Unsurprisingly, lead generation from B2B marketing events remained a top priority and a major source of revenue for businesses in 2019. With more and more martec tools out there now to help companies get higher conversions from events, B2B events will continue to gather steam in 2020.
B2B events are an ideal ground for lead generation where businesses can meet prospective clients, nurture warm leads and improve loyalty with existing clients. Events are an excellent source of data and provide ample opportunity to collect relevant information about prospects and customers.
The year 2020 will bring new marketing challenges, and also new opportunities. For businesses that are prepared to take on competition, it’s important to stay ahead of the game.
If you’re in the B2B marketplace, it isn’t uncommon for leads to move slowly through the funnel. You need persistence, but more importantly, you need the right technology to nurture your leads.
How do you do that? We’ll be looking at 7 key tactics to generate more leads in 2020. Read on!
- Profile Your Prospects
If you’re going to the event as an attendee, you should ideally start prospecting well ahead of the day of the event. Once you’re at the event venue, you should know who you’re going to want to meet. You can browse through the attendees’ list if it’s available, or just follow up with the prospects you’ve already set up meetings with and find a spot to meet by setting up time on the calendar. If you’re hosting or sponsoring, make sure you’ve informed your prospects about your booth.
Ultimately, narrow down your list to qualified prospects and focus on them. Meeting and greeting everybody will not maximize your leads; focus on the prospects that are most qualified and suitable.
- You Don’t Need to Impress Everyone – Focus On What and Who Is Important
As pointed out above, focus is key. Thousands of people attend events and you’re not going after everyone. It’s impossible to meet everybody. Strike conversations with the right people, ask the right questions, get the right info, and have your follow-up plan in place. Don’t sell, but build rapport. Start with general discussions and slowly start building up your pitch without being salesy.
Of course, everyone is there to do business, but it doesn’t have to be all about selling. Remember, you are not selling your brand; you are building it.
- Choose the Right Event
Organic channels alone won’t get you the far reaching exposure that paid forms of adverts can bring especially in a short span of time. Events are seasonal affairs and paid ads go a long way in bolstering your promotional campaigns. You can use social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, to generate paid social leads running targeted ads. The simplest way to gather leads is through the one-click forms, and this paid advertisement goes beyond organic posts. Instagram and Twitter let businesses purchase in-stream ads which, along with regular posts, point directly to a signup page.
It’s always best to spread your paid ads budget across streams that best serve the purpose. Do your research and invest accordingly.
- Establish Relations with Key Influencers
One powerful and extremely useful brand promotion strategy is establishing connections with known faces / key influencers in the industry. Influencers can help you to spread the word and promote your business, gathering valuable leads for your business ahead of the event for you to pursue.
- Revamp your Email List
Solidify your email marketing strategy and revamp the existing system if that’s what it takes to focus on the event marketing. You can send automated, targeted emails to your leads and offer unique promotional discounts ahead of the event to incentive your prospects. It is very important to keep your email list clean and updated to get high conversions.
- Try Promotional Billboards
Offline marketing can augment your digital efforts in more than one way. When you’re promoting your business for an upcoming event, you can put up your company’s billboard for promotion. It is a sound technique for B2B businesses and helps you to gain attention.
- Focus on Event-ROI
A carefully constructed event strategy will help you to secure the maximum ROI for your business. The best way to get the most from the event is to, of course, follow up with all the leads you’ve gathered right after the event.
To do that, you need to make sure you are capturing your event leads instantly and accurately. You can use the ScanBizCards business card reader app for capturing event leads. If you’re hosting the event, the app doubles as an event badge scanner and can help you capture contacts from conference badges, and even append missing contact info such as email, phone company address and LinkedIn URL wherever it’s available.
Conclusion
The tips we’ve listed here will help you to generate more qualified leads from your events. Always keep measuring your performance so you can focus on what works best. Events teach you a lot. Keep learning and improving!