Why Your Business Should Exhibit at a Trade Show

Have you considered booking a place at a trade show for your business? If this something that you have been pondering, now could be the right time for you to give it a go. 

Exhibiting at a trade show offers many benefits to your company, but don’t forget, if you are going to do it, you need to do it the right way. First impressions are vital at events like this, so you need to ensure that your business is presented in the right way. To make sure that your business stands out from the others at the show, it is a good idea to use custom trade show displays to reflect your business in the right way. 

Take a look at some of the main benefits that exhibiting at a trade show can offer your company:

Brand Awareness

Building up brand awareness is crucial for the success of any company, but it is often one of the hardest tasks. Your business’ regular marketing strategies and promotional tools may have a focus on building brand awareness, but a more direct approach can make a big difference. This is where exhibiting your business comes into its own. Displaying your business allows you to showcase it perfectly, and give everyone a flavour of what you do and what your business is all about. The added bonus of a trade show is that people can speak to you directly in ways that other promotional techniques can’t offer.

Making Contacts

Building up your contacts and getting to know other people working in your industry is always a positive move. The more people you know, the higher the chances of these contacts turning into business opportunities in the future. Making industry contacts, may not seem too important right now, but potentially lucrative contracts can come off the back of meeting people at trade shows. New business could come directly from the contact, or via them recommending your company to someone else. Either way, this is a very positive outcome.

Knowledge Boosting

Want to stay up to date with everything happening in your industry? Well, a trade show can help you do just that. If you get to take some time away from your stand, you will find a mine of useful industry information at a trade show. Fellow exhibitors showcasing their businesses allows an insight into what your competitors are up to and is an invaluable way to spot new trends.

Attending talks at trade shows allows you to learn more about current thinking in the industry and be among the first to know about industry developments. 

As you can see, attending trade shows offers many benefits. Firstly, you can showcase your company, let people know what you are all about and build your brand awareness. Secondly, you can gain insight into the industry, see what your competitors are up to and gain an understanding of how the industry involves. Lastly, it is a unique opportunity for face to face communication with potentially lucrative contacts.

Sure Fire Ways To Improve Your Delivery Service

The delivery service that a business provides is often one of the strongest impressions that they can give to a customer. It’s a big part of your customer service and this means it is one of the key factors that can not only lead to great feedback but also damage a companies reputation. This means it is important to create a smooth flowing and efficient delivery service for your customers. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small home-run business or a large corporation if you supply products you are going to have to have a good method in place. You will find that many of the businesses that struggle to get this vital area of their business under wraps fail, quite often in their first year. 

Take a look at some of the sure-fire ways you can improve your delivery service: 

Think About When The Order Arrives

Quite often you will find that a business will only start to think about the delivery service as the physical task of handing the parcel to the customer whereas. In reality, it should start from the moment the order comes in. As soon as the order is on your system you should start to deal with it. Think about having a process where you print the delivery label when you have the customer details and then it’s good to go when the order is picked. It should speed up the process and enable you to get the order out for delivery sooner. 

Picking And Packing

Another crucial step is the picking and packing of the item you are shipping. It’s important to have a process in place that means the order can be picked for delivery as quickly as possible and then also have the information to hand for the way it should be packed. You want to make sure that certain items such as those that are fragile are packed well. This will reduce the number of damages in transit and ultimately reduce costs. 

Method Of Delivery 

There are a few ways you can deliver your items to your customers, you could use a normal postage service, a courier or if it calls for it, have your own fleet of trucks. If you do decide to have your own fleet there are few things you need to consider. You need to make sure you allocated fund to purchasing vehicles, maintaining them and then think about the fact you will need drivers. You then need to have a plan in place for tracking deliveries and looking after your drivers on the road. Using drive cams has become a popular method of doing this as it allows you to watch the footage of any delivery route that is taken. You are also going to have to have a training programme in place to make sure the drivers are providing the level of customer service you want your customers to receive. 

These three ways to improve your delivery service should help you to also improve your customer service. Do you have any other ways that you can do this? Please share them in the comments below. 

How Automation and Outsourcing Can Benefit Your Business

If you have ever wondered how to make your life easier as a small business owner, then one thing you should be considering is outsourcing and automation. In this day and age with the advancement of technology, it is easier than ever to do what you need to do with the help of third-party apps or companies. Doing everything yourself will not only spread you too thin, but it will also take your focus away from where it needs to be.

There are many tools available for businesses of all sizes to help them do what they do but better and easier. Depending on your business and what you need to help you do your job, you can be sure to find something to slot into your company to enhance your working process and ultimately, make your life so much easier.

Automating your Business.

The last thing you want to be doing is spending time manually compiling reports or completing tasks that can be handled by putting an automated process in place. Whilst you will still need to set it up and with some apps, make sure all the relevant information is input correctly, a lot of the time, once it is up and running you can leave it to do its thing.

Installing business intelligence software will help you compile all the data you need from within your company efficiently and easier than doing it manually. Using apps such as Slack can provide a getter working experience for you and your team to be able to keep in touch and on top of your workload in an easier, more streamlined way. Think of all the things you can be doing in your business instead once you automate the parts of your business that take up a big chunk of your time! 

If you are looking at taking your business up a gear then making sure you have automated processes in place is essential to help you put your time and focus into other areas to achieve your goal.

Outsourcing.

The same way that automating your company can take away some of your workloads, outsourcing can help you maintain a more professional appearance by taking care of tasks that need more time devoted to them than you have or more expertise in certain areas.

This is especially useful for small business as outsourcing tasks can take away the need for hiring staff and still help you to make sure you are on top of everything.

But what should you be looking at outsourcing? 

• SEO
• Social Media
• Website Development and Maintenance,
• Call Handling
• HR
• Recruitment
• Accounting
• Emails
• Payroll

If there is a need for it in your business or you feel something is above your capabilities, then you would be doing yourself a disservice by not considering outsourcing tasks. Companies specialising in the above-mentioned specialities and more, retain staff who are not only fully qualified in their professions but also have the experience to provide you with high quality, professional service.