I agree with the other professional who said Facebook likes fresh content. We do paid advertising on Facebook for the purposes of general branding. It's never been a hard converter for us. It's really hard to reach a specific audience. Also, with regard to our Facebook page, we always focus on quality content that will provide value to our target audience. Then when we want to advertise, we often will boost a post. For instance, we are hosting an event, so we have scheduled specific posts in the weeks leading up to the event. About a week out, we will pay to boost one of those posts once or twice. -Diane

A best practice would be to develop a marketing plan (unless you already have) that includes a situation, SWOT, target audience and competitive analysis, to start. Once you know where you fit in the market and to whom, specifically, you are targeting, then answering the question of promotion becomes a lot easier. Hope this helps. -Diane

Open an IRA and invest most of it. And keep the rest to spend or stash away for when you really want to buy something.

Re-naming is re-branding. And re-branding requires an investment of time and money. However, you could change your business name and still maintain your rankings. Having a solid SEO and PPC strategy will help you. Just because you would drop the geotargeted location from your business name doesn't mean that you won't be able to rank in a top spot. I would recommend the old advice of putting together a business plan around the new brand you're envisioning, identifying specific, measurable goals you are looking to achieve. Then I would work backward to identify everything you need to do to develop, or enhance, the brand to meet the standards of your vision. Financially, does this change make sense? Will it improve your customers' experience? This is a deep topic, but hopefully all of our comments can help you arrive at a decision you're confident with. -Diane

I work in the public sector, and in my experience terms and conditions still bear culpability. If your clients want you to sign their PO because they don't want to deal with contracts and their legal team, and it has terms and conditions, then I would consult your leadership or legal team. Maybe one of them could sign it. At the same time, even though the contract process is a little laborious, it may be worth it to prevent redoing things every year. You could ask you clients if they have a standard purchasing agreement that you could sign (pending your organization is OK with it). That makes the process usually pretty speedy. I always focus on the customer experience. I also focus on culpability. Therefore, my happy medium is usually to communicate how valuable our clients are to us, but that a contract is the more secure, and convenient option (especially since you have licensing renewal requirements annually). And then I do everything I can to make the process easy for them. -Diane

Hi there. This is a really great question. I have two questions for you. First, what is the number one goal you are trying to accomplish by attending this trade show? Is it brand awareness, collecting leads, conducting on-site sales, etc? Second, what metrics for success have you developed for this event? Marketing budget allocation for trade shows should be goal-based in my opinion. The first thing that comes to my mind is to use your products to market your products. You mentioned that your organization sells video, audio, etc. You could create a digital brochure and/or an electronic press kit that you can display on your screens (sorry, I don't know which products you have, specifically). You can also email these to leads, clients, etc. Depending on your audience, you could potentially do something relaxing or entertaining. I use to work in the software industry, and people would flock to booths where they could play Guitar Hero, etc. There are also plenty of promotional items you could offer that are inexpensive for you, yet loved by attendees. I'd love to help you brainstorm and come up with an awesome trade show marketing plan. Best of luck! -Diane