The Businessmagnet.co.uk solution

In troubled economic times when companies assassinate their marketing and advertising budgets, you’d expect companies in this industry to talk about how there’s no business and loss is lurking along their way. Yet in this very time and day, Businssmagnet.co.uk, online business directory from the UK, reported steady growth, a solid influx of new customers and a great, strengthened relationship with companies already working with them. I wanted to know more about their approach to business, as it is driving them up, right through the rough economic clutter. Lee Cheesman (see photo), Businessmagnet.co.uk Director was kind enough to answer a few questions.

While advertising budgets are being grossly cut down, Businessmagnet keeps growing. What’s your secret recipe?

Whilst we have seen a different trend throughout the advertising industry, we have been surprised by the number of businesses that have taken a proactive approach with the current economic situation, many businesses actually increasing their advertising spend, especially within the online sector. We too have taken a proactive approach to ensuring that our Directory is as streamlined and effective as ever. We have increased our web prominence and introduced a better system to keep our contact frequent with our customers.

Why is a directory listing a better option than other forms of online advertising?

A directory is quite a broad term that encapsulates many types of online advertising, there are so many things to look out for when advertising on the internet, some directories ticking all the plus points some completely missing the point. If a directory starts out by thinking they are going to be the next big search engine or is naïve enough to believe they will be used over some of the big names, Google, Yahoo etc… then they are starting out with the wrong attitude. The core focus has to be around the current aforementioned big names. How can we harness that traffic, those customers…those searchers. When a directory starts to realise the potential for tapping into this resource, it is then the directory becomes a viable advertising platform.

What should a company expect after starting to work with Businessmagnet in terms of results?

Results vary depending on spend, but on the whole, valid, qualified leads are a cert. We record all activity on our directory and are one of only a few who are registered with ABCE, a website statistics auditing body. We supply the tools to collaborate enquiries via Businessmagnet and are always able to reconcile our statistics with customer log files. A result doesn’t always necessarily mean money, sometimes we talk about results in the search engines we achieve for customers. We only utilize the organic or natural results in the search engines as they are proven to be more widely used than the CPC (cost per click) advertisements….Google actually said this themselves.

Is Businessmagnet a better fit for certain types of companies? Or do your services work regardless of industry segment?

The highly qualified leads we generate can be tailored to specific industries, however, manufacturing and industrial related companies seem to reap the benefits to the extreme, gaining those all important orders which can lead to hundreds of thousands in revenues. We have many different types of business advertising on our Business Directory, all are happy with our service which proves we can deliver the goods to any type of business.

What’s next for Businessmagnet? Any new features or expansions coming soon?

We are always implementing new features on the Directory, its almost a daily occurrence. We are always expanding and have been since 2004, taking on new staff, increasing the directories content. We feel we have the infrastructure just right now, but watch out for a new site freshen up late summer.

Disclosure: While Businessmagnet.co.uk is not one of my clients, they do advertise on WoBM. When researching who they were before starting our collaboration, I ran accross their press release announcing steady growth and wanted to find out how exactly they managed to achieve it. Hence the interview, hope you’ve enjoyed it

Guest post by Hasan Shirazi, Logoinn

The significance of a unique logo for the purpose of marketing and branding of a company or its product is not hidden from anyone. Having a perfect logo could be the ultimate wish of any business owner who knows the real importance of visual identity. However, many a time, due to lack of knowledge or some other factors, business owners do some common logo design mistakes while building their business brand. These mistakes eventually develop a wrong brand image, and then a business has to face decline even when all other branding elements are fine. In this article, we have pointed out 5 common logo design mistakes most commonly made by business owners.

Not hiring a professional designer to do the job

On the surface you might think that designing a logo is not a complicated task. You may assume that nearly anyone with some taste and artistic inclinations can design a logo for you. However, reality is quite different. Designing a business logo is not a work of new or pastime amateurs.

While seeking a logo designer, you need to understand that getting a logo designed by a professional and experienced logo designer does matter. Logos which are designed by non-professionals are usually unable to portray the right message. Therefore, hiring a professional is fundamental when it comes to ensuring that you obtain the most attractive and the most effective logo for your business.

Failing to describe the purpose of the business

Many businesses struggle in building a unique brand identity with a weak or vague logo that portrays a different image than what the company is actually about. When it comes to the relationship issue between your logo and your business, you need to pay attention to target marketing. Not only does your logo need to illustrate what your business is all about it also needs to be designed in a manner to attract the attention of the niche market that contains those consumers who will be most interested in what your business offers.

Over-crowding the logo with too many design elements

Logos with a simple design never go out of fashion. Whereas, complexity in your logo kills your brand image. Too many colors, complicated images and unreadable fonts make your logo hard to process and visually unattractive.

Hence, when selecting a logo design for your business, keep in mind that a clean, simple, and uncluttered look normally is the best selection and the best choice for your business operation.

With a simple and uncluttered logo you will find that consumers will more readily connect with your business. A quicker, sounder connection will increase the number of customers or clients that your firm or company will do business with both in the short and the long term.

Failing to provide resizable formats for different media

Resizability or scalability refers to the manner in which your logo can be effectively resized for all the available marketing and advertising media. If you are like most business owners, you will use your logo in a number of different ways. As a consequence, you need to have a logo that can be utilized in a variety of different sizes.

Unfortunately, not all logos are scalable in an appropriate manner. Certain logos simply do not look good when they are shifted into different sizes for different purposes. Therefore, while designing it, make sure it will look great in all sizes wherever you will use it.

Having poor black & white logo versions

Beyond attractiveness of the color scheme that you will use in your logo, you will also want to consider the black and white aspect for using your logo on the media where you cannot use it in full colors. For example, when you need to send a letterhead to your client.

You logo should have an ability to grab the viewer’s attention even in black and white. Therefore, with other tasks of defining colors, fonts and design, you should also focus on the black and white version of your logo.

Conclusion

Because your logo is such an integral part of the marketing, advertising and promoting of your business, you need to undertake a research about your logo to make sure it will be as effective and as appropriate as possible. By taking care of these mistakes that I’ve pointed out, you will be able to make the most appropriate decision as to what you should avoid in your approach of choice to designing a logo.

We live in a marketing and branding world where Jack Trout warns us that death is the punishment for companies who do not differentiate. Bloggers are trying hard to get unique or customized blogs to support their online brand. We all strive to promote a special something that’s only ours. But is it really necessary? Is it the only way? Or is the uniqueness also nurtured by something else rather than design or having your product photo recognized by everyone without seeing the logo?

I’ve been thinking lately of some large car manufacturers. Peugeot, Citroen, Ford, Toyota, all strong players in the international market. They all have something in common: producing some small cars, perfect for the city life. But let’s take a closer look at how these cars look like:

Peugeot 107

Citroen C1

Toyota Aygo

Yes, you’ve guessed it, they look pretty much the same. Especially 107 and C1, if you see them passing on the street, you can’t tell them apart. Toyota is also close by. Ford Ka was the only one with a very different design, you couldn’t take it for another car that easily!

And then Ford launched a new and improved Ka! While still looking a little different, guess what, it’s getting closer to the common design:

So what do you make of all this? Branding mistake or smart move? Have you heard Peugeot, Citroen or Toyota complaining at all? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Guest post by Alex Cristache

The list of blogs and online magazines offering tips and advice has been growing exponentially every year. Even I am the founder of one such “blogging tips” blog.

With all the hype created around this type of blogs and the (in)famous “make money online” blogs, people seem to overlook one significant thing: these blogs offer tips and advice, but encourage you to experiment.

Experiments – Trial and error

The keyword in the phrase above is “experiment”, which is something that too many start-up bloggers understand as a step-by-step implementation of the tips provided by the multitude of “Simon says” blogs out there.

Bloggers are human, and just as in the real life, you won’t find two bloggers that will react the same way in similar situations. Tips should be always passed through your own filter and compared to past events from your own online experience.

To experiment around tips means to elaborate on them, to select not simply the working solution, but the best working solution. To achieve that, you’re likely to pass through a few unsuccessful steps, each telling you where you did wrong and what can still be improved. But you know the old saying: “No pain, no gain”.

Take it one step further

Before you start implementing new ideas, try to take your analysis one step beyond. THINK about the impact of what you’re about to do. Could what you estimate as the end result be in conflict with any of your existing achievements and targets? If so, in what way could you improve or adapt the new idea so that it will perfectly fit in your blog’s general line of evolution.

Don’t be afraid to experiment! Don’t do what “Simon says” or “Simon does”. Interpret and adapt.

Alex Cristache is 27 and has been working for top Romanian web design, development and consultancy companies for over 9 years. Quite impressive for his young age, don’t you agree?

He’s tried a lot up to now: web designer, senior web, print & logo designer, occasional copywriter, web & SEO consultant and project manager. Although he focuses on design, he’s also been working with PHP & MySQL on the side. He also fell in love with WordPress the moment it appeared on the market and changed our lives.

He currently blogs at Blogsessive.com and runs CREATIVEurope, a website bookmarking the best European creative portfolios available.

This entry will be part of a series of more, based on bad pitches I experience or hear of. Turning them into tips and tricks will probably help those pitching do a better job in the future.

Some blogs have moved, some are simply abandoned. Whatever the reason, the owners are clearly not interested in writing on them. So pitching to these people would be a waste of time and a full scale proof of lack of research skills or of not paying that much attention.

MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, Google blog search, all are great at helping you find blogs writing on a certain topic. But everyone of them has to be visited and checked as profiles are sometimes rather old, blogs are misplaced in a certain category or their administrators have shut them down a gazillion months ago.

Let’s analyze an example. Someone found my profile on MyBlogLog. I rarely log on to MyBlogLog so my old blog is still on my profile. It’s been closed since January. The only post on the homepage is my goodbye post. There’s a link to my new blog in that post and in the header. So why would someone pitch and mention my old blog? Do they want any sorts of exposure? I don’t think so!

So my advice is, when pitching bloggers, stop worrying about a number of contacts you need to check on your daily list. Just think of results and try to maximize the return on your effort and time investment. There are millions of blogs out there and not all interest you , especially if they are no longer updated. Just take the time to do your homework and then click the Send button.

I’ve met Robyn Bloom on LinkedIn, after answering one of her questions about getting beauty bloggers and journalists to write about her business, Purely Cosmetics and the line of natural mineral products she created. While talking to her, I wanted to know more about how life as a one-woman-show was in the beauty field. I had only read her LinkedIn profile and some information on her website before sending these questions. I am extremely glad they’ve lead to a great story about following your dreams and doing what you love.

You went from selling prescription medications to selling ad space in the Yellow Pages to then owning your own mineral make up company. Tell me how it all happened!

Most of my life is an accident. When I first went to college, my intention was to become a doctor – I’ve always been intrigued by science. After my first inorganic chemistry class, I nixed that idea. I started out in the fashion industry as a menswear buyer while I was in graduate school (worked in retail all through high school), intending to open up my own clothing store. My MBA was emphasizing entrepreneurship, and after going through the program, I decided I’d rather start new products with someone else’s money rather than mine.

Straight out of graduate school, I worked many years launching new products for large corporations. One of these was for GTE Yellow Pages. My boss at the time had suggested that my personality would be a great match for sales (I couldn’t see the similarities of selling new product ideas to the corporate honchos and selling a product to the end user when I was in my 20 somethings). I found that I loved it – if it’s a product I truly believe in, my excitement about the product can be contageous. I moved over to pharmaceutical sales, which combined my interest in science and my sales skills, when there was some geographical issues with continuing with GTE. It’s hard to get passionate about standard cardiac meds, and even harder to get a physician’s attention for something other than your free pens, so I went back to yellow pages and remained there until I developed back problems from carrying so many phone books! When I stopped working, I promised myself that I was going to give my face 2 weeks off from makeup to allow it to breathe for the first time in eons.

5 years later…. I still wasn’t wearing foundation because I hated the heavy feel of it. I was talking to a girlfriend about the crappy care I took of my skin, and how much I hated wearing foundation. She’s the one who first got me interested in mineral makeup. After wearing it and seeing the difference, I was hooked! It goes on quickly, it feels like you’re wearing nothing, and even my 14 year old can apply it without that visible line around her chin. I didn’t like the products that were out there – they were overpriced and carried ingredients I preferred not to have on my skin, so I decided to do it myself!

How’s life as a one-woman-show entrepreneur?

Hard! I work far longer hours now than I ever did working for another company. My day begins at 6am, and rarely ends before midnight. No days off for me – I’m online 7 days a week. I take pride on my customer service, and will bend over backwards to meet the needs of my customers, answer their questions, and ship over 90% of my orders same day. When I’m not filling orders, I’m formulating new products. Or reading blogs to see what others are doing and/or wanting in a product. Or trying to promote my own product line. There’s always something that needs to be done.

I know you have a sales and pharmaceutical background. How do you handle Marketing and PR when you’re not a specialist?

I do have a marketing background; working as a Product Manager in new product development for many larger corporations. But that was a lifetime ago, and it is vastly different when your advertising budget doesn’t have any comma’s in it and you’re used to someone else’s wallet paying the promotional bills.

As for PR – I’m winging my way through! I did an event for our local Domestic Violence Center making over women who deserved some pampering – got my photograph on the front page of our local paper – above the fold even! Wouldn’t you know, they put my own name in the paper, but not the name of my company

Up until now, I’ve been relying mostly on word of mouth from existing customers. My company will be a year old in August, and I’m only just now starting to focus on PR. I have a friend who always manages to be chosen to do giveaway bags for events like Miss America, the Oscars, etc. I want to be her when I grow up, and be able to do the bags for the Oscars.

How did you come up with your company’s name? Did anyone help?

Nope – that was all my own doing, combined with domain names that were available. I wanted a name that was descriptive of my business. My focus is on pure and natural ingredients, so I spent a few hours coming up with ideas for names, then started a domain search. Most of my initial names were taken, but I just started combining words trying to come up with something easy to type (wouldn’t want anyone to spell the name wrong and get someone else’s site!) and descriptive until I finally landed on Purely Cosmetics.

Tell me about the Purely Cosmetic site: did you hire a web design and development consultant? If not, who helped you build it?

I have no artistic abilities whatsoever. I can’t even draw stick people with a ruler. I outsourced the design to a firm in the Phillipines. I can’t start with a blank canvas, but once someone gives me a few design ideas, I can alter it until it has become something that I like. My programming skills are somewhat limited – html is about as far as I can get!

When it comes to promoting your business online, what has worked for you and what hasn’t?

Surprisingly, advertising on search engines didn’t help me one bit. I received a lot of hits, but a terrible conversion rate, not to mention the expense. It took me almost 6 months to bail on the idea; I was afraid no one would know I was there if I weren’t advertising. I never saw a drop in sales when I dropped the pay-per-click. I have written several articles that were related to mineral makeup – from types of ingredients used in many brands, to how to buy brushes. Those articles have brought me in more business than anything else to date.

I noticed you are active on LinkedIn. Has that helped you to grow your business?

I’ve actually been on LinkedIn for years, with a whole 1 contact. I’d totally forgotten about it until I received another contact request just a couple of weeks ago. It’s amazing how much LinkedIn has helped me so far – not necessarily directly translated into sales, but I’m getting some wonderful advice about promoting my business. I’m making some great contacts – from not only people directly in my industry, but generous souls such as you who are taking me under their wing to help direct me. I’ve even received interest from someone who is interested in carrying my line in the UK! For only 2 weeks of being active, I couldn’t be more tickled about the feedback and results I’m getting.

Purely Cosmetics has a Facebook profile. What kind of traffic does it generate?

Not as much as I had hoped for, but probably again, because I don’t know what I’m doing. Socal networking sites are new to me, and I really haven’t much of an idea how to best navigate them or promote myself on them.

What kind of women are more likely to buy natural cosmetics?

All types! I think that women as a whole have become more health conscious, and more aware of what they’re putting both in and on their bodies. They don’t want products that have been tested on animals, and are becoming more environmentally aware as well. We all want to protect ourselves from sun damage as much as possible, and products that contain zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide provide a natural sunscreen without clogging pores, feeling heavy, or stinging your eyes. When I was a teenager, we used to sit in the sun wearing baby oil and using aluminum foil to reflect the sun to our faces! It’s taken this long for the damages to start really hitting home – my husband suffers skin cancer from not having sun protection nearly 40 years ago.

One of the great things about mineral makeup is that it can appeal to all age groups. Depending on the ingredients used (and their particle size), you can have a quick way to makeup yourself and have a ”dewey”glow for those with younger skin, or a more matte finish that can hide fine lines for the more mature woman. Because mica has light reflecting properties, eye shadows can range from high sparkle to those made with iron oxides and are completely matte – with everything in between.

Who’s tougher to compete with: other mineral make up producers or high-profile, trendy brands that we see in ads everywhere?

Tough question. Overall, I’d say the household name companies that you see on QVC or even drug store brands. The quality is far lower than other small companies such as myself, but those are the names people know, so they naturally assume that they are the best. It’s hard to compete with those big advertising budgets, though I’m not sure how much I really would want to – I’d lose touch with my customers, and it’s meeting their needs that makes this fun.

You’ve been running your company for a year know. What would you recommend to someone thinking to take a similar path?

Be prepared to put in long hours and waste a lot of ingredients! I don’t even want to think about how much I’ve spent on ingredients that end up in the trash when developing formulas. It took me several months just to get the basic structure of my foundation base the way I wanted it. If you’re doing it because it’s something you enjoy, it’s very rewarding. But as of yet, it’s not paying for the food on the table!

Any major plans for your future and that of your company?

I’m ever-evolving. Maybe I have ADD, and can’t stand to see things just stay the same  I’m always trying out new things – some may make it to reality, some get ditched along the way. Mineral makeup is still in it’s infancy, so there is lots of room to grow and change.

There are some who believe bad PR only comes from failed or irresponsibly planned actions of public relation specialists. It actually also comes from having no PR to handle negativity associated with a certain company. There’s also this ongoing belief that not all companies need PR, because they see PR as just some people trying to get stories into the newspapers.

Yet here’s the example revealing how PR can help you better communicate with existing and prospect customers. Let’s take a construction company. Negotiations are mostly based on different things than the number of articles on the papers. Old projects are analyzed, those hiring them want to know if they work effectively, if they finish on time and if they can adapt to new challenges throughout a project.

There’s this construction company renovating an underground passage placed in the very heart of Bucharest. It leads to the subway station and it’s the only way to get from one side to another of this huge crossroad. I’ve read quite a few blog posts on how they never work. People have been passing by at different hours and there’s never someone working there.

Piata Universitatii, Bucharest City Center, Construction Site Location
Photo Credit

The underground passage went from fast foods, shops and book stores to dust, garbage and extremely bad smells. Now, if they actually don’t do the work because they’re lazy, then no PR expert in the world can help them on the long run. Even if the crisis is solved in a positive manner, they will surely mess up the next project.

But what if they’re not working because they can’t through no fault of their own? Those hiring them might not have kept their end of the bargain, they might need to work at night to avoid making people walk in a cloud of dust, they might be waiting for some structure studies or some architect’s design first.

In such a case, a PR person could find a low budget solution: some announcements in the passage stating the reason, giving some info on when work will start and when the project would be finished. Otherwise, the main opinion is that the construction company is just another one getting a huge amount of money to basically do nothing most of the time.

As the name of the company in charge of the project needs to be displayed on the construction site, all those passing thorough the center of Bucharest will associate their name with laziness, falling behind with projects and other negative aspects. Why would a company allow something like that to happen? It does take an enormous amount of money and quite some time to put a positive twist on such an image disaster.

We all love to play games. It’s probably our mind’s way to stay connected with the inner child we keep nurturing. But we like playing, most of us love challenges and when it comes to prizes, we’re all in!

I’ve recently had my eye caught by a contest and a nice little game that I’ve become addicted to. And I am referring to the SecondBrain contest and the Stay.com trivia game. Both had an interesting idea, different approaches and cool prizes.

Two Successful Recipes

In case you don’t remember, SecondBrain decided to reward great content added by their SecondBrainiacs. They offered a MacBook Air, game consoles and loads of other prizes. Users needed to add content of great quality, use collections to better organize it and make it all sound really, really interesting.

When they officially launched the 2.0 Beta, ten great profiles were chosen and they were brought in front of the community. SecondBrain chose 10 winners, letting the public decide what each of them should win. So they have combined the search for quality with the need of popularity and of involving the entire community.

Stay.com has a different approach. They mix beautiful travel photos with a count down timer. The show you photos of a city and you have to guess it. Then, based on your score, you get a chance to win. As they are not a community builder per se, they also award points when you send out the game to your friends.

Now, the Stay.com game is fast! It’s catchy and plain addictive. And it comes with a weeklong stay at a nice little hotel somewhere in a big city. Who wouldn’t fall for that? I know I did and kept playing each day, several times a day for about a week. I’d still play, but I forbid myself.

I do hope on July 15, when the gaming contest ends, they will release the names of every city they used. I would like to know where to plan my next trips, as the photos were truly amazing.

What Have We Learned From These Recipes?

These are quite successful contests with people letting their friends know and inviting them to join the fun. But we all came across about dull contests that no one was interested in and which failed in their mission. The aim of such a game or contest is simple: get traffic, awareness and eventually sales. So what should we do so that we don’t stray from our path to success?

1. Select the Prizes According to Your Target

The prizes of both contests make me believe SecondBrain and Stay know their audiences. SecondBrain chose a cool laptop, game consoles and some gadgets. What else would someone who’s online enough to have content spread everywhere need? Stay took what’s supposed to be common knowledge for a passionate traveler and turned it into a game. Then chose to reward it with hotel stays in touristic cities around the world. What better way to capitalize on a passion for travel and promote your great services at the same time?

2. Spread the Word

You might have the greatest contest ever, if no one knows about it, there’s no real point in trying. Start by promoting it on your website, on your corporate blog, through friends and loyal customers, send out details in your newsletters and then pitch the mainstream and social media. Mainstream can definitely help and social media can make it all go viral.

3. Find a Way to Get More People Involved

There is a limited number of winners in any contest. But you still need a lot of players and cheerers to get the best out of your contest. So get more involved through awarding points for referrals or through a voting system. One caveat however: stay away from popularity only contest. Pageants are great, but the after-feeling in most is not that nice.

4. Don’t Keep Players or the Audience in the Dark

If there are more stages to your game, let those involved know. You might not cont all the media for each step of the contest, but you can let players and those close to the competition know how things are going. Again, your blog, your site, newsletters, anything you want can broadcast your message.

In the end, like everything marketing or public relations related, nothing can guaranty a victory. You also need some luck, to a good moment (which gets extremely difficult to predict if your targeted audience is from around the world, not a specific region) and some influential evangelists. That is why you should plan and perform everything on your side as good as you can, so that the factors you can’t control play a less important role in the overall result.

I’ve read numerous articles on Twitter, some saying it’s a complete waste of time, some saying it’s extremely useful and others, more temperate, saying it’s useful and a time waster as well, depending on what you do with this tool.

I believe saying Twitter or any other Social Media channel for that matter wastes your time is simply stating the obvious. Anything consuming time has potential to waste everything it spends with no real results. Social media, other media, everything you do can have no results, some results or excellent results. It all depends on how much you invest in your actions, what you aim to obtain and there’s also the little yet important part luck plays in the equation.

I for one used to believe Facebook was a complete waste of time, as I didn’t see how movie surveys and playing with vampires would ever help me. But I am sure the smart people who invented the “guess the brand” survey I played months ago had great results in seeing how much awareness they can associate to different brand identities.

So here are my conclusions about Social Media in general, including the microblogging poster child Twitter. And yes, by calling it poster child I mean to say there’s a lot going on right now on Twitter and I believe it has a pretty great future.

1. Social Media is time consuming

From your blog, to the Twitter account, to digg and Facebook, building a nice looking network of friends takes time. Simply because you need to invest interest, research and empathy in the whole process.

2. You need to be honest to yourself about what you expect and the chances to get it

If you want to meet people with keen interests, to build relationships with them to then talk, share tricks and tips and generally have a good time, that’s doable. If you want to generate traffic, that’s also possible, it won’t happen the moment you publish your profile or the moment you post your first link. If you want to raise sales by 30 percent in a week without much effort, that’s not gonna happen.

3. The people you get to know are the greatest asset

The relationship you develop will be the greatest thing you’ll ever get out of social media. You’ll gain great friends, great teachers and very persuasive evangelists if you play your cards right.

4. Your key tools are honesty, genuine interest and selflessness

What’s in it for you is important. But the “social” part of the affair should tell you there are others to worry about. I don’t think it’s because of the back scratching syndrome. I like to believe we are naturally inclined to help those we trust/believe in.

So, if your product, service or personal brand is not a joke, but something awesome, if you have taken enough time to understand how to blend in into the social networks, the time you “waste” will be nothing compared with what riches you’ll discover.

Current and potential customers bring in money for a company in many ways. They buy products, they buy additional services, upgrades, maintenance and if hey like your service they’ll spread the word and have more money pouring your way.

But what you might overlook is that those people, if they come in high numbers, are also something to be sold. As an audience, they’ll generate a new found stream of revenue. You’ll position yourself as a high authority conference organizer and not spend much in the end. Why? Simply because others will pay to sell something to your audience.

Case Study – The Parallels Summit

Let’s take a real life example: the Parallels yearly summit for existing or soon to be partners and customers. This spring they chose a luxurious hotel, the Omni Shoreham in Washington DC and invited people from all over the world to attend. They had a small exhibiting hall (way tight if you asked me) where spots came at a price, two industry media sponsors of which I could only see one throughout the conference, the WHIR. And they had so high priced sponsorship packages that companies like Microsoft or Intel paid for.

They were bringing in a couple hundreds of people at least, so they got to negotiate a decent price with the hotel. In the end, what the guests got was impressive: great room, a hotel with a lovely view, a cruise on the Potomac river, a sunset cruise to be precise, a baseball game in VIP suites, Washington Nationals vs. Philadelphia Phillies, and many little things such as pens.

Intel sponsored the game, Microsoft the cruise and I am pretty sure exhibiting prices and other sponsorships covered the lunches and breakfasts. I don’t imagine they paid nothing, but imagine how much they got thrown in for free. If you want a taste of how it all felt, take a look at the photos I posted. If you’re not American and wonder why baseball would ever interest you, read this entry to see how addictive it is.


This is a high class example and I’d say it mostly works in business to business lines of activity. Although end user oriented products get a lot more customers, those customers are not really going to pay for a three day trip to attend conferences and decide on buying loads of expensive products as well.

How Can You Better Market Your Customers

You have to realize that an audience of over 50 people is something big. If you already have the good habit of meeting your customers on rare, mostly yearly occasions, why not reduce or even wipe out your costs? If they are decision makers or interested in related offerings, use that ace down your sleeve to get partners and other indirectly related companies to chip in for the organization costs.

If you think you’re good enough, you can do what Parallels did, have Microsoft (the same company thinking of providing its own virtualization solution) as your platinum sponsor! You might say that was a mistake, but if people use your product alongside something provided by a future competitor, close the deal, get more customers now, and worry about competition later. If your solution does a good job, no one would even dream of going through the switching hassle!