It's Event Season, People

It's that time of the year again when many companies are considering attendance at an industry event. If you are still wondering if the benefits will outweigh the cost remember that in very few arenas will you get such a large targeted audience as at a trade event and out of that audience there will be many qualified buyers who may well decide to buy from you.

But like everything, if you want to get the maximum return on your marketing investment, thorough preparation for the event is the key.

Here are just a few things to think about which may help make your event a success:

Pre-event

• Set your objectives for the event - what do you want to get from it? Are you going there to pursue one big customer or are you looking for volume?
• Prepare your marketing message for the audience you are trying to entice and also for the product or service that you are trying to sell.
• Where possible book meeting times with customers and potential customers who will be attending the event. Now may be the time to take them for dinner or invite them to a cocktail evening that you have organised.
• Decide if you will be holding prize draws or other teasers to entice customers.
• Thoroughly prepare any presentations you will be giving during the event.
• Make sure your display stands and giveaways are fully branded with correct information.
• Sort out your dress code - what will your team be wearing for the event? At the very least get branded name badges.
• Brief your staff with stand etiquette - for example being prompt to welcome potential customers, use of mobile phones at the event, eating at the stand etc

During the event

• Capture customer details. Collect business cards and mark the back with relevant information such as "hot lead", "phone in 3 months" etc so when you come to collating the information at the conclusion of the event you can easily segment your customers.
• Collect all the business cards in one central place. DON'T let business cards end up in the jacket pockets of your sales team. The relationship needs to be with the organisation and not with individuals who may leave your company for a job with the competition in 6 months, taking your customer with them!

Post-event

• Follow up soon after the event. DON'T leave hot leads to cool, act on them as soon as you get back to the office.
• Input business card details into your database and follow up with an email even if it just says how nice it was to meet them at the event and "... by the way here is a special offer and our website details just in case you need it at any time".
• Evaluate the event. What have you learnt from it? Did it run smoothly? Did you look professional? What could you do better next time? And most importantly did you get any business from it immediately and a few months down the line?

If you want to know more about events and how Pink Pepper
can assist you, then call us on 01793 554846,
see our event's page or email us.

Pink Pepper Marketing and
Multidata Broadband

We are very pleased to be providing a whole range of marketing services to Multidata Broadband who supply low-cost and very efficient broadband, email, hosting and storage solutions to businesses throughout the UK.

Multidata Broadband are currently poised to take a sizeable chunk of the BT market with the introduction of their Megaband service which offers savings to business customers of up to 75% on installation fee and 80% on the annual rental of a leased line.

Nigel Beasant founder of Multidata Broadband has said "We have chosen Pink Pepper because they can deliver all the marketing services that we need to support our business. We don't need to go anywhere else. They understand our products and our company ethos and style of working, so when it comes to delivering press releases, re-vamping our logo, copy-writing, producing e-mailers and launch letters etc they just get on and do it. It takes a lot of pressure off of me."

We are naturally delighted to be working with Nigel and his team and are pleased that he has seen the value of a marketing agency that can fulfil the whole marketing gambit. It is important to us to be able to add real value to any organisation. We know how tight budgets can be so we work hard to ensure that our clients get a good return on their investment.

The fact that we are able to deliver an entire marketing campaign from the initial plan right through to measuring the success and do it from under one roof is, we think, our unique selling point.

For more info see the Megaband Solution.

VAT paid on all Start-Up packages until Christmas 2010

If you have just started up or are thinking about branding for your business, check out our new offer. For just £1,200 we can set you up with a tailored-made package which will give you everything you need to get your marketing campaign off to a good start. And to make life a little easier, we will pay the VAT on this package, just for you, if you apply before Christmas 2010.

For more information see our Start-Up Poster, call 01793 554846 or email.