First of all, think about your sales funnel - what are your goals and what would the ideal sales funnel look like?
Identify a niche to focus on - marketing to everyone is less effective and wastes resources;
Provide information that you know your market is looking for and make it easy for readers to find - blogs, articles, free guides, webinars or seminars are a fantastic way of getting yourself top of mind within the minds of prospects;
Capture your prospects' contact details and create calls to action so that those who need your legal services sooner are forced to act and follow steps you have outlined, or they simply self-select themselves to take the steps necessary to contact you first;
Have well-defined touchpoints and communications so that you guide prospects through your sales funnel according to their readiness to buy your legal services. This means having a mix of offline communication tactics that are integrated with your online / social media ones.

The key thing is to make prospects with an urgent need for your legal services to put their hands up and, based on the free information you have willingly and consistently provided, make an educated decision to select you above all other options available.

If you have developed effective authority marketing strategies, then you stand out from your competitors and the prospects that know they have a problem that needs to be solved will want to choose you.

Eria Odhuba helps lawyers implement social media and new online business models to attract more clients to their practices, giving them the chance to be successful and enjoy the things they would like to do but can't because they have no time or money.

He helps lawyers position themselves as leaders within their target niches and creating platforms to increase their visibility despite the competition they may face. He creates messages that answer the questions going on the in the minds of prospects and, when combined with an effective lead capture system, helps lawyers develop a winning platform from which they can develop trust with prospects and win new business without the need to do any hard selling.

If you want to know how to put a new online business model in place to prepare your law firm for more effective social media, online and offline web marketing strategies that help you attract an endless stream of clients or prospects to you, please sign up for the FREE 7 day video series.

Is Your Business Ready to Blog?

Not sure if your company should be blogging?

Take this quick, 5-Step Blog Readiness Test to find out.

I hear this question all the time from business owners, "Do I need a blog?"

My answer is usually, "It depends." Every company is different, so answering the question about whether your business needs a blog requires a quick assessment. Answer these questions to see if your organization is ready to take on the blogging challenge:

Are you genuinely interested in writing a blog? Do you really want to blog, or would you just be doing it because you've heard that you should? If you don't want to write yourself, are you willing to allocate resources from you team (or hire someone) who can bring passion to your blog?
Are you committed to blogging consistently? Whether your posts come monthly, weekly or daily, you need a consistent blogging schedule. You can plan ahead and post later, as long as you establish a pattern your readers can depend on. Adding fresh posts on a regular basis will help build a loyal following of readers for your blog.
Do you have something to say? You don't need to have earth-shattering insights, but a unique point of view and interesting perspectives are important to the success of your blog. Repeating the same old information that can be found anywhere online only adds to the noise in the blogosphere. Add value instead.
Do you have the skills or resources required to optimize your blog? Maximizing the reach and impact of your blog takes some know-how. From keywords to design to SEO, getting the most from your blogging efforts may require you to gain some additional skills - either by learning them yourself or getting outside help.
Do you know who your audience is and what they want to read? Blogging isn't about you, it's about giving your readers what they want. What kind of information and ideas can you share with your readers to make them happy they took the time to read your blog? If you don't know who your readers are or what they are interested in, find out before you start blogging.

What's Your Score?

How many questions did you answer "Yes" to?

1-2: Baby steps. A blog might not be for you - at least not yet. Work on adding a few more "Yeses" to your list first.

3-4: Toddler time. You're walking now, but you may want a hand now and then.

5: Run and Play. Go for it! You're ready to blog, so why not start now?

Tell me what you think....Was this little quiz helpful? Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments below.

Joellyn "Joey" Sargent is principal of BrandSprout LLC, an Atlanta-based strategic marketing and management consulting firm. Joey brings fresh perspectives to challenging business issues, helping her clients succeed by building brand awareness, engaging customers and increasing market share.

A passionate advocate of entrepreneurship, Joey has founded 3 companies, was a key executive with two start-ups and has worked for Fortune 500 companies including UPS and BellSouth (now AT&T). With global leadership experience in branding, strategy, and communications, Joey advises business owners on strategies for dramatic growth, building high-performing marketing teams and leveraging technology for maximum impact.