June marks the end of the Spring tradeshow season. Two of my clients are tradeshow bound within a week of each other and getting them ready with booth signage, updated collateral, announcements, pre-show mailers and show logistics deadlines are keeping me busy. And although tradeshows aren’t as popular as they once were, both of these clients are attending shows that focus on their particular technology segment and are well attended by their prospects. For an exhibitor, there is value in attending a show or conference if you plan and execute the event properly.

People attend conferences and tradeshows primarily for the seminars and presentations that are offered to educate the audience on key trends in their particular industry or discipline. And although they are not attending the show to purchase product immediately, most are there because an upcoming project requires they do research into vendors who offer solutions. The vendor exhibit area gives them a chance to meet vendors and see first hand the products and services that they offer. Attendees are evaluating your company from many perspectives. Everything you do, say and show at the conference is being inspected by those visiting your booth. You must project complete quality across the board - display, attire, presentation, demos, and marketing collateral. You get to make a lasting impression -don’t miss the opportunity to impress your audience. Take this opportunity to show them more about your company, products and services than what they can get researching your solutions via the Internet.

If your traditional tradeshow plan is order signs, book travel and hotel, and show up, it’s time to change your ways. Planning and executing a well integrated tradeshow plan that incorporates different methods of pre-show and post-show marketing will help you make the most of your time at the show and turn leads into qualified prospects. For more information on how to develop a tradeshow marketing plan that attracts high quality leads, read the article Tradeshow Success Starts with a Plan.

MarketingVOX reports that according to AdWeek, the Forrester Wave report indicates that the demand for quality web design work continues to rise and that it is not a one-time peak. This is due to the realization that the Internet is playing a major, central role as an information resource and your company’s presence on the Internet is being critically judged. Companies have finally realized the importance that brand and image on the Web plays in their success and have increased their budgets to ensure they stand out. The result is an increase in revenue of at least 20 percent at most shops working in that space. The largest Web agencies, Forrester reports, have seen 40 percent top-line growth.

What does this mean for the smaller companies trying to compete?

It means you must take your image seriously and treat the effort with the same importance as all of your marketing efforts. It is time to stop undermining your marketing efforts by ignoring your brand. There are really good designers and Web developers available that can work within your budget. Don’t assume that the cost is out of reach. Speak with a smaller firm about your needs as many are willing to work with you and help you get what you need within your budget. Seek out someone who can help you break up the work into a plan that can be rolled out over time. It is actually better to start with a good design and build on top of it later.

Life has kept me busy recently - clients, a taste of spring on the golf course, and a bit of the flu for the past week - so I’m just catching up on a lot of stuff, including blogging.

The topic of print verses online publishing is something that many marketing folks are pondering at the moment when it comes to spending their advertising dollars. For many of my technology clients, print advertising is not a factor. Most have embraced online advertising in some form and if we do a print ad, it is usually for a conference guide or some very targeted publication.

What is happening in the media industry for high technology is just the beginning. A post by Tony Hung, Print Publishing’s Death Knell?, points out some interesting facts about IDG Publishing’s revenue mix between online and print. IDG is a media company focusing on the IT industry. According to Colin Crawford’s post, The transformation of IDG, the absolute dollar growth of IDG’s online revenues now exceeds the decline in their print revenues. This change in their revenue mix and higher margins from the online businesses have resulted in them being more profitable than before. So it is no surprise that InfoWorld (an IDG publication) announced that it would be discontinuing its print publication in order to focus its efforts online. According to another post by Colin, since print is no longer the major product line at InfoWorld, closure of the 27 year print publication is a natural step in a plan that was put into place 2 years ago.

The future of print in the technology industry is transitioning. Other print publications already have disappeared or have been repurposed into online publications. More will follow suit. And truthfully, in an industry where change happens so quickly, I would prefer to get all of my information online.

But is this the case in all industries? If print advertising is part of your marketing strategy, it may be a good time to do an analysis of your industry and target market to determine whether a shift from print to online is happening and how you can distribute your advertising efforts to take advantage of this trend.

In my last post, I spoke about adding my RSS feed from this blog to my static Web site. I found another useful tool for doing a similar function. The difference is that the new display box on my web site is using something called SimplePie, a very fast and easy-to-use class, written in PHP, for reading RSS and Atom syndication feeds that runs on your web site. I got the RSS Display Box package from one of my favorite web sites, Dynamic Drive. I used the most basic of display boxes but that’s all I needed.

This solution took a little more time to understand and set up, but the demo that comes with it is easy to understand and mimic for your own site. If you are looking for a nice way to feed RSS to your static site to make your visitors come back more often, this solution is another nice option to consider.

For about a month since I read David Armano’s blog entry From 1.0 to 2.0 in Under 60 Minutes, I knew I had to do something about my Web site since it had been neglected since launching my blog. My web site has provided me a lot of business so I knew I couldn’t let it go untouched for much longer. Not great timing given my workload, but it had to be done.

I took my cues from David and searched for an easy to use widget to load my blog entries into my web site home page. I came across Kent Brewster’s Badger application that creates Web badges out of any RSS feed. With a little tweaking of the css provided, I was able to integrate the information into the site pretty seamlessly. Being able to put my new posts headlines on my home page makes my web site more interesting to new visitors, encouraging them to visit my blog for more information.

I also updated the web site design to more closely match my blog design. I like the clean look of the blog and wanted to make the same look work for the Web site. With a bit of rearranging and rewriting some of the content, the site looks as good as new. There’s still work to be done, but the site has received the necessary facelift and is ready to go back to work.

Your web site is still very much an important part of your marketing effort and needs to remain equal to your blog if it has served you well. With a little bit of love, your web site can continue to work for your business in conjunction with your blog. It takes a little planning and strategy, but it can be done.

Social media is adding a new dimension to the marketing mix. Marketing has been one dimensional - companies develop messages and push them to their audience via traditional media such as magazines and television. Feedback is rare and marketers hope their message is resonating with their audience.

Along came the Internet which has given marketers an additional medium in which to communicate their messages to their target audience. And although it took a while for companies to incorporate Internet marketing within their corporate marketing functions, the Internet is now an integrated part of their overall marketing plan.

So if you have Internet marketing activities in your marketing plan, does that mean you are implementing social media marketing?

Many corporate marketers would like to think so, but there is a fundamental difference between Internet marketing, using the Internet as a means to communicate your message to your target audience, and social media marketing.

Social media makes marketing a multidimensional exercise. It is no longer about pushing your message out to your audience. Social media marketing takes the same Internet technologies and adds interaction with your audience. It’s having your constituents spread your messages for you rather than you talk deafly to some cloud of people who may or may not care about what you have to offer. In some ways it really isn’t much different from word of mouth marketing where your happy clients, colleagues and partners say good things about you and provide you referral business. The difference is the speed with which your message is carried via the social network.

And it’s because of that speed that many corporate marketers are frightened of it. The key is to embrace it and use it because your company is being talked about in social networks and there is nothing you can do to stop it. By participating in the social networking world, letting your customers speak directly to you, and listening to what they have to say, you are more likely to win the hearts and minds of the masses than you will if you hide behind the corporate veneer.

How do you turn your Internet marketing activities into social media marketing?

I am an extremely strong proponent for Internet marketing. It has worked for my business and my clients’ businesses and now we are extending that Internet presence by adding on social media marketing. Every business, small or large, needs to open the communications channels with their audience. Look for opportunities to get feedback on your company, good or bad, and respond. For small businesses, start a blog. It doesn’t matter whether you market B2B or B2C, a blog provides benefits you normally will not get from Internet marketing alone.

In 7 reasons why small businesses should blog, Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba, authors of Citizen Marketers, provide reasons and advice on why you should blog.

Adding social media marketing to your marketing mix is not a difficult project. It does need to be planned so that your social media marketing activities stay on brand with all of your marketing activities. And depending on your company, you may need to evaluate the effect social media marketing has on the culture of your business. But there are ways of evolving your company to take advantage of this new and exciting marketing area. It’s really not that scary afterall.

I’ve added another podcast to my list of recommended marketing related podcasts. Marketing Voices is a weekly podcast hosted by Jennifer Jones that focuses on social media marketing. Each podcast is an interview with a broad range of marketers, most very well known or in senior marketing positions at companies utilizing social media in their marketing strategy. The podcasts themselves are 15 to 20 minutes in length and packs a lot of information.

I found all of them interesting because of the broad range of topics covered within the social media arena. My podcasts that stood out for me are the interviews with:

• Guy Kawasaki - author of 8 books, venture capitalist and former Apple marketing executive. Guy focuses on what is important about social media.
• Scott Wilder - group manager of the small business division for Intuit. This podcast had insight into how to make social media tools work for a large corporation.
• Jennifer McClure - executive director of the Society for New Communications Research. Jennifer discusses the company culture requirements for successfully using social media within the company.
• Jeremiah Owyang - director of corporate media strategy for PodTech. Jeremiah discusses how to implement a corporate social media strategy.
• Regis Mckenna - renowned marketer. Regis discusses why social media is a natural outcome of the evolution of the technology behind it and why corporations should adopt social media.
• Dave Sifry - CEO of Technorati. Because Technorati tracks 67 million blogs in total, and 1.5 million blog posts a day, how it has changed the landscape of marketing.

You can subscribe to this podcast via iTunes or go directly to PodTech to subscribe.

For those looking for a 5 minute conceptual overview of Web 2.0, this video lays it out pretty well. Watch it a couple of times to pick up all the nuances for where the Web has headed and what will be shaping our marketing in the future. Thanks to C.C. Chapman and Managing the Gray for pointing it out.

So how will businesses integrate Web 2.0 capabilities into their marketing mix? How will they start? Where will it lead?

Let me know what you think.

I recently started listening to podcasts. I know they have been around for some time, but I hadn’t found many that interested me enough to subscribe regularly. Of course, I don’t commute to work (other than to the coffee pot in my kitchen), so I don’t have that hour of travel that is perfect for listening to podcasts. However, my total immersion into new media has me on iTunes subscribing to a few podcasts on the subject. According to the Feedburner Facts and Stats, there are more than 90,000 podcasts and videocasts. Since I’m pretty stingy with my time and reading blog feeds and listening to podcasts can really use up the time, I have very stringent criteria.

As I come across podcasts worth listening to on this subject, I will post the links on this site under the very obvious header “Podcasts”.

The first podcast that is worth the listening time is Across the Sound by Joseph Jaffe (whose blog is Jaffe Juice) president of crayon, LLC, a new marketing company. Although they do run a bit long (most are about an hour), Joseph is a marketing visionary and is passionate about new media marketing and how it is best used within corporate America.

The second is Managing the Gray by C.C. Chapman which is both a blog and podcast. He, too, is pushing the envelope using new marketing techniques. As VP New Marketing for crayon, LLC, (yes, same company) he works from home, blogs, podcasts, and is active using Second Life as a marketing tool. He just doesn’t just evangelize about these tools, he uses them and shows how you can use them as well for your marketing. These podcasts are about 20 minutes each and gives you a quick insight into new media marketing. Plus he lives in the Boston area - maybe I will run into him at some venue!

Have a listen and let me know what you think.

Many companies don’t have a tag line or if they do it is an afterthought.

Do you have one for your company? What does it project to your target audience?

Keep in mind that a tag line is part of your brand identity and should be consistent with everything else you develop that sends a message about who you are and what you do for your customers. When developing the tag, keep in mind the following criteria. A tag line should:

• Present your major benefit quickly
• Establish your strength and make people want to ask you more
• Be instantly understandable to the audience
• Be shared easily through verbal and visual media
• Result in a physical reaction

Businesses can and do change their tag lines periodically, which is fine as long as they don’t make a major shift in positioning.

What not to do in a tag line:

• Use product names
• Be too verbose
• Talk about you
• Stray from your brand identity

To develop a tag, come up with a few and pass them around some of your trusted advisors for their opinions. I did that with mine and got good feedback and a shortened version:

Marketing = Success;
Invest Now.