Sales professionals go to great lengths to attend B2B marketing events.
From shelling out a special budget for this purpose to logging in extra working hours, there is so much you have to prepare yourself for.
Naturally, after going through all the trouble, you want to achieve the best results at the B2B event you are going to attend.
For your company, best results mean capturing qualified leads at such events.
That said, capturing qualified leads is no cakewalk.
However, you don’t have to worry. To make sure that you don’t end up empty handed even after putting in so much effort, we have rounded up some proven methods for capturing qualified leads at events.
1. Identify Your Target Audience
The more qualified leads you acquire, the more revenue you are likely to generate.
This much is obvious.
But how would you know who is your audience? How will you find them? Are they even going to attend the same event as you?
Just imagine this scenario: you end up at a content marketing event but turned out it was more like a meet up between some content marketers and you could barely find any leads, let alone qualified leads.
Now what?
Well, you head back home feeling dejected.
This problem can easily be eliminated by a quick audience research and identifying your target audience.
Your target audience primarily consist of folks whose problems you can solve and who have the budget to avail your services.
Have a look at some other questions that will help you identify your target audience:
- What should be the size of the company you want to pitch your product to?
- Common age group of your prospects
- Where should your ideal customer be located?
- What should be the challenges faced by them?
- Can you solve their problems?
Once you have an answer to all these questions, you will be able to identify your target audience easily.
This will help you connect with the leads that are most likely to purchase from you.
2. Go Prepared With Important Apps in Tow
One of the reasons why so many sales professionals fail to translate their efforts into acquiring qualified lead is because they are still using archaic sales methods.
Most of them are still going to these events with lengthy lead capture forms. This often leads to indiscernible handwriting, incomplete forms, and so many other handicaps.
Ugh! To think that you are only left with a few pesky leads after putting in so much of your time and efforts.
Well, it’s 2019 and look around — every top salesperson has abandoned these unreliable methods.
All of them are using various automated sales productivity apps to alleviate all these problems.
In this particular case, we would suggest using a reliable business card scanning app.
With these card scanning apps, you don’t have to write down the contact details. They automatically scan and capture the details included in a business card, which can then be exported directly to your CRM apps.
If you are a Salesforce user, then it would be a great idea to give ScanBizCards app a try. You don’t have to worry about it not aligning with your goals since you can avail its free trial initially to test the waters.
3. Offer your leads a bonus item
Everyone likes free stuff. And your target audience is not any different.
So, why not offer your leads a little something extra?
For instance, you can offer them a sample product on a purchase or a special discount coupon valid for their first purchase.
This is likely to give your qualified leads a nudge in the right direction and tempt them to finally do a business deal with you, given that your product solves their problem too.
Don’t sweat just yet, you won’t lose your money by distributing discount coupons or samples at B2B events. Once it starts translating into sales, your bonus offer will be worth it.
And let’s be honest, it’s not just about the free bonus item. It also adds a personal touch to your sales pitch, which would be hard for your prospects to resist.
4. Engage your leads before the event
B2B events are exceedingly professional, no one can deny that.
But it doesn’t mean that you can’t spruce things up a little before the event in order to engage your leads.
If you engage your leads on social media channels a few days before the event, you can easily and capture them at the event venue.
You just have to put some efforts in engaging them.
So, don’t hold back and engage your target audience. Share your excitement on going to the event, ask people in your connections whether they would like to tag along with you.
This will help you connect with your leads even before the event. If you engage with them properly, you might even be able to incite their curiosity about your product beforehand, which will make it easier for you to capture leads during the event.
Not just this, run social media contests for your social media followers and reward the winners. On social media for that matter, the word gets around fast. Once you start engaging your followers, even their friends will come to know about you. Now, those who are going to the same event will make sure to come at your booth and check out your product.
5. Leverage user generated content
In the previous point we discussed how you must engage your leads before the event in order to capture them at the event.
Another great way of making your target audience familiar with your product and your event (or your event booth) is by leveraging user generated content.
You would probably think, “Why not create your own content?” Of course, you have to create your own content as well. However, user-generated content has the edge over your regular content.
This not only saves you additional hassle, but it also boosts your event’s visibility and promotes brand loyalty at the same time.
How does it work?
It’s actually quite simple. All you have to do is to run a giveaway. For instance, you can host a giveaway contest and offer two airplane tickets to the winner.
Now encourage your audience to share images of the giveaway contest on their social media pages.
Crocs, for instance, encouraged its customers to post their photos accompanied by the hashtag #comeasyouare. They also feature some selective images on their website and Facebook page.
However, there’s a catch.
People are willing to share their photos for crocs which is a hugely popular brand.
But why would they do it for you?
No offense, but you are not that well-known…yet.
You can do one thing though. You can incentivize this process by offering something in return like discount coupons, a gift card and so and so forth. However, make sure that whatever you offer is valuable to your target audience.
Conclusion
What are you waiting for? Go ahead and try out these event marketing tips and methods for capturing qualified leads at B2B events. Your event or if you are attending someone else’s event, your booth will get flooded with leads in no time.
Just don’t go unprepared and always keep a business card scanning app installed on your smartphone. Such an app can prove to be a pretty remarkable tool to quickly collect lead information without causing any unwanted interruptions.
So, which method would you use to capture qualified leads at B2B events? Let us know in the comment section below!