In case you haven’t heard, Converted 2016, a conference focused on increasing conversions in your business, is right around the corner.

As in next week.

The conference is hosted by Leadpages, the company who makes high converting landing pages that every business owner and blogger can use to grow his or her business.

It’s going to be just my second conference of the year and I’m excited to be there for this one.

I know not everyone feels the same about conferences. Depending on your point of view, conferences can either be a great experience and a business booster or a poor use of the attendee’s time.

However, it’s my belief that what you get out of a conference is directly proportional to the effort and energy you put forth while you’re there.

As an example, you’ve probably met the guy who says, “I’m just here because my boss sent me.”

And then he skips out on the speeches only to return for dinner and happy hour.

I prefer to be the opposite of that – for one, it’s just not who I am, and second the cost comes directly out of my pocket.

So I’ve got to make the most out of my time while I’m there to make this a worthwhile event.

How am I going to do this?

Well, read on to see the four things I hope to get out of the Converted 2016 conference.

Make connections with fellow conversion marketers

It can be lonely working as an independent business owner – online chats just aren’t the same as speaking to someone in person.

That’s why I’m very excited to have the opportunity to meet people who do what I do.

It’s an opportunity for me to finally talk shop with someone other than my wife 🙂

It’s also a great way to pick up some insight on how others are doing conversion marketing.

For example, their process on creating and writing copy for their campaigns and landing pages.

Or, what their inbound marketing strategy looks like.

Or, how they run their A/B tests.

When I attended ConversionXL Live back in April, I sat next to a fellow optimizer and we chatted about our current A/B tests.

I use Optimizely for my tests, while she uses Visual Website Optimizer (VWO). We opened up our experiments and she walked me through how she sets up her tests.

We had a great conversation about testing and I walked away learning a thing or two from her.

Apart from learning from my peers, I’ll also be on the lookout for any potential business partnerships.

This is one thing I didn’t do when I was at ConversionXL Live and wished I had.

And I don’t mean necessarily partnering up on building a software application (though it would be cool!) but rather a partnership where my services and their services would complement each other.

Kinda like “scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”

I can’t tell you how often I get folks looking for SEO or WordPress development.

Learn from the experts speaking at Converted 2016

It’s one thing to learn from a peer but quite another to learn from an industry leader.

Some of the folks I’m especially excited to hear from are:

• Derek Halpern – creator of Zippy Courses
• Laura Roeder  – creator of Meet Edgar
• Ezra Firestone – founder of Smart Marketer
• Pat Flynn – founder of Smart Passive Income and business consultant
• Ryan Deiss – founder of Digital Marketer
• Brian Massey – a conversion scientist (a.k.a., the dude with the lab coat)

But to be honest, the entire lineup and topics look great!

I can’t wait to hear what they have to say and to try and implement some of the strategies for my business.

I learned quite a bit at ConversionXL Live:

• How to do user testing on the cheap
• The pitfalls of A/B testing
• How to use urgency to increase e-commerce sales
• How to increase click through rate

And this time around, I plan to create resources and how-to’s and share it with my audience so they can benefit from me being there.

Spread awareness of my brand and the services I provide

Naturally, I want to make people aware my company and services exist but I don’t plan on doing it in a car salesman kind of way.

Instead, I’m going to try a couple of tactics to generate some leads – other than just biz cards. It will include some swag and the use of LeadDigits.

If I’m speaking with someone and think they might make for a good client, I’ll ask them to text CONVERSIONSURGE to 44222 and in return I’ll hand them a sweet t-shirt and sticker I had made specifically for this event.

They’ll also get a PDF freebie sent to them.

At least the plan for now.

When I went to ConversionXL Live, people were going nuts for free t-shirts so I thought I would do the same but I may need to tweak my angle/offer.

But I’ve also got a couple of friends attending who said they’d wear my tees as well to help me out.

Hey, what are friends for right?

Experience the city of Minneapolis

This will be my first time in Minneapolis and I’m looking forward to checking out the city. But as a desert dweller from Phoenix, I’m hoping it’s not too cold for me.

The day before I leave I’ll be sure to let others know I’m coming in via the conference app and the Facebook group.

This worked really well for the last conference and I was able to make some friends prior to the conference starting.

A few of us met up the day before and took an Uber to some recommended restaurants.

This was nice because I ended up sitting with these folks at the conference and didn’t have to sit next to a complete stranger.

And I still keep in touch with these guys from time to time on social media.

Lastly, I’m curious to see what other activities the event organizers have planned.

As of now, I’ve heard there’s going to be a social media scavenger hunt…wonder what else there will be?

Conclusion

Going to a business conference doesn’t have to be all business nor does it have to be boring.

As I mentioned, what you get out of it correlates directly to what you put into it.

If you go in with a positive attitude and ready to make some new friends while learning from your peers and industry experts, conference can be a great thing for the future of your business or freelancing career.

So if you haven’t been to a conference yet this year, be sure to find one in your industry and go! And it’s not too late to sign up for Converted 2016.

Just be sure to make it worth your time and money.