There is a topic in our community that is rarely discussed among the masses and remains the lot of smoking rooms and kitchens. Conferences. Are they needed at all in 2023? Who cares to go there? What to expect? How to behave correctly? What goals to set and how to achieve them?
I have been creating businesses in traffic arbitration for ten years now and have traveled a lot of conferences as part of my service. I listened to reports, talked at booths, met thousands of new people and looked for ways to effectively talk about my brainchild – software for affiliate programs, a platform for affiliates, CRM for advertising – AlterCPA.
In this article I will try to structure my experience. I hope I will save many of you the nerves and money that you would have spent on unjustified expectations.
Why should a media buyer go to the conference?
If the answer comes into your head: “Listen to the speeches” – this head needs to be hit. And five years ago, when the industry was non-pop and only for its own eyes, the share of useful information in the speeches tended to zero. Today it has already reached this zero.
There are several types of speakers:
- Those who want to shine their face and catch up with followers on Instagram or Telegram. These are the most harmless characters.
- Scam artists. They will do a warm-up on stage so that the fool will buy their course after the conference.
- Service owners advertising their product. These ones can be useful. Maybe someday I will speak too, but it’s not certain.
- Affiliate managers advertising their unique offers that will give ROI 666% tomorrow.
Which of these respected gentlemen will tell you a secret? Who knows anything at all? Maximum, service owners, and even then not always. At best, they will talk about an interesting topic, omitting key details, without which it simply will not work.
It’s extremely rare when it snows in Somalia, you come across a speaker who gives good information. But you should never rely on it when buying a ticket to a conference.
The speeches have not been of any use for a long time and remained just as a tribute to tradition and one of the “events” so that guests do not get drunk so quickly. Remember, in arbitration, a known topic is a dead topic. People who are smart enough to get to the stage on their own are smart enough not to kill their source of income for the sake of momentary vanity. Everyone knows that speeches are useless, except for beginners. Accordingly, advertising in the speeches is focused specifically on them.
So what should a media buyer do?
- Approach interesting stands and turn on the advertising filter in your head. We listen to the information and evaluate whether this company will be useful. If yes, we make personal contacts with the representative.
- Let’s drink. It’s fun and helps with points 3, 4.
- Let’s get acquainted. It is most beneficial to get acquainted with the people at your level or a little higher. This will make it easier to share information. Plus, you will develop together and at the next conference you will be able to meet as friends and be as useful to each other as possible.
- We see old acquaintances from other cities and countries with whom it would hardly have been possible to meet outside the conference.
The main benefit for a media buying specialist visiting conferences is the search for affiliate networks, direct advertisers and services that can really be useful and provide the best conditions, networking and friends, as well as alcohol, girls/boys and other pleasures.
How businesses can effectively use conferences
If you are interested in an audience of beginners – make a speech, speak and you will have a stream of untrained, but very demanding clients.
For everyone else, life is a bit more difficult.
There is an option with stands. They are usually outrageously expensive. But I would not renounce this option, at least 1-2 times you can try to take a stand and see what kind of exhaust this tool will bring. Needless to say, the manager at the booth must know the product perfectly and communicate beautifully with people, even without shots of whiskey?
Since AlterCPA is a niche service and I have an extremely narrow target audience, stands are not particularly interesting to me. But still confs benefit me in two other ways.
My personal two ways to benefit from conferences
The first way is slightly pimped. I take with me from one to infinity pretty girls, whom God has awarded not only with their appearance, but also with a technical mindset, as well as communication skills. Of course, there are fewer pretty tech girls in the world than I dreamed of as a child, so I usually have one companion with me. Well, because more than one is too expensive.
The task of the lady is to walk in the crowd, start communication and look for those who are interested in AlterCPA. She brings them to me, where I, as the most expert person in my product, process the “lead” with my charisma and intellect. Leveling of charisma and intelligence is carried out in advance at those stands with whiskey.
This life hack really helps to benefit my business at conferences. You can adopt, the more pretty girls at the conference, the better.
And the second way is peculiar, as it seems to me, to all services. The most stable and version of AlterCPA appears a couple of days before the conference. This is such a personal deadline and additional motivation to improve the product, to take a couple (hundreds) of steps forward. In many ways, I go to arbitrage conferences simply because I know that this will be an excuse to work 24/7 to improve the software faster.
Conclusion
Let’s summarize the article to the main theses:
- Don’t rely on speeches. There is only the ad designed for beginners.
- Communicate. Both at the bar and at the stands.
- Bring pretty girls to sell your product.
- Use conferences as an excuse to improve your product in a short time.