500 page: MaxPreps

This 500 page used a creative on-brand graphic.

Unsubscribe page: Headspace

After clicking unsubscribe a company has a chance to make an impression. 

Headspace has a nice on-brand unsubscribe page.

404 page: Owler

https://corp.owler.com/

YouTube: New Look

Clicking the Learn More button opens this webpage:

Building the anticipation

Skyline Exhibits of Central Ohio hosted a great seminar on Sept 16, 2010.  It covered the marketing insights and ideas for a good tradeshow booth.  Here are my notes:

SESSION #1: MARKETING AT TRADE-SHOWS
Kim Allen, Sudden Impact Marketing 

Pre-show Message:
Build the whole presentation around the message
Make it easy to understand
Concise
Help people get to the show - send them tickets, tell them where your booth is located,
Buy a database or use your current list. If you are exhibiting you might have access to attendee names.
Promote your booth well in advance via multiple channels (online, direct mail, print, radio, email, etc.)
A phone campaign can go a long way.
Consider sponsoring the show, your name can then be more visible

At the show
Explore opportunities for having your name to be more than just at your booth.
The large hotels near the show might have sponsor options
get a list of attendees that are staying at the hotel
hang a banner in the hotel
sponsor doorknob hang tags
closed circuit ads

Follow-up
phone/email/visits
take notes during your conversations so when you follow-up the conversation can continue
Nurture the leads with visits and a planned follow-up schedule
Put your company name right in the subject line 

SESSION #2: LEAD MANAGEMENT
Fred Tuzzi, TriComB2B

You need a system that allows leads to come in, qualify, follow-ups

Paying for a badge scanner is a good idea

Suggested timeline:
Show
post-show email with link to micro site with mini survey.
*call them, identify if hot, cold, or non-lead
hot leads go to sales
cold leads get email a month later
Repeat*
hot to sales
cold to trash

BOOTH DESIGN
Kyle Hickman, Cult Marketing

Discover- ethnography quality trumps quantity
Develop- take info from D1 and create a brand strategy (operations, products, marketing)
Deliver- brand roadmap

Plan of attack - Establish your goals
why are you there?
what results do you want?
a plan that leads your audience towards your goal
goal options- traffic and leads, awareness, show/demo product

Message
know your audience
persuade through emotion
convince them rationally

Attract from a distance
even before they are at your booth they should want to find your booth
create visual interest

Get them inside your booth
popcorn
consider the traffic flow - there needs to be an in/out and a pit stop

Show them the way to your goal
[Christine - painting girls on hillside barn, sun in sky]
Dominant, subdominant, subordinate

Deliver the goods
Staff appropriately
make an impression
hand out efficient materials

Research
hire a third party to call your target clients and ask them who they plan to see and why
ask your clients what they liked about your booth and adjust

And to top it off, I won the raffle prize of a lunch bag from TriComB2B

Color your world

During the CONES event of 2009 I stumbled upon the International Bootstrapping Association's (IBA) table. It was a nice surprise. Kevin Gadd shared the concept with me and how the meetings work. Essentially small business owners and entrepreneurs get together and share best practices on a given topic. I was hooked.

As I was weighing through all the goodies and business cards the following day I decided to dig deeper on the IBA. Come to find out the meeting would be held at The DEC (The Dublin Entrepreneurial Center) and I was just waiting for an excuse to make my way over there. The given topic for our meeting was customer service.

The ground rules that they set up were quite helpful. You can just imagine, a colleague shares a problem and then one by one each business owner ripe with knowledge and wisdom shoots out of the gate with, "Well you should do this, and you should try that." That didn't happen. One of the guidelines included that your contributions of wisdom are best told in story form and that they be told in first person.

I was shocked how much more thought had to go into my responses.

One thing in particular that I wanted to share was the concern that led to branding, more specifically personal branding. One of the members shared how he has decide to take on a color as part of his business brand as well as his personal brand. This way anytime someone saw that color orange they would think of him, and his business. Does this make sense, and most of all, does it work? Well, large companies do this, why shouldn't small business owners do the same?

While growing up my family used to joke that I whenever you accidentally wore all the same color that you were like one of the Power Rangers. You remember them right? The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would strut around in their street clothes which just so happen to be their signature color until it was time to fight crime, then they break out the Ranger Suits.

Can we 'claim' colors as businesses? What about as a business person? And if so, do I need to declare it, or would it be something that people eventually detect after several meetings?

It has been often said, "We don't buy from a company, we buy from people." So then should the 'people' be branded too?

Gee, Rob sure does where a lot of blue