Posts from — September 2008

Costa Rica, like many Latin American countries, buys a lot of oil from Hugo Chavez. Try almost 100% of the 18,000 barrels of crude that the country refines daily. Under current financial terms, this crude has to be paid for within 8 days. However, if Costa Rica joins in with Hugo Chavez sponsored “Petrocaribe” those terms could change drastically for the better. Petrocaribe is Chavez offer to countries of Central America and the Caribe to purchase oil on very favorable terms. They still have to purchase at market rates and if those rates exceed $100 per barrel, the favorable terms kick in. Specifically, the ability to finance the purchase of 60% of the price of the crude over 25 years at interest fixed at 1% (and with two years of grace). The remaining 40% of the price would be paid over 90 days. This would generate enormous savings that could be invested as Costa Rica chooses. A big debate is over what to do with this surplus.

That is what I like to call a “good problem.” A bigger problem in my opinion is whether to accept any such handouts from Hugo Chavez in the first place. Does this not allow Chavez, who has expressed dictatorial visions of grandeur, to get his hands around the throat of Costa Rica economically? Could this just be a ploy in his pursuit to become the czar of Latin America? Would it have been a good idea for France or Great Britain to have made such cozy deals with Hitler?

Chavez is no Hitler, you might say, but are we sure about that? He has already been busy muzzling any negative press in his own country and rapidly passing laws giving himself control over every facet of Venezuela’s economy prior to the upcoming elections. Venezuela’s citizenry enjoy cheap oil, but the Chavez version of freedom offered to his people seems pretty “cheap” as well. The price of any debt incurred to Chavez may ultimately prove to be very expensive.

Of all the things you can give out at your trade show booth, by far the most useful and most direct in terms of communicating your sales message is some kind of printed material.

Unfortunately, compared to more imaginative handouts, printed materials can be fairly ordinary — some would call them boring. But the fact remains that printed materials are almost always the best way to communicate your promotional message.

You work hard to make an impression with your trade show booth. And you train your staff to say all the right things. But once your visitors are gone there are really only two things connecting them with your company and your products: your follow-up strategy, and your handouts. Will your handouts make it past the waste basket? Have you made them an integral part of your follow-up strategy?

One of your primary goals should be to put a piece of product literature into the hands of your prospects and get them to take it back to the office. You want to avoid it being thrown into the garbage can just outside the exhibition hall.

Why printed product literature?

One important reason why product literature makes such a popular handout is because printed pieces of paper or card stock are inexpensive. And when your printed pieces are well designed and nicely produced they can be much more effective in terms of communicating your message than things like hats, mugs or pens.

So what makes an effective piece of product literature? Here are a few suggestions.

First, creative graphic design is important. A poorly designed cheap one colour flier does not look good on your company or your products. You often don’t need an expensive multi-page brochure. But what you do need is an attractive, simple advertising piece that has catchy graphics and a clear statement of “the pitch”.

Use full colour photographs and a striking headline. And try to come up with something more than a description of the product. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Ask what features and benefits they are looking for in your product. And then create a “benefit-rich” statment in your product literature that focuses on your product’s customer-oriented benefits.

Second, make an offer your potential customers cannot refuse. Give them something like a free pen or a credit against their first order for filling in an inquiry form or customer survey. Or coordinate your offer with your website by encouraging your prospects to take advantage of a special offer they can only access online.

This strategy should encourage your prospects to keep your handouts, at the same time as enticing them to respond by accessing your website to have another look at your special offer. In other words, this could be a very effective followup strategy.

Third, design your printed handouts so your prospects will be likely to keep them. Everybody keeps business cards, so make sure to include a business card in your handout package. Many people keep business cards for years — often long after the person has left the company or the company has ceased to exist.

Business cards are important, so make yours stand out from the crowd. Printing is so inexpensive now you can print your cards in full color without incurring much of an expense. Use a full color photo of your product, or some other striking photo to communicate your marketing message. These days online photography websites have hundreds of photographs you can use for almost nothing.

Another idea is a full color post card / business card combination. Design the 3.5″ x 6″ postcard as a coupon or a “request for more information” that has your company mailing address pre-printed on the reverse side. When your prospects tear off the perforated card they are left with a business card for their card file or Rolodex

The imaginative ways you can use printed materials is almost limitless. Put a bit of time and effort into designing striking handouts and you won’t be disappionted with the returns.

You’ve put months into having your trade show booth designed. Now it’s finished or very close. You walk around your new booth like a proud parent when it suddenly dawns on you; you need promotional handouts to go with it! Where to start, though?

The key to a great promotional handout for a trade show event is that it provides needed information about you and your business. But for it to stick, in other words, not get thrown in the trash, it has to have something a little more than just information.

One of the very best ways to make sure your trade show booth handouts don’t get thrown away but will stick is to put an offer or coupon of some kind in them. Coupons that a person can use after the trade show event practically guarantee your handouts won’t get thrown away. After all, your customers will want to use the coupons!

Sweepstakes and raffle offers also work well and assure your handouts will be read, kept and, better yet, used. To get someone’s attention these days means you usually have to give them a little more than just information. They want STUFF. And so having a simple sweepstakes or raffle offer in your trade show booth handouts means that your handouts are more likely to be read and held on to.

And here’s a great tip that many people forget. By using this sort of trade show booth handout, you have the opportunity to gather names and addresses. And it’s so easy! You can use them for follow up using direct mail, email newsletter and other marketing promotions long after the trade show event is over.

This is an important part of marketing, using any venue or medium. Follow up is essential. What? You thought you’d just do a trade show event and make some sales and that would be it? What about the potential customers who only need a little nudging or who may not need your product or service now, but will in the future? Are you going to just let them get away?

An effective and successful marketing campaign material doesn’t stop at the design part. Sure, you first have to attract your target audiences’ attention before you could even get them to read what you have to say. But after attracting their sense, now what? Do you just let them be disappointed with your copy? Or do you give them the right message that makes them want to stick and find out more?

A good copy can get you the time you need to make your target readers get to know you more. A great copy can make your target readers into potential buyers. A right message, therefore, can make your business into a success.

Your words can be your ally and your weapon that provides you the muscle in your marketing ad. Even in your advertising flyers for example, your words are your ideal tools to help you build your relationships with your clients. Without your message, you might as well concede to the competition.

So are your words enough to appeal to your target clients’ sensibilities? Are your words enough to hold on to their interests?

Here are some of the common phrases you’ll see in most effective print flyers. You can use them in your next advertising flyers so you can say the right things in your handouts:

When you say your message, give them a reason to respond to your call-to-action:

… works as hard as you do…

… don’t need to pay so much…

… this is not just another…

… our advantage over…

… the secret is in…

… why be stuck with….

… if you can afford not to….

… for future investments…

Always provide an offer that they would not be able to resist, a the Godfather would say:

… savings of up to…

… Big discounts!

… Bring this card and get _____ discount!

… For special rebates and discounts, log on to…

… Receive a free bonus when you bring this card…

…Call us and avail of special offer for walk-in clients…

And as always, close in with a line that would encourage your target readers to react positively to your message:

… A rewarding experience awaits you when you call now.

… Call us. You’ll be glad you did.

… That’s our guarantee.

… You have our word…

… We’ll deliver as promised…

… Call us. We’d like to hear from you.

… Visit our shop today to avail of …

The bottom line is to say the right words not only to keep your readers interested, but most importantly to get them to respond (positively, of course) to your call. The right message will do that for you and more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kaitlyn_C_Miller

You get a huge pile of paper handouts and browse through them. Suddenly you realise that the presentation has ended and you didn’t actually pay attention to what the presenter was saying. Is this familiar?

Should you give handouts during a presentation or not – this is a very important question.

Yes and no. It depends, of course on the nature of the presentation. If you are going to make a technical, scientific or factual presentation with much details handouts help the reader assimilate facts. However, if you are making a presentation with much emotional appeal handouts could be counterproductive as there is a risk that the audience members are immersed in the handout and not paying enough attention to the presenter. National and organizational culture plays a great role in the success of the presentation. Brits, Americans or Italians for example appreciate interactive presentations with emotional appeal but the Finns and the Japanese feel comfortable with restrained fact based presentations where they can take notes. There are great variations also among professions. People in marketing and in the creative professions wouldn’t always like to sit quietly and scribble notes but accountants or lawyers might be more inclined to take notes.

You can distribute handouts before, during or after your presentation. There are advantages and disadvantages to all three so you must consider what you hope to accomplish with the information provided in the handouts.

If there is material in your presentation that cannot be visually displayed on the screen but that is important to follow while you speak, distribute the handouts before you begin speaking. If possible, have them ready for each person to take as they enter the room. This will allow them to read the information before you begin speaking. People who are reading are not listening with attention. There is another advantage in distributing handouts before the presentation. It allows listeners to make notes directly on the handouts. Remember that taking notes is the choice method of learning for many people. Distributing handouts during your presentation is challenging. Pass them out quickly and make sure they are relevant to the point you are discussing. No matter how quickly they are distributed, the audience will be distracted and you might lose some of their attention. This is the least favorable time to distribute materials, but occasionally it is the only appropriate time to do so. Remember that you will have to recapture your audience’s attention and get yourself back on track.

If you decide to distribute the printed materials after your presentation, let your audience know during your presentation. Tell them what information is covered in the handouts, which will encourage them to listen instead of taking unnecessary notes.

Here are some basic guidelines for creating effective handouts that help the audience instead of distracting or misleading them.

Pay careful attention to the appearance of the handouts.

• Print them on clean white paper.

• Use a readable, ordinary font like Times or Courier. Don’t vary fonts but make the text as uniform as possible.
• Don’t cram too much into each page, and don’t leave gaping blank spots.
• Make the handout clear and easy to navigate.
• The handout order should be the same as the presentation order. Don’t make audience members flip back and forth between pages.
• Double-sided handouts are highly recommended (they save paper and there’s less to carry).
• Always staple multipage handouts, preferably only once, in the upper left corner.
• Include page numbers.

Printed handouts are most effective if they contain the following elements.

• Title section

At the top of page 1 you should have the following information, title of presentation, your name, your contact information e.g., e-mail address. You can also include the presentation location and date.

• Body

Structure the body using headings or if your presentation is primarily data-driven, you can simply allow readers to follow along using the numbers.

• Tables

Keep their design simple. Simple statistics may be best presented in a table, but often a graphic is better for this purpose. All tables should have clear and informative captions.

• Figures

Figures include charts and graphics. If you have graphics, make sure they’re clearly visible on the handout. Like tables, figures should also have informative captions.

• References

List only the references mentioned in the presentation (orally or on the handout). These are usually no more than five or ten for a presentation.

Microsoft PowerPoint or similar presentation software such as Apple Keynote have built in options for creating handouts from the slides that you are going to use during your presentation.

PowerPoint handouts

By default, PowerPoint offers choices to include 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 9 slide thumbnails per Handout page – some layouts, such as the one for 3 thumbnails also provide some space next to the thumbnail for notes to be written/printed. If you put too many slide thumbnails on one page some text or figures might be very difficult to read.

Other options than printed handouts

Printing Handouts is not always the only solution – especially if you need to email it to someone. In such a case, one can output Handouts to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file.

In conclusion you have to consider carefully what you aim to achieve by giving out the handouts. Then follow the guidelines given above to produce and distribute clear handouts, which help the audience absorb your message rather than distract them.

This follows our earlier article which covered the preparation and choosing of the venue for your presentation

Equipment

With all the equipment available today it is possible to prepare, check, amend and polish a presentation before you enter the venue. No matter what format and equipment you are going to use, you have the opportunity to put together a comprehensive, detailed and convincing presentation. As we have previously pointed out in the Preparation article, the more you do in advance, the better the project will be. This also applies to choice and use of presentation media. From giving just a simple speaking presentation to the most advanced computer assisted one, checking equipment and facilities is extremely important. Obviously, a spoken presentation will require a simple desk or lectern, possibly a microphone and speakers. A sophisticated presentation will require more advanced technical equipment and backup. If you are using a flip chart or white board always make sure you have sufficient marker pens of various colours and erasers available. When using an overhead projector check it is working and is focused correctly before your meeting begins. Also Check your transparencies are in the correct order, are clear and not damaged and focus them so the information is available to all of the guests. Don’t forget to have a suitable pointer to hand as you will probably need one. If your choice is a full PowerPoint computer assisted presentation or similar, you will have done all the preparation in advance. When you arrive at the venue ensure all the services you require are available and in good working order. You will, of course do all this before the presentation and before the guests arrive. The right equipment is a tremendous help when making a presentation. Technology is now so advanced that choosing the right equipment is a pleasure, not a chore. Having the right equipment improves your chances of making a successful presentation.

Handouts

Most presentations include some sort of handout to give to the guests, possibly a brochure, fact sheet, specification details or maybe a report. Again, this is an important element of your presentation. Always present the information in an attractive folder, rather than using a few sheets of paper stapled together. The cost of small binders or folders is very cheap and will make a much better impression than papers stapled together. If you have printing facilities in your organisation have some folders printed with your logo or other promotional advertising as they will help to advertise your company and also look professional. During your presentation mention the promotional material (handouts) and tell your visitors exactly what they contain. Encourage them to read, examine the information and take it away with them for further study. This method helps to keep your presentation in their minds long after it has been completed. I was once at a presentation in Berlin given by General Motors. They were announcing new models and they handed out three full size A4 ring binders to all the guests, each containing full technical details of the new models. There were about two thousand delegates at that conference so you can imagine the cost of producing, shipping and handling that amount of literature. Obviously General Motors thought it was well worth it. Very few brochures remained in the conference venue after the event. Therefore, you need to give careful consideration to the compilation of your handouts if you are using them. They will become an important part of your promotion.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell

If you want your public speaking handout material to be kept forever, you must give each audience member a reason to keep it. I do this by strategically adding important reference material to EACH PAGE of the speaking handout. This material was picked specifically for that day’s audience.

The reference items could be important phone numbers, web site addresses, book titles, or even humor that applies to the audience*s industry. The reason the information isn’t put on one page at the back of the handout is because that page could be torn off and the rest of the handout thrown away.

Don’t forget to put your contact information on every page of the handout too.