The Silver Anniversary of the New England Products Trade Show opens today in Portland, Maine.



The show was originally put on as the Maine Products Trade Show in 1985 and was conceived and launched by the Maine SBDCs. As the years passed the trade show grew adding vendors from Vermont and New Hampshire and became the New England Products Trade Show. In 2002, They handed ownership of the event over to Giraffe events but still remain a calloborative partner.



The Maine SBDCs need to be recognized for having a vision that has not only lasted twenty five years but grown immensely during those twenty five years. It should be an inspiration to all of us SBDCs to try to find ways to impact our regional economies for years to come.

Before you decide anything about your advertising, you need to know your target market. Without a clear picture of these customers, you’ll waste valuable time and money.

Once you know who your customer is, you’ll be able to decide what medium delivers a qualified customer to you at a competitive cost per contact.

Your advertising focus needs to be on:

1. The type of medium to effectively reach your target audience

2. The type of advertising campaign you will run (to promote a new product, to place a familiar product or company name in front of the audience, or to promote a special service or activity)

3. The advertising style that best suits your products and/or services

4. How you can reach the most people (within your defined market) for your advertising dollar

Regardless of your choice of medium, experts suggest four main elements of an effective ad.

1. Headline: The most essential element of an ad. You have only one or two seconds to get their attention. The message in, and treatment of, your headline accounts for as much as 70 percent of the readership of your ad. Avoid the temptation to start with your name or logo. The best headline emphasizes the service, not the source.

2. Reader’s self-interest: Headlines and body copy should appeal to the reader. Don’t talk about “We’re the best at …” or “We can do …” This is ego advertising and doesn’t serve you well. Instead, tell them how your product/service can help them.

3. Call to action: Always tell the reader what you want them to do. “Call today.” “come to the store by Aug. 15 to take advantage of this 30 percent discount.” “Return this postcard for a chance at our fabulous giveaway.” Never assume the reader knows what call to action you want.

4. Visuals: Use visuals that have a high degree of stopping power. Photos are better than illustrations. Images that help tell your story are great bridges.

Apply the following criteria to test the effectiveness of your advertising message:

1. The ad intelligibly and simply states a single message.

2. The ad evokes a specific and acute emotion.

3. The ad is presented in a space where it will be noticed.

4. The overriding message is clearly evident.

When you advertise, you are investing in your business. Become an expert observer. Watch other ads. Are they effective? Can you identify their target market? What was it that made you want to read, open, listen, etc? Use your observations to make your own ads memorable.

Jimmie Wilkins is the director of the Chemeketa Small Business Development Center. The Small-Business Adviser column is produced by the center and appears each Sunday. Questions can be faxed to (503) 581-6017, e-mailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or phoned in to (503) 399-5088.

I have heard it many times before, any publicity is good publicity. Is this a true statement? Can publicity that is given your way hurt your business? Ask Dell Computers what they think about publicity and a certain website that was created just for them. Ask Iams pet food the feelings they have about negative publicity (Amazingly, I am a customer of both companies). Negative public relations and publicity can damage your company that you have worked so long and hard to create. It can be extremely costly in the long run. Word of mouth is still one of the most influential ways for people to buy products and services.

Many companies monitor what is being said about them on the streets as well as on the internet. Because of blogging, micro blogging such as Twitter, and other forms of online avenues, it is extremely easy to receive publicity good and bad. Comcast actually has employees who do nothing but monitor what people say about them.

The point I want to make is not that you should monitor yourself, but you should. I think it is more important that you follow up on the publicity that you receive. This needs to be the case when you receive good and bad publicity or word of mouth. If someone is talking nice about your company, thank them! Tell them that you appreciate that they are trying to spread the word about your company. Sometimes it can be difficult to track down the people spreading positive word of mouth about you. If you find out that someone is spreading negative things about you and your company, find out who they are, and try to remedy the situation. They already like to talk, give them something to talk about in how they originally had a problem, but your company went out of its way to help them.

Word of mouth can help and hurt your business at the same time. It should also not be your sole means of marketing your company. Make sure to monitor it, and follow up on all forms of it. Make sure that in everything you are doing with your company; provide the highest levels of customer service and products and services at all times. In today’s times, it is easy to be found if you don’t, and that could cost you!

Kyle Hensel is the Area Director of the Clayton State University SBDC in the Georgia SBDC Network. For more information, please go to www.georgiasbdc.org. The Georgia SBDC blog can also be found here. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Love is in the air because it is Valentine’s Day soon. Many small business owners are not feeling the same passion in the air as sales are lower than people are expecting. Many people are trying to save money for a rainy day or just to get by in today’s times. Here are some of the things that you can try to get your customers to show you that same love (money) that they have given you in the past.

• Call Your Customers- If you have some good customers, call them to thank them for their business over the past however long they have been a customer. You don’t have to give them a sales pitch, just say thank you. This will remind them that you are out there.

• Survey Them- Use an online survey tool such as survey monkey or constant contact and send out a survey to your customers getting feedback on how your service is, or products that they would like to see in the store. You may find out the products or services that your customers are willing to buy right now. Please note not to change your business strategy. Only offer these items or services if you can, and it fits what you sell.

• Appreciate Them- Hold a customer appreciation day. This can be at your office or store. Bring them in to say thank you for the past and tell them of all the great things you are trying to do to serve the needs of your customers.

The goal is to stay in constant communication with them. Every month or two or more depending on your sales cycle try a way to be in touch so that when the need arises to buy your product or service again, you will be on the top of the list. The trick is to not do it to the point of annoyance. You probably know the point to where your customer starts to consider your repetitive contact as just sales propaganda. Be patient, but be proactive, do your part to help bring customers back to your business. Just do not push your customers to the breaking point or they will not come back.

What are you trying to do to bring in customers? What ideas would you try to help a small business?

Kyle Hensel is the Area Director of the Clayton State University SBDC in the Georgia SBDC Network. For more information, please go to www.georgiasbdc.org. The Georgia SBDC blog can also be found here. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

This past weekend I went to the Techno Marketing Conference held by the American Marketing Association. While there, we discussed a lot of the new tools used in marketing as well as the strategies to build them into your business. The companies in attendance ranged from Fortune 500 companies, midsized business, non-profits, and consultants such as myself who were there learning things to help further the companies that they work with.

Here are some startling stats that were given to us in the first 5 minutes of the event:
• 18%- The proportion of TV advertising campaigns generating a positive ROI
• 84%- Proportion of B2B marketing campaigns resulting in fallen sales
• 90%- The proportion of people who can skip TV ads who do skip TV ads
• 56%- Proportion of people who avoid buying products from companies who they think advertise too much

What happened to the way that we market to our customers? The majority of people and businesses feel that they are marketed to too much. For that reason, many of them just choose to avoid marketing altogether by way of skipping commercials or just choose to look the opposite way. What are you putting in to your marketing campaigns? Are you advertising too much? Is your marketing effective, or just there? Are you tracking your marketing and advertising dollars?

If you are not, maybe you should start to ask some of these questions and evaluate your marketing and advertising. In these times, it is good to review all of your expenditures to make sure that you are receiving the return you need. I am not saying to stop advertising, just evaluate it, to see its effectiveness. While reviewing it, make sure that it is targeted towards the correct market and the niches that you are trying to focus on. Those who are succeeding are focusing on small but profitable niches.

It is also a good idea to ask others for help or assistance when you need it. Make sure to keep marketing and putting your business out there so that you can continue to do what you need to do to succeed.

Kyle Hensel is the Area Director of the Clayton State University SBDC in the Georgia SBDC Network. For more information, please go to www.georgiasbdc.org. The Georgia SBDC blog can also be found here. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Video marketing campaigns have previously been dominated by large global businesses that have huge marketing budgets. But now, thanks to the Internet, small businesses can also benefit from the power of video to reach their customers and drive their brand recognition. Interacting and engaging with customers through the use of online video is an important part of social media marketing or the Web 2.0 phenomenon and this article examines why it should be adopted by all business of any size. It gives examples of a handful of different video sharing opportunities including You Tube, Brownbook.net, My Space and blip.tv and suggests how you may like to use the channel of video to communicate directly with your customers.

Why online video is vital to your marketing strategy•

To demonstrate and show off what your product or service is – Brownbook.net does exactly this with a video showing its users how to use their DIY website creator service http://blog.brownbook.net/2008/12/17/web-site-creator-demo/

• To provide information and explain things about your business:
Hobby Box used its listing on Brownbook to add an informative video http://www.brownbook.net/business/2234317/the-hobby-box
PatientsLikeMe uploaded a video of them speaking at a conference onto blip.tv - http://where.blip.tv/#976819

• To show the personality behind the company, what the company is all about and how you want your brand to be recognised. Miamism uses Brownbook.net’s video uploading feature to give a great insight into their business http://www.brownbook.net/business/31014168/miamismcom—miami-beach-real-estate-resource

• To demonstrate your knowledge and expertise such as financial planner Andrew Horowitz did on Business Week http://feedroom.businessweek.com/index.jsp?fr_story=36a57b3b6982001f5af806073a86811a604be482

• To offer added value services to customers. This wedding planner produced an online video wedding planning guide and put it on My Space http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=28696203&searchid=897faf39-3848-4cca-a2fb-9506a217cb2b

• To create or upload an online advert, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1jywlZG74o

• Videos can give the customers a new shopping experience where the shop is brought directly to them at their convenience. Visual representation is highly effective in assisting us with our purchasing decisions as it makes the business more tangible and provides us with the information we need to form perceptions about the company

• Google seems to like videos and thus ranks them highly. Furthermore, according to Google, “America streams over 10.1 billion videos online” per month and “76% of US internet users view video online”

• Online videos do not require huge marketing budgets as with the advent of mobile, internet and camera technology most people have the ability to produce a video and then upload it to the net

• Use videos to spread word of mouth - Sarah Warren, Head of Marketing from Brownbook says “Business should encourage their customers to give them video testimonials, it’s very powerful to have a real customer telling others about the great service they got from you.

Businesses listed on Brownbook can not only upload their own videos but they can also direct their customers to their listing and ask them for a video review. And lastly, businesses can get in touch with professional organisations and experts to ask them to review their products and services using video like here http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=46822858”A business may chose to produce any number of the styles of videos mentioned above to engage potential and existing customers in order to ultimately generate more sales.
These online videos are part of the creation and development of an alternative online world in which consumers and businesses buy and sell.
Brownbook, You Tube, My Space, blip.tv, are examples of just some of the places where you can upload videos or photos to market your business. Marc Lyne, CEO from Brownbook.net said: “We have made some tweaks and added some new features to the latest version of Brownbook, but the video and photo facilities are already proving to be popular with users.

Video gives small businesses a cost-effective and powerful way to reach the widest possible audience. It enables you to personalize your messages and reach a large, global audience. So, get filming.

I was sitting in a meeting the other day where the conversation was turning into how we contact with our customers. We then discussed how this has changed drastically in the past few years and how people need to start getting on board now before they will be completely left off the bus. Even though many people consider 2.0 to be extremely new, it is not. I think that if you look at the curve of the cycle of users, it has finally started to hit the majority. Social Media as well as other new forms of technology are tools that small business owners now use to reach their customers. It is a combination of these tools as well as some of the older ones that we utilize to let our customers know who we are and what we do.

The discussion started to change though, does the average person want to know how to use all of the forms of media, or do they just want to understand them? So many people ask the question what everything is, so they can just be informed of what is out there. It seems to me that many people who complain about some of the new forms of marketing are the ones who either don’t understand them and/or don’t use them to their advantage. I still commonly hear from business owners that the people who use these forms of technology are not their customers. I will disagree with you as more people are using this technology every day. The largest growth in users for people in viral media is people over the age of 65 and housewives. This combined with the large majority of people under the age of 30 and others who have found its benefits makes up a large body of users. Also, all of these people under the age of 30 will not always be below the age of 30. This new form of marketing is going to be a norm in the way we reach customers. Individual names of the companies that we use may change, but the general philosophy of what they do will not.

The only way to truly understand the new forms of media and marketing is to use them. Using them for one day is not going to do the trick either. Notice, I did not mention to definitely use them for your company. Try them out for yourself individually; you can start slow by just reading or participating in blogs or forums. The key to understanding is to be engaged in what is going on.

These forms are not going to replace all of the old things that business owners have done over the years, it will just enhance the process of reaching customers. Just think of what is going to come out next. Would you ever even of imagined that what we are doing now would ever be out there? What do you think is going to be the next big thing for small businesses in the form of technology?

Kyle Hensel is the Area Director of the Clayton State University SBDC in the Georgia SBDC Network. For more information, please go to www.georgiasbdc.org. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

When looking at a small business, it seems to come back to customer service quite often. Many small business owners say that one of their competitive advantages is that they can give high levels of customer service. Those that know me, know that I argue you should be doing that all the time anyhow, and that customer service is not a unique point of difference (UPD). Hopefully no company starts the day giving a pep talk to their employees saying that they should consider giving average customer service for the next day. It is a part of the job to offer all customers regardless of how you feel about them, high levels of service. I think that everyone can agree though, that there are challenging customers out there.

Many people that I know have commented that over the “Black Friday” shopping holiday the employees were extremely helpful and went out of their way to help the customers. I would agree, but this week I have not had the same experiences. Has this attitude started to change already since last week? All businesses need to make sure that this is a year round goal to treat your customers with adequate levels of service that will make them come back. Whether you are serving the needs of your business clients or every day consumers, a smile (even over the phone) and going the extra mile for a client or customer can mean the difference between a regular customer and one you may get once a year.

Make sure to train every member on your staff how you would like to treat the customer. The employees who are the first line to the customers can be the most crucial element to you getting a return customer or one even to begin with. This attitude needs to be replicated throughout your entire organization. Make superior service a required, everyday requirement in your business and it should start to pay dividends for you.

Kyle Hensel is the Area Director of the Clayton State University SBDC in the Georgia SBDC Network. For more information, please go to www.georgiasbdc.org. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Guest post by Christine Adolf of Brownbook.net

Customer testimonials are one of the most effective marketing tools for small businesses both off and online. Using customer testimonials in your company’s marketing collateral will provide potential customers with a viewpoint other than yours or your employees. If you have a website for your company, providing a page of positive testimonials can show would-be customers why they should choose to do business with your company over your competitors’. You can also ask satisfied customers to write reviews and testimonials in other online media such as review websites, where prospective customers will be able to find you when they search for your company, product or service online.

While customer reviews of your business or product are a great marketing tool, many people view them skeptically if they appear manufactured or unauthentic. Instead of reviews that are simply compliments, ask customers to give specific examples of why their experience in doing business with you was so positive.

Another thing you can do to enhance a customer testimonial is to provide multimedia along with the review. Posting photos or videos illustrating the business interaction will put a human face on the business and will make the review stand out.

Using the internet to showcase customer testimonials is a cost effective alternative and a great complement to producing offline materials. Asking customers to send an e-mail to their friends, share a link on their Facebook profile or post a picture to Twitter (Twitpic) for all their friends and acquaintances to see is an immediate customer testimonial that reaches a vast amount of potential customers.

When speaking with customers either in person, by phone or through e-mail, ask for their approval in utilizing any positive feedback they provide for future use. You can also go a step further and ask them to tell their friends, write an online review or pass out promotional materials branded with your company’s logo.

Harnessing a positive customer experience with your product, service and business in general has the ability to turn the satisfied customer into an evangelist for your business. Happy customers are often the ideal marketers a company can have, as they are genuine, enthusiastic and free!

Guest post by Ronan Keane

No business is an island in the online ocean. There are other businesses that sell complimentary (but not competing) products or services, bloggers who write about your industry and distribution channels that stretch across the globe. Big businesses are constantly negotiating and entering into partnership agreements and small businesses can reap the same benefits. Making connections with online partners can help you grow your small business whether you’re a one person entrepreneur or a fifity person company.

Give Me Four Reasons

Starting up a web partnership doesn’t happen instantaneously, but there are plenty of compelling reasons why you should invest the time into researching and building online partnerships for small businesses.

1. 1. Reach more customers: This is the big one. Advertising online is often a tricky affair that seems more like experimental art than science. You can take some of the uncertainty out of reaching new customers by partnering with businesses or bloggers that already attract visitors that would be interested in your offerings. For example, if you sell high end gourmet foods, you might look to partner with a well known food blogger or an online retail store that sells specialty cooking equipment.
2. 2. Save money: Two pocketbooks are more powerful than one. Splitting out the costs of a cross-promotional internet marketing campaign is beneficial to both partners. There’s more to this than just linking to each other or sharing the price of advertising. Leverage each business’s existing connections to reach potential customers and clients that would normally cost you a lot of advertising dollars to access.
3. 3. Expand your borders: The internet is a global phenomenon. When you’re ready to reach across borders, web partnerships can help you get a foothold in new markets. Look for partners that are well established in other countries or in specific local markets. For example, if you provide web-based data backup services that would be a good fit for internet users in Europe, look to partner with an internet services provider or computer retailer in the UK.
4. 4. Reach the media: A partnership agreement is a great way to meet the press. A joint announcement stating the businesses involved and the purpose of the partnership is an occasion to put out a press release and have your marketing teams follow up with key media people. This is even stronger if you can tie it into a current theme like marketing through online videos or using new web technologies to power your partnership.

Upcoming: We’ll look deeper into web partnerships, cover the types of web partnerships you can consider and get into tips and resources for starting a web partnership.

About the Author:
Ronan Keane is Chief Marketing Officer of MyBizHomepage, Inc. www.MyBizHomepage.com is the only free web-based financial service that includes MyBizDashboard, a new, secure easy-to-use online financial dashboard designed specifically for entrepreneurs and small businesses. The service has two private label partner programs available.