Marketing Metrics, Messaging, and Madness

MakerFaire 2009

Last weekend our company attended one of my favorite events - MakerFaire, the world's largest DIY festival. It is an amazing group of people that attend this show, and this is the show to go to see some of the most innovative inventions (and inventors) that are out there. We have several exhibitors at the show that already own lasers (many of which bring their machines to the show), and are developing more clients in the industry everyday.

This is a great example of a marketing vehicle that might not be within our typical demographic, but by sponsoring a great event of which people are huge advocates we have been able to create an incredible marketplace that we didn't necessarily see developing a couple of years ago. By developing a place for ourselves in a niche (but influential) market, we've been able to place ourselves ahead of the curve for the consumer side of marketing our product.  

Keep an eye open for shows like this that bring in the media and the very best of bloggers and even as a marketer of a small- to medium-sized business you can be a hit among some of the big players.  We saw signs with our logo next to (and often above) Yahoo, Google, HP and Radio Shack. That is a very exciting thing for a marketer to see when much of your advertising is done through trade publications.

IWF Atlanta Wrapup

I attended IWF in Atlanta last week and it faced the same problem we've seen across the board for trade shows this year - poor attendance. The trade shows that are getting hit the hardest are the ones that attract people from a wide geographic area. The more local the show, the more we've seen attendance stay steady from past years, but if you have the expense of traveling, people are going to use the Internet to do their research.

Like it or not, long days on the trade show floor are part of the job. But 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.?  I don't understand who thinks opening a trade show floor at 8 a.m. is necessary, but they obviously don't actually attend the shows. The floor is empty for the first two hours, and anyone that is traveling from another time zone is in for a world of hurt as they get up at 6 a.m. Atlanta time (4 a.m. Denver time) to get to the show on time. Then we face ten hours on our feet. Ugh.

Even with low attendance we sold machines at the show and talked to a lot of good prospects. We sell a product you need to see in person to really experience the excitement that turns a looky-loo into a buyer, and trade shows give us the opportunity to introduce our laser systems to a whole new audience. But please!  Keep the hours in check!