Introduction
Trade shows and similar events represent a solid opportunity to expand and improve your business in multiple aspects, from gaining new partnerships to lead generation. For this reason, many companies spend countless hours preparing their trade show presentations, planning booth design, product presentations, and leads management. The last one is particularly important because all those people that get in contact with your team members at any type of marketing event are valuable assets to your business. In the following article, we are going to go through some of the most effective steps you should take to improve the lead management process so you can be fully prepared for the challenges that await you and your crew at the trade show.
Lead categorization
Depending on your business goals, type of product or services you develop, and the nature of the event you’re attending, there could be all sorts of visitors at your booth, each with a different set of interests, requirements, and potential. Your best chance of cutting down the number of missed opportunities is to categorize your leads according to their value. The best way to perform this action is to train your representatives and teach them how to categorize each individual properly.
This will allow you to send meaningful follow-ups later on, and avoid being leftover among countless other emails that your leads will certainly receive after the event has ended. You could push the envelope further by hiring professionals to create the most compelling follow-up email for each category of leads to enhance your chances for a successful conversion.
Develop strategic inquiries
The quality of information you gather at the show is more important than the quantity of data you have at your disposal when the show ends and you prepare follow-ups to keep in touch with the people who have approached you. To assemble the most useful set of information, create an inquiry that allows you to learn what concerns your leads.
It’s one thing to send out materials that push the content you think would be of value. If you follow-up with your visitors with the answers to their concerns and solutions to their problems, that’s an entirely different story. You can analyze each inquiry and create such content that will engage your leads to communicate with you long after the curtain falls on the trade show. Many agencies represent a good place to look for quality content developed according to your specifications. Outsourcing content creation is a good way to buy more space to focus on more pressing matters after the show.
Ensure attendance
No matter how well you organize and execute your presentation, the outcome depends on the number of people that approach your booth. To make sure you have a proper attendance rate, it’s a smart tactic to let everyone who matters know you are going to promote your business at the forthcoming event.
Social networks are a great way to make sure people are aware of your future presence in their vicinity. You could create an event on Facebook and send invitations to followers who are located nearby the trade show. Furthermore, the organizers usually have a list of announced attendants, so it’s not a bad idea to prepare call-outs via emails you can easily obtain from the event organizers.
In both cases, what matters is letting the people know your booth location, so they could find you without roaming around too long. Furthermore, announce promotions and potential giveaways to give them an extra reason to seek you out. Of course, don’t forget about past visitors or clients that live nearby as they also have significant value.
Lead management software
If your business is a one-person show, it’s best to find a lead management software that will help you automate the entire process. Most of the solutions available on the market provide seamless connectivity with CRM platforms, which means even less manual labor. Taking part in a trade show costs a lot of money as it is, even more if you need to hire extra people to capture leads, analyze gathered data, and prepare and send out follow-ups. With lead management software, you can easily avoid all those extra costs and improve the lead management process as well as the outcome.
Conclusion
Visitors lose interest in trade show presentation very fast, which is why you should move fast to ensure the fire you started in their hearts and minds keeps burning. The most effective manner of making sure you can reach out to your leads in a timely fashion is to perform efficient lead management. These pieces of advice should help you make the best of your appearance, however, it’s also important to be creative and set up a presentation that people will enjoy.
