16 Tips to Get More Leads from Events

Capture more leads and revenue by following these best practices for capturing and converting leads from conferences and events.

Trade shows are often where business gets done.

COVID-19 was a huge speed bump for event marketing.

But events are heating back up. And trade conferences (as opposed to consumer shows, the B2C counterpart) rank among the?most effective B2B channels?for your marketing.

Over the years I’ve collected this list of key tips to squeeze as much ROI as possible from your event strategy.

Mastering Events

1. Find the best conferences

This really starts with your?ideal customer profile?(ICP).?

Who are they? Are there any trade associations or professional development events targeting that ICP??

Often these events are small and inconspicuous to those outside the target audience (we’ve often been the first ones to approach an event asking to sponsor). They can also be less expensive and more focused than events that draw a bigger crowd.

2. Prioritize events that match to maximize your budget

Regardless of cost, you need a plan to maximize the marketing spend.?

To achieve the lowest cost per lead (CPL) for events, especially if you are just starting an event marketing initiative, rank events by how well they match your ICP, cost to attend per expected attendee, and proximity to your HQ.?

Consider what will be required to exhibit or attend (i.e., do you need to budget for trade show materials or collateral that you don’t already have)??

Then start with the events that score the best for potential ROI.

3. Pre-event strategy

Can you get a list of attendees beforehand to email or send a postcard??

Event organizers often have limited permission for vendors to send emails—if so, extend that permission by using that email to not only invite contact at the event but to request an opt-in to email from you.?

Can you include an offer in that communication to entice them to your booth? (Such as “mention this email for a discount, special offer, or gift.”)?

As you do more events, test the timing, messaging, frequency, and channel for this communication. At one company, we found that emailing the morning of the event worked well to drive engagement and traffic to our booth.?

Attendees opened our emails along with messages from the event organizers and could take action immediately, rather than remembering to stop by our booth a week or more after opening our email.

4. Leverage event organizers

Talk with organizers beforehand about how you can get the most from the event.?

You can often get a read on not just the canonical vendor participation, but also how receptive they are to creative or guerrilla tactics.?

You’d be surprised how willing organizers are to talk, and how few exhibitors ever leverage the relationship with them in order to maximize the impact of their participation in the event.

5. Hold a pre-event strategy session

Before you show up at the event, try to?anticipate and plan?for how the event will play out.?

Consider your exhibit space and the event program. Are you in a spot with a naturally good traffic flow? Are there opportunities to increase visibility based on how your exhibit will be seen??

Will visitors be constant or will they surge between other event sessions or activities? Are there?guerilla tactics?you can use to direct traffic to your booth? (See?6 Rules of Trade Show Guerilla Marketing?by John Greathouse.) Are there complimentary vendors at the event that you can cross-promote with??

Will customers or others with whom you have an established relationship be at the event? Can you find a way to leverage them for testimonials?

6. Piggyback on event promotion

Is there a hashtag event organizers are using to promote the event agenda??

Make sure you are using it in your social media posts. (See?Twitter Marketing Strategies for Trade Shows?by Mandy Movahhed.)

Coach your event team to snap pics from the floor, capture key events, and be seen on social channels.?

I still go to events where I’m one of only three or four vendors that are active on social media, making it a great place to be found!

Are event organizers holding special prize drawings, contests, attendee passports or other games? Participate!?

It’s usually much cheaper to get exposure by donating something to a drawing than it is to buy an actual sponsorship at the event—something to keep in mind if your budget is small.

7. Plan to capture attention

In the sea of vendors vying for your customers, you need contrast.?

You need a?way to engage people and stand out.?

Here’s where you fire up your creative juices. It might be a booth game, a memorable theme, foghorns, creative tchotchkes (preferably that hang around and relate to your product or service), Cirque de Soleil, whatever will get people to your booth.

8. Logistics

Eliminate worries for yourself or your team once they leave the office.?

Prepare your team with event briefs, concise summaries of key logistical details like travel information, tracking numbers for shipped packages, key goals and expectations for the event, etc.?

I like these to be on paper as well as digital—if there’s any situation where your smartphone battery will die, it’s traveling to an event.

Read the eight remaining tips from the original article here.