The Signs of Business

Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve held their annual Maple Sugarbush Festival and Pancake Breakfast this past weekend. With the first beautiful day of the year and all-you-can-eat pancakes with fresh maple syrup, it would have been hard to keep folks away.

How I have lived in Evansville for most of my life and never been to the Pancake Breakfast is a mystery. I went with my wife and 7-week old daughter and it was a treat indeed.

After a couple plates of hot pancakes and delicious syrup, we took a quick stroll through the woods. A stroller is limited in its mobility but we were still able to enjoy the outdoors on a perfect Saturday morning in early March.

Working in partnership with the City of Evansville, Wesselman Nature Society provides environmental education and outdoor recreation experiences designed to awaken the senses and enrich the lives of area residents and visitors. Wesselman Nature Society oversees the Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve, Howell Wetlands, and Canoe Evansville.

As a 2010 AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama Signs of Support Grant Recipient, we’re excited to be working with Wesselman Nature Society to provide updated and environmentally friendly signage. It truly is one of Evansville’s gems. By providing conservation training, recycling facilities, nature awareness and family friendly events throughout the year, Wesselman Nature Society has shown that they care about our community and about the world in which we live. Want to help them? Donate or volunteer… it’s that easy.

SPRING IS COMING!
How does your business’ signage look? Did it survive the winter?

Guitar Lab Outdoor Banner Stand

One of the easiest ways for your company to welcome Spring is with new or updated signage.

Here are some possible uses of new or updated signs this Spring:

• Tell the world you survived the winter.
• Take advantage of more people out and about.
• Pep up your image with a redesigned sign.
• Advertise a special event.
• Announce an award.
• Sell advertising space.

Do you have some ideas of how your business can look even better this Spring? Give us a call (812.477.7763), we’ll be happy helping your ideas come to life.

Need some more ideas? Check out how some of our other customers have used outdoor signs for their business: Outdoor Signs and Banners

And while you’re at it, become a fan of AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama and Guitar Lab on facebook. For more info on our products and services, check out SignsOverAmerica.com

Sidewalk Signs

Fascia Building Signs

Job Site Signs

One of the signs provided to The Literacy Center through the Signs of Support Grant Program

The Literacy Center’s annual Scrabble tournament is coming up this weekend!

About the Literacy Center:

• The Literacy Center mission is to improve basic adult literacy in the Evansville, Indiana, community.
• They have been active in the Evansville community since 1966.
• Thousands of men and women have been confidentially tutored at no cost to improve their reading and writing skills.
• They need your help! Information on volunteering or donating.

The Literacy Center is a 2010 Signs of Support Grant Recipient.

We had the pleasure of attending the 2010 Really Big Show to support Evansville ARC. As a 2010 Signs of Support Recipient, we were excited to see how our signs and table decorations would be used for this annual event.

Our part in pulling off this production was a small one but we believe that for any event, signs are critical! We donated over 20 sponsor signs that were displayed on stage, ‘Thank You’ signs that displayed all of the contributors, and 76 banquet table centerpieces (who woulda thought that a sign company makes centerpieces?). Here are a few pics of the signs that we created for the stage and for each of the 76 tables.

Thank You Signs

Evansville ARC Table Centerpiece

Evansville ARC Table Centerpiece

For more information about Evansville ARC’s Really Big Show, check out Evansville ARC’s website or the coverage provided by Evansville’s Courier Press

Nerdy details of the signs we created:

• All of the signs and table decorations were printed on our wide-format flatbed printer.
• Nearly 750 sq ft of foamboard material was used to create all of the signage.
• Total cutting time for the centerpieces was approximately 18 hours.

AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama loves its team members. We’re proud to have some of the most innovative and productive personnel in the Evansville, Indiana region. This post is part of a series highlighting our talented team members.

Billy Collins

A brief history of Billy:
Billy has been with AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama since February 6, 2007. Billy is currently one of our production team members. On any given day he works on a variety of tasks and projects like sign installations, sign printing, weeding vinyl, hemming banners, punching grommets, measuring stuff and generally making everyone else’s life here a little bit easier.

What we really like about Billy:
Billy is incredibly detail oriented. When working with Vehicle Wraps, we can count on Billy to plan and foresee potential problems before they turn into disasters. He is incredibly knowledgeable of installation techniques and continuously seeks to improve his craft. One of his previous jobs was to sell materials and sign supplies to sign companies. Building on this excellent experience, Billy knows his materials and how to use them effectively to get his job done. Billy has become our leading Vehicle Graphics installer and can be counted on to make sure the job is done right.

Billy is on Facebook… become his friend.

Some Billy in action:

Have you ever wondered what makes a successful Trade Show exhibit? Displaying your goods and services at a trade show can be a daunting challenge to even the most seasoned veteran of trade shows and conventions.

There are three stages of insuring a successful trade show presence.

1. Planning – You must know what you want out of your trade show experience in order to know whether it has been successful. Your goals for a trade show can be anything that fits your corporate vision. Before hand, write your goals down and make sure everyone on your team ‘buys in’ to the goals for the trade show. Here are some suggestions of goals for your team:
   • Set up 5 appointments with new potential clients.
   • Get the name and contact information of each qualified person who visits your booth. Qualification of visitors is vital for efficient use of your time.
   • Get 50 business cards per day.
   • Investigate 5 new vendors.
   • Sell 250 widgets per day.

   Some other things that you will want to take into consideration in planning for a successful trade show experience:

   • Do you have enough brochures, business cards and fliers?
   • Do you have an appropriate promotional product to give away?
   • Do you have a ‘team look’? Do all of your team members have a professional appearance? We would suggest your team to wear matching embroidered corporate apparel.
2. Presenting – Energy, Friendliness, Professionalism, Uniqueness, and a bit of Zaniness all combine to form a pretty good recipe for successful trade show vendors. If you have a bit of time before your next trade show, go to a few other conventions in your city and observe. Figure out what you like to see in a trade show booth and what the busiest booths are doing to attract and keep the attention of attendees. Here are a few things that we’ve noticed that successful vendors do:
   • Stand for the duration of the show. Many times the event host will provide a table and chairs, get rid of the chairs!
   • Move the provided table to the back or the side of your booth (or get rid of it comletely). This acts as a nice blocker and doesn’t allow you to carry on an effective conversation with potential clients.
   • Take an active interest in the needs of the attendees. Don’t just start spewing out what you want to sell… ask questions and listen to the answers. You might be surprised how effective keeping your mouth shut can be!
   • Have an attention grabber. We’ve seen juggling, putting greens, Wii competitions, shouting contests (eg. whoever can say the name of our company loudest wins a complete software package), magicians, interactive kiosks, etc. Make it yours and make it unique.
   • Take copious notes. In our booth we have literature that people can take but we put it in the very back of the booth. We don’t want drive-bys… we want full-on engaged conversations. The result of those conversations is a notebook full of contact information and personal details (Bob’s birthday is next week), so that when you get to the next stage (Follow-up) you can continue your conversation and have a launching point to begin earning their business. For example: Happy Birthday Bob, thanks for chatting with me at the show last week… how about a cup of coffee tomorrow?
3. Follow-up – Without follow-up, you might as well have not gone to the show. With effective, planned follow-up, you can really determine whether the trade show was a success. Now is when you need your notes from the ‘Presenting’ stage. Copious notes are better and will make your follow-up far more effective. Each night after the trade show and after a relaxing dinner, go through the notes from that day. Categorize them and start planning your meeting schedule. Give people a couple days to get back home and get caught up, but don’t wait too long. Because we don’t make literature easily accessible during the trade show, many of our notes go something like this: Bob Schneider, ABC Corp. (see biz card), expressed interest in vehicle wraps, needs for a promotion no later than July. This gives us the opportunity to pay Bob a visit and bring him some literature on vehicle wraps and start planning with him for his promotion. If he would have just taken our vehicle wrap brochure and left our booth, we’d have no way of knowing who he was or that he had a promotion coming up. Because we engaged Bob in a meaningful conversation we can now begin to meet his needs and provide a valuable service to his company.

AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama Donates Signage to 21 Area Non-Profits

AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama has announced it will donate or discount over $25,000 worth of signage to 21 area non-profit organizations through its Signs of Support Grant Program.

Evansville, Ind., January 12, 2010 – AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama has announced it will donate or discount over $25,000 worth of signage to 21 area non-profit organizations through its Signs of Support Grant Program.

Through Signs of Support, AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama aims to support local non-profit and charitable organizations through assisting in replacing or creating effective, affordable signage for their cause. This is the first year for AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama’s Signs of Support Grant Program, and the company looks forward to implementing it annually.

Recipients of the 2010 Signs of Support Grants include:
4C of Southern Indiana
Adam’s Food Pantry
American Red Cross of Southwestern Indiana
American Water Works/Water for the People
CMOE (Children’s Museum of Evansville)
Evansville Community of Churches/Weekday Education
Evansville African American Museum
Evansville ARC
Evansville BBB
Evansville Rescue Mission
Habitat for Humanity USI Chapter
Keep Evansville Beautiful
Greater Evansville Susan G. Komen Foundation
SW. Indiana Master Gardener Association
Parenting Time Center
Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra
Vanderburgh County Right to Life
Posey County Right to Life
The Literacy Center
Vanderburgh Humane Society
Wesselman Nature Society

AmeriStamp Sign-A-Rama will begin accepting applications for the Signs of Support 2011 Grant Program in the Fall of 2010. For more information visit SignsOverAmerica.com or visit the showroom located on Evansville’s east side at 1300 N. Royal Avenue (at Vogel).

We recently received a letter from Google stating that in 2009 our business profile received thousands of views in Google Maps. Now, we have been chosen as a Google Maps Favorite Place!

Are you a favorite place, too? If not, the first step is to set up your FREE Business Profile so Google Maps can find you.

Once your business achieves “Favorite Place” status, put the enclosed window decal Google sends in your storefront window, and announce your business locations to a digital world. This Google-produced video shows why you’ll want to:

First and foremost, LinkedIn can be a valuable part of an overall marketing strategy.  It is one of many tools that, when used effectively, can generate buzz about your knowledge and capabilities.  But to start with any one tool, whether it’s blogging, attending networking meetings, or designing a killer brochure, lets you run the risk of losing sight of your overall marketing strategy.  Get your marketing strategy and business goals figured out, then you can select what tools will be most effective in reaching your goals… go ahead, I’ll wait.

LinkedIn vs other social media:
The advantage that LinkedIn has over Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools is that it is all business.  Nobody is on there talking about how their team won the game on Sunday – unless they actually own the team!  There is an expectation of developing professional relationships.  However, just like with any tool that an owner uses for marketing, you have to learn how to use it effectively.

What LinkedIn isn’t:
LinkedIn is not about how many connections you can make.  LinkedIn isn’t even about making connections with others in your same industry.  LinkedIn isn’t about keeping in touch with other people you’ve worked with over the years.

What LinkedIn is:
LinkedIn is about establishing yourself as a helpful source of information regarding your specialty.  LinkedIn is about freely offering your advice and wisdom to those who need it.  LinkedIn is about engaging other business professionals on topics that concern them and of which you have an intimate knowledge.

Pros:
- It’s all about business so people don’t mind if you plug yourself as long as it is relevant to the conversation.
- There is a huge wealth of information to be gleaned from already answered questions.
- Asking questions is a great way to gauge interest in a product or service.
- Asking questions lets other people engage you and if they are interesting enough could become a nice relationship.
- Each one of your team members can have an account and they can be empowered to answer questions, thus building your overall brand.  You, as the owner, don’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, the only representative on LinkedIn.

Cons:
- It isn’t necessarily local so you could be helping somebody in another community that has no real way of benefiting you locally.  It’s not bad to help people but you aren’t a charity, you are helping people in order for them to talk about you.
- Takes a significant amount of time to get rolling and building up your credibility.
- You must be committed to it and use it daily.  You won’t ‘find’ time for it so you will have to make a conscious decision to schedule time for it (10-15min daily would probably be fine).

Personal reflections:
Out of the ‘Big 4′ (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Blogging), LinkedIn is the least used in our organization.  In my opinion, it takes the most amount of time to get accustomed to and to use effectively.  It is also the most difficult to tie a direct link between becoming an expert on LinkedIn who people can come to for answers and being able to increase the profitability of my business.  All marketing should have as its end goal, an increase in profit for your business.  I really like the concept of LinkedIn and I can see how a certain type of marketing plan could benefit enormously from a well-laid out approach to effectively using LinkedIn.

Recommendations:
Roughly half of our team members have a LinkedIn account.  I would say that at the very least, all of the salespeople need a LinkedIn profile.  Upload a picture, put in your job description, and include a link to your website.  The link alone is worth it to have a LinkedIn profile.  Now, how you continue to use LinkedIn will depend on what your marketing plan dictates.

Here is just a quick recap of some of the things we have been involved with this year:

• Inaugural Year for the Signs of Support Grant Program.  We’ll be announcing the Grant recipients in early January 2010.
• Received the Better Business Bureau Integrity Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics.
• Received the 2009 Customer Service Award at the Sign-A-Rama World Expo in Las Vegas.
• Attended the Digital Sign Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Digital Signs are an incredible advance for the signage industry.
• Donated signage to various local organizations like Evansville ARC, Habitat for Humanity and Vanderburgh County Right to Life.
• Donated approximately 50 banners to families welcoming home their loved ones serving in the military.
• We increased our online marketing with a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, this blog and various other social media outlets.
• No layoffs in 2009 (in fact, we increased manufacturing capacity and capabilities)!

It has been a rather good year for us despite a sketchy and uncertain economy.  We’ve found new ways to market efficiently so that we can continue to provide high quality products to the Tri-State area.  The economy has definitely forced us to re-think every aspect of our business.  It has made us leaner and smarter in manufacturing, sales, marketing, design and nearly every other aspect of running a business.

Thank you to all our clients, fans, team members, vendors and families who have been involved with us this year.  We’re excited about what 2010 has to offer and we’re excited about our unique position to be able to provide so many different products to so many different types of businesses and organizations!