Spring is around the corner, which means spring home and garden shows will be popping up. Speaking of “pop,” have you given serious thought to your POP strategy for any upcoming vendor shows?
POP, or point-of-purchase, is a term to describe marketing and advertising material that is strategically placed to promote a product or service. POP is occasionally called the silent salesperson because it is driving the marketing message without making a sound.
According to a Brigham Young University study, products with signs outsold products without signs by 18 percent — even if the sign was informational rather than advertorial in nature. If you are planning to set up a booth at a local spring home and garden show, you should give serious consideration to the following.
Define the purpose:
What is the end purpose of your booth? Is it to get newly signed clients, gather prospect contact information, build brand awareness or launch a new service? The booth, and the marketing material found within it, should communicate a single message to the event audience.
Define your audience:
Once you know what the purpose of your POP, ask yourself about the audience to which you intend to market. Are you targeting upper-income homeowners, disabled veterans on fixed incomes, white-collar professionals, divorced underwater basket weavers? Different audiences should receive varying messages. Speak to a homeowner about safety; a veteran about patriotism; the busy professional about simplicity; and the underwater basket weaver about … well, I am not sure how to market to underwater basket weavers.
Leverage the season:
Use the predominant seasonal pest as an easy go-to. Termites, ants, mosquitoes and aphids are easy-to-market springtime pests. Over time, you can create several presentations, each focusing on one key pest your company controls.
To make your POP really pop this spring, take some time, think about what you want to accomplish, and create a plan of attack. Happy hunting.
Eric Palmer is the owner of Southwest Exterminators, the founder of 7 in 6 Consulting and the author of Scale2Succeed. If you have any questions you can reach him at info@scale2suceed.com.
Hey this is some good advice. It is important to strategize based on what season it is. Different seasons bring different pests. Thanks again
Absolutely Sunstate Pest. Many marketing shortcomings are a result of rushing into a tactic (putting up a booth) without establishing the overall goals and strategy (what you want to achieve and how the booth fits into those goals).
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Interested in home and garden show displays etc
Hey Steve! What specifically are you interested in? How to set up your booth? How to convert contacts into contracts? Whether it is a valuable use of your time? Having someone print the design material for you? etc?