Marketing technology is changing the way businesses interact with their prospects, clients, and amongst team members within the organization. Take Hubspot, Salesforce, Marketo, Slack—there are many productivity tools and software apps to help you do more in less time. And so it is essential to always stay updated on the latest innovations so you can apply new ways to bolster your overall productivity.
The fact about trade shows and event marketing technology
When you’re at a trade show, there’s a lot of things happening all at once, meeting people, showing demos, managing the team and so much more. Often, your sales team can get overwhelmed and lose sight of the main goal—capturing leads!
Participating in trade shows—whether you are exhibiting or attending for networking and marketing—requires thorough planning and management. Your event marketing team is at the center of it all. So it’s important to keep your event marketing team managing your brand in the field updated, and to encourage them to adapt to the latest developments in the event marketing space.
They might be reluctant or uninterested in using new apps or gadgets, but it is crucial for you as a business to provide them with the right tools and training so you can maximize your trade show investment.
In the next sections, we will discuss a few simple things that can encourage your sales representatives to benefit from technology. The more efficient your reps are, the more bang for the buck you’ll get from your trade show investment.
Introduce a user-friendly CRM so you can capture critical data
A sound customer relationship management tool goes a long way in helping your team stay organized. You should incorporate a user-friendly CRM system that would help your sales team to quickly get used to the process of event lead capture, and provide them with ample opportunities to generate valuable leads that can be accessible for follow-up directly from the CRM. Team up your IT team with your sales reps to train your sales team. Have the system admins provide in-depth knowledge about using the CRM system to their advantage. You will soon witness how fast your leads are being captured, contacted, and how it’s bringing valuable growth for your business.
Use a peer system for faster and better learning
New inductees on your event sales or marketing team may feel intimidated by new tools or latest technologies. Creating a buddy system will help in creating a better learning curve among colleagues. Team members will be able to ask questions without any inhibitions. This will lead to the sharing of valuable information, spread of digital technology, and better use of resources. You can also pair an experienced rep with new staff and help them to adapt to new gadgets.
Give your event marketing team the right event lead capture tools
It is essential for your sales team to make use of the latest innovations in event lead capture technologies such as business card or event badges scanners during trade shows and events. Coupled with the right lead management and marketing automation solution, such a CRM or email automation software, a good lead capture software can help you to register your attendees, capture important contact information fast and accurately, and speed up follow-ups.
There are business card scanner apps available in the market, like the ScanBizCards business card scanner, which can help you to get higher productivity from your event marketing team. Once your sales team is comfortable with such tools, it will help them to capture leads faster and more accurately, and ultimately fuel your sales funnel.
Use videos for training your team
No market stack is complete without video tools. Visuals are more engaging than manual transcripts. Try to include video sessions as part of your event marketing training. This would help your team to understand event marketing technology in a better way.
Get into action
Empower your event marketing teams by giving them tools that help them to focus on the core objective of attending, which is to capture leads, and train them to use these technologies to your business’ advantage. Ultimately, it would save you valuable time and money, and help your team to create more potential clients for your business.