How do you segment and target your event leads based on their interests, needs, and behaviors?

1 Why segment and target event leads?

Segmentation and targeting are essential for effective lead nurturing and conversion. By grouping your leads into different categories based on their characteristics and actions, you can better understand their pain points, goals, and preferences, and deliver more relevant and personalized messages and offers. This way, you can increase your response rates, build trust and rapport, and move your leads along the sales funnel faster.

2 How to segment event leads by interest?

Segmenting your event leads by their interest level in your products or services is a simple way to prioritize your outreach. You can measure their interest by indicators like how they interacted with your booth, responded to follow-up emails or calls, or rated your content or offers. For example, hot leads are those who showed a high level of interest and engagement, such as asking for a demo, requesting a quote, or signing up for a trial. They are likely ready to buy or close to making a decision, so you should prioritize them and follow up quickly and frequently. Warm leads are those who showed some interest and engagement, but not as much as the hot leads. Cold leads are those who showed little or no interest or engagement. You should not spend too much time on them, but you can still keep in touch with them occasionally with general or industry-related content and offers.

3 How to segment event leads by need?

Segmenting your event leads by their specific needs or challenges is an effective way to better understand their needs and provide them with the solutions they are looking for. You can gather this information from pre-event surveys, booth conversations, lead capture forms, or CRM data. For example, problem-aware leads are those who know their problems but are unsure of how to solve them; you should educate them about their problems and position your products as the best fit for their needs. Solution-aware leads are aware of possible solutions but need evidence or validation; you should showcase your value proposition and competitive advantages. Lastly, product-aware leads are aware of your products as a potential solution but need incentives or reassurance; you should offer them free trials, discounts, guarantees, or referrals to build trust.

4 How to segment event leads by behavior?

A third way to segment your event leads is by their behavior or actions during or after the event. You can use different tools to track and analyze their behavior, such as your event app, email marketing software, website analytics, or social media platforms. For example, active leads are those who actively engaged with you or your content during or after the event - such as visiting your website, opening emails, clicking links, liking posts, or commenting on blogs. These leads are likely interested in learning more about you and should be followed up with promptly and consistently. Passive leads are those who passively engaged with you or your content - such as viewing profiles, reading emails, watching videos, or following accounts. They may be curious but not ready to take action yet so should be nurtured with engaging and interactive content and offers. Lastly, inactive leads are those who did not engage at all - such as ignoring emails, deleting messages, unfollowing accounts, or opting out of lists. Re-engage these leads with compelling and personalized content and offers to find out the reasons for their inactivity or disinterest.

5 How to target event leads based on segmentation?

Once you have segmented your event leads based on their interests, needs, and behaviors, you can target them more effectively and efficiently with your follow-up communication and offers. To do so, customize messages and offers to each segment's characteristics and actions. Utilize varying tones, styles, formats, and channels to suit each segment's preferences and expectations. Additionally, personalize messages and offers based on a lead's name, company, industry, role, problem, solution, product, or any other relevant information. To measure the effectiveness of your messages and offers, test different versions of subject lines, headlines, images, calls to action, or landing pages for each segment. This way you can optimize your messages and offers based on response and feedback.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?