From screen To Seen: How To Take Your Online Enterprise To A Trade Show
Estimates predict that there are now anywhere between 2 and 3 million e-commerce companies in operation. If you’ve decided to start your big business this way, then the chances are that you’re already enjoying a whole range of benefits, including cheaper startup costs and the ability to reach a worldwide audience. What you might not realize just yet is that, sometimes, you’re going to need to step out from behind that screen.
While online business is big business at the moment, there’s still a lot to say for physical efforts. When you’re trying to spread the word, especially, methods like trade shows become invaluable. The problem is that you’re so used to selling yourself with words and computer graphics, you may have no idea how to impress in the real world.
It’s a problem countless e-commerce owners face, but it’s one you need to overcome in the following ways if you’re to ever take your company to the next level.
Perfect your spiel
You may be fantastic at writing product descriptions, but do you dry up as soon as you try to explain your product face-to-face? You wouldn’t be alone, trade show success is all about your spiel. So, take this time to learn how to talk about your products with competence, passion, and a little selling spirit. This shouldn’t be difficult because, really, you already know how to talk about your company. You just need to work out how to turn that online content into a physical presentation that does your products proud.
Think about physical advertising
With social media, email, and SEO, e-commerce companies don’t often have to consider physical advertising, but this medium still has its place. While you can direct clients online at any trade show, you need to remember they’re seeing lots of companies. To make sure you stick in their memories, offer everything from product leaflets to business cards containing your details. This needn’t even be a leap that takes you too far from your online efforts. With printing options like reprographics, you can even print physical efforts straight from digital files. As simple as that, you’ll have a fantastic stock just from tweaking the advertising you already use online.
Let your products do the talking
While most of your business is through a computer screen, there is one physical company factor that you can make the most of. We are, of course, talking about your products themselves. These are already fully formed and ready to make a great impression in the real world, so taking a few of these along for display or demonstration purposes is the best thing you can do to make sure you’re transferring well from screen to seen.
Trade shows can be nerve-wracking when you’re used to online operations, but they’re an invaluable market tool for growing your audience further and appealing to big-time investors. Besides, as you can see here, it isn’t half as tricky as you might think to transfer what you do onscreen into face-to-face success.