“The top 3 goals for exhibitors at trade shows are brand awareness, lead generation, and relationship building.” Do you know a place where you can find a large group of people who may be interested in what you're selling? You might want to see if there are any tradeshows close to where you live and rent a booth. Tradeshows give you the opportunity to speak with potential customers in person. Talking to prospects in person and letting them experience your product first hand can go a long way towards making a sale, or at the very least getting the word out about your product.

Online Presence

Having an online presence makes it easy for potential buyers to find you and learn more about your company and product without being concerned about high-pressure sales tactics. Besides your company website, consider at the very least having a Facebook page and Twitter account to keep you connected to your audience. You can also find related websites where you can promote your product for a small fee, or invest in online advertising.

You might be able to look for someone in the same industry and recommend a partnership for mutual benefit. What you're looking for is someone who sells a product that compliments your own. You could propose helping them to sell their product and ask them if they are interested in returning the favor. You will end up making sales without lifting a finger, but first you need to sell the idea.

If you designed marketing pieces that went viral (generated a significant amount of views) you would be able to generate huge interest in your product. Your product might have something special about it, but you just need to sit down and figure out what it is and then design a video to highlight your product’s unique features in an interesting and memorable way. Make some videos and remember that they should be interesting enough to be shared around the web.

Regular Press Releases

Leverage the power of news media by writing a press release and sending them to news outlets. You generally need to pay a small fee to have your press release distributed, but you could write it yourself. You may want to consider hiring an expert if possible; they can design press releases that are guaranteed to get picked up by the media. If the topic is interesting or unusual it might get picked up by a lot of places and targeted traffic would start beating down your door. Just take your time and learn how to write a press release the right way before you send it out.

Word-of-Mouth Advertising

“People trust friends and family more than virtually any other information source, and pay 2x more attention to recommendations that come from friends than other sources.” (Source: Buzz Referrals)

Don’t underestimate the power of referrals; they are one of the most effective ways to get people to buy your product.  You can increase your sales by asking people (friends, family, former customers, etc.) to recommend your product to people you know, or to go online and leave an honest review. Create a referral program to reward people who promote your product and turn them into ambassadors for your brand.

This post has been contributed by Jack Nickolson, a marketing manager at KCB Graphics, a company dealing in a range of trade show displays across Canada. He enjoys his job and often indulges in bowling when he gets free from work