Event Marketing For Lead Generation by Heather Holdorf

[Doha]

Event Marketing For Lead Generation
by Heather Holdorf

shutterstock_98633177dboystudio / Shutterstock.com

You spend your time and your company's money on B2B events in the hopes that they will build your brand awareness as well as generate leads and increase sales. If you play your cards right, you will succeed. The best way to generate leads from event marketing is to incorporate social media in the marketing process, according to a 2012 MarketingSherpa survey. The survey showed that incorporating social media into event marketing increased lead generation significantly, resulting in an average of a 300 percent ROI.
Before the Event

Social media is a great tool to market your event. When combined with traditional marketing methods, it can increase event turnout and help you get qualified leads to show up to your company's event. Some good pre-event marketing techniques include:

    Post information about your event on your website, your blog and your social media networks.
    Send out emails to people on your company's email list.
    Encourage businesses to share news about your company's event on social media networks (and make it easy by providing them plenty of compelling content to share).
    Mail invitations to the event containing a QR code. Invite your prospects to register at the event using the QR code.
    Highlight important guest speakers on your website, blogs, social media networks, emails and mailed invitations.
    Regularly post updates on your online properties regarding your company's event.

During the Event

Getting hot prospects to an event is only the first step in the puzzle. Once they're at the event, you have to give them an experience that encourages them to stay interested. To do this, you have to get your leads to look at your display and join in a conversation with you. Things you can do to engage your leads include:

    Put up attractive displays to help your prospects learn about your company. These displays should be clear and easy to understand. Keep the information on the displays concise and to the point so that your prospects do not get information overload.
    Encourage people to use their QR codes (provided to them before the event) to enter a drawing for a prize or coupon for reduced priced products or services from your company.
    Have computer tablets available with questionnaires on them so that you can learn about your prospects. Encourage people to fill out the questionnaires by entering them in a drawing for a prize.
    Have plenty of salespeople available to engage in conversations with you leads and prospects.
    Encourage people to attend speaker events or conferences by conducting a prize drawing for all attendees.
    Collect name, business, position in the company, company address, email and phone numbers when entering people in prize drawings.

After the Event

After you have held your event, it is time to reap the rewards. Hopefully you have made a good impression on your prospects and have sparked interest in your brand. It is important to follow up on your prospects soon after the event, while the event is still fresh in your prospects' minds. Some follow-up ideas include:

    The day after the event

    send emails to the event attendees thanking them for attending the event and briefly highlighting your company's products or services. Also include links in the email to online brochures, studies, articles and videos pertaining to your business.
    The day of or the day after the event

    post highlights, pictures and videos of the event on your website, blogs and social media networks.
    The day after the event

    send emails to people who registered for the event but did not show up. State that you are sorry you missed them at
    the event and briefly highlight your company's products and services.
    A week after the event

    send a second email and mailed letter to the event attendees reminding them about what your company offers.

Save your attendee list. Attendees that did not show interest may not have been ready to make deals, but they may be ready next time. So, when your next event rolls around, be sure to send them invitations.