Let’s face it. Not everyone likes mingling with strangers albeit important strangers at B2B Events. On top of that, B2B marketing events can be expensive, so much so that they take up 18 percent of your total marketing budget (Source).
That said, the cost incurred can easily translate into more revenue generation if only you leverage these events to their potential best. With so much time, money, and effort invested in, it would be downright disastrous if you do not.
That’s why today we have rounded up some amazing tricks to help you achieve the best results at B2B events.
1. Do your research and find out who is attending
We are going to talk about some amazing tricks that will help you get maximum results at B2B events.
However, there’s one thing that doesn’t need to be taught.
Research skills!
If you truly want to get the best results, then you have to brush up on your researching skills.
Sometimes, even some basic research on social media channels like Twitter and LinkedIn can help you garner plenty of details about your prospects. Get some information on the companies that are going. Would they qualify as productive leads? What problems they are facing currently and how can you solve them?
You need to find out the answers to all these aforementioned questions to make the most out of the event you plan to attend.
Moreover, you must let your followers on social media know that you are going to attend a B2B event by posting something along the lines: “I will be in Vegas next week attending CES, if you’re also attending, let me know, beer’s on me”
Folks connected with you on your social media channels will start responding to your post. This is a great way of knowing who else is attending the event and the people you are going to meet there.
With extensive research, you can save a lot of your time and catch hold of the right people and productive leads. This way, you’re well prepared and can make the best of your time there.
2. Say no to outdated lead capture methods at events
Why do businesses readily spend so much money on these events?
The reason is quite actually simple — nothing solidifies business relationships more than meeting with your prospects in person. You can easily get your point across without any barriers and build a more symbiotic, trustful relationship.
Don’t believe me?
I am sure this statistic will change your mind:
According to a survey, more than 76 percent of salespeople claimed that in-person events are their most successful top of the funnel engagement tactic.
However, if you are still following archaic lead capturing methods at these B2B events, then you will have a fight on your hands.
For instance, marketers are still collecting business cards in fish bowls and some are getting their forms filled out to capture lead information.
What year is it — 1992?
If you want to boost your B2B lead generation efforts at these business events, then you have to start leveraging more sophisticated not to say time-saving methods.
Stop asking your leads to fill out lengthy forms. Trust me no one likes to do that anymore. Instead, learn to communicate effectively during B2B business events and make use of more automated tools such as a business card scanning app. Such an app will negate all the hassle from your lead capturing method and automatically scan your prospects’ contact details and export them to your Salesforce CRM tool.
Now that you have collected all the necessary information with a single click, you can easily follow-up with your prospects after the event as well.
3. Offer Freebies
I don’t like free stuff — said no one ever.
Right?
Giving out free but relevant stuff is always a great idea to capture leads.
You don’t have to shell out a massive budget to give out free stuff. Small things like a nice, branded pen or a power bank will do. You can also offer discount coupons for your own product or service.
Attendees will go home with a satisfied smile and even spread the word around about your brand’s generosity.
And it doesn’t matter if you are not hosting your event. Even if you are placing a single booth at someone else’s event, when attendees get hold of the news that you are distributing free stuff, they will be sure to stop by at least once. Once they come to your booth, the rest is up to you how you engage them and capture their business cards.
Mind you, don’t stop to write down their contact details in the middle of a conversation — it will only harm your B2B lead generation efforts. As I relayed in the previous point, just install a credible business card scanning app to automate such tasks. For now, your main focus should be on engaging the leads and to move them further down the sales funnel.
4. Spread the word on social media
Social media is exceedingly powerful — are there any disagreements?
Yeah, that’s what I thought!
Even its staunchest detractors can’t deny the power it has, especially when it comes to lead generation for your B2B events.
Social media doesn’t have to be only about *I-am-vacationing-in-Bahamas* type of posts. You can, and you must use this channel to spread the word around for your event.
Again, the idea is the same — even if you have a booth at some event or hosting your own event — you need to promote it to the fullest.
That way, everyone in your vertical can learn about your event and your company. Don’t shy away from posting at various other portals such as Reddit, Medium, and so forth. These platforms have a massive outreach and given that you present your pitch in an engaging manner (with a mention of your free giveaway), you can expect a huge turnout.
5. Develop a reliable follow-up strategy
You have got some productive leads at the B2B event you recently attended. Well, good for you!
And if you heeded our advice of installing a credible business card scanning app to quickly capture the leads, then we are sure you are now armed with a list of your prospects’ contact details.
But these contacts won’t bear desired results unless you re-engage the acquired leads and follow-up with them after the event. Hope you know that your prospects probably came across several other pitches like yours — so you have to fight many other fish in the pond.
You can do this by making your follow-up email engaging and informative. Try to incorporate something that is valuable and useful to your leads, offer them a solution to their problem, and so forth.
While you are at it, you can also offer a limited discount coupon, or any other incentive to give them an additional nudge.
Concluding Words
Armed with these great event marketing strategies and tricks along with some great automated sales tools, there is no way you won’t find success at such B2B marketing events. While these tricks are veritably useful, you still need to do prior research about your target audience and the events you are planning to visit. For instance, if you are planning to give away free stuff, you should know who your target audience is and what sort of stuff they would like.
So, implement what you learned today but back it up with substantial research. The return on investment (ROI) will be well worth all the efforts and money spent.