Sunday, March 9, 2014

Key to Success on Tradeshow Follow-ups


What do you think are keys to success on tradeshows for promoters and business owners? One answer prevails – it’s the follow-ups!

But before you go into the details on how to do follow-ups you should understand what trade show is.

Tradeshow is about getting leads and promoting your brand. It’s about exhibiting what you have to offer to the market by hosting events along with other exhibitors. It’s a perfect opportunity to build relationship, talk to clients and prospects, show to the world your products, meet investors, and promote your brand to any passerby. A seasoned investor and marketer see tradeshows as an opportunity for growth of the company.

As for you, you want to make the most of tradeshows. It’s a given that you may have provided cool promotional products already in those tradeshows. You may have also given out your information already like email address, websites, and other contact information.

But then what? What’s next after a tradeshow? You probably have no idea and if you are then you may be included in this detail: 80% of tradeshow leads are not followed up!!

Imagine that! A total waste of effort and finance, well, unless you provided some intriguing promotional products you may get good leads and responses. However, for those who are in doubt, then you should consider checking these tips:

Understand the your leads

Of course not all leads qualify. Leads where prospects have not the qualities you need and some of them may be junk, however there are cherries in the crowd too. These are the ones you want to focus on. Never mind the useless one and focus right away to the leads that matter. You can let your marketer sort through the leads you got already and see the best fits.

Have the right team

For your knowledge, the leads can be broken down further. Those that are semi interested, highly interested, and those who are not interested at all yet you got their info. Bottom line is, all of them qualify as a possible client in the future. This is where getting the right team comes in. To get the most of this you should build a marketing team that is dedicated to provide good alternative and viable options for not-so interested prospects. Inside sales team are great for interested ones and standing customers. Furthermore, trade show specialist who has their way in knowing what promotions that could transform non-interested people to interested ones (usually via the use of interesting promo items).

The Follow up

Now the real secret is the follow-up. The teams above are the ones responsible for the follow up. Follow up is a priority. Always increase the amount of time and resources that are allocated in this process.

Never rely on just sending brochures or an e-mail address. Most of the time, it’s critical to call every prospect immediately after the show. In addition, consider whether which team fits well to the follow up.

You may want to focus on the best leads first, but you can also get the worse ones especially if you have provided them valuable business gifts in the first place.

Consider a professional approach as always. Make clear call to action and for sure your follow-ups won’t go in vain.

Good luck!

Monday, March 3, 2014

Top Promotional Products Industry Players

Top Promotional Products Industry Players

When we talk about promotional products, they are not possible without the manufacturers and suppliers that make them happen. Every marketer recognize the importance of having a reliable promotional products supplier for their marketing needs since they may need continuous relationships with them. Furthermore, it may be best to get this relationship right at the beginning rather than shifting in a middle of the deal, which not only costs more but also could waste your time.

This is why it is important to learn about the top promotional products industry players today. The list will be able to give you insights on what they offer and how they provide it to you. All companies differ in one way or another. Check out these industry players today:

Proforma

Founder Greg Muzzillo and CEO Vera Muzzillo who owns Proforma still ranks the top for consecutive years now in providing businesses with promotional products. Situated mainly in Cleveland Ohio, Proforma boasts on their tag line as the one source and infinite resource for marketers and promoters. Proforma with its wide scope of services is able to fulfill almost all graphic communication needs. The strategic team of 750 is hard to diss. They have around 15,000 product manufacturers who are experts in their field.

BDA Inc

While in Woodinville, Washington, BDA Inc proves to be the second noteworthy promotional item supplier. Jay Deutsch the CEO and Co-Founder of BDA claims to evolve branded merchandise. They boast to provide the impactful enterprise-wide support. Relationship is what they advocate. Creativity and innovation come next. They claim to do holistic market research and trend analysis, helpful for getting the best promotional items for your company. CPG sales promotion specialists are what they provide. With proprietary product design and development while focusing on eco-friendly solutions. Basically, they takes pride in their research and analysis of your audience to help you choose the right promotional products for your brand.

IMS

IMS or Integrated Merchandising Systems LLC with CEO Rick Remick is another top promotional products industry player. Rank third as the highest promotional product sales. IMS offers dedicated teams that are accountable for managing and coordinating activities across supply chain disciplines. Quite sophisticated but they focus on strategic sourcing and production.

4Imprint

Free art. Free samples. 4imprint based on Oshkosh is also another major contender in the promotional products supplier world. 4Imprint is also proud to provide 360 Degree Guarantee, which makes ordering risk free.

HALO Branded Solutions

With promotional sales over 150 thousand dollars, HALO is one of the great promo product suppliers out there. They brag to have catered over 40,000 satisfied clients to date.  Here are the services they include online and traditional solutions, employee incentive programs, rush promotions, global outsourcing, art and design creations, and fulfillment services.

Cintas

Scott Farmer is the CEO of Cintas with also over 150 thousand dollars sale like HALO and is based on Mason Ohio. Cintas focus on unconventional and utility promotional products. They also provide great apparels perfect for promotions.

Geiger

One of the largest family-owned and managed distributor of promotional products in the United States. Geiger tries to be different by taking a consultative approach to your current marketing or promotion challenge. No matter what the need, Geiger boasts their promotional consultant capabilities. It’s said that they work with you until you reach a high-impact program that gets your desired results.

The list actually goes on until 100 or even more top promotional products industry players. What matter however is that you get the best deals on whatever you pick. Those top suppliers mentioned above might not be appropriate for you with their locations, despite the delivery service they provide.

There are also notable contenders that are coming your way catering services in Northern America, such as SaveOnPromotions. Furthermore, you should focus on building relationships with your supplier. That is the best way to get better deals in the future.

There are a lot of things to consider when you want to promote your products, but with the help of the right supplier you will be able to get the results you wanted.  For promoters and business owners who consider promotional products, finding the supplier is not the first step, you actually need to understand how it works first to get a general idea.