How Can I Attract People To My Home Builder Booth?

Publicity, Services

My company is going to be exhibiting at a Home Builders Convention. We offer a website that would allow builders to research potential development sites. The theme for the convention is “Under Construction”. Any suggestions for what we can do with our table? We will have a computer and flat screen tv to display our website.

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I’d create a video showing people using your software and have that running on a loop. Ideally, show the actual home (“under construction”) shown on an inset as the software is being used to design that aspect of the home. This makes it obvious what you’re selling to people casually walking by, and you can spend more time pre-qualifying leads.

How Can I Attract Delegates To My Symposium?

Clubs + Associations, Publicity

I have six weeks to do a regional symposium and series of workshops involving 600 pre-screened delegates. Using a random quota sample list of 2,400. Will I be able to have 600 delegates attend, using a two letter drip marketing campaign?

I will pay the delegates’ way, if necessary, offer perks, provide national TV coverage, and have them participate in family financial workshops, global environment forums and interact with the top three candidates running for President from both parties.

I have ten weeks to accomplish this task, including the first four weeks devoted to website fund raising and also engage in our PR firm’s scheduled series of news conferences, book signings, and private party fund raising events.

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It depends on the appearance and content of your letters. I understand why you need them, but why do they need you (what’s in it for them)? You’re giving them a “working” vacation, but more than that, what problem are you solving of theirs?

As a “Concerned Citizen”, how will their appearance matter? Why will they feel “heard”. If you need their input, why can’t they simply answer a questionnaire. If really only need them to attend for their smiling faces for TV coverage, then you need to make that clear.

Politically, people can be distrustful of the “process” and marketing of candidates. You don’t want to disenfranchise them any more. If you’re sincerely looking for input to create a list of the core issues for representatives of your region, and are willing to make this sharing two-way, then you have a higher likelihood of success.

It’s all in the presentation of your marketing message.

What Is A Sub-Domain?

eMarketing, ,

My hosting company offers up to 6 websites hosted for the one low price. I created a website which is ranking very well and have now created a second site (unrelated in topic) to the first site on the same hosting plan. I now realize this second website is considered a sub-domain of the first website according to my CPanel, although they have completely different domain names. Will this 2nd site be considered of lesser importance by the search engines or is this whole sub-domain thing just visible to me in my CPanel? Should I move the 2nd site to a separate new hosting plan

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You might be confusing subdomain with the folder structure of your website.

A subdomain is a name that comes before your domain name. In the case of www.google.com there’s also images.google.com, maps.google.com, etc. Each of these are websites in their own right, but their names share the domain name. Search engines see these as their own website. Subdomains are a handy way to organize a logical “entity” of a website.

The folder structure is how the websites are organized on your web hosting server. If your package provides 6 websites, then it’s probable that each domain’s files & folders are kept in a single domain folder (which in turn, is kept in a folder for you, the hosting user). At the “top level” of your web hosting folder, you’d have a different folder for each domain.

The cpanel allows you to map a folder to a (sub)domain.

You DO want your different (unrelated) websites to have different domain names as a start of your “branding”.

How Can I Get More Customers For A Nail Salon?

Publicity, Services,

I am managing a nail salon in downtown Denver. Currently, there are hotels with nail/salons in them as well as three surrounding nail salon competitors. I have the best location in terms of the busiest location but I want more clientele. I am surrounded by many businesses and the busiest hour for me is lunch time when everyone goes on break. My downtime is the evening time. What can I do to get people to constantly come in at all times? There are many many people walking on the mall and passing my shop each day-what can I do to get them to come in? The shop is rather small and very narrow-it is between a Jamba Juice and a mom&pop ice cream shop and both of the shops get really busy. Should I make a sidewalk sign to show people that we are here? Should I have happy hour?

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My wife tends to only frequent establishments that have people in them. So, one idea is to have more people being worked on at your salon. Imagine helping out a local breast cancer or homeless mom’s group – schedule people to come in for a free manicure (etc.). Send out a press release announcing your goodwill within your community.

Do mini-makeovers at the salon. Teach people (teens? single moms?) how to improve their looks easily. You could sign up people through your local community ed program.

Another suggestion – co-market with other stores. While the snack shops might be a candidate, think of the places your clients are likely to go: women’s clothing, women’s shoes, etc. These establishments would be natural partners of yours.

The trick is to simply get people used to coming in your front door.

How Can I Start A Cleaning Company?

Services, Starting Out

What are some tips for starting my own cleaning company? I’m writing a business plan for starting my own cleaning residential and office cleaning company.

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The business plan is useful if you’re hoping to get investors. Otherwise, spend your time focused on your strategic plan. Specifically identify: who your audience is, what problem they have, how you solve it, why they should trust you, etc.

You’re looking to identify what makes you different from all the other cleaning companies out there. You need to specialize in something: “green” cleaning products? flexibility – can you do a quick cleanup on short notice? Do you have expertise in cleaning “tricky” surfaces (leather, fancy rugs, etc.)?

Once you’ve done this work, you have the start of an effective plan of action.

Should I Send Out Press Releases?

eMarketing, Publicity, , , , , ,

A few months ago I published a new on-line boutique website offering designer laptop bags. I have a small budget and would like to know if there really is any GOOD FREE PR websites; or any PR firms that you could steer me too. I have no experience in this area at all. I have written my own press release but don’t know where OR what to do next.

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Press releases are great for disseminating something new (that may be of interest to the media). However, they’re not a substitute for marketing / advertising.

What I think you want is targeted traffic for your website that converts into customers.

Before you get more traffic, I would encourage you to enhance your website. To actually see a good picture of one of your bags for sale (ignoring the 2 that are on the home page), it took me 3 clicks to get to the page. My suggestion is since you have an ecommerce site, make the site easier to navigate, and quicker to see the merchandise to entice me. For example, when I want to buy bags, I don’t want to read about your bags (which is basically text that you’ve artificially created for the search engines) – I want to see them. Once the site is enhanced, then increase your traffic.

If you don’t have a big budget, then start by doing a keyword investigation to see what people are searching on and what’s (and who’s) ranking well. Given your price point, a PPC campaign may make sense as well.

You also want to get mentioned in the various fashion magazines, blogs, and websites if you have something special/unusual. For the magazines, a targeted press release to the proper editor would be better than an press release “blast”. On blogs, feel free to post something of value and get a backlink. On fashion websites, contact the owner and see if they’d be willing to give you a mention.

How Can I Record High-Quality Webcast Audio?

eMarketing, ,

How do I get the best sound quality for recording a webcast?

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If you’re recording your own voice, pull the sound from the microphone. If you’ll also be recording the participants, you’ll need to do a bit of post-processing to get their voice to the same level as yours, remove background noise, etc.

If your webcast host offers it, let them do the recording and get the raw audio for editing. They’ll generally do this for little or no money.

Also, test it out your system ahead of time before the “big day”. It’ll let you tweak the various parameters to find something that works.