Trade shows. They can be boring or exciting. And yes, your feet can kill you after standing all day waiting for a potential customer to turn in your direction.

Exhibiting at trade shows brings new leads, the chance to meet up with clients and catch up with old contacts. However, in addition to sales and seminars, trade shows present many excellent publicity opportunities.

Follow the 8 tips below to ensure a successful and beneficial trade show experience:

1. Make sure the show is right for you. Not all trade shows and events have your customer coming through the door. Make sure you know exactly who is attending and that they are your target market.
2. Make a deal before you commit. Event organizers can – and do give booth discounts. Well organized events, at minimum, provide a list of attendees after the event so exhibitors can follow up. More organized events provide participant contact information before the event, as well as after. Other value-added benefits to inquire about include: being included in participant email distributions promoting the event, as well as an advertisement in the event show guide.
3. Write pre-show press releases which include a booth number. Get a list of the media attending from the organizer before the show and send a press release to them. Make follow up calls to the media and set up appointments at the booth for reporters to see what you’re offering. Smart companies work weeks, and sometimes months ahead, establishing strong relationships that can pay off big, long before the show is under way.
4. Research the competition. By finding out about other booths and what they have to offer, you can better strategically implement ways for you and your display to stand out. Use research results to brainstorm ways to make your booth and its products or services unique and appealing. In addition, some of your most qualified event leads come from networking with other exhibitors.
5. Make attendees work for their freebie. Giveaways are common at trade shows. But you can make your giveaway work for you by asking people to fill out a short survey to get it. Make the survey industry related and then announce the results at a press conference at your booth at the end of the tradeshow.
6. Speaking of giveaways, make yours meaningful to your business.. Don’t give something away for free just for the heck of it. Who cares if you collect 10,000 names because you ran a really cool promotion giving away a free iPod. If you’re a personal chef, what does an iPod have to do with your business? Nothing! Therefore, you’ve just collected 10,000 NON-qualified leads. Instead, as a personal chef you could try, “Fill out this survey to get your free copy of the special report “More Time and More Money: Using a Personal Chef to Get out of the Kitchen and Save Money on Your Food Budget”
7. Have business cards handy. Give out business cards to anyone interested in your work. This way, they will have your contact information at hand if they decide to pursue your services, or they can check out your web page if they are still considering.
8. Follow up potential leads in five days. Put your follow-up plan in place BEFORE your event. If you do not have a follow-up plan, then you’re wasting your time. Most of your sales will come after your event. At minimum, your plan could consist of a “Nice to Meet You Note with a Special Trade Show follow-up offer,” and adding your new prospect to your ezine.

The success of trade shows depends on exhibitors making the most of them. Many exhibitors don’t comprehend the enormous potential for publicity at trade shows, conferences, association meetings, and expositions. They spend a fortune to be at the shows, but they don’t capitalize on the publicity opportunities, which can impact their sales for the year.

image credit: *dans, on Flickr

Want more tips like these? Today is my birthday, and as part of the celebration, I’m giving away some gifts. Visit http://www.ThePowerPublicist.com grab birthday goodie bag that will help you with your publicity!

This month, in the Monday Media Marketing Minute, I’ll be talking all about developing marketing plans that you can easily implement. After all, many people work on new plans in the beginning of the year, so I thought I would highlight some essentials.

Find out more by listening in. (Just click on the play button above, or download to listen later!)

Image credit: Shannon Cherry of Be Heard Solutions

Tis the season.  But if you are in small business, you should really take a close look at this cool guy: Santa Claus. His marketing tactics and branding are awesome. And if you just emulate one of his strategies, you could really make a difference in your marketing efforts.
Find out what it is in this week’s Monday Media Marketing Minute.

And don’t forget to sign up for my ezine, for that very special giveaway I mention! go to http://www.beheardsolutions.com

Merry everything and happy always!

Image credit: Shannon Cherry, Be Heard Solutions

In this week’s Monday Media Marketing Minute, I share the technique that can help you get media coverage: being helpful.

Listen in and in less time than it takes to grab a cup of coffee, you’ll learn something that will help you really get a buzz!

Image credit: Shannon Cherry of Be Heard Solutions

In this week’s Monday Media Marketing Minute, I share why your press release most likely isn’t seeing the light of day.

And if you are looking for more tips and info on publicity and marketing check out my newest blog with Bizzia: Common Sense PR - and of course, The Power Publicist.

(image courtesy of Shannon Cherry of Be Heard Solutions.com)

In this week’s Monday Media Marketing Minute, I share some of best reasons you should be on Twitter - and all have to do with free publicity!

Check it out!

Tonight’s the night - and I’m very excited. In just a few hours, I’ll be hosting a teleclass with Visibility Expert Nancy Marmolejo. 

And I don’t want you to miss it.

That’s why you can check out this teleseminar as an introduction to the Penny Pinching Publicity program for free!

Join me and other Penny Pinching Publicists to hear Nancy and her amazing ideas to generate money and visibility using online publicity tactics. You’ll get to learn:

• What it really means to integrate your social networking and how it can dramatically increase your online presence and overall effectiveness
• 5 social networking sites you can start integrating TODAY with just a few clicks of the keyboard
• The 1 Big Strategy you need to stay consistent and memorable
• The incredible site that allows you to see what all your friends are doing on EVERY social networking site they participate on!
• How to maximize your online media reach with 3 essential tips from the pros.

Best of all, membership for your first month is free, which means you’ll learn all of Nancy’s tips and tactics to beat the recession for nothing - IF YOU SUBSCRIBE NOW. Plus, you’ll also get a ton of additional items to recession-proof your business, by boosting your marketing efforts in easy steps, including:

• What Reporters Want ebook - chock full of tips and guidance on how to use social media to increase your visibility to your target market

• A teleclass with me to help you with all your Social Networking questions

• A fill-in-the-blank news release so you can easily promote your business to the media
• A webinar featuring the Nancy Marmolejo from Viva Visibility, who will be sharing details on using how to create visibility for free using social media
• A newsletter sharing additional tips and tactics, including media profiles and contacts
• A forum to connect with me and other members to ask any marketing & PR questions
• A copy of the teleclass and webinar mailed to your door each month

Go to www.pennypinchingpublicity.com and sign up today before you miss Nancy’s great teleseminar.

(photos courtesy of Nancy Marmolejo & Shannon Cherry)

In this week’s Monday Media Marketing Minute, I’m sharing what I see as one of the biggest mistakes most startups and small business make.  If you buck the trend and stop this mistake, you will see a bigger ROI faster.

In case your own copy got eaten by the email gremlins, or if you haven’t signed up for your own copy, you might want to check out this week’s Be Heard ezine.

It includes ways to get your own free publicity, contacts for HR magazine, tips for getting on the radio and much more.

In this economy, every dollar counts. We need to tighten out belts and make plans for the future based on it. But if you’re cutting back you marketing efforts, you’ll find you will be leaving money on the table at the end of the day.Statistics show that ‘downsizing’ your marketing during tough times inevitably weakens your brand and your market position - and that’s exactly the WRONG position to take when in a down market.

While on the surface, cutting marketing costs may look good on the balance sheet, you should look at marketing as an investment in your business - not a cost. In many cases, long-term damage can result, leading to problem down the road.

And if you do cut back and hunker down to wait until things get better, you may be missing out on one of the best public relations (PR) opportunities in years! In difficult times, editors and journalists are searching for ‘good news’ - so even the smallest positive story can receive much acclaim - and bring more clients and customers to your door.

PR is also one of the most cost efficient tools available, which can be a blessing when finances are tight. Advertising, although it can be highly effective and should be a part of every business’s arsenal, can get very expensive, very quickly. The same is true for most traditional marketing campaigns.

PR, on the other hand, can achieve great things, even if the allocated budget is quite small. Online public relations can be extremely good value and is something that a business owner can do a lot of themselves, without having to refer to a PR professional.

I am sharing a ton of low-cost tips on do it yourself publicity at my other blog: The Power Publicist. Check it out today.