Posts filed under 'Event Marketing'
December 16th is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day ~ How about a contest inviting customers to come up with the most original or zaniest “recipe” covered in chocolate? Be sure to spell out the “rules” and include a RATED PG clause J (unless of course you run an exotic dance club).
PS. Be sure and let us know how you promote Chocolate Covered Anything Day! And if you’d like more great ideas for marketing your business be sure and leave a comment below. We will send you a link to What Today Is – How to Promote Your Business Using Quirky, Zany Holidays 2009 ~ Marketing Calendar.
December 16th, 2008
If Tradeshow marketing is in your plan for 2009, now is a good time to begin thinking about and creating a plan of action to make the most of the tradeshow experience for your company.
Here are my twelve tips for Successful Tradeshow Exhibiting. Print them out and include in your “tradeshow checklist.”
1. Bring plenty of brochures, business cards, flyers and other informational literature to give out to all attendees.
2. Create a tradeshow special and promote on flyers, coupons and in the show program.
3. Plan and pre-arrange your display table prior to the show.
4. Always dress appropriately and comfortably for your business.
5. Bring a change of shoes. You may start the day with a comfortable pair of shoes, however by days end, your feet will be tired and a change of shoes will give you some relief.
6. You will need one or two people to staff your booth. If you have extra help, have them walk around the show inviting other exhibitors to stop by.
7. Add color to your booth, either in the form of flowers, a plant or balloons (if appropriate and allowed).
8. See who else is exhibiting and introduce yourself. You may just find a complimentary business to cross promote with.
9. When talking with people you meet, write notes about them on the back of the business cards you received.
10. Put the leads you receive in a database and follow up immediately - Send Out Cards are an excellent follow up system. You can upload the database and automatically send the cards through the Send Out Cards website.
11. NEVER take your booth apart early.
12. Smile and have a wonderful day.
Wishing you much success in planning and executing the perfect tradeshow!
December 13th, 2008
A few weeks ago I had the chance to listen in on a seminar hosted by Shannon Cherry and Ready Talk. It was about increasing event attendance to Teleseminars and Webinars. And I just came across my notes and thought I’d share them with you.
1. Find your voice – Shannon said it is important to know what it is you want to accomplish with the event. Will the event position you as an expert at something? Will it add value to your audience? Will hosting it add to your database or bottom line (or both)? Do you know what you want to say? Who is webinar for? (Demographics)
2. Develop Key Messages ~ Attract more prospects. get more attendees. Make more money, become the expert in your field
3. Use marketing tools available such as press releases.
A. There are basically 3 types of press releases: 1) the basic announcement 2) a tips release with bullets and ideas to reinforce the event and 3) the bonus offered for sign up release.
She said to post on all release distribution sites and traditional media every 2.5 to 3 weeks 10 weeks prior. Some of the sites she recommended include: Theopenpress, pr buzz, prcompass, prurgent, press-base, pressabout, pressmethod, prleap, prlog.org,
B. Email campaigns - Event listings, feature write ups, articles on topic that link to event – 9 weeks prior
Also solo listings to announce event, benefits of event and a last call (Shannon said solo listings are much better than ezines etc.)
C. Joint Venture Opps – Find others with similar traffic market and ask if they will promote to their list ~ if event has a fee, have affiliate commission, if not offer to help promote their stuff as well
D. Write 3 articles on topics webinar covers ~ ezinearticles.com, amazines.com, ideamarketers.com, goarticles.com starting 8 weeks out – send out one per week.
E. Blogging ~ tweak content to make original, create six new pieces of content to post to blog 6 weeks out one per week
F. Social media ~ every time you post on your blog send a brief chatty post (headline) using ping.fm to post to all social media sites at once ~ go to startupspark.com – get code for free there
Go to www.beheardsolutions.com/ReadyTalkwebinar.htm for checklists and timeline
OTHER TIPS:
Put contact at bottom of release, not at top! News should be more important than you!
After registration: Send confirmation email thank you for registering, with details to attend ~ also the day before send a reminder follow up.
Post your event to Craig’s list.
How do we make money with free teleseminars? You can now market to list, they can sign up for your newsletter ~ they are now in the marketing funnel and will start getting your stuff…
CAUTION: Only send emails that would add value to your recipient. Otherwise you will be thought of as a spammer and folks will ask to be removed from your list. Be careful to respect their time and above all their privacy. Even when I get the registrant into my “funnel” they may only hear from me once every 3 to four months unless of course they sign up for one of my offerings and then it will depend on how often that system sends information and offers to the list.
BTW, on November 7th I interviewed Eddie Peters of 4Profit Marketing about this very subject. He gave some great tips and also made an incredible offer to our guests. He has a Marketing system worth over $1,200 and he offered it to anyone who signed up for his session for only $99. If you want to learn more, send me an email to heidi (at) redheadmarketingblog.com. I will pass on the details.
Also, on December 4th I will be speaking at the International Association of Hispanic Meeting Professionals on “How to Leverage Social Networking to Grow Your Business.” If you live in or will be in San Diego at that time, you can register for this event. It takes place Dec. 3-6th. Here’s the link: http://www.iahmp.org/iahmp_folder/annu_conference/iahmp_annual_conference.htm
Hope to see you there!
December 10th, 2008
Did you know???
December is Bingo’s Birthday Month? - Why not host an online Bingo contest… As part of the promotional campaign, the Women’s Internet Marketing Summit hosted a BINGO Game – ( BINGO stands for Bookmarked Interactive Network Games Online) the Internet based version of BINGO using randomly selected Internet marketing terms (Bingo Lingo) in each of the 25 boxes contained on the card. Check it out at: http://www.womensinternetmarketingsummit.com/ -
It’s also National Write a Business Plan Month – Time to plan for the future – Check out the Business Plan Guide at http://www.bplans.com/dp/ and the tutorial on the SBA Site at http://www.sba.gov/library/pubs/mp-32.pdf . There is no time like the present to write or re-write yours.
December 6th, 2008
November 10-17 is World Kindness Week - Citizens Bank wants to promote good intentions by partnering with its employees and customers to volunteer in their communities. They do so by inviting their customers to participate in “Join Us” a volunteer program they originally designed for their internal customers, their employees.According to the bank “Asking customers to volunteer – is a great way to align your company with a variety of worthwhile causes and boost your brand identity.”
Join Us uses the tagline “We’ve noticed working in the community hardly ever feels like work,” and is promoted on their website with a listing of local nonprofits and projects their customers can get involved in. The program has garnered Citizens over a million hits as well as media attention. Mudd Jeans does something similar highlighting the community commitments of extraordinary teens and MINI has used similar campaigns directed toward its passionately loyal customer base.
November 9th, 2008
October 23rd is National Talk Show Host Day – Do what Mark Hughes, marketing consultant did. He says that when Steve Forbes, editor in chief of Forbes magazine didn’t return his calls, he bought a cell phone at Radio Shack for $100 – activated it and FedExed it to Mr. Forbes. As soon as he received the receipt that the package had been received he started calling the cell phone. Imagine being Mr. Forbes, a box is ringing in your office, what do you do? Open it and answer it – of course!
Hughes made an impression, got Forbes attention and ultimately ended up getting what he was after… an endorsement on a book he had just completed. You could send the phone to your favorite talk show host and see what happens.
Are you a woman in business? And expert in a particular field? An inventor? Send a note to me ~ Heidi (at) WECAI.org and let know your area of expertise! I’d love to interview you!
October 23rd, 2008
October 5-11 is National Work from Home Week– Working too hard? It’s time to get out of the house and treat yourself. During National Work from Home Week you could reconnect face to face with the public. Go shopping, network, visit clients, get a massage, manicure or pedicure or facial (or all of the above).
Join a forum and chat with other Work from Home Professionals. Find out how they run their businesses while they manage their lives. Check out Yahoo Groups for starters.
Attend an event in your community geared toward the Work at Home Industry. If there isn’t one, why not host a luncheon and invite other Work at Home’rs to attend? Call some companies that would benefit from getting in front of this unique market and ask if they would like to co-sponsor the event or have a “table” to showcase their products and services. It just might be a great opportunity to make some money for your time and efforts.
For more ideas to market your small business, grab your copy of the 2008 Marketing Calendar. It’s FREE!
October 5th, 2008
October is….
Diversity Awareness Month – if you don’t have the opportunity to travel to far off lands, get involved in a community organization where the participants are ethnically or spiritually different from you. Join an organization such as sister cities and get to know about our world.
National Book Month - Host a book fair, invite a local author to do a book signing, collect books for a local school or library. Read a good book in your industry and write about it in your newsletter. Have a recommended reading section of your newsletter and on your website and announce your picks for the latest books. Or you can do what my friend Susan does and be a volunteer reader for a book critic for a local newspaper. You get to write a brief summary of what the book is about and rate it.
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Volunteer with the American Cancer Society (ACS) or Gilda’s Club (or other similar organization whose purpose it to raise awareness of and to help women with breast cancer). How does this help you market your company? Well, I have been a volunteer with ACS for 17+ years now and started out in fundraising, moved on to programs and services and then began teaching their “triple touch” program to women in my community. I am now a “Triple Touch Training Instructor” and teach the teachers. Although it is not meant to be a marketing ploy - by being involved in a community organization that appeals to many, not only do we make lifelong friends - people learn about my company and quite often become my customers.
Women’s Small Business Month - Do what the WECAI Network™ did and host an event in celebration of Women. It was “How to Grow a Million Dollar Business (with pre and post events too). The event features wealth experts in prosperity, million dollar marketing to the affluent, million dollar networking, million dollar publicity and more! You can check it out at WHEREWOMENPROSPER.com. Contact experts you know (or have heard of) and invite them to participate.
October 4th, 2008
Is your business on the decline? Have you been looking for business in all the wrong places? Can’t compete with the “big guys” because you just don’t have the budget to pour into an advertising campaign to build your brand? Do what Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer did… Pour your advertising and marketing dollars into sponsoring subcultural events.
According to Marketing Sherpa.com, Pabst did just that and in 2003 they experienced a 15% increase in market share after a 20 year loss of almost 90% of its volume.
According to Neil Stewart, Senior Brand Manager for Pabst Blue Ribbon “We went for driving word of mouth and buzz,” They did this by sponsoring local musicians and events in specific markets. These events included fashion shows, kickball and dodgeball tournaments, art exhibits and scooter rallies. Pabst would support the events by donating beer (if permissible) and/or money to help them print fliers.
Over time, the Blue Ribbon brand developed a network of ambassadors to further help promote Pabst.
Before you consider sponsoring events like these, the article suggests you ask the right questions: They include finding out whose heard of the event, how fun it will be, who has sponsored in the past, how unique the event is and how much buzz it will create in the community.
September 29th, 2008
They share a day on the calendar!
September 28th is National Good Neighbor Day – Although Good Neighbor Day was started by Mrs. Becky Mattson in Montana with Congressional correspondence to The Honorable Mike Mansfield in 1971, it wasn’t really capitalized on until Brooks Jabobs of Jackson, Mississippi decided to promote the day by handing out a dozen roses to each of his patrons – the catch? They were asked to spread the news of the day by giving away 11 to people they encountered during the day and keep one for themselves – today the holiday is promoted through a well-known international wire service with several thousand florists participating each year. Want more ideas to promote GND – visit: http://www.natgoodneighborday.org/ideas.html
If you are in South Florida, near Miramar, be sure and stop by Eden Florist for your bouquet!
September 28th is also Office Olympics Day - How about having some fun with your staff? Invite your customers and clients to join in… Here are some ideas: Water Break Relays, Toss the Boss, Memo Mania, Beat The Clock, Human Post-It-Notes, Musical Office Chairs or even Copy Machine Gymnastics. Make up your own RULES and let the fun begin.
Excerpted from “Your Marketing Calendar.” Get your free copy at Speaking with Spirit.
September 28th, 2008
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