Austin, Texas: A few weeks back I had attended a trade show for the wholesale trade and was amazed at the number of people with banners touting “Eco-Friendly” and “Go Green”, etc.

Being a green marketing company, those signs immediately attracted my attention and I stopped at most of these booths.

Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed at how these firms substantiated their claims.

Just because an item can be recycled, does not necessarily make it eco-friendly. Many of these companies had no clue as to the recycle symbols on their products, whether or not it had any recycled material, country of origin, etc.

Customers are wary of claims that cannot be backed up with proof.

Then, on top of that, the majority of these companies had business cards that were not made on recycled paper stock or FSC-certified paper– nor were their catalogs or flyers.

Pay attention to the little things.

Going green means paying attention to the details, big and small..

If you claim to be green, at least know the issues that are affecting the country in terms of sustainability, carbon footprint and even climate change.

If your business cards and flyers are not recycled or FSC-certified, take down your “eco-friendly” banners- and decide if marketing to a green niche is the right target audience for you.

Marketing takes consistency.

Is your green marketing message consistent?

Tweet
————————————–——

Robert Piller, President of Eco Marketing Solutions, has over 25 years of experience in running and implementing green marketing campaigns and is a leader in the recycled promotional products industry, including offering one of the largest selections of reusable and organic tote bags, recycled and biodegradable water bottles, recycled pens and pencils in the country.

His company’s website, EcoMarketingSolutions.com, features over 25,000 eco-friendly promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find biodegradable, organic and recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame.

You can also reach him by email (robert (at) ecomarketingsolutions.com) or comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com or below at his Twitter link.

Austin, Texas:  As a marketer, it seems like it gets tougher and tougher to stand out from the crowd in a world of advertising, e-blasts, social media, etc.

As a green company, it is just as difficult.  Many people are using the word “green” in their name, in their product description, on their packaging, etc.

How can you catch your customer’s attention while so many other companies are also going green?

Well, have you thought about going green locally? Going green at the community level?

Think of ways to promote green outreach to your community.  It is easier to make an impact on a micro level, and it will build goodwill for your organization.

Here are a few simple ideas to keep your green message in front of your community:

1-Sponsor a portion of a highway for litter pickup.

2-Plant trees at a park or school or community center.

3-Speak at local organizations about how companies can “green their office”–such as at chamber of commerce meetings, Lion’s or Rotary Club meetings, etc.

4-Sponsor a booth or table at your city’s Earth Day Festival.

5-Start an Earth Day celebration in your town.

6-Team up with other businesses to promote green seminars, trade shows or fairs.

7-Get your vehicle wrapped with green messages and slogans.

8-Team up with other businesses and sponsor a Trash Pickup Drive–that takes oils, paints, batteries, prescription pills and other non-hazardous trash that cannot disposed of during regular trash pickup.  Get involved with your city’s Solid Waste Department to see how you can help.  You can also bring in the local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to participate with you.

9-Work with your city’s solid waste or public utilities department and see if you can help with donations, giveaways, speeches to the general public, cross promoting with their programs, etc.  City services have very tight budgets, and the more public support they get, the better.

10-Sponsor an e-Waste Trash Disposal drop off campaign.  These drop off stations can be wrapped or logoed with your brand — and you can work with local e-waste recycling centers to handle the recycling and disposal of these items.

11-Put together a YouTube or PowerPoint presentation about green issues concerning your community – and use it internally, promote it on social media, lend it to local news outlets and to city services, who might utilize it in some ways.  These presentations need to be 100% non-commercial, with just your logo and message at the end for a few seconds.  If it reeks of commercialism, it will fail.

12-Give out eco-friendly promotional items instead of plastic ones.   Each of these items, from imprinted environmentally-themed coloring books to information wheels should have educational value.

13-Practice what you preach in public.   This would include having a recycling program both at  home and at work, downsizing to a more fuel efficient vehicle, switching to CFL or LED lighting, etc.  Don’t be caught in a lie, promoting yourself as “green” just for appearance sake.

14-Keep in mind: It is important at these events to keep the focus on education and outreach on environmental issues-and not be a shill for your company.  You will have a much more positive impact on the audience.

Stand out from your competition.

Be creative.

How do you plan to promote your green organization to your audience?

I’d love to hear about it.

Let’s make Earth Day Every Day.
——————————————

Tweet

Robert Piller, President of Eco Marketing Solutions, has over 25 years of experience in running and implementing green marketing campaigns and is a leader in the recycled promotional products industry, including offering one of the largest selections of reusable and organic tote bags, recycled and biodegradable water bottles, recycled pens and pencils in the country.

His company’s website, EcoMarketingSolutions.com, features over 25,000 eco-friendly promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find biodegradable, organic and recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame.

You can also reach him by email (robert (at) ecomarketingsolutions.com) or comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com or below at his Twitter link.

Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and recycled promotional products, has worked to help plant over 25 million trees through his live tree seedling gift program over the past dozen years. His company’s website, EcoMarketingSolutions.com, features over 25,000 eco-friendly promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find biodegradable, organic and recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame.

You can also reach him by email (robert (at) ecomarketingsolutions.com) or comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com or below at his Twitter link.

Tweet

Happy Earth Day To You....

Ok…so Earth Day is almost here, have you finalized your Earth Day marketing plans or is Earth Day going to sneak up on you again this year?

Take a deep breath and start planning now.  Here are 7 last minute ideas to help you  promote Earth Day 2011.

1. Make it fun: Earth Day has a serious message but it can be explained and promoted in a humorous way.  Think of icons like Woodsy Owl , Gisele and the Green Team and Captain Planet.  Hold a contest to create your own Earth Day Superhero

2. Bring it Outside: Earth Day is a well-promoted event that should be geared towards the outdoors.  Hand out tree seedlings or flower seed packets. Encourage a trip to a national park, the woods or to another natural habitat to help people get a greater appreciation of nature and its interdependence on a clean environment.

3. Make it educational:  Earth Day is the perfect time to educate the public about pollution, climate change, energy efficiency, clean water, recycling or any other particular green cause.  If you have a product or service that can help in any of these areas, this is the perfect event to promote your business and the green message—without being too commercial.

4. Use green promotional products: All materials that are distributed should be eco-friendly, from the printed materials printed on FSC-certified paper to your promotional items, such as biodegradable balloons, recycled flying discs, coloring books and tote bags.

5. Encourage change: Make people think of what they are doing to contribute to climate change, energy dependence, increased landfill waste and encourage them to take a few steps to reduce their dependence.  If we can encourage a 10% reduction in the amount of waste that ends up in landfills or reduce our energy consumption by 10%, think about what a better planet we can be living in. Promote. Prostyletize.

6. Help People to Understand Their Carbon Footprint:  How people live their day to day lives affect their individual carbon footprint.  Make people aware of their personal impact on the planet.  A free, online carbon footprint calculator is a fun, no-cost way to gain greater understanding.

7. Make it Memorable: Be creative.  Think outside the box.  Make Earth Day 2011 stand out.

What are you going to do to make Earth Day 2011 the best ever?  Please let me know.   I look forward to hearing your comments.

——————————————
Tweet

Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and recycled promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green.  The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

So… you claim to be a green company. Is that so? How? What makes you so green?

If you are going green and promoting that fact to your clients, why should your clients and prospects believe you?

Part of being a green company, or a green marketer, is to practice what you preach.     Internally, have you asked yourself the following questions?:

1. Are you printed materials run double-sided on FSC or SFI Certified paper?

2. Have you switched to recycled USB drives to give to clients instead of catalogs? Why not? These can be very inefficient and can be either preloaded with your marketing material – or burned on an as-needed basis.

3. Do you recycle? Are you recycling your old printed products, catalogs, flyers, etc.? Read more…

The FTC has made some of their proposed revisions to the Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides, which are a set of guidelines aimed at clearing up confusion since its last update in 1998.

These are preliminary guidelines, as the FTC is still seeking public comment on the updated guidelines for 60 days, before issuing a final version, which will not be announced until late 2011, at the earliest.

“The Green Guides were designed to help businesses avoid making misleading environmental claims,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters. “That, of course, helps consumers.”

Leibowitz described an “explosion” of green claims being made for a variety of goods, ranging from paper towels to textiles, leaving consumers confused about what they’re buying. “We’re not always getting what we think we’re getting,” he said.

At the same, businesses are also unclear about the environmental attributes of their products, so clear cut rules will help all parties. These new guidelines were supposed to be ready by 2009, but, like every other government project, things seem to take much longer than anticipated.

The FTC is looking mostly to have companies able to substantiate their environmental claims, and to use more narrowly-focused terms rather than “eco-friendly” or “green”, to avoid confusion.
I am sure the final guidelines will be watered down, unfortunately, as “interest” groups on all sides weigh in.

However, best business practices are to always be able to substantiate claims a company makes, be it in terms of sustainability, biodegradation, energy efficiency and any other factors. Common sense will prevail in the end.

Let’s make every day, Earth Day!
——————————————
Robert Piller, experienced in green marketing campaigns and recycled promotional products. His web site includes a comprehensive advertising specialty search, featuring over 250,000 eco promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find recyclable, biodegradable, organic or recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame. View the Go Green website at EcoMarketingSolutions.com and comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com.

According to a recent study, Toyota and BMW use their economic, environmental and social resources more efficiently than other worldwide automakers, with US manufacturers still lagging behind.

The study, from Belfast’s Queen’s University Management School, the Euromed Management School Marseille and Berlin’s Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment , measures the sustainable performance of worldwide auto manufacturers from 1999 to 2007, comparing resource use efficiency of production for factors such as emissions, work accidents, waste generation and water use.

In an interesting formula, they created a new, yet vague term, sustainable value, as the basis of their metrics. Read more…

Reusable Tote Bags Are Ideal for Trade Shows

When it comes to environmentally friendly trade show give-aways, few items give more bang for the buck than imprinted tote bags. Trade show attendees are constantly looking for quality bags to put their catalogs and handouts into, and a heavy-duty tote bag will be used over and over again—long after the trade show has ended. Tote bags are light in weight, fold up easily and they help prevent dozens of plastic bags from ever being needed.

Robert Piller, president of Eco Marketing Solutions, notes, “Imagine the return on investment that a reusable tote bag offers, when you factor in the hundreds of people who will be carrying your billboard sign around a trade show floor promoting your company.”

With all the choices of eco-friendly promotional tote bags, how do you choose which is the best tote bag for your budget? Below are the five most popular types of eco-friendly tote bags and information to help you choose the correct tote bag for your needs.

1. Cotton/Canvas Tote Bags: Cotton/canvas tote bags are probably the strongest and most durable of all tote bags. Cotton tote bags come in various weights and offer possibly the best value, as well. For trade shows, choose a cotton tote bag made with a minimum of 6 ounce cloth in order to carry and support substantial weight from catalogs, thus ensuring that the tote bags will actually be used. You can order these in natural color or dyed, depending on the impact of your logo and message. The canvas material is not smooth, so small fonts and detailed logos should be avoided.

2. Organic Cotton Tote Bags (Organic Canvas Tote Bags): Organic cotton tote bags have all the characteristics of regular cotton/canvas tote bags, only they are made from organic cotton rather than natural cotton. Be sure to only choose natural color organic tote bags or you will be defeating the purpose and “organic” message you are promoting. Even with natural dyes available, always choose the neutral or natural fabric color when using organic cotton tote bags. Of the five types of environmentally friendly tote bags, organic cotton bags will usually be the most expensive option, but have the most appeal to the die-hard environmentally-conscious recipient. Because of the cost, organic tote bags are best for high end products or services, such as spas, real estate, salons, etc.

3. Recycled Tote Bags: Tote bags can be made from a variety of recycled materials—including denim, soda bottles and other plastics. The plastics are processed and refined and the appearance has a shiny, smooth finish and tight weave, so your logo and imprint will look crisp. Most recycled tote bags come in dark colors so these are best for a light colored imprint where your message can stand out from a distance.

4. Jute Tote Bags: Jute tote bags have become very fashionable recently. Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads and the material is often referred to as burlap. Jute tote bags often come in natural color, or can be dyed with Azo-free dyes to ensure that it remains environmentally-friendly. Jute has a loose weave with a coarse surface, so an imprint with larger graphics and fonts often work best with this material. Jute bags tend to be more expensive then cotton so they are better suited for higher end products or services.

5. Polypropylene Tote Bags: Although tote bags made from polypropylene are not natural, they are often considered to be environmentally-friendly because they are extremely durable and can be recycled. This plastic material is ideal for keeping products from getting wet or for packaging products that may “sweat” or that may leak. Polypropylene tote bags have a smooth and shiny finish and are ideal for all types of graphics and colors. In large quantities, polypropylene tote bags can usually offer the lowest cost.

Tote bags are ideal for trade show giveaways. You can have an imprint area the size of a mini billboard that will be carried from place to place – each time promoting your company to an audience. Choosing tote bags will help reduce waste and prevent plastic bags from ending up in landfills. An eco-friendly tote bag will help promote your company in a positive light and is one promotional item that will be appreciated and used immediately.

Tweet

—————————————

Robert Piller, president of Eco Marketing Solutions, is experienced in green marketing campaigns and recycled promotional products.  He has worked with thousands of retailers across the country to get them to offer reusable imprinted tote bags for their customers, to help reduce the landfill waste caused by plastic bags.

His company’s website, EcoMarketingSolutions.com, features over 25,000 eco-friendly promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find biodegradable, organic and recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame.

You can also reach him by email (robert (at) ecomarketingsolutions.com) or comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com or below at his Twitter link.

(Part 2 of 3)

The day you have marked on the calendar is here. Today is the first day of the trade show you have planned for over the past few months. You’ve lost sleep, spent time at Kinko’s the other night running off last-minute flyers and signage you forgot about, and now you are ready to go.

Or are you ready?

In my previous column, I discussed several strategies for maximizing your trade show effectiveness and return on investment.

In this column, I will be discussing several “at-show” trade show activities and tips you can do to ensure a successful trade show.

Guerilla Marketing: Some companies do an end-run around the show management’s policy of a 5-mile radius of non-competing activities by hosting hospitality suites at nearby hotels (or even the host hotel or at the corporate home office or regional facility). I have even heard of companies that host private invitation-only golf tournaments the day prior to a trade show to get the maximum bang for their buck as they bring in their top prospects, customers and vendors. Be forewarned, however, that if caught violating the show management’s rules, you can be fined, banned, humiliated and forced to walk the plank (well maybe not the plank). Many of these same functions can be done with the blessing of show management with a smile, charm and some money.

Walk the Walk, not Talk the Talk: Many times you can get into a trade show by applying as an attendee or by telling management that you would like to walk the show to decide whether or not you want to exhibit the following year. As an attendee, you can visit your competitor’s booth and hear their sales presentations – though you may also be kicked flat on your backside, as well as thrown out of the show by management. I have always found it good business to introduce myself to my competitors, offer to swap brochures (you are each going to end up with each others’ sales material one way or the other) and just start a friendly conversation. Sometimes you can learn a great deal just be being honest and up-front. (Remember the golden rule: “Do unto others…”)

Walking a show floor also gives you an opportunity to actively seek out potential customers, either in the aisles, at seminars, in the restrooms (yes, I have seen it and it is not pretty), at lunch or at other booths. Remember, exhibitors do not like to have salespeople visit their booth on their time (since they paid for their booth space and you didn’t). Best approach is to arrive early (just as the show floor opens) or just as the show closes, as it will be less busy then and exhibitors may welcome a conversation during a slow time.

Attending Seminars: Attending seminars is an excellent way to meet prospects and renew old acquaintances. Same strategy applies here—get there early and stay late—as you will often get an opportunity to meet many high caliber prospects. Have your 30-second elevator speech ready and met and mingle.

Celebrity Appearances: You can plan to have a celebrity at your booth or an opportunity to meet the president or CEO of your company (if that is an appealing option). I have seen booths with local professional athletes, sportscasters, painters, wrestlers, actors, cheerleaders, Spuds McKenzie (am I dating myself?), singers, body builders and “celebrities” that I did not recognize at all.

If promoted properly, a celebrity appearance can bring people into your booth, giving you an opportunity to try to qualify them while they wait in line. A typical Hollywood B-list actor can be had for as little as $5,000 and as high as $25,000 or more per day, so it depends on your budget. Although this can bring both exhibitors and attendees into your booth, I believe that anything you can afford to do that get’s people to stop in, and gives you an opportunity to qualify them, is a viable option.

Sponsorship Opportunities: There are many opportunities for sponsorships, such as hosting the show’s prayer meetings, breakfasts, luncheons, golf tournaments, speakers, concerts, beverage carts, panel discussions, Wi-Fi service, etc. Depending on your budget, these can be an expensive option, but it will give you an opportunity to get your name in the directory, on banners, and mentioned several times throughout the show. These events will also allow you to mix and mingle with many of the top companies in your industry, giving you and your firm instant credibility.

Ad Specialties/Promotional Products: As I mentioned in my first section, a well-targeted imprinted promotional product can stop a person who would normally pass by your booth – and keep your company in their minds after the show. It goes back to the billboard question I like to ask my clients: “If you can put your advertising billboard on your customer’s desk (or in their car), how much would you pay to rent that space?” A useful and meaningful advertising specialty with a quality imprint can help keep your brand identity in the prospect’s mind when they are ready to make a decision – without the high cost of “rent”.

Remember what I mentioned in the earlier column about an A-B-C selection of swag—a low-cost gift for non-qualified visitors; a higher priced gift for qualified prospects and customers; an even higher valued gift for members of the media, “A-list” prospects and others. Be sure to keep the higher priced gifts out of eyesight so they only go to those you intend them for.

I also suggest packing your literature with the imprinted gift so that when they are handed the promotional item, they get your sales information, as well. I have sold hundreds of orders of imprinted bags, both plastic and fabric bags (both made of recycled material to avoid these ending up in landfills, of course), so when you hand out the item, not only does your billboard get carried around the entire show floor, but your sales material is placed inside ahead of time—ensuring it gets to that buyer.

Another good idea is to hand out a live tree seedling tree in a tube, with a single sheet sales flyer wrapped around it. When you hand it to the recipient, tell them that you are giving them a live tree seedling, so when they get home, they should immediately take it out of their bag and plant it. What happens is that nobody wants to kill a tree, so instead of waiting for that mythical “rainy day” to go through the stack of collected trade show material, they will get home and reach for the tree seedling—with your sales flyer wrapped around it. It is a low-cost way to ensure your material gets looked at.

Lights, Camera, Action: Nothing makes a booth look bleaker than dark spaces and shadows. Pay for electricity and have bright halogen lights highlighting your booth, as well as calling out special sections. Be sure to keep the lights high, as halogen lights can get very hot – making your booth quite warm. Lighting is one area you do not want to skimp on.

Personnel: As a final suggestion, don’t forget your personnel. They should be armed with a few opening statements (open ended questions) and given a plan on how to stand, how to introduce good prospects, how to move along visitors that are not prospects, etc. I also shipping a case or two of bottled water to your booth so you and your staff can stay hydrated. Rest them and rotate the staff if possible, as breaks as few as 15-minutes can help to rejuvenate a person and make them more upbeat.

Following these ideas can help you make the most of your time on the show floor. In my final segment of this article, I will discuss one of the least used, and most important, of the three areas of trade show marketing—the post-show follow up process.

——————————————————————————-

Note: To view the other segments of this three part column, visit http://blog.ecomarketingsolutions.com/?cat=65

—————————————

Tweet
Robert Piller, President of Eco Marketing Solutions, has over 25 years of experience in running and implementing green marketing campaigns and is a leader in the recycled promotional products industry, including offering one of the largest selections of reusable and organic tote bags, recycled and biodegradable water bottles, recycled pens and pencils in the country.

His company’s website, EcoMarketingSolutions.com, features over 25,000 eco-friendly promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find biodegradable, organic and recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame.

You can also reach him by email (robert (at) ecomarketingsolutions.com) or comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com or below at his Twitter link.

(Part One of a Three Part Series)

One of the biggest hurdles my clients’ face is in proper trade show marketing. A trade show can easily cost from $10,000 for a basic 10 foot by 10 foot booth, with one or two people manning it, to $100,000 or more for larger booths with a full staff, state of the art booth, graphics, drayage, hotels, meals, taxis, etc.

Why spend that much money and not focus some time and energy on maximizing your return on investment? Often trade show planning and marketing falls to someone who is given conflicting goals and objectives (or no objectives at all) and that person is often without a dedicated staff, budget and little management input.

Without clear objectives, you cannot measure the success of a trade show, other an ambiguous overall grade. Are you looking to increase sales? To brand your name in the marketplace? To secure appointments for your sales team? To connect with present accounts? To meet with members of the press?

After you decide on the overall goal, break it down into a quantifiable amount, such as opening up 20 new accounts with projected first year sales of $100,000 each; securing 25 product demonstrations within the next 60 days, etc.

As a veteran of well over 300 trade shows over the past 20 years where I have been an exhibitor, and over 1,500 others where I have worked with my clients to maximize their trade show exhibiting dollars, I have practically seen it all—the good, the bad, the lame and the ugly when it comes to trade show marketing.

I have exhibited and worked some of the nation’s largest shows (National Restaurant Show, International Housewares Show, National Association of Convenience Store, New York Gift Show and the National Hardware Show, to name a few), as well many small regional, state, and city Chamber of Commerce shows, and I can attest to the importance of pre-show/at-show and post-show activities, and would like to break these down in a few simple steps.

In this column, I will be talking about the importance of Pre-Show trade show activities. In following columns, I will address At-Show and Post-Show activities and strategies.

Pre-Show Activity

There are several options in promoting your appearance at a trade show, and I have broken down a few of the most popular, in no particular order of importance.

Big Smile Approach—You can just show up, smile a lot and hope attendees walk by your booth and stop in. Your signage and name may bring them in, but remember, attendees are busy, often in a hurry and may have their head turned in the opposite direction of your booth – and miss you completely. Plus, try as they might, not everyone walks down every aisle, they may be on their cell phone or talking to an associate as they pass by – or may see your booth, give you a head nod, and keep walking by.

Many of my fellow exhibitors use this approach with mixed results. To pull it off, you will need some aggressive sales people to stop people in the aisles. A well-planned question or a give-away can help stop them in their tracks, but don’t try the “How are you doing?” or “Nice Day, huh?” approaches. Your question should be thought-provoking and open-ended, such as” Do you want to see the latest product that can improve your email click-through rate by 12%?”. The question should be designed to appeal to the right demographic.

Lucky Winner Approach: Have a drawing or contest at the booth: I have seen spin-the-wheel for savings or treasure chest hunts, where people try their key in a treasure chest lock to try to open the chest and win a prize. Anything you can to do to create movement and activity at your booth can work. The key is to find a quick way to move the unqualified people out of the booth quickly and keep the better qualified prospects in your booth for a longer period of time.

People like booths that are crowded and have people in it, so as not to miss out on the product that everybody else is looking at. It’s an interesting psychological study on human nature and the fear of missing out on something good.

Pre-Show Marketing: I would consider pre-show email, pre-show mailings, pre-show telephone calls and trade show directory advertising as pre-show advertising.

You can invite prospects into your booth to receive a free gift, special show pricing or terms and to introduce them to your new products or services. I have had success with all four of these activities, with varying degrees of success. If you can secure appointments ahead of time with your present customers and prospects, that can help to ensure a successful show.

I like a combination of email and a postcard or letter, just in case your client or prospect misses one – or forgets to bring their email printout.

The offer a quality imprinted premium for stopping by and visiting can also be successful. These days, many people are looking towards eco-friendly promotional items. I have heard the word tschotchkes being thrown around in certain circles, but when done right, a free premium or gift can get people to stop by. Some people call it swag. In fact, at Hollywood award shows, they entice celebrities to be announcers not with cash, but with a bag of goodies they call “swag”.

I have sent oil executives pre-show postcard mailings picturing the free item just for stopping by, with a redemption rate of over 18%. If it is unique, limited, and, especially a quality item, people will come by and visit your booth. People love free goods, and in a trade show environment, many are actively looking for free gifts, regardless of their professional title, salary or way they dress.

Like anything thing else, it is choosing the right item for the right demographics. At electronics and high tech shows, a free quality water bottle, MP3 download card or imprinted USB stick can be enticing. In an eco-friendly environment, it can be a free live tree seedling a tube, a garden kit or a Frisbee made from recycled plastic.

Do your research and get a fun and useful gift. You can use our free service at www.ecomarketingsolutions.com that allows you to view over 500,000 imprinted promotional items, which you can sort by keyword or price range. In fact, I often suggest having three groups of gifts — one for good prospects, one for top prospects and one to get non-qualified people to leave your booth with a smile. Keep you two top levels out of the public’s eye, and award them discreetly and with pride.

Trade shows can be your most cost-effective method of attracting and meeting with top prospects and renewing ties with present customers. They can also be a huge money-loser when not done correctly. Pre-show marketing can help guarantee you the success you and your company deserve. You owe it to yourself, and to the rest of your team and employees to maximize the show’s effectiveness.

Here’s to a successful trade show.

——————————————————————————-

Note: To view the other segments of this three part column, visit http://blog.ecomarketingsolutions.com/?cat=65

—————————————

Tweet
Robert Piller, President of Eco Marketing Solutions, has over 25 years of experience in running and implementing green marketing campaigns and is a leader in the recycled promotional products industry, including offering one of the largest selections of reusable and organic tote bags, recycled and biodegradable water bottles, recycled pens and pencils in the country.

His company’s website, EcoMarketingSolutions.com, features over 25,000 eco-friendly promotional items in all price ranges, for any business or organization interested in going green. The site’s handy search tool helps you easily find biodegradable, organic and recycled imprinted promotional items in your price range and time frame.

You can also reach him by email (robert (at) ecomarketingsolutions.com) or comment on his blog postings at GreenSpotBlog.com or below at his Twitter link.