Optify’s First Trade Show
This week we participated in the SMX Advanced 2010 trade show in Seattle, WA. This was our first time participating as a fully-fledged exhibitor at a national trade show, and we learned a lot about the process of preparing for an event like this. We want to share some of those lessons here on our blog.
Why We Participated
SMX is highly relevant to our space and to what Optify does. Optify provides hosted software for B2B companies, looking to generate and track leads through organic search and social media. Additionally, the trade show was local—right here in Seattle—and offered an excellent opportunity for us to showcase our newest application features.
The Trade Show
We met with customers, agencies and prospects at this event, including Microsoft, Varolli, LexisNexis and Lawyers.com. We rolled out our new Free Edition, a new Marketing Dashboard and, for the first time, introduced Optify Labs and our Link Building Application to the public. Our Co-Founder, Erez Barak, demonstrated these new features to a captive audience:
9 Lessons Learned from SMX Advanced – Seattle
- Choose the right trade show for you
There are lots of trade shows out there, but you need to seek out the right one for your business. Spend some time researching and select an event that’s appropriate for your specific business and stage of development. Trade shows can require a great deal of time and money, so it’s important to evaluate your options. Five factors to consider when deciding what trade show is best suited for your business include, goals, size, space and audience, competition and cost. - Plan, plan, plan
Know your objectives and have a detailed strategy laid out well ahead of time. Procrastination and a last minute set-up will show, especially in relation to experienced vendors. Planning well in advance will give you a chance to revise and gather feedback from your other team members, offering a fresh perspective and details you may have overlooked. - Scope out the venue, pick the right location
Do a walk-through of the show room floor and get a feel for how traffic will flow. We chose to set up our booth at the entrance, next to the restrooms, for example. During the recess, we had a lot of foot traffic as people headed to the restroom. - Concentrate on the important details
It’s easy to be consumed by the countless details that go into preparing for a trade show. If you spread yourself too thin and try to focus on everything instead of a few, select factors, you’ll fall short. Prioritize your plan based on the activities you think will deliver the most value. For example, we selected a simple backdrop without any detail other than our logo because we didn’t believe an ornate, detailed banner would add significant value to our mission at SMX and felt that other goals ranked higher in priority. As it turns out, our simple design led to more people stopping by and asking questions because they were unable to glean much information from just our backdrop alone. While we didn’t invest many resources in this detail, it still worked to our advantage in the end. - Be unique
We wanted to introduce something that set us apart from other vendors. The majority of the exhibitors offered Search Engine Marketing (SEM) solutions, while we showcased our SEO capabilities. We also introduced a new application Link Building Application prototype, which helped us attract more attention. - Social media
Use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Ping as well as other event management tools before, during and after the show. Make sure to tweet and run a live streaming blog throughout the conference. Social media can also be utilized offline. For instance, we held a cocktail party for our friends and clients, following the show. - Follow up
Touch base with prospects immediately following the event. The trade show isn’t just an effective network for the one or two days of the event. It’s important to follow up right after the show while your contacts still remember you. - Track and measure
While offline leads tend to be difficult to measure, this is easier during a show because it provides a way to scan leads. Measuring the lift in online leads associated with the trade show is harder. Optify allows you to tag activities, both online and offline, so you can measure any incremental lift. - Learn and refine
With every trade show that you attend, you’ll gain experience and ideas for improvements at your next conference. Make sure to walk the floor, look to other vendors’ booths for inspiration and keep a running list of revisions for next time.
