There are five legs (I believe) in marketing that support your sales and brand. In no particular order, they are:

Advertising
Promotions
Social Media
Merchandising
Public Relations

Here is how I define each:

Advertising: TV, magazine, newspaper, web. This can be static ads or video ads, on TV or on the web.

Promotions: The easiest way to define this is “Buy two xx’s and get one x free”; “Test drive this car and get a $500 gift card”; or “Send in five box tops and get a free sample”. You want to promote your product or brand and usually this is done by couponing or free giveaways or whatever kind of promotion that you think will get someone to sample OR LEARN ABOUT your product.

Social Media: Funny – this is still being defined out there – is it advertising? No because we are not forced to go to your Facebook page and therefore are not advertised to. Is it Public Relations? Absolutely, but, the customers that go there aren’t looking to be “pitched”, they are going there to be informed about non-pitch subjects. Is it Promotions? It’s certainly going in that direction where Facebook pages are now giving out “free” samples. Is it Merchandising? You could say it kinda is, because of the video’s that can be watched about your product. Obviously, this still has a long way to go. [Which leads to blogs or blogzines or whatever name they're gong to be called this week. Are they part of Social Media or Public Relations? Some people think that blogs are with promotions because they "promote" your product.]

Merchandising: End caps, in-store signage, sampling stations and everything else that you see in brick-n-mortar stores. Is advertising on a web page merchandising, since web pages are become more and more our brick-n-mortar stores?

Public Relations: News releases, press tours, and everything else that is required to get someone else to write or talk about you on TV, Radio, magazine, newspaper, blog, etc.

These five legs should make up your marketing strategy on a consistent basis. Can your brand survive if you only do one or two legs? Of course it can. Some would say it is weaker because you aren’t doing all five legs, especially if you are an agency that does one of the legs that you are not doing.

Are some legs stronger then another? Absolutely. A 30 second spot during the Super Bowl blows away an end-cap at your local hardware store – for brand recognition, but, what about for sales?

Which leads you to: Do I need that Super Bowl ad? No, you don’t – that end-cap may be exactly what you need.

Just be sure to always research each of the legs when you are building your marketing plan and you will discover how important it is to do or not do that Super Bowl ad.

Something that a LOT of people who do events (i.e. are in charge of setting up their booth, their display, etc.) don’t ever do, is step back and walk the booth like one of their customers. They step back and look at it from a “presentation” aspect, that, it looks nice, that the “logo” can be seen and has the right “light” on it, and so on.

But, do you step back and look at from the perspective of their customer? Of an individual that has been standing for six hours, that is tired beyond belief and just wants to sit down and have the meeting.  Or do you look at it from the perspective of your customer, who is only three feet tall (i.e. kids).  Or from the perspective that your booth will have 300 people in it and no one will be able to see anything below the height of six feet.

How many times do you hang your banner on the front of the table, because it won’t “fit anywhere else”. Put 10 people in front of your table, and the banner is ineffective.

Just think – put yourself in their shoes! It will save you time and give you a much better ROI on your brand, your product, and your efforts.

It comes down to some common sense.  Ask yourself the following questions and then decide which event you should attend:

1) Does this event target my market?

Do the people who attend this event “want” my service or product? Will they purchase or provide me a lead if I attend? Will my sales increase because I attended the event?

2) Does this event help my brand?

Will my brand become more “famous”? Will my brand be exposed to the right target market? This is different then #1 above, as some companies attend events to get brand exposure and awareness, where sales are secondary to the company (at that time).

3) Does this event give me the exposure I want?

Will my product, service, or brand be exposed to the right market? Will the press come? Will I get the inquiries that I need to “up the ante” of my product, service, or brand?

4) Will my bottomline be affected by attending this event?

It will definitely affect it in the negative, as most shows cost a minimum of $10K to attend, and more likely to be in the three diget range. But, will it pay for itself. If not, then why attend – see #2 and #3 above, which could offset the bottomline cost.

5) Because I attend this year (or this quarter, month, etc.), do I have to attend again next year? And if not, will I lose credibility in the marketplace if I don’t?

There are of course many more questions that can be asked.  And most likely, you will need to have those answers before you can do the show (i.e. a presentation to managment to gain approval of the budget).  But, start with these, as they will help you wrap your head around the most fundamental issues involved with event marketing.