A blog on using the power of Disruptive Business Models to build successful businesses...and other stuff. by Joe Agliozzo

Friday, June 24, 2005

Trade Show Exhibiting

The first trade show for BetterPPC was a great success. We met a LOT of great people and received great feedback on the BetterPPC service. Many advertisers we talked with knew that they could get better results by testing their ad copy, but the difficulty and tediousness of doing that kind of testing was holding them back. Seeing a test platform like BetterPPC, including the analytical test design/analysis program we provide, they instantly saw the value of testing. We were also located next to the Google booth, staffed by Google AdWords support folks, and they immediately saw the value in what we were doing and wished a tool like that was available to them when they are assisting AdWords customers. Of course, we told them we would love to make that happen - are you listening Google?

We are exhibiting at AdTech: Chicago next and will be unveiling a completely new User interface (using some cutting edge AJAX to help the customer navigate the system), along with an enterprise version of our product geared to agencies with multiple clients.

A couple of other things I learned about tradeshow exhibiting:

1. You can never have too many extension cords.
2. “Collateral” is important. As an attendee, I always feel like it is a waste and doesn’t get read, and as an exhibitor I wanted to skip it and do live optimizations for customers. But this wasn’t practical, you just have trouble getting (or often giving) that much time to people. Visitors come in waves and your booth (and everyone else’s) is either “slammed” or empty - very little in between. People expect to get something to take with them and you have to provide it.
3. If you can possibly squeeze it into your 10x10 booth, it is great to have a place to sit with visitors because you can really focus on them, and you also get a BREAK from being on your feet 9 hours a day, which is tough. This way you are still working and giving off the right impression, but you also get to take a rest!