Haven’t been to a trade show lately? Would like to attend one, but the budget at the home office got cut? Well, cheer up, marketing maven, you likely have a treasure trove of trade shows right under your nose, or at least down the road. That’s because pretty much every major town has an exhibition centre of some sort and they’re most likely hosting a veritable buffet of trade fairs from which to choose. How do you find about these? Consult the local tourism board or exhibition centre in your area or simply drive by the arena with the large billboard sign. In our town, the main highway goes right by the exhibition centre that has a can’t miss sign welcoming…. “Women’s Expo 2013.” Me …

All Businesses Included Some of the fiercest competition among different businesses is between eating establishments.  The failure rate on new restaurants is some of the highest, especially the new ones, but older ones can succumb too.  So they are some who need to be especially keen on marketing and expanding their awareness to the public.  Those of you who are behind the scenes on these dining locations are doing everything you can to be sure they succeed. Step Forward The most positive method you can have for helping them to succeed is to participate in promotional products plan to hand out perfectly timed merchandise.  Now coasters for the tables are good but a product which will really be beneficial is the promotional apron.  These are …

Good Moves Whenever you are looking around for a new way to spread the good news about your company you know that using promotional products are the way to go.  They are always the most effective and budget friendly way to market and increase your name recognition across the board.  Every company realizes they have to get out into their target market and make an effort to connect with their possible clients, so when they use promotional products as part of the plan everything goes a bit better. What’s New? One of the fun things about promotional products is watching out for the new items which emerge and become very popular quickly.  Some of these are within the high technology arena, providing backup and accessories …

Let’s face it, sometimes the marketing business can be a Royal Pain. You offered them Plan A, B and C. Plan A was too expensive, Plan B didn’t move them, and Plan C doesn’t move you. You only included it to give them another choice, and that’s the one they’re looking at, unless you can come up with Plan D. But you’re out of ideas. Where to turn? How about the telly? Yes, there’s a supermarket of thousands of marketing ideas, some clever, some so jaw droppingly dumb that you laugh out loud. But you have a leg up on the poor defenseless consumer. You see this stuff all the time. The best ad ever was a National Lampoon parody featuring a big eyed dog …

Life Goes On Time spins by so fast we all have to make it stop every once in a while to re evaluate what our position might be.  This is especially true for marketing people in every business, small or large.  The choice available of what direction to turn can be overwhelming at times as you try to keep your business on track. Options Abound When you hit pause and stop to consider where you are and where you are going one method you know you will continue to keep in the plan is the promotional product portion.  This is a tried and true method for furthering the business name and keeping it in front of people’s minds and eyes.  You get to give away …

What did we ever do before there were e-mails? Honestly, I don’t remember. Ah, yes. Phone calls. Well, we don’t do that anymore, but that is a subject for another blog. Let’s talk about e-mails. Today, I fired up the Mac and discovered I had 250 e-mails in my In Box. That’s too many. They didn’t all arrive overnight; some have been hanging around for weeks, because they might be relevant later, they were part of projects still on-going, it cheered me up to look at them (“job well done”), or I just hadn’t figured out what to do with them. How did they get there? I’m sure every profession has its e-mail producers, but for writers, journalists, and marketers, it’s a bewildering collection for …

Look Around As your business grows you need to look at additional methods to expand the name recognition for additional business.  You have to move forward because you need to have more sales or services in order to grow and survive.  So it’s always the time to make time to review what you are doing on a day to day business for those who might be your customer. A Sure Thing A “for sure” winner to always have incorporated into your marketing scheme is to use promotional products.  These are a free giveaway that makes an impression on those who receive the items.  They don’t even realize that you are marketing to them, it’s just a free gift and who doesn’t want one of those?  …

Keep Moving You have to find the best way for your company to grow over time, and that always means some sincere time spent marketing.  It is essential to the life blood of your company, to keep more new business coming in time and time again.  You have to continue to recreate yourself to keep it all fresh and vibrant. New and Different What you have to do is to continue to offer new and different varieties of items in promotional product giveaways.  This is what will keep your customers always thinking of your company and placing orders for your products or services.  Your clients love getting these products and will continue to be loyal when you think of them! Good Ideas There are many …

Reaching Out Your marketing plan continues to evolve every day as you focus your energies in one direction or another.  That is the way it should be because you have to continue to grow your business.  An excellent method for making business grow is to increase your name recognition and that is easily done by using promotional products. Look Around While you probably already are handing out pens and magnets it is definitely good to be open to some new and different higher end merchandise.  One of these to evaluate is the promotional laptop bag.  Giving one of these away would make a huge impression on that client or prospective client; they would be very grateful to receive something so nice and would remember your …

By now, everyone has heard the expression “marketing in tough times” so often that it’s become a cliche. But, then, most cliches have the ring of truth–that‘s why they’re cliches–and after while it is true that if something goes on long enough it will become the “new normal” and people will adjust their expectations to whatever that might be. At some point, “tough times” gets “baked in the cake” as they say on Wall Street. This doesn’t mean the economic conditions still won’t be a factor, it just means certain conditions will be taken for granted as we discuss future business plans. But we’ll still need to be marketing. Why consumers buy or don’t buy has always been something of a mystery with many different …