It’s been estimated that 65% – 85% of small businesses in the US don’t even have a website. But those in that growing minority are increasingly looking for enterprise-level services (like e-mail marketing, website analytics, ad serving, and customer resource management (CRM)) at small business prices. The challenge is that the “best of breed” offerings are largely still only made available to medium-sized and larger companies. But the great thing about technology is that it only gets better and cheaper with time. So, small businesses are starting to see great enterprise-class offerings available at small business price points, but identifying those offerings can be tough. One of the things I do for clients is find and evaluate those “best of breed” products and services for small web businesses – sometimes at internet marketing conferences – and put the “winners” to use – to promote the clients’ brands online. Wading through all the merchants isn’t always easy, but working the decision of which vendor to work with can easily make or break your marketing efforts.
The Ad:Tech conference’s exhibit hall is one of the premier events for those product/service merchants looking to get noticed for their “digital marketing” related offerings. The exhibit hall at these shows is as big as any conference in the industry – just about anything you need to market your company online can be found at one of the hundreds of booths. But I had to wade through a lot of noise and marketing speak to find just a handfull of promising merchants that offer scalable products and services, with low entry level price points. More often than not, though, the dialog went like this:
Me: So, tell me about your service. Them: Well we offer a unique search engine marketing service…blah, blah, blah. Me: How do you price your offerings? Them: It depends on how much volume you do. At the bottom end of the spectrum, we require about $50,000 per month of ad spend. Me: Ok. What about my clients who are looking to start out spending more like $1,000 to $5,000 per month. Them: Oh, wow. Ha, no, we don’t deal with volume that low.
The example above is a paraphrased discussion I had with a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) service provider who manages paid search campaigns (like Google AdWords). I got similar responses from e-mail service providors, analytics merchants, and ad networks. They were all a little shocked to see a small business representative talking shop with them. But you know what? I take it as a compliment. One vendor admitted that I was the first small business prospect he’d spoken to that was already using some of the best practices that his firm implements for their clients. As small businesses go, my clients are ahead of the curve – that just means they have to work a little harder to find the right vendors to work with.
Like I said, I did find some solid new products and services that I plan to evaluate. So, Ad:Tech wasn’t a total loss – not even close. I actually had better luck finding entry-level service providers than I did last year. This is a testament to the growth of the small and medium sized business (SMB) sector within the digital marketing arena. And as more and more merchants reach down to serve small businesses, then conferences like Ad:Tech are going to see a growing number of small business attendees at their shows. With that in mind, here’s a recommendation for Ad:Tech and any other show with a big exhibit hall:
- Allow exhibitors to optionally provide the demographics of the customers they’re targeting at the show. Examples might include:
- Number of employees
- Business revenue
- Marketing Spend
- Business type (lead generation, e-commerce, service, etc.)
- Industry (financial services, consumer products, web design)
- Include those demographics below the exhibitor description, in the back of the conference handbook and on the conference website, so that conference attendees can easily identify the vendors that offer services aimed at them
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