By Evan Shubin

Sorry, I know that wasn't a very nice thing to say.  It's actually the title of a great book by Mark Stevens that was written back in 2003, but it still resonates with me today.

The main premise is simple: your marketing message should appear everywhere possible, and be delivered in every medium.  Literally, every time one of your customers or prospects turns around, they should be reminded about your company, your show, your unique value proposition, or whatever.  And as much as possible, the message should be the same every time the customer sees it.

Way back in 2003, this was a little easier to execute than it is today (although it was never easy).  For the most part, you had a much smaller group of core activities for "outbound" marketing: advertising, direct mail, email, telemarketing.  Even then, many people had their favorites, and many people chose to put all their eggs in one basket, or heavily weigh their outbound marketing push in one specific area.   That's what Stevens was ranting about - he was advocating a much broader marketing attack, while keeping the overall message consistent.

I think Stevens' core strategy still holds true, but nowadays you need to work even harder to follow his advice, given all of the online marketing venues available: blogs, webinars Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, text messages, etc.  But I also think that marketers need to slowly move away from direct mail and print advertising (without abandoning either one entirely), and focus more on the online world.  And don't forget, try to keep your message consistent across all of those wildly different media.

Hey, if it was easy, they wouldn't call it "work."

Evan has 19 years of event management experience at three major trade show organizations, and then his own consulting firm.  Before founding Results.now, Inc. in 2001, he was Vice President, Sales & Marketing for CES, the largest annual trade show in the United States.  In that role, he was responsible for all marketing, branding, exhibit sales, and promotional opportunities sales for CES. Evan also served as CES Director of Marketing, and as Staff Director, Sales and Exhibitor Services.  Each year under his leadership, CES set all-time records for attendance; exhibit and sponsorship revenue; and total paid exhibit space. In 2008, Evan and his wife Michele founded Exhibitor Invites, a proven solution for increasing overall attendance and bringing brand new attendees to your show. Evan has also worked for Graphic Arts Show Company (producer of Graph Expo and Print) and the Interactive Multimedia Association (producer of IMA Expo).  He has been involved in eight different event launches, and has served in several key positions responsible for exhibit sales and customer service; attendee and exhibitor marketing; and operations.

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