Become a Conference Pro in 5 Easy Steps
Conferences are excellent opportunities for networking, relationship building and business development. As an affiliate, attending a conference requires a signifi cant investment of your time and money so you need to ensure that you maximize your experience and come home feeling rewarded and energized. Here are the five most important things to keep in mind that will help you survive (and thrive!) at your next affiliate marketing event.
Set a Goal
It is of paramount importance to create a clear shortlist of goals for yourself when you’re attending a conference. Do you want to find out all you can about promising affi liate programs? Connect with leading affiliates? Learn about new online business strategies? You may be tempted to say, all of the above, but since your time will be limited, it’s best to have a narrower focus.
Have a set of priorities, in order of importance, and check these off your list as each is achieved. If you go after everything all at once, you may risk losing direction, and end up with an unfulfi lled conference experience. If an opportunity arises that you weren’t anticipating, explore it—and then come back to your priorities.
Personal Branding
You’re going to be meeting a lot of new people. Business cards are a must, but how do you introduce yourself? If you’re kinda doin’ this, and sorta’ starting that, you need to rethink your presentation. Know your unique selling points and strengths, and present your brand (yourself) with confidence.
The key is to stand out. Your introduction is what can make or break a great first impression. It may sound silly, but practicing out loud can really help. Make sure you sound like the star that you are.
Scope Out the Itinerary
Take some time up front to review the available sessions that will most benefit your business and help you cross something off your checklist of goals. Try and learn something completely new. Maybe your SEO skills need fine tuning or you’re looking to make your way into social media marketing. Perhaps you want to produce a video or bring your HTML skills up to the next level. Conferences are the perfect place to break out of your mould, and discover something you can incorporate into your next promotional campaign.
Know What You Are Looking
For There will be plenty of merchants lined up, ready to introduce their products and programs. Knowing what’s important to you in terms of partnerships, will equip you to weed out the programs that don’t fit. Have some questions lined up for merchants, and don’t be afraid to ask some tough ones! Spending too much time with a merchant that doesn’t offer you (a) the commission structure you want, (b) the support you need, or (c) the products you want to promote, is not using your precious time wisely. If someone doesn’t have what you want, move on!
Meet with other Affi liates
Be sure to connect with other affiliates to learn more about how they are succeeding, and to hear about popular programs that might make for a good fi t for your business. Open up with other affiliates and share your own experience and the chances are that they’ll do the same. Don’t limit your affiliate relationships to just the conference though. There will be lots of gatherings and parties taking place off the conference premises, so just like with the itinerary, find out what’s going on, and make a point of attending the hottest social events. Each conference experience will be unique, so make sure you have a plan for yours. Stay focused and goal-oriented, and you will be well on the way to maximizing your conference experience.
Maranda Moses is a Senior Account Manager at Share Results, a boutique affiliate marketing agency that works with affiliates and merchants to provide a complete affiliate marketing solution, including software, a network and SEM services.
