Many of you may have noticed that I’ve missed a day or two of blogging - I apologize, I know how MysteryCEO.com has become a drug of sorts for you

Well, our company is in the dead middle of a big product launch and I have literally been working around the clock (loving every minute of it - but sleepy at the same time). There is ONE thing I can’t get over, I’ve done quiet a few of these launches and have always promised myself one thing:

Next time, before we even announce the launch date, we’ll make sure EVERYTHING is done - all sales material, product, testing, etc…

What I can’t understand is why I NEVER follow through with that? It seems NOTHING gets done until a firm date is SET. But at the same time, nothing is done at the time the firm date is set (well, not “nothing” - but you know what I mean).

So, in other words - to motivate yourself TO get things done, deadlines become necessary…

Anyways - what’s your opinion on that?  Do you work better with deadlines?

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I spoke on Saturday to a crowd of about 400 and although I’m very used to public speaking, I have to say that this is the largest group I have ever spoken in-front of. I’m never really nervous about it any more, but it still can get you if you think too much about it.

Speaking in-front of 400 people or 40,000 people for that matter is the exact same really as speaking in front of 10 - it’s all in your mind if there is any difference at all.

If you want to speak well in front of a crowd, here are 3 tips I highly advise…

1. Humor - If you’re not a fun or charismatic person, you’ve got a lot of work to do before you can get on stage (or just don’t get on stage). If you can’t get the crowd into your conversation and responding, they’re lost. I don’t care HOW technically amazing your talk is - people are people and you need to FIGHT for their attention.

2. As for Audience Feedback - I always ask questions where I say “Raise your hand if you agree?” - sometimes people don’t raise their hands, they think it’s a rhetorical question - well I stop and repeat myself until they do.

3. MOVE AROUND - I like to be on stage, left side, then right side - then sometimes come OFF the stage. The more you can force the audience to follow you around, the more they are tuned in.

If you stand still, talk in a plain boring monotone voice - kiss your presentation good bye. I don’t care if you’re presenting a way for humans to fly, you’re not going to have the crowd (ok, maybe then you would…)

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This conversation actually occurred a few weeks ago when I was at my “bat cave” location internationally with our designer where he had just come back from learning about a concept called loss leader or cost leader (same thing). He was pretty excited, I was a bit surprised because it was so common in U.S.

However, I gave it more thought and realized that I have been born into an industry that it’s common in, but that many out there may not understand the concept, hence the post today. So, thank you Mr. Designer for helping me think of this post.

What is a loss leader (cost leader)?

Simple - it’s a “front-end” product or service that you give to someone for free or REALLY cheap and typically lose money on. BUT, it’s the “leader” because you have some monetization goal behind it. So, in other words…

“Lure them in with greed then swipe their wallet and run!” I’m obviously just kidding, loss leaders are very kosher marketing if done appropriately and not maliciously.

What are some examples of a loss leader?

1. Rebate Offers - Stores and manufacturers will lose money on one or two products just to get you in the door. They know that you’ll buy other things while there and they may get some loyalty (they’re thinking lifetime value of customer).

2. Free Trials - The company is risking giving you a service for a certain period for free. Why? They are confident they can hook you and start charging you.

3. A Free Web Service - Most “social networks” are loss leaders. They need tons of investment to get started and they don’t make any money for a LONG time. But, they build a database that is worth a lot of money if marketed to.

My Favorite Kind of Loss Leader?

FREE Services - We’re actually working on a service/site right now that has many attractive FREE elements to it. It might be free for the users but has cost us tons to develop and will keep costing us to maintain. BUT, we’re going to use this to build a database of people and obviously soon we’ll start conducting research on them and figuring out what the UPSELL them.

In short, a loss leader can be a great way to generate ultra-targeted leads so long as you can absorb the cost.

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My real background comes from marketing and more specifically internet marketing, so as I build this blog out and other sites, I want to share some of my “smaller” marketing tactics with you. Maybe the $100 Million+ companies won’t care about this (although it can impact them too), but my guess is that most of our readers CAN benefit from this…

Thanks to a friend of mine (also on our team who handles all of our design), I got a tip from him recently to pay more attention to Digg.com. I always thought that for Digg.com to really help you, you have to already have THOUSANDS of visitors, but I now learn that that is not the case!

His basic recommendation: Set-up an account at Digg.com and digg my own posts, each one of them and then let it be.

So, starting yesterday, I have pretty much digged the 30 blog posts that are here at MysteryCEO.com right now. The results have been VERY interesting already! Below, I’ll share what I did and also the results…

Step 1: Go to www.Digg.com and sign-up for a free account, it takes about 1 minute!

Step 2: After logging in, go to: http://digg.com/submit/

Step 3: Copy/Paste the URL of the place the story exists, the exact link and choose what kind of media it is…

Step 4: Give it a title and description <– This is CRITICAL because it will determine how many people read or don’t read it.
** Make sure to use a catchy title and a short, to the point, but exciting description…

Step 5: Pick the right category - I have not played enough to see if you should be “tricky” with what category you pick, so for now just pick what makes sense!

Step 6: Prove that you’re human by typing in the letters you see and hit SUBMIT.

Step 7: Careful, you’re not done yet, Digg.com thinks that EVERY story is a repeat so they are double-checking, just scroll to the bottom and click “Original, I Swear!”

NOW, you’re done! That’s it, it was a few clicks and you’ll have presece on a major site. I’ve done this for about 1.5 days now, want to see my results?

First of all, here is how Awstats shows the increase in my traffic…

(Keep in mind that I’m showing this so quickly that the Awstats has not updated for today, so you’ll only see the jump it took yesterday, and I’ve spent time DIGGING today too…).

Now, let’s see the jump that Google Analytics also shows in my traffic from just 1.5 days of Digging my existing content…

Here is the other neat thing, OTHER people actually are liking my story and taking time to digg it themselves, THIS I did not expect…now it’s not a LOT, but it’s something! This is the beginning of building more and more…

Pretty cool eh! This also gives me a chance to see what others like and don’t…

So, this is all I have for today, if your company is already posting content to the site, make sure you have someone doing this for you. As soon as I figure this out, I’m going to assign it to someone here to do it for me every day. Also, I’ll keep doing it for a week and report back on the results I am getting…

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I don’t know what the hell I’m doing or why I just launched this, but I wanted to finally play with Squidoo and see what the big buzz is all about.

Have a look at my lens, it’s pretty fugly right now, but leave me alone, I’m working on it!

The Mystery CEO Lens…

Maybe you can favorite it or something…I’m thinking of starting a bunch of other little social networks in places too - flex some of my “marketing muscle!”

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This is a question that I and the team wrestle with every show and due to limited budgets, we don’t usually do it but have been able to find interesting ways to get “sponsorship” like exposure for free.

In a nutshell, I think sponsorships are good but really ONLY GOOD FOR BRANDING. Please read that again, if you think you’re going to sponsor a party and sell product their to cover the cost - you’re out of your mind.

Here are the different kinds of sponsorhips I have seen mostly and my personal feelings on them:

Show Sponsors - These are like “Platinum” “Silver” or “Gold” sponsor. You get your logo on the home page and on banners around the show.

These are ONLY good for branding. Unless the show really plans on tooting you around, I’m not sure these are worth the money.

Breakfast Sponsor - Don’t do it. No one comes to breakfast. No one cares.

Lunch Sponsor - Don’t do it. People come, but they’re busy eating/networking. They don’t want to hear you yack and they may see your banner a couple of times at max.

Dinner Sponsor - Don’t do it - most go out to their own dinners with their own click.

Cocktail Sponsor - DO IT…people love drinking and a good crowd always comes. But again, focus on the networking and branding - that’s all it will do for you.

Main Party Sponsor - Usually very expensive, but DO IT if you can. These are GREAT for branding. Basically the trade show will endorse a main party. The entire show people run around saying “Are you going to — COMPANY NAME’s — party?”

Great for branding.

Lanyard - Do it - EVERYONE has these and see them over and over.

Bags - Do it - Same as with Lanyards.

There are many more, but I’m tired of thinking about them for now (can share more later). Anyways, just think of them in terms of branding and name recognition and networking - do the numbers work for you?

Here are a few things we do to help us get the same exposure and buzz…

1. Piggy Back Event - Basically throw your OWN tiny little conference/seminar the day before or after (advisable to do before) the event. That conference can’t stop you and the entire crowd will be there anyways!

In our experience, the trade show actually lets us pay to have them endorse it (just a small fee - not like the sponsorships).

2. Speak At The Trade Show - Get your speaker proposals in and speak. That way the conference promotes you and your company FOR you.

3. A GREAT Give-Away At Booth - something that peoeple can easily see, it can go a loooong way.

So, next trade show - think BRAND and NETWORKING, how can you get people to see your name and logo the most. Some sponsorships work, others not so much.

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Having exhibited at a trade show about 4 times now, we’re starting to learn some neat tricks to get more exposure.

We haven’t personally tried some of these, but having seem them get implemented - I can tell they work and we’re slowly working them in.

Here are 10 Tips To Get More Out of Your Booth. I’m splitting 5 and 5, 5 things TO DO and 5 NOT to do.

The TO DO:

1. See if you can get a “corner” booth

These may cost more, but they may be worth it based on the cost.

Corner booths are more visible and have TWO or more sides where people are walking by and can be grabbed.

2. Good Give-away

The biggest buzz on the floor is usually “hey, where’d you get that!” - these give-aways can get VERY expensive, but I’ve seen how much more powerful it is for booth traffic.

But, just make sure you GRAB the people that come by and talk to them - otherwise they just take the stuff and leave.

3. Play games at your booth

Have some prizes and play some games. Whether it be something like darts, spin the wheel or something more creative. It gets people sticking around and having fun.

4. Piggy-Back Other Companies

I always try to see what other companies are exhibiting and where. Some companies are just known to get more traffic and are more popular.

Grab that spot - you can “steal” their visitors - mu ha ha ha

5. Near Doors, Entrance, etc…

A couple of shows back, we had our booth right in-front of the registration desk - how crazy is that - the branding was rediculous. But it gets better…

The booth was in the middle of the hall that EVERY person had to walk down over and over to go to the “seminar sessions.”

So, EVERY single one of the 2,000+ attendees had no choice but to at some point see our name and stand near our booth.

(( The earlier you register, the better spot you can grab so register early ))

NOT TO DO:

1. Booth Babes

Yes, people stare at them - but I honestly don’t think they care much more about the company, they just stare at the boobs.

These “models” don’t know a darn thing about your company and trust me, the fliers they hand out…NO ONE reads them.

2. Sit Inside Your Booth Or Behind A Table

You want to be approachable, even if you’re sitting in your booth - make it a HIGH chair so you keep eye level.

Always try to stand right at the edge of the hall so you’re almost outside and grab people as they walk by.

Lead in with a hand-shake, they almost always reciprocate and then are “caught” in your trap!

3. Lots of video

I’ve never once stayed at the booth to WATCH the demo. Rather, set-up multile computers and invite people to get a PERSONALIZED demo or “experience” the product.

Looping videos, in my opinion, make the booth look flashy, yes, but don’t add much promotional value.

4. Talk Smack About Visitors

OK, my entire team (myself included) is guilty, I mean what can we do? Some people who come by are REALLY weird.

But still, other visitors can hear you and it’s a major turn-off. Creates a bad environment.

5. Don’t Give Away Too Many Fliers

Listen, people really don’t read that stuff much and it’s so much easier on YOU and the VISITOR if you can condense your material into 1 or 2 easy to understand brochures/fliers.

Focus mostly on getting their business card so you can follow up with them personally.

—–

Alright, these are some of the fresh tips in my mind since I am flying back right now after exhibiting at a show.

As more come, I’ll keep on sharing.

Coming Soon - My view on buying “sponsorships” at trade shows.

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