Congratulations on your decision to actively participate in a conference or expo! That means you’re either paying for a spot as a vendor or are giving a presentation of some kind.
Now what? Just show up and do a fantastic job, right? No! There is a lot of prep work to be done to get the most out of your experience. I recently grabbed the opportunity to give a master class to an exclusive membership group in a conference. It was a wonderful experience and I was thrilled not only to get business from it, but also to connect with so many perfect prospects. And you know what happens when you have a good time? You wanna do it again!
So before you jump into the conference/expo thing, let me give you some solid advice on how to get the most out of it with a Conference Marketing Strategy.
Pre-conference
- Create a new Lead Magnet just for this event. A lead magnet is a short “deliverable” that you can give away for free. A check list, a cheat sheet, some valuable and actionable tips, usually on one sheet of paper.
- Have a brief questionnaire ready to go. Ask a few pointed questions about their business that will help you determine if they are a viable prospect. If they fill out a questionnaire and submit to you within 72 hours of the conference, they will receive your Tip Sheet/Lead Magnet.
- Put out the word that you’ll be participating in this event, and invite those who have registered to stop by and check out your table, your talk, etc. There is a powerful reason you’re telling people about your participation, and that is to show them that you care about your target market by being actively involved.
- Message your email list weekly until the event. No, it’s not too often, as long as it’s BRIEF and VALUE-DRIVEN. For those who are not attending the event, they can email you to receive the questionnaire or download it from your email marketing account. Once they fill it out and send it back, you will send them your lead magnet.
- Take to your prospect’s favorite social media channel and post about your involvement twice a week until the event. Go to the website of the event and see what hashtags they are using. Search that hashtag in social media to be sure you use the same one.
- Mention in the emails and social media, that for those attending the event, they can fill out the questionnaire on the spot to be entered into a drawing for a prize ($50 Dunkin Donuts will do). For everyone submitting, they will receive your tip sheet instantly.
At the conference
- Have a bunch of questionnaires ready with clipboards and pens.
- Have a bunch of tip sheets and a bowl to collect their cards toward the prize.
Post Conference
- Read through the questionnaires and discard those that are simply not a good fit for you and you don’t wish to pursue. Put the rest in 2 piles – “hot” and “ok”. The hot pile entries appear to be perfect prospects with complete answers and who clearly are ready to buy. The ok pile is obvious. You can still follow up but it’s not urgent.
- For the hot pile, reach out to each to offer a free phone consult. Because you have their questionnaire answers, the conversation should be very focused and be done in 20 minutes. After that, reach out to those in the ok pile.
- Finally, make a list of what worked and what didn’t. Was this a valuable experience? Did you gain knowledge? Connections? Prospects? More speaking engagements? Customers? If it was worthwhile, sign up for next year’s event. If it wasn’t, learn why and aim to change what didn’t work.