Our Technology for Marketing and eCommerce Expo Experience

We’re back from a busy few days showcasing at the Technology for Marketing and eCommerce Expo at the ExCeL London. Here’s what we made of this 2-day exhibition.

E-commerce needs CRM support

Just as we’d suspected going into the event, so many companies need some serious help with their CRM. And the wide range of support needed was quite eye opening for us.

We talked to brands at every stage of the CRM journey; those who had no idea what sort of CRM system they needed and how they would go about setting it up, all the way through to those who had a deep level of understanding, but just lacked the resources to implement their strategy.

But there was one overriding sentiment coming from everyone we spoke to – they know how important it is to get their CRM right in today’s e-commerce environment. And from the extensive chats we had, we’ve realised there are a huge number of ways we can impact a business. We’re excited to get flexing those CRM muscles!

Sweet little kitties draw quite a crowd

We were in the thick of our busiest period at our stand when we saw the queue for the Keynote Theatre snaking its way across the entire exhibition towards us. It took us a while to work out why, and then we realised Jamie Laing and Edward Williams from Candy Kittens were speaking next.

We might have missed the talk itself, but there was plenty of chatter about it well into the second day of the event. We’ve already checked out Jamie’s key takeaways over on his LinkedIn, and we’ll definitely be catching up on the session’s recording once it’s out.

The right branding leads to… well… leads

We’ve talked about our simple branding before on the blog, but the expo solidified our reasoning. Not only did we see potential customers doing double takes of our booth as they clocked the word CRM prominently in our logo, but we had someone tell us they were leaving the event, saw our logo advertised at the exit, and came back in to find us. Would a generic brand name have had the same reaction in those instances? Eyes could easily have drifted over our logo with no clue about what we could offer them.

And that’s not to say unrelated brand names aren’t memorable – there are some great ones out there. But as a specialist business looking to make its mark and grow, we think clear and simple messaging is the way forward. So right now, we’re patting ourselves on the back for making the right choice. We can’t tell you how exciting it was to see the tangible impact it had on our volume of leads.

AI continues to be a hot topic

Hardly a groundbreaking statement, we know, but the number of speaker sessions on AI throughout the 2-day event was quite incredible. We dipped into a few of the talks during our quieter moments to see what’s going on with this newly emerging technology, and there is so much potential out there, both in and out of the world of CRM.

Our advice for the moment? Keep an eye on the latest developments and keep an open mind. It’s still very much in its infancy for some of its uses (looking at you, content), but it’s moving quickly so it won’t be long before it’s a much more sophisticated tool.

Nothing compares to real-life interactions

We’re a remote-first agency. And although we value the freedom and flexibility it brings to our business, it doesn’t mean we don’t crave in-person interactions from time to time. Especially when it comes to meeting new customers. Sitting across a table from each other is still a far more natural way to get to know someone than talking to a computer screen.

We’ve always known we need to keep that personal angle with our partners, which is why we try to meet in person as regularly as possible. But as a company supporting customers globally, there will always be those we simply can’t get to.

So coming to an exhibition was a hugely refreshing experience for us. Chatting, laughing, shaking hands; all of this gave us the pure energy we needed to spend two full days on our feet discussing all things CRM. An absolutely fantastic way for us to meet our future partners!

It’s also given us a huge appetite for the world of events, so you can expect to see us a little more next year as we bring our insourced CRM agency model to all corners of the globe.

And if you didn’t catch us at the exhibition, don’t fret. You can drop us a line below to find out how we can help your business.