Generating leads at events is a combination of sales and marketing strategies combined with technology.
Corporate events are a strategy widely used by marketing experts to generate awareness. In other words, to generate brand knowledge and attract interested parties.
There are a number of reasons to hold an online event, the Barbados Email List most common being the launch of a product, feature or service.
It is a top-of-funnel strategy that can be the beginning of a long-lasting business relationship. Holding an online event is an alternative in times of social isolation and the expansion of technology, with increasingly realistic resources.
Summary:
Planning: the path to generating leads
How to promote an event online
4 strategies to generate leads at events
Post-event: don't abandon your lead
Let's get to know the strategies?
Planning: the path to generating leads
As with any project, a perfect event is the result of very well-done planning. And anyone who thinks that following controls such as checklists and schedules is a task restricted to the pre-production stage is mistaken.
Quite the opposite: planning should permeate all stages of the event, including the post-event period. After all, after capturing a lead, you must nurture them with information in order to cultivate this relationship.
The first step to a successful event is to define your goals. In this specific case, it is more than clear that the focus is on generating leads. So, define which indicators will be used to measure the success of the project.
In addition to the number of leads, you can also measure the engagement rate of participants and obtain results from satisfaction surveys. Set goals that are achievable, but also involve a certain challenge and audacity.
Define the event persona
A very important stage of planning is to clearly define who the persona of the event is. This persona should be a reflection of your ideal buyer, the person you need to charm at the end of the day.
It is essential that the persona of the event connects with the persona of the brand, product or service you intend to sell. Remember the challenge of converting participants into buyers, so it is important to have a well-defined target audience.
It is at the briefing time that questions such as:
What is the profile of the ideal event participant? Consider interests, social status, occupation, age range, consumption habits and interaction with technology and social networks.
How does my product or service solve a problem for this persona?
What is the best way to communicate with this persona?
A well-defined definition at this stage of planning avoids rework or future errors. If you feel it is necessary, you can define more than one persona for the event, based on small changes between one and the other. The idea here is not to go shooting in all directions, but rather to broaden the range of potential buyers.
At this stage, define demographic data such as age range, position, industry and location, as this information will help you design your paid media strategy.
Now that you know who you’re talking to, it’s time to make decisions that directly impact audience engagement, starting with the day, time and format of the event.
During social isolation, solutions for managing events, meetings and live broadcasts have grown a lot, with more and more embedded technology. The fact is that many people have developed a taste for participating in online events, while others can't wait to return to in-person meetings.
The best option, depending on your persona's preferences, is to promote a hybrid event. In this event, there are online and in-person attractions, where the audience chooses how they want to participate.
The format will be directly linked to the type of event. You can do a simple webinar, with one or two speakers. Or a convention with an in-person group. Or even a traveling roadshow, in the multihub style.
The size of an event depends largely on the amount to be invested and also . To control all event expenses, the tip is to have a budget spreadsheet .
With it, you will not only be able to get an idea of expenses and income, but also calculate the famous Return on Investment (ROI).
How to promote an event online
With all this information defined, we can move on to the event's marketing plan. Since this is an online production, all communication strategies will be digital.
There are some basic digital marketing initiatives that are essential to promote the event and attract registrants. The number of participants is directly linked to these contact fronts, so it is important to know and invest in each of them.
Event website
The hotsite or landing page is the main point of contact with the audience. The site must provide information such as schedule, date, time, as well as all the conditions for participation.
This is also where people will register. This is a very strategic step. Think carefully about what information you need to collect from the participant.
Name and email are mandatory, but how about also asking for job title, company and phone number? That way you can start building your lead base by making this first qualification.
No one likes to fill out long forms like this right away, so be careful not to create friction with the interested person so that they give up on signing up.
The website can be just the beginning of a more complete and interactive experience. The event can become a true content hub for the registered audience. We will talk about this later, as this is one of the secrets of how to generate leads at events.
Email
Once you have the email address of those who signed up, use this communication channel before, during and after the event. Email communication is a contact tool that is worth investing in, as it is low cost and has a high return.
Start by sending the subscription confirmation email and from there, plan a sequence of messages to be triggered automatically.
Social media
Some social networks have specific resources for promoting events, such as Facebook.
On LinkedIn, for example, company pages have an application for creating an online event. The tool allows you to invite your network of contacts and add the profiles of speakers, which increases the reach of the event within the social network.
A good practice is to tag companies, speakers, and sponsors in your posts when possible. Create a posting schedule and, if it makes sense, define a hashtag dedicated to the event.
Paid Media
The idea of turning attendees into buyers should be seen as a mission for those who produce this type of event. Therefore, it is important to have a strategy that increases the reach of your message.
And advertising on social media and search engines is a way to expand the horizons of your invitation. Advertise the event based on your target persona, which we discussed at the beginning of this article.
4 strategies to generate leads at events
Generating leads at events will require investment in content and technology, with the goal of converting sales. Here we have separated 4 good practices that can favor the engagement and interest of your leads.
Pre-event warm-up
The event doesn't start on the day and time you announced. It starts much earlier! Warming up the audience is a strategy not only to increase interest, but also to qualify leads.
Connecting with the audience even before showtime helps you better understand their expectations and engagement with the event.
This can be done by offering preview content, promoting interactive dynamics, or even sending surveys and polls. To increase attractiveness, you can invest in gamified activities.
Use user responses and feedback to classify them into different levels of conversion probability. The idea is to use this information as a thermometer for the event.
Content Hub
The journey of an online event is, of course, digital. But even if you are producing a hybrid event, much of the communication will undoubtedly be virtual.
It all starts on the website, where you should find basic information about the event, such as date, time, speakers and how to register.
But you can go far beyond having a registration landing page. Having an online environment with content about the event is a way to provide a more immersive experience for participants.