HOT NEWS IN THIS REPORT:

1. TRADE SHOW E-MARKETING
2. PDFs: THE UNIVERSAL DOCUMENT
3. COOL TOOL: ADOBE PDF ONLINE
4. TREND: EXTRANETS GROWING IN STRATEGIC VALUE
5. CAVEAT EMPTOR: DIGITAL RIGHTS

Executive Technology Briefing (ETB) Editor/Publisher: Jordan Ayan Contributing Editor: Chuck Frey Questions? Feedback? Suggestions for future topics? Please contact us at: etb@create-it.com

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TRADE SHOW E-MARKETING

Despite the growth of the Web, trade shows remain a great way to promote your products and services. Trade shows generally provide a concentrated stream of qualified buyers who are looking for solutions and tools that can help them do business more effectively.

In recent years, technology has become one of the great “leveling factors” that can give smaller companies as much visibility as their larger competitors. The key to attracting a large number of prospects to your booth is creativity. Unique promotions and marketing tools can help your company's key sales messages rise above the clutter and get noticed by more prospective customers.

Here are a number of innovative ways you can use technology to enhance your booth’s drawing power and make your company stand out in the minds of prospect once they get there:

-Before a trade show-

Your primary goal before a trade show is to drive key customers and prospects to your booth. This means you must tell key customers and prospects which shows you're going to be exhibiting at, where to find you and why they should invest time visiting you. Traditionally, many marketers have relied on personalized letters or direct mail pieces to alert these key audiences of their booth number and what one can expect to see by visiting it during the show. Personalized e-mail messages can accomplish the same goal, at a significantly lower cost. Many trade shows will provide you with an e-mail list of attendees.

For best results, limit your e-mail message to one or two paragraphs of "teaser" copy -- which hints at the significant benefits they'll receive by visiting your company's trade show booth. You can also provide a link to a page on your Web site that contains more details on what you plan to introduce at the upcoming show and why your booth is a must-see.

Look for opportunities to promote your company on the trade show's Web site. This is one of the most powerful strategies you can use to help make your company and its new products more visible to key customers and prospects. That's because exposition Web sites tend to attract a steady stream of qualified buyers, who are visiting it to register for the show.

A growing number of expositions offer "virtual trade shows" -- online product directories that enable buyers to search for exhibitors using multiple criteria. Often, exhibitors can upgrade a basic listing to one or more levels of enhanced "E-booths," where you can tell your story in greater detail. Often, these paid E-booths rank higher in search results than free listings, and offer many advantages in terms of the number and types of documents and other materials you can post in them. Review the material that comes into your office about trade events to see if these types of opportunities are available.

Banner advertising within an exposition's online exhibitor directory can also be very effective, especially if you can buy keywords -- so when visitors search for your product type, your company's banner ad appears at the top of the search results page.

-During a trade show-

One exciting and unique way that you can use to present your company's key sales messages is a CD business card. These look like miniature CDs with two sides trimmed off, so they resemble a rounded business card. These CDs can hold large quantities of colorful, exciting multimedia presentations, including:

- Virtual product demonstrations and walkthroughs - Digital brochures - Technical specifications - Competitive comparisons - Media kits

They can also be imprinted with your company's logo and other colorful graphics. Suppliers include PromoDisc and BizCard CD.

Set up a WebCam in your booth to do live video broadcasts during the show. This can be a powerful way to enable key prospects who are unable to come to the show to "attend" your new product launch or demonstration at the show.

If you're planning to demonstrate your company's Web site or any Web-based services from your trade show booth, I strongly recommend that you make the investment in renting a high-speed Internet connection during the show. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to demonstrate an exciting, but slow-loading Web site - and it gives visitors to your booth a negative impression. Many of the major convention centers offer wireless high-speed Web access. Hold a press conference during the trade show, and provide editors and reporters with both printed and electronic versions of your press kit (here's another use for the business card CD).

Many trade shows issue smart cards to each attendee that contain all of their contact information on a magnetic strip. Exhibitors can rent electronic card readers that capture the data on these smart cards. It's a great way to obtain sales leads during a trade show. The real key, however, is to fulfill each prospect's information request immediately and to exceed their expectations. At one recent lighting industry trade show, the Create-It! team downloaded sales leads from our client's card reader each night and transmitted the data to our Chicago office. There, an employee used the data to send out the requested sales literature the next day. As a result, when many of these prospects returned from the show, the brochures they requested had beat them there.

Be sure to get these prospects' permission to add their e-mail addresses to your database. Trade shows are a valuable way to build your e-mail distribution list with qualified sales prospects.

-After a trade show-

Plan to send at least one follow-up personalized e-mail or letter, reminding them of the new product they saw in your booth at the trade show, and why it represents the best solution to meet their needs. Once again, keep your message brief, and be sure to include links to pages on your company's Web site where prospects can learn more about your product, how to contact your local sales representative or local dealer, and other information that your prospects need to make an informed purchase decision.

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PDFs: THE UNIVERSAL DOCUMENT

http://www.adobe.com/acrobat

Most people are probably familiar with PDF files -- Adobe's Portable Document Format, which allows people to publish and share documents worldwide. But what many people may not know is how easy PDF files are to create or how strategically beneficial they can be to your company.

PDF files are created using a software suite called Adobe Acrobat. It contains a number of utilities that give you a high level of control over the publishing process. You can easily convert everything from word processing and desktop published documents to CAD drawings, visual diagrams and even Web pages into the PDF format, while maintaining the exact layout and appearance of the original file. PDF files can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader, one of the most widely available document viewers worldwide. With the latest version of the Acrobat publishing suite, version 5.0, you can:

- Incorporate a variety of security features into PDF files, including password protection and digital signatures - Create live electronic forms - Enable workgroups to share comments and approve PDF documents within a Web browser window, - Scan paper documents into PDF files (using a plug-in program for Acrobat 5.0) - Convert a Web page or an entire site into PDF files, with all links intact - ideal for conducting offline review and approval of a prototype Web site or e-commerce application.

Why is PDF technology strategically significant? All types of organizations are increasingly looking for a "produce once, publish anywhere" solution to documentation -- something that's not possible with conventional documents and software file formats. Similarly, executives need to be able to deploy the same document across many types of media, from desktop PCs, e-mail attachments and Web servers to handheld computers and kiosks. PDF technology meets these needs, which is why it has recently become the de facto standard for electronic document sharing.

Practical business applications of PDF files include:

- Posting PDF versions of your company's product literature on your Web site, - Publishing downloadable forms that users can print out (ideal if you're not quite ready to launch HTML forms on your Web site), - Distribute draft documents to a workgroup for review, comments and approvals, and - Publishing repair manuals and training materials for your customers.

As you work with ad agencies and collateral designers, be sure to ask them to output PDF versions of your printed brochures. Most of them have this capability, and can create them for you. But be sure to ask them to optimize the size of the PDF files when they publish them, because complex, multi-colored brochure layouts can result in multi-megabyte PDF files. One possible solution: Ask your designer to create a simplified color scheme and layout especially for the PDF version of your brochure, which will result in a smaller, faster to download file size.

The price of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 is $299; owners of previous versions of Acrobat can upgrade to the latest version for $99.

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COOL TOOL: ADOBE PDF ONLINE

http://createpdf.adobe.com

Even if you don't invest in the Adobe Acrobat publishing suite, you can still have an innovative Web-based PDF publishing tool. Adobe recently launched a web-based tool called Adobe PDF Online. To use it, simply visit the Website and upload the file you want converted. When it's done, you can either download your PDF file or you can receive it as an e-mail attachment. Adobe is offering a free trial of this new service; you can create five PDF files for free. A subscription service is also available, which allows you to create an unlimited number of PDF files for US $9.99 a month, or $99.99 a year.

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TREND: EXTRANETS GROWING IN STRATEGIC VALUE

http://www.extranet-strategist.com

Most companies have one or more partners they work closely with as part of their supply chain or market channel. As part of these extended business relationships, a large quantity of information flows back and forth between you and your business partners. Much of it can be moved faster and more efficiently using an extranet - a private network that uses Internet protocols to securely share part of a company's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers or other businesses. An extranet may also be part of an organization's intranet, extended to include users outside the company.

Savvy companies are already using extranets to radically improve the efficiency of many types of common business applications, including:

- Sharing product catalogs with wholesalers or distributors - Collaborate with other companies on joint new product development projects - Enable just-in-time inventory management with suppliers - Providing 24/7 customer service - Automating order acceptance and warranty claims processing

As the need for companies to remain competitive and shorten product life cycle and delivery times continues to grow, the benefits that an extranet can provide are becoming too big to ignore. These benefits include:

- Faster time to market (remember: speed is a competitive advantage in the Networked Economy) - Streamlining and taking cost out of existing businesses processes, and - Increased partner and customer loyalty

-How to build an extranet-

An extranet is different than a traditional Web site because it must provide secure access to business applications. Depending on the nature and sensitivity of the business information being shared on an extranet, it may require anything from basic user name and password security to digital certificates, message encryption and other high-end security technologies - all designed to keep your sensitive business data secure from hackers and unscrupulous competitors.

Adding extranet capabilities to your existing Web site is actually fairly straightforward, and requires two elements: First, ask your Web developer to set up a private folder on your Web server, which can't be reached with a Web browser without proper user authentication. Then, create a set of logins for your extranet users, and have your developer give that group access rights for the protected folder you had them create. In this way, only that group of users can access any Web pages or resources in the private folder, and only with a valid login.

For more advanced solutions, consult with your company's MIS department or one of the leading enterprise e-business solutions vendors; most of them should have extranet practice areas.

-Conclusion-

Extranets are not a passing trend; they are part of the future of every successful business. If your company hasn't already deployed an extranet or isn't planning to launch one within the next year, you may soon be at a significant competitive disadvantage. End-to-end business partner relationships, enabled by extranets, are clearly the way of the future. The time to start planning is now.

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CAVEAT EMPTOR: DIGITAL RIGHTS

As your company hires photographers or illustrators to create images and illustrations for your printed marketing materials, make sure your contracts with them include digital usage rights. In other words, make sure you legally have the right to utilize these materials on your Web site, as well as in printed in advertisements and brochures. One company I know of failed to do this, and a commercial photographer tried to charge them an exorbitant amount of money to use the product photos he had shot for the company on its Web site.

Along the same lines, make sure that any legal contract you sign with a Web services vendor clearly spells out who owns what in the event of a termination of the agreement. If you have a disagreement with your Web services provider, you don't want them to take your site hostage. All of the content contained on the Web site is legally your intellectual property - make sure you protect it with clearly written verbiage in your legal agreement.

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That's all for now. I encourage you to stop by our newly re-designed website and offer any feedback or suggestions you might have for Executive Technology Briefing at http://www.create-it.com .

Jordan Ayan President Create-It! Inc.