It’s safe to assume we all know the benefits of attending events like trade shows, or hosting customer events at exciting venues. Events are a great way to put your brand in front of potential customers and network with industry professionals. But an event often is only as good as the follow-up plan that goes with it. Sounds simple, but post-event nurturing of leads can be the most challenging part of hosting a successful event.

Before we delve more deeply into this topic, let’s define a lead. According to HubSpot, it’s any person who indicates interest in a company’s product or service in some way, shape, or form. HubSpot defines lead generation as the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into people who show an interest in your company’s product or service. You can read more about lead generation in HubSpot’s guide.

After a lead is in your lead-generation funnel, the key is to nurture, nurture, nurture that lead. This is best done when a follow-up plan is created during the event-planning process. That way it’s completely aligned with your event strategy, and you can prioritize it as a post-event action item.

So, now that we understand the terminology, let’s take a look at three fantastic examples of post-event follow-up. Ideally, these examples will help you turn qualified marketing leads into leads that are ready to be shared with your sales team.

1. We love Splash’s idea of creating a “post-event” page—a great way to share evergreen content with audiences. Event attendees get to relive the experience, while folks who didn’t attend see what they missed! Use this page to showcase event recordings and other useful content, social-media posts, and videos. If you’re able to capture lead information on this page, through a form, you’ll see who’s engaging with your content and can reach out to them. The best thing about this strategy is that it serves both attendees and non-attendees alike, so you truly capitalize on your content and time.

    

2. Another helpful idea is creating a way for attendees to connect after an event. According to Social Tables, think about starting a Facebook or LinkedIn group for attendees, sending out a contact sheet, or even hosting a networking event where attendees can continue developing their relationships. Another idea for post-event connection is a virtual event, which can benefit attendees who don’t live in the same area. Hosting a virtual lunch ’n’ learn is a fun way to continue educating your audience. Utilize email gift cards as incentives—in essence, providing customers with a “free lunch.” One of our favorite things about hosting events is seeing suppliers and sales partners who already know each other. Connecting customers through your company is a great way to build trust and loyalty. We really enjoyed this read from Social Tables about post-event engagement, and we think you will, too.

    

3. Sending a post-event email probably is the most-common follow-up plan, so we challenge you to take your marketing to the next level when sending one. For example, segmenting your audience can do wonders for email engagement. When leads provide their contact information, ask them to check boxes to indicate information about which they’d like to learn. Say they choose collaboration. Then target them, after the event, with content geared toward that topic. If they continue engaging with those emails, then maybe it’s time to pass along their info to sales-team members, so they can follow up. If you want to learn more, check out HubSpot’s article about lead segmentation.

We hope you found these tips helpful, and now are ready to delve into lead-generation strategies throughout 2020, and in the future.

ScanSource and Cisco want to help you become a lead-generation pro, so contact our account marketing team to learn more.

We really enjoy hearing from you. If you have any questions—or want to tell us how you implemented ideas from this blog—just email us. And don’t forget to check out our website for more valuable marketing content.