It’s hard to believe, but 2015 is already winding down. Along with falling temperatures and changing leaves, the end of the year also means it’s time for AQUA’s annual Buyers’ Guide. Our staff is hard at work on this edition which will arrive in the hands of our 15,000+ print subscribers in December. If you can name it, you can find it among the 230+ pages of the Buyers’ Guide: Products, manufacturers, brand names, distributors and manufacturers representatives. This is one of our most anticipated issues each year and the great news is, there are many perks for advertisers in the issue. Here are a few of the best: 1. Year-Long Visibility — Online and in Print “We regularly hear stories from our readers who keep the Buyers’ Guide nearby at all times, even after it’s torn and tattered from being referenced so often,” says Scott Webb, executive editor of AQUA. “We love stories like that.” As an advertiser in this issue, your company name is bolded throughout the Guide. Your listing also features a callout listing the page number of your advertisement. Additionally, your advertisement is guaranteed to be placed in the section of the Buyer’s Guide that you desire. When you combine your Buyers’ Guide investment with an AQUA Microsite, you’ll receive additional exposure all year long on aquamagazine.com. Microsites are totally customizable — add video, product releases and catalogs — and they automatically “pop to the top” of search results on AQUA’s online Buyers’ Guide. 2. Your Prospects Are Out There, Help Them Find You In addition to the 15,000+ people who receive the print edition of the Buyers Guide, thousands of people find it online each month. With your AQUA Microsite — available to Buyer’s Guide advertisers at a 60% discount — you’ll ensure your prospects easily find you no matter where they look. Each month the online Buyers’ Guide receives more than 2,400 pageviews. Your customizable microsite includes a “Request a Quote” button, where prospects can request a quote right from your listing. 3. Stand Out Above Your Competitors As prospects search the Buyers’ Guide, both online and in print, issue advertisers are more likely to be found. In print, your listing is bolded, while non-advertisers are not. Take a look at the example. Who will your prospects notice first? 4. Our Audience Loves It! The Buyers’ Guide remains a tried and true resource for our audience of pool and spa professionals. We hear positive feedback all the time from readers who keep the Buyer’s Guide on their desk at all times. As Webb says, “It’s one of the few products that can still beat Google head to head these days.” AQUA is owned by AB Media, which owns two other B2B publications. In each industry we serve, the Buyers’ Guide is a staple for all of our readers. “The Buyers’ Guide for me, I want the book,” said one reader we interviewed recently. “I like grabbing the book, finding who I need to talk to and when I need to make a purchase, what do I go to? I go to the Buyers’ Guide.” And with AQUA, you know your Buyers’ Guide investment is reaching a powerful audience of dealers, service professionals, builders and designers. Interested in helping your brand reach quality buyers in the 2016 Buyers’ Guide? Have additional questions you’d like answered? Just want to chat about your marketing goals and objectives? Give Jared or Stan a call today. Want to learn more? Jared has some tips for advertisers and non-advertisers alike in this Buyers’ Guide video blog.
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Whether you have the biggest booth on the floor or a 10×10, a trade show is a major investment. However, the opportunity to talk face-to-face with your prospects and let them see your products in person is priceless. To help you prepare for the upcoming PSP Expo at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, we’ve come up with seven tips to maximize your trade show investment. 1. Spread the Word Spread the word about your presence at the show. Use your own marketing channels — social media, email, maybe direct mail — to let your customers and prospects know you’ll be at the show and what products you’ll have on display. Of course, you’ll want to reach people who aren’t in your existing network. That’s where we come in. Advertising in trade media is a great way to get the industry excited about your presence at an upcoming show. AQUA’s November show issue is our biggest issue of the year and offers bonus distribution at the show itself. 2. Utilize the Show’s Marketing Efforts Do some research on the show you’ll be attending. If there is a free or discounted pass for trade show only attendees, it might be worth sharing that information with your customers and prospects. Some shows offer incentives to exhibitors who bring additional attendees to the show. 3. Seek Out Social Media Take advantage of the show’s social media efforts. Use the official hashtag (#PSPexpo2015) to get your message in front of attendees who are browsing social media. Also, follow the show’s official social accounts. This will help keep you in the loop on announcements and tips before, during and after the show. 4. Time for a Better Booth? Is your trade show booth drawing people in or keeping people out? Tables set up on the outside of a booth can act as a barrier. Try moving them further inside to draw people in. Also consider removing chairs from your booth. When standing, you’re more likely to engage with people who pass by… and less likely to spend time staring at your phone. Finally, make sure your signage is easy to read and makes attendees want to learn more about what you offer. These are all things to consider before you arrive at the show. 5. Create a Dedicated Web Page Attendees at the show are likely to seek you out online. Is your website ready for them? Creating a dedicated page for the specific trade show can help you communicate a cohesive message between your presence at the show and your content online. 6. Get Personal Earlier we mentioned getting the word out via mass communication like email and social media. However, for some of your top customers — especially ones in the region of the show — reaching out with a personal invitation adds a nice touch and might be worth the extra effort. 7. Extend Your Presence Via Video A trade show only lasts a few days, but a video about your product or brand can serve as a sales tool for months, sometimes even years. Make the most of your exhibiting experience by having AQUA’s video team shoot a video demo in your booth. Our professional team will shoot, produce and promote a video on your behalf. This could be an interview with someone in your company or a demonstration of one of your products. Learn more about AQUA’s trade show video options here. Put a few of these quick tips to use and this PSP Expo may be your most successful one yet. And while you’re there, stop by booth 465 in the Genesis Pavilion to see our newly redesigned magazine and catch up with our team. We’ll see you in Las Vegas! There’s nothing like a special issue to get our readers excited and extend the life of our advertisers’ message. And the October issue of AQUA promises to be a special issue like never before.
Earlier this summer we announced our partnership with the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals (APSP). One of the many positive things about this partnership is that AQUA is now home to the APSP International Awards of Excellence. True to its name, this awards program showcases the best pool and spa projects from around the world, broken down by category. And the October issue of AQUA is the only publication where you’ll find them. For our readers, the stunning projects will serve as inspiration all year long. “The most influential buyers in the industry will use this issue as a year-round idea book and will be actively searching it for new products and ideas,” says AQUA’s publisher Shawn Gahagan. For our advertisers, it means extended life for your advertisement. “AQUA’s new alignment with APSP has given advertisers a new unique opportunity to stand out with the industry’s brightest stars in pool and spa design,” Gahagan says. “Advertising in this special issue will not only help you reach top buyers, it will position your brand as one of the leaders in the industry.” Of course, the October issue will also feature the regular AQUA editorial content our readers know and love. Combine that with the APSP International Awards of Excellence and the result is one of our most anticipated issues ever. The projects are beautiful. The readers are excited. The only question is, will you be part of it? Contact Stan Chambers or Jared Fish for additional information on the October APSP International Awards of Excellence Issue. It’s no secret that marketing departments have shrunk over the years. If you’re at a large company, it’s likely you handle what was once the work of two or three people. If you’re at a small company, you might be your company’s entire “marketing department” — all while manning two or three other jobs. It’s enough to make you freak out sometimes. The good news: all that responsibility means every day is a new challenge. The bad news: it can get overwhelming. Below are seven tips to help you manage your time a little more efficiently and keep yourself less stressed. 1. Learn to Say No It’s just two letters, but sometimes ‘no’ is the toughest word in our language. Just because you can do something doesn’t always mean you should. Spreading yourself too thin causes all of your work to suffer. It’s important to be a helpful and cooperative coworker, but sometimes being honest with someone now is better than telling them ‘yes’ only to fail to deliver later. 2. Shut down your inbox It’s so easy to become beholden to your inbox. The key is managing your time, not letting your inbox manage you. Set a block of time where you log out of email, put your phone out of sight (and on silent) and focus on the work you need to get done without the interruption of email. 3. Find natural transition points Wasting 10 minutes here or there can really add up. A common source of lost time is transitioning between tasks. It can be difficult to get one project out of your mind and immediately devote your full attention to something new. To combat this, try to find natural transition points like meetings or lunch. Finish one task before these events. Then, when you return to your desk you can focus on what’s next with a clear head. 4. Plan for Interruptions So you’ve been procrastinating. Your project is almost due so you think, “Today I’ll just focus on that project for four straight hours and get it done.” Of course, things don’t work out that way. Even if you could focus on something for four straight hours you’re bound to be interrupted. People stopping by your desk, phone calls, emails (see #2), impromptu meetings. All of those interruptions can really stress you out if they’re disrupting what you “should” be doing. Keep this in mind when planning your day. You’re going to get interrupted. Things are going to take longer than expected. 5. Plan Ahead Speaking of planning… It’s so simple, but even the slightest bit of preparation goes a long way. As Ben Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Before heading home at the end of the day, take a look at your calendar and jot down some notes or at least mentally prepare for the following day(s). Nothing worse than showing up to work and having a meeting that you forgot about. 6. Set Goals, Mini Goals From the time we’re kids we’re told to set goals. But goals are worthless if they’re not reasonable. Set mini, realistic goals for your day. For example, when I’m working on a project that might take 3 hours, writing down “Finish project” as the goal is overwhelming and pointless. But if I write down, “complete steps #1 and #2 before lunch,” I suddenly have a reasonable goal that I’m motivated to get done. Plus, when you’ve achieved that day’s goals you know you can head home satisfied with your work. 7. Eat the Frog Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Apply this mentality to your to-do list. Get your most unpleasant task out of the way first and your day will only get better from there.
Hopefully one or two of these suggestions help make your professional life a little less stressful. And that’s important. According to Harvard researcher and New York Times best selling author, Shawn Achor, a positive mindset is the biggest factor in professional success. Achor says 75 percent of our professional success is predicated not by intelligence, but by our optimism, social support network and the ability to manage energy and stress in a positive way. Something to consider next time you’re ready to freak out. Fun Issue. Serious ROI.
“Innovative” is a word that gets thrown out a lot. We see it so often we tend to ignore it. But our September “Fun Issue” is truly innovative. We’re taking an approach on our industry never seen before. At its core, the pool and spa industry is about having fun. So over the past year, our staff has been hard at work talking to people and companies in our industry dedicated to making the fun of pools and spas a reality. We’re excited to share those stories with our readers. The result of this year-long effort will be an issue that makes our readers “sit up and take notice,” according to AQUA executive editor Scott Webb. “Trade magazines are usually rather serious,” says Webb. “This will be the most lighthearted and enjoyable pool and spa magazine we’ve ever produced.” That means serious ROI for our advertising partners. We expect the Fun Issue to be read, talked about and shared more than any in our history. In other words, more pool and spa buyers looking at your advertisement and absorbing your message. With AQUA’s audience of 23,500 subscribers in retail, service and build/design, you’ll receive quality exposure for your brand in an enjoyable context. Additionally, the Fun Issue offers bonus distribution at the upcoming Pool Industry Expo in California. This issue comes at an exciting time here at AQUA. In July we announced our partnership with the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals. The APSP has chosen AQUA as its media partner and the Fun Issue will be the second issue that all APSP members receive. The “fun” is just getting started here at AQUA. We’d love to have you along for the ride. Contact Stan Chambers or Jared Fish for additional information on partnering with AQUA. |