Choosing An Exhibition Stand

Writen by Paul Symonds

There are a variety of different types of exhibition stands and choosing the right stand for a given situation, can thus be difficult. Do you need a modular stand, portable banner stand, portable pop-up stand, panel-and-pole stand or perhaps even a literature stand? The different types of exhibition display stands are discussed below.

Modular exhibition display stands tend to be large stands (as compared to pop-up and portable stands) and the frameworks are often rigid and more traditional. A lot of modular display stands are often custom made, i.e. for large exhibitions such as those you might see at the big exhibition including Earls Court, Olympia and Excel Centre (all in London). These stands can be expensive but dynamic and large.

Pop Up Display stands are quite different from modular stands. Pop up stands are much quicker to set-up, much smaller and thus portable and far cheaper than modular stands. A pop-up stands, such as the 'Apollo' model by Clip Displays, is lightweight and can be put up within one minute.

Panel-and-pole exhibition stands on the other hand, can offer a sizeable exhibition stand yet one that is still affordable and also transportable. These types of stands are put up using panels which are clipped to poles and which can be assembled in a matter of minutes. Banner Stands can be a good option if you are looking for an inexpensive yet professional display. Banner stands are often retractable and lightweight, with some models weighing no more than 4kg. Banner stands usually come with a carry bag with shoulder harness.

Choosing an exhibition stand depends very much on:
- Your budget
- The size of the exhibition
- Whether or not you need to re-use the stand

If you are attending a big exhibition in Earls Court then a modular stand, if your budget permits, could be the way to go. If you are a travelling salesman, looking to exhibit your goods in a quick and simply way, then a retractable roll-up stand can be better.

Paul Symonds MSc & BAHons. Exhibition stands including modular and portable

Niche And Grow Rich

Writen by Andre Anthony

Unless you've been living under an Internet rock, you've probably heard the buzz about Niche Marketing. Right now it's the hottest marketing topic online.

Is it a new concept?

Well on the Internet maybe, but if like me, you've been involved in direct response marketing in the 'Bricks and Mortar' world then it isn't - that's the way we've done things since time immemorial.

So what's this Niche Marketing thing all about?

If you have ever taken Marketing 101 then you'll have heard of the old marketing adage : "Find a need and fill it" - that's what "Niche Marketing" is all about. Finding a "focussed" group of people, with a specialized interest, eager to buy (The Niche) and promoting a suitable product or service to all those interested in buying it (Marketing).

Let me give you a few examples of these Niches :

Recipes  Golf  Fishing  Health and Fitness  Travel  Collectibles  Dating  Dog Training  Satellite TV  Beauty Tips  Astrology  Cats  Bartending  Alternative Health  Hand-poured Candles  Gourmet Foods  Gambling  Mortgages  Credit Cards  Music  Jewellery

...... the list just goes on and on and these are just the main headings, there are niches within each of these niches ... Think of a subject and there's likely a niche market for it...

But the name of the game is to find a "tightly focussed" niche. The reason for this that if you target a general market the competition is fierce and it's hard, if not impossible, for the little guy to get a foothold.

When you narrow down the size of the market you eradicate most of the heavy hitters with bottomless advertising budgets, because these guys aren't interested in making a few thousand bucks a year from these tiny specialized markets, they're after millions from mass markets...

... And let's face it if you're a little guy you simply can't be everything to everybody, so you must pick a specific focus (Niche) for your business. For example don't target "Fishing", instead target "Fishing Baits" or "Fishing Lures" both of which have a much more specific focus...

...Get the idea?

Once you narrow down the size of the market you have an automatic advantage over larger companies. Here's why :

* You can quickly become an expert in your niche (if you're not already)

* It's easier to keep current with a narrowly focussed market niche

* You can respond faster to changes in the market

* You can build close relationships with key customers that will be hard to compete with

This is something I learned from experience - if you're interested you can read my story here : http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com/articles/andre-anthony- value-of-niche-marketing.htm.

By now you're probably wondering about the mechanics of this niche marketing stuff. In a nutshell here's how it works :

* Find and research profitable niche markets

* Locate or develop suitable products/services to market

* Set up a web site to market the products/services

* Establish a marketing system that works for you

* Repeat the process over and over again with a different niche each time.

Imagine having a niche site producing one sale a day at say $20. That's $7300 a year - how many sites could you set up and run 10, 20 ....?

But before you get too excited, I have a word of caution for you:

Niche marketing is not a magic bullet. It isn't a matter of putting up a web site and then sitting back and waiting for the money to roll in - "build it and they will come" may have worked for Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, but it doesn't work that way on the Internet - if you do that you'll be waiting a long time.

If you want a successful niche business, you have to work at it just like any other business - if you're prepared to put in the effort though the rewards can be significant.

Copyright © 2005, André Anthony Niche Market Know-How

André Anthony owns and operates Niche Market Know-How a resource for beginning Niche Marketers. Visit http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com today to find strategies, tips, tools, products and resources for effective niche product creation and marketing. Get his Niche Market Know-how Mini Course here: http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com/course.htm

20 Power Marketing Tips

Writen by George Torok

Use these powerful yet simple tips from the national best-seller, "Secrets of Power Marketing: Promote Brand You" - the first guide to personal marketing for non-marketers.

Create and grant an annual award.

Send hand written congratulations and thank you notes.

Send greeting cards for some occasion other than Christmas.

Send postcards when you travel and even when you are at home.

Give a good book to special clients. Always sign it with a positive message.

Build relationships with the media before you need them.

Associate with winners - attend awards functions.

Build and maintain a database of clients, prospects, and key influencers.

Earn certifications and win awards from your associations - and tell everyone.

Ask happy customers to write testimonial letters for you.

Recruit your suppliers as marketing agents. They work for free.

Join and be active in your chamber of commerce.

Write tips sheets for your customers.

Write and send articles to magazines and newspapers.

Send a news release to the media every three months.

Do something crazy and newsworthy at least once a year.

Send photocopies of your news coverage to your clients.

Build and maintain an informative and interesting web site.

Sponsor a cause, event, charity or community group.

Volunteer for your association, charity or community group.

This article is based on the strategies and techniques described in the national bestseller, "Secrets of Power Marketing: Promote Brand You"

©George Torok is co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing. He delivers motivational keynotes and practical workshops for corporations and associations on communication and thinking skills. He can be reached at 905-335-1997 Register for your free monthly tips at http://www.Torok.com

Real Estate Marketing Online The Power Of Information

Writen by Brandon Cornett

How to increase your real estate marketing success by offering informational reports through your website...

Do you have a website? Do you have some basic research skills? If you answered yes to both questions, then you have the tools to take your real estate marketing program to an exciting new level.

In fact, by the end of the week you could publish a highly enticing report and offer it through your website (in exchange for a newsletter subscription or some other form of lead capture).

But like anything else in real estate marketing, you get out of it what you put into it. Some real estate agents use the free report method with great results. For others it's a waste of time. The difference is all in the approach.

Here are some keys to success:

1. It all starts with the report itself. You have to put a lot of value into it. Make it something that's not readily available elsewhere, like hard-to-find information about future development around a particular neighborhood. If the information is readily available, include a lot of it and focus on the timesaving benefits (because you've done the research for them).

2. People can't request something they don't know about it. So promote the report through your normal marketing channels -- direct mail, website, newsletter, ads, casual conversation, email signature block...

3. Create multiple reports on different topics related to real estate / buying a home / selling a home. Set them up on a separate page of your website. Let people "shop" for the free report of their choice. The more topics you cover, the more likely people are to find something they really want.

4. Show pictures. People believe in what they see, so feature a picture of the report's cover page, or maybe a sample image / graphic / chart from the body of the report. Use visual enticement, not just words.

5. Try to get a testimonial from somebody who found the information particularly useful. Feature it in a callout box near the headline, near the picture of the report, or near the "sign up" / "download" button.

6. Make sure the report is "king" of the page it's on. In other words, don't have a lot of other items competing with it for the reader's attention. If capturing their contact information is the point of that particular web page, make it the only point.

7. Have some way to capture leads. You're essentially exchanging your valuable item for the right to contact the person receiving it.

Informational reports can improve your real estate marketing program by creating a stream of qualified leads. But you only get out of it what you put into it:

Half-baked reports positioned poorly will flounder. Well-crafted reports marketed properly can become lead-generating machines. The difference is all in the approach.

* You may republish this article in its entirety as long as you include the byline and author's note. If publishing online, please leave the hyperlinks active.

About the Author
Brandon Cornett is the founder of ArmingYourFarming.com, a web-based company that provides marketing guides to real estate agents. For dozens more articles on real estate marketing, visit http://www.armingyourfarming.com.

Small Business Marketing Strategy Where Are You Positioned Right Now

Writen by Craig Lutz-Priefert

OK, once you are convinced you need to wave your Brand Banner, the next step is to determine where in the mind of the customer you are positioned relative to your competition. Remember, it's the combination of Brand, Package and People marketing elements that lead to small business marketing success. But a strong Brand is the foundation.

First, let's look at the competition. You know your competitors…probably better than you think you do. Make yourself a very small chart. You can make it as a table in Microsoft Word, or in Excel. You can even rough it out on a piece of notebook paper. Make four columns, with the following column headings:

• Competitor
• Estimated Market Share
• #1 Reason People Buy from Them
• #2 Reason People Buy from Them

Underneath the column headings, list your top three competitors, and briefly fill in the relevant information in the column headings for each competitor.

We recommend that you do not go out to your customers with a survey to gather this information. You might ask a few key Achievers for help if you're stuck, but most small business owners know their competition well enough to fill in this simple table in their sleep.

Second, let's look at the invisible competition. If a customer doesn't choose you or the competition, then where does that customer go? Where does she spend her money? For example, restaurants' competitors often aren't each other, but "Dinner and a DVD" at home. Your visible competitors are usually easy to find: you just go to the yellow pages, and there they are. But it's those substitute products or services that we want you to take notice of, right now.

Write down your two top invisible competitors underneath the little competitor analysis table.

Third, let's uncover where your company is positioned in the mind of your customers or prospects, right now. Are you in the middle of that pack of competitors, or do you fill a really unique spot? Just jot down one or two sentences comparing your position in relation to your visible and invisible competition.

So you've written down three different categories relating to your customers: your top three competitors, your invisible competition, and your company.

Fourth, it's time to Brainstorm just how you can improve your marketing message to take advantage of your current position. You will want to clearly appeal to your customers, but stay in line with where you are already positioned. Remember in an earlier article the analogy of Brand as a sailboat on a lake.

This is one time you'll want to use your employees to help you discover creative and unique ideas. Involve those Achievers in a creative planning session. Solitude can and will bring you insight, but you need the eyes and especially ears of your best staff. Achievers listen to customers; your current customers will often make a little, off-hand comment that can clue you in to exactly where you are positioned, relative to your competition.

Note that we aren't trying to establish "features and benefits" here. This exercise isn't designed to be a training course for your salespeople on how to answer specific objections. That may be a secondary benefit you gain from this exercise, but it isn't our main purpose.

Instead, we are trying to help plant your Brand Banner in the mind of your prospects. It's very tough to go head-to-head with any of your competition; it is so easy to end up as a "middle-of-the-pack" brand in the mind of your prospects. And, when you are herded into the middle of the pack you are much more vulnerable to price attacks and other competitive moves by your competitors. It is much better to pick a weakness in several competitors' armor, and find a strength you can use to exploit against their weakness. You can then build your marketing around this and differentiate yourself from your competition. It is just this technique that is strongly advocated in the marketing classic by Ries and Trout, Positioning.

For example: let's say you know from earlier research into your customer base that your customers perceive you as a quality, on-time provider. You can use these brand attributes to fight against a competitor that solely markets itself as a price leader. Don't try and go head to head on price unless you are seriously ready to cut your margins and are ready for a war fought down in the attrition trenches. It is better to stress what sets you apart from the competition and use your promotions to emphasize that over and over to your customers and prospects.

Building a brand is not an overnight job. For most small business, the brand is already built--there is a customer base that chooses to buy from your company already. The job isn't so much to build a brand but build on the brand; discovering where you are positioned relative to actual and invisible competitors is a critical first step in the process.

© 2006 Marketing Hawks

Craig Lutz-Priefert is President of Marketing Hawks, a firm providing essential marketing vision for small business. Marketing Hawks also sponsors the ongoing small business adventures of entrepreneur Crystal Trino at the JourneyToday website.