• How do you create some “buzz” at your tradeshow booth?
• I know we have great products, but how can we get them to stop?
• How do I get them to engage?

Answer:

Create a promotion that will start a relationship with you.  Be the only company at your next trade show to use technology to create the “buzz”.  Use 2d bar codes and text messaging.

Here’s how it works:

You’ve spent a lot of money on being at the trade show.  Your booth looks great; your people are ready to go; you’re promotional products and literature are neatly lined up;

TDI Power Tradeshow Booth

So what’s the problem?

Everyone else looks great as well.  Everyone else is ready to go.  That’s THE PROBLEM! Or is it?

How about using some technology to create a “buzz” and start engaging with the attendees?

Here’s how it might work

Step 1:  Call to Action

• Think about a  killer “call to action”.  (I know you’ve got great products, but in order for the attendees to know this, you need to somehow engage them)
• Create some excitement behind your message.
• Develop a call to action that will get them to notice YOUR COMPANY.
• How about creating a contest?
  • Give away an IPad
  • Or a dinner
  • Or a round of golf
  • Or a flat screen tv
  • Let your imagination run wild

Step 2:  Make it easy and fun for them to register.

This is where technology and marketing come together in an exciting way!

We  are  working with TDI Power and created the trade show booth, the promotion, the promotional products, and signage.  It goes something like this:

•  
  • Your prospect is walking the floor of the trade show in Long Beach looking and thinking about the thousands of other things on their minds
  • They come by the YOUR COMPANY booth and they see the signs that I just gave examples of displayed in the YOUR COMPANY booth
  • They stop and say to themselves:  “text YOUR COMPANY to 77007 to win an IPAD?  Sounds easy, ok!”
  • Or they say, “that’s a 2d bar code.  I know what that’s for.  I can win an IPAD!”
  • So they take some sort of action.  They text or they scan.  In either case they are doing something to possibly start to engage with YOUR COMPANY.
  • They might even STOP at your booth and ask you about the bar code or the texting.
  • This is the goal. Get them to stop.
  • Now is your chance to engage them and find out about their interest as a potential prospect.
  • This is where the engagement either starts or continues…
  • Once they scan/text
    • You can have a text message sent to them to confirm that you have received their message
    • You can have an email sent to them with a PDF and a welcome message telling them that someone from YOUR COMPANY will be contacting them shortly
    • You can have an email sent to them that goes to a web “landing page” that is linked off the YOUR COMPANY website that asks them:
      • Name
      • Company
      • And any other contact information
      • I would recommend very, very short
    • In any communication you need to let them know that they are being entered into your contest and that someone will be following up.
    • It’s important to keep it short, keep it simple, and let them know you’ll be following up with them
  • Use “push” texting to communicate with them at points in the future.  In other words, they like texting, use it to communicate with them.  Don’t abuse it, but use it.
  • Follow up immediately
  • During your follow up, let them know that your intent is to learn more about your business and hopefully tell them about how YOUR COMPANY can provide solutions.
  • It uses technology to show that YOUR COMPANY is a company on the “cutting edge”
  • This translates into other areas of your business
  • It’s simple to implement
  • It’s simple to follow up
  • It creates some excitement or “buzz”
  • It’s inexpensive to implement
  • It gives you a method for collecting data
  • It’s a big step towards measuring ROI on your marketing efforts.
  • You need to communicate in your signage clearly
  • You need to be creative with your communication
  • Going forward, you might want to consider putting “text YOUR COMPANY to 77007” on some or all of your printed or promotional pieces (we can help with this)
  • You can do the same with the 2d bar code.
  • You need to explain the promotion to your sales organization so that they can explain the promotion to the attendees.  They will get questions.
  • The success of this promotion is all in how it is marketed internally and externally.


2d bar code

Here’s the scenario:

What happens when they text or scan?

Mission Accomplished…well sort of!

Your engagement with this prospect has now begun.  From here, it’s up to you on how to proceed.  I would recommend the following because you are learning about their preferences for technology and communication.  In other words, you learned that they like to communicate via their cell phone:

At this point the process goes back to your sales and marketing efforts.

Benefits of this promotion:

A couple of things to note:

As always, I’d love your feedback!

Good luck with your sales and marketing efforts!

Proforma ROI Promotions

Rich Mistkowski

908-507-2151

Rich.mistkowski@proforma.com

www.proformaroi.com

In the promotional business some of our customers want “stuff” just for the sake of giving away “stuff”.   And we are more than willing to help them with the “stuff”.  We make sure that since the “stuff” is going to have their logo on it, it represents them in the best light possible.

What if you want to go beyond “stuff” and create an experience? That’s really where the fun begins and the creative possibilities become endless.

Taking Paper & Making It Into A Billboard

Let’s think about a cube of paper.  Open your mind to the possibilities!  Every customer, including myself, fights for JUST the right item to make it’s way to the ever elusive “spot on the desk”.  The top of the desk is one of the places, there are others, that are considered to be prime for having your brand flashed in front of your customer or prospect’s face.

How about this?  Let’s take a cube of paper and turn it into a 4 COLOR, 5 SIDED BILLBOARD? Before you think I’m completely CAN BE a 4 COLOR BILLBOARD that sits on one of your client’s customers, associates, or prospects desks for a LONG, LONG  TIME.

Before you think that I’m losing my mind let me explain.

• using 4 sides for delivering the same or DIFFERENT messages in up to 4 colors
• printing on each page
• just to make it even more creative and valuable, using the bottom of the note cube to print contact information.  (so when they run out, they know who to contact for MORE)
• or customizing the shape of the cube?
• it’s important to note (no pun intended) that the very bottom of the cube should ALWAYS be a contact number or email.  As the cube disappears, the customer has a way of contacting you.

The Cost
Here’s a rhetorical question?  How much would a company be willing to pay for a spot on the desk that gets viewed, EVERYDAY, many times a day.  I might say that the end cost of the note cube is PENNIES!  It’s a great value to help communicate your message and build your brand.

Promotions Need To Have Staying Power

One last note about cubes, if you want to prove to yourself how much “staying power” a cube of paper on a desk has, tell your client to tell their sales people to hand out the cube of paper and write the date every time they visit their customer on the bottom. It’s an interactive and fun approach to measuring the effectiveness of a promotion and keeping the customer engaged.

Don’t just blend in, dare to be different, Stand Out From The Crowd .  In a world where everything happens quickly, why not have something that is going to take it’s time and leave a mark.  Things that run on electricity are pretty cool but sometimes it’s good to get back to basics.  Turn a cube of paper into $$$$ to help promote your brand.

It’s a question you should ask yourself whenever you put your company or organization’s name on any product that you spend your hard earned money on to promote your company. If you’re just doing a promo as a give away and doing it just for the sake of “doing it”, I’ve got some advice for you.  Save your money and DON’T DO ANYTHING.  DO NOT waste your money on promo products that do not achieve some sort of thought out result.  I’m serious, don’t waste your money.

However, if you’re serious about achieving a result, then go ahead and spend away. But think about your results and think about the senses that they touch. Here’s a little secret, “the more senses you touch or the more often you touch a sense, the more likely your product (your company) is going to be remembered”.

Think about it a minute, if I give you something and it looks good you might remember it.  What about if I gave you something and it not only looked good, but I was mesmorized or fascinated because it did some sort of “silly” dance?  Now  I’m incorporating sight and sight once again. The product not only is “interesting” or “cute”, but it does this really “cool” dance that makes me want to keep it around.  So you keep it on your desk, just because you’re fascinated by it.  YES!!!!!!  I’ve achieved the goal of gaining acceptance on the “ever elusive” desk that every marketer dreams about!  Score!!!!!

Now that I’ve achieved the spot on the desk, your product can go to work.  Day after day after day after day. Every time your prospect winds up this cool boogie bot and watches it dance, your prospect or customer sees your name.  Over and over again.  It’s the gift that keeps on giving. I love this cool boogie bot.  I’m fascinated by the colors, the movement, and the circle that goes “round and round”.   It will capture the attention of mostly all types of audiences. Great trade show, conference, or sales meeting promotional product.

Make your promotional product a “Promotional Experience” call Rich at 877-794-9510.

Brian says his dad used to say this all the time.  He jokes when he says this, but his dad and Brian are absolutely right!

Whether you work for a small, medium, large company, or yourself, it’s a great question that should be on your mind continuously.  Every day we manage multiple tasks and hopefully we take advantage of all of the “selling” opportunities or chances to promote ourselves and/or our companies.  It’s difficult isn’t it?

In same cases it is and other cases it may not be.  The obvious selling opportunities are…well…obvious.  But what about the very basic of the very basics?

How about a very simple “follow up”?  This seems obvious doesn’t it?  As my career has progressed over the years, it’s obvious to me that part of exceptional selling is following up…on EVERYTHING and with EVERYONE.

Once again, seems simple and obvious.  But one of my concerns for younger sales people is that they are not learning the “simple and the obvious”.   Every house is built on a good foundation and the same goes for training for a business career.  People who are or who want to be exceptional need to have a good foundation built on the simple and the obvious.

I’ll leave you with 2 great examples of what I view is exceptional follow up:

1. Jeff is a young man from Fedex who has been calling me for over a year.  He’s pleasant and not pushy at all.  He just follows up with me to remind me about his services.  I have been using UPS for a long time and really saw no reason to change.  I kept telling Jeff, one day I’ll give it a try.  After a year of follow up, he called and I gave it a try.  And you know what?  I loved the service and the pricing that I am getting from Fedex.  My business with Fedex has grown over the last few months.  Nice job Jeff!
2. Elaine from Curtis Business Forms has been calling me for well over a year.  I spoke with her yesterday.  She knows the “drill”.  I told her that I don’t have anything for her because I don’t do a lot of form work.  I told her to “feel free” to continue to call me because “you never know”.  Always pleasant, she said she’ll talk to me soon.  You know what?  YOU NEVER KNOW.

Do you know how to increase your chances of making a sale by 100%?  It’s simple…FOLLOW UP!

You’d think this is an easy decision, wouldn’t you?  You just sit down and start to type.

Yeah right!  There is absolutely nothing easy about this social media thing.  It’s challenging for a number of reasons:

• what should you focus your blog on?
• what do you say?
• how does it look?
• how does it flow?
• how do you categorize it?
• where do you find subscribers?
• what about this “feedburner thing”?
• will anyone find it intersting?
• should I use photos?
• should I use video?
• once again, will anyone care?
• once again, will anyone read?
• what should be my color scheme?
• and the list goes on and on…

So make no mistake about it, on the outside looking in, it looks like a “slam dunk”.  I WILL BLOG!

But there are lots of things to consider and your business could depend on it.  Don’t take this decisions lightly.

• Think about your goals
• Think about your customers
• Think about your prospects
• Think about your layout, color scheme,
• And most of all think about your topics
• And be consistent

I think the biggest key to blogging success comes from consistency and content.  It seems overwhelming if you look at it as ONE BIG BLOG.  Don’t make that mistake.  Break it down and be consistent.  Start on day one and then from then on, get yourself into a pattern and do it every day or as often as you need to so that you can develop that flow.

Look at your end goal of 1 year.  If you decide to use blogging 2x a week as part of your business strategy, at the end of the year, how many posts will you have?  (answer 104)  If you THINK about starting to blog and do nothing, how many posts will you have?

Maybe you’ll have a few, but you need to develop a consistent pattern and most importantly, be yourself and HAVE SOME FUN WITH IT!

3D offers an opportunity to bring all of these elements into something memorable.  3D is not the least expensive multimedia option, but it certaintly is one of the most exciting.

Check out this very brief 3D animation that we did for Sony:

I’m not sure if I’m showing my age when I have certain basic expectations.  Things that come to mind are things like:

• hello
• good -bye
• please
• thank you
• god bless you when someone sneezes
• a response when I talk to someone
• follow up
• a smile here and there
• EYE CONTACT!

I was brought up to “treat others as I would like them to treat me”.  I’ve carried that over to my business and I think it has been a big part about who I am and how I do business.

I think the term “customer service” covers a lot of these words that I mentioned.  So I’m wondering to myself

• What happened to customer service?
• Is customer service gone?
• Can customer service be resurrected?
• Does customer service matter today?

I LOVE good customer service.  It’s so noticeable (AND RARE) to have a company or person provide exceptional customer service.  It’s so rare, that it really stands out when it happens.  (which isn’t a good thing)

I order supplies from a company called ULINE (www.uline.com) They ar a pretty big company, but their service is exceptional.

• A real person always picks up the phone
• They are always polite
• They are always helpful if I need help
• They are always appreciative of my business
• They do a great job

So when it comes to customer service, has it come down to the fact that we just have to accept lousy service?  And does that make it ok?  I’m hoping that we don’t because that’s something that I just can NEVER accept.  I personally think that a good foundation for any company is a good fundamental understanding of how imporatant it is to provide EXCEPTIONAL CUSTOMER SERVICE!

What do you think about this issue?

I’m not sure if there is an answer?  But as the owner of a video production company, I’m thinking that video is a pretty effective way to get your message across to customers and prospects for sales, marketing, and training purposes.

What do you think?  I’d like to know….Quick Survey

I spend a lot of time prospecting, working on projects, referrals, postings like this, etc.  It all goes towards a common goal.  Trying to grow my company by showing the value that the multimedia and video solutions that Proforma ROI can offer can, in turn, help our customers grow their businesses, inform their employees, or train their customers.  Bottom line, we try help our customers increase their exposure by using video and multimedia effectively.

Prospecting is an absolutely exhausting process.  I spend a lot of time:

• trying to find the right prospect
• making sure we can add value for this prospect
• trying to find the decision maker
• trying to introduce myself
• trying to make sure that they might be a “little” interested
• staying in touch with our “touch” program.

Our “touch” program is designed to stay on your “radar”.  Our goal is to stay in front of you without staying in front of you TOO much.  In other words, without being a pain in the neck.

Getting back to the frustrations of prospecting.  Yesterday, I received a call from a person who was prospecting me.  I am always very respectful of people who are trying to sell things to our company.  I understand the challenges of their job and I try to treat them as I would want to be treated.

• he introduced himself
• I asked him how he was doing
• I listened to his short pitch
• I stopped him when he took a breath
• I told him he was wasting his time with me

I stopped him and told him that his time was better utilized focusing on other types of companies.  That our company does not buy the types of services that he had to offer.  He asked me a couple more questions and then he thanked me for my time and said good-bye.

Later yesterday, I made a few calls and talked to the VP of Marketing at a very large prospect.  He listened to my questions and then told me the EXACT same thing that I told the person who had called me earlier in the day.  He was very, very nice and said that I could stay in touch, but that his company almost NEVER goes outside for video production services.  He told me that he valued my time and that it was probably better spent on other companies.

It wasn’t a yes, that’s for sure.  But what a GREAT call!  (and nice guy!)

After all, my goal with prospects is not to stay in touch with a person or company who clearly does not need my help.  My goal is to work with people in companies where:

• I can add value
• increase their exposure
• and ultimately grow their customer base

So NO really isn’t that bad.  As I learned as a younger (much younger) sales person, “every NO gets me closer to a yes!”