For those of use who have spend a considerable amount of time at Trade Shows either as a guest or presenter know that usually hey are crammed events with a sea of booths. So what can be done to stand out from the crowd?

I have put together a short list of suggestions that have proven to work well for me. Weather you’re new to the Trade Shows bandwagon or a veteran, we could all use a little grease on the wheels.

•  Be a Trade Show Exhibitor, NOT an Attendee.
• Create a relevant atmosphere around your booth, using displays that depict what you do and expresses the benefits to the patrons of the event.
• Be exciting! Plan out some interaction ideas with your visitors. The more they become involved in your booth, the more likely they are to remember you. You have less than 30 seconds to catch the attention of your visitor. How are you going to do it?
• Have a prize Fish Bowl. This is a great way collect leads. Make sure you follow up on your leads promptly and professionally
• Have some gifts or promotional giveaways to draw from the bowl and award a new winner each hour as incentive for prospects to share their business card. 

Believe it or not… the point of a Trade Show is to catch the attention of a prospect and get to know them. This is how your sale is made. So don’t be afraid to chat it up with people and make a scene.

In several recent posts we’ve talked about how the sales process can be very difficult. We discussed how competitive industry markets are these days and how important it is to get a leg up on your competition through any means. To get in edge in the business world you need to go above and beyond, you need to offer your client something, outside of a great product, that your competitors don’t. In the case, we’re talking about promo products. Promo products are a great way to attract your client or customer to your business and ultimately push them over th edge into buying your product.

A key chain, designer pen, anything that can appeal to the customer and also get your brand image out to the public is a good way to win over your customer/client. Such a small gift is still a gift in the consumer’s eyes. It’s seen as a kind gesture and a way of thanking them on the side for doing business with them. This small gift and gesture can often times be enough to get them to buy into the bigger product you can offer. Call it a bribe, call it a gift, gestures like these can mean the difference between a healthy bottom-line and struggling sales numbers.

Loyalty in business does not necessarily have to be one sided. Brand-Loyalty is a phrase that is often thrown around and is a focus of many marketing plans. How does a business create brand loyalty? How do they get consumers to keep buying their products, even if they aren’t the cheapest, flashiest, or most convenient? This, my friends, is the loyalty that you hear about in business. What you seemingly never hear about, however, is company to customer loyalty.

Company to customer loyalty is just as it sounds, it’s the business showing the same amount of dedication to their customer base as the customer has hopefully shown to the business. An example of this type of loyalty could be a company deciding not to take the opportunity to raise their bottom-line a little bit by hosing a long time client…. or signing with a different client just to save a small margin. I mean, could you imagine doing business with a company that is willing to show this kind of customer loyalty?!

Simply put, for a business to show this kind of dedication and loyalty to their customers, it means that they have an immense amount of pride in their craft, their product, and the way they handle their business. They also respect their customers and want to build long term business relationships, not just one time sells. These are the type of people you want to do business with and be loyal to!

A few days ago, I pointed out that promotional products greater name recognition.  Now I want to talk about how that’s beneficial beyond the obvious. Here are a few reasons: 

1)     They’re tangible Most promotional products are products you can hold, you can touch, you can use.  They aren’t tucked away in a magazine or available in sight and sound for a quick 30 second shot on TV. 

2)     They’re useful (give quick examples)Oh, yes.  They’re not pet rocks or couch potatoes.  They provide a purpose, solve a problem, or make you feel good.  That makes them INHERENTLY valuable.  A lot less likely to be tossed in the bottom of the drawer – or in the trash.  Since they are useful and valuable, they’re more likely to stick around for a while. 

3)     They’re personal The reason you get a promotional item is because they want you to HAVE it.  You take it because you want to USE it.  Once you have it and start using it, it becomes…yours.  It’s not long a promotional item or a giveaway, its your customers personal property.  One that THEY use.  One that has YOUR name on it. 

4)     They’re long lasting Most corporate gifts are something that the recipient can use for a long time.  Be it a pen (until the ink runs dry), a calendar (for 12 or 16 months), or a golf umbrella at a tournament (a lifetime). 

5)     They’re portable If they’re tangible, they’re often portable.  That golf umbrella or golf towel can be seen on the golf course.  The pens goes with you everywhere.  In your pocket, on your desk, in you hand.  If you lose it, someone else is being advertised to.  The custom made sunglasses, the shirt or hat with the logo, the picnic set.   

6)     They’re memorable A story.  I grew up in a small village in Rhode Island called
Oak Lawn.  This was the late 1960’s. We had three gas stations nearby, one of which was a Shell station.  Back in the summer of 1969, I was in the second year of following my first love.  The
Boston Red Sox.  Now the local Shell station was giving away pictures of several players, along with a mug.  Every time we got in the car I wanted us to get gas.  I convinced both parents to exclusively go to that station to get gas – and the latest autographed picture.    

By the time I was old enough to drive – about eight years later, I, for some reason, preferred that Shell.  Always did.  And now I can remember why. 

Here it is, 38 years later.  I  still got those autograph pictures.  Pictures of relatively obscure players long retired.  And when my son asks me for a glass of milk before he goes to bed, he gets it in that glass mug that my mom brought home so long ago. 

Message:  promotional products can build AFFINITY.

 

 The $100,000 Question [4:16:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

• Not everybody can make $5,000 to $10,000 a month doing affiliate marketing. There is too much competition.
• There is no easy money that will fall into your lap without you doing anything. And in case there was any easy money I would keep that information to myself and not write it in an article read by thousands of people.
• You will find the best working affiliate opportunities only by finding them yourself, either through testing and research or networking and business development.

1. Google and Overture rock!
2. Do Mail Outs!
3. Consider your own affiliate program!

So whats the bottom line?

• Spend limited amounts of money to test offers and see how they return your investment.
• When you find something that works - scale it. And then repeat.
• Test your success!

Let’s take a look at the industry TheBestPromotionalProducts is in. OK. It’s obvious. We sell promotional products. Corporate apparel. Logo products.

Organizations like yours have used our ad specialties and business gifts to get their name out there and to strengthen their relationships with their customers, to establish or enhance a particular image they want to project. Or perhaps you’re a reseller who’s providing or looking to provide ad specialties to the suite of services you provide to your clients. Good call. You’d be entering a thriving industry.

This isn’t a small industry. It shouldn’t be. There are literally millions of companies and other organizations out there that are seeking to gain someone’s business. Or rather, a lot of people’s interest. If you’re reading this blog you are probably part of an organization that is doing just that.

In fact, it’s an $18.8 billion dollar industry. That’s $18,000,000,000. That’s approximately $60 is being spent each year for each and every American. All 300,000,000 of us.

Think about that. Millions of companies spending billions of dollars each year to attract the attention of three hundred million of us. That’s a lot of money spent…and a lot of money to be made.

There are a couple of reasons why those numbers exist. One is that “that’s what it takes” to attract that attention in the first place. A second is that IT’S EFFECTIVE. Here’s a telling example of a recent study put out by LJ Market Research for the Promotional Products Association International. In a survey of business travelers, it was found that 71 percent of them had said that they had received a promotional product in the previous year. Of those who had received a product, a significantly greater number could recall the name of the advertiser of the promotional product (76 percent) than those who could remember the name of an advertiser from a print publication they had read in the past week (53.3).

Hi there and welcome to the official blog for TheBestPromoProducts.com.  

We decided to establish this blog because we want to be more than just a company that supplies products.  We’re a marketing company.  We’re a relationship building company.  We’re an idea company.  We’re a customer service company. 

We’re looking to strengthen the relationships we have with our customers.  Whether we’re giving you our insight on marketing strategies and tactics, or we’re sharing success stories that we’ve come across that we feel could help you in your line of work, you can be sure that this blog is written for you.  To help you succeed, to market yourself or your organization, to help you make money. 

Since this effort is not just about us, we want you to play a role too.  Give us feed back and comments.  Tell us your concerns.  Share your success stories with us.  YOU are the reason this blog exists.

I am new fan of Comcast Wideband Cable. The idea of being able to transfer data over my Cable Internet at speeds over 150mb a second sure makes me think more outside the box of the way the Internet will evolve.

“What you’re about to see, is the first public demonstaration of the next generation, Wideband Cable Modems. Wideband, delivers speeds dramatically faster than todays Internet experience.” - Comcast Chairman & CEO Brian Roberts

Watch the video below and get pumped up like I am about this! Where do i sign up?!

The advantages could start right away; so many websites would be able to turn up the quality on the data they put infront of their audiennce. Sorta like we do with our large images.

I have decided to put together for you a series of articles going into detail the importance of building your company branding. Also known as “Your Image”

Image is everything in the world of developing new business and consistently impressing the people you currently do business with now.

The face of your company is your Brand.  Sometimes even the smallest things will reflect the image of your company.

• The attitude of the receptionist at your office.
• Your company voicemail.
• The professionalism of your invoices.
• If your tie is straight.

In this day and age, it is extremely important to represent your company in such a way that people will remember your name and have the warm and fuzzy feeling when they say or hear it again later.

We encourage you to focus on the small things. Once you perfect them, the rest will be obviously easy.
Always think of ways of representing your Branding to impress the people you do business with. Image is what will make or break you. Image is everything and it will last a lifetime.