Has the coronavirus pandemic forced you to change from an in-person event to a virtual one or cut a big event down to a smaller hybrid meeting? Follow these guidelines to generate leads, no matter your event’s size or format:
1. Create content to soothe their current pain points
What was the goal of your in-person event? Was it identifying sales leads, meetings booked, a perception change, or something else? Decide if the goal is the same now that your event venue has shifted to online or hybrid, find the pain points of your potential customers, and identify the speakers or content that solves the problems they have today, not the ones they had pre-pandemic.
2. Take advantage of your opt-ins
Scaled down means you know exactly when people are attending and which presentations they viewed. Build on that momentum. Take time to review your pipeline regularly. Make it a strategic activity for you and your staff to understand where your sales are coming from and who you should go after, based on their choices.
3. Serve snackable content
Shorter is always better. Bonus: quick content makes the creation process easier. Everyone in your company has a few minutes of unique expertise or insight that your prospects can learn from.
4. Make everyone feel like an insider
Serving up a white paper or infographic? Do you really have to repeatedly ask the same person for contact info to allow access? Instead, track what sessions your potential leads attended and their downloads, and then offer the next information in your customer journey or serve up content that will surprise them. Welcome leads as insiders rather than putting up barriers to your resources.
5. Don’t forget your sponsors
Sponsors are also deeply invested in finding and nurturing leads. This is a perfect opportunity to anticipate your sponsors’ needs and use your customer service skills to cement the relationships. Ask what they can offer in a virtual forum or how they can adapt to a smaller, more personalized event in order to form deeper connections with your leads.
Downsized event? That just means you need to upsize your ability to personally connect with your leads and potential future customers.
This is the fifth in a multi-part blog series on event planning in the months and years after the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Check out the other blogs in the series:
Part 1: hosting in-person events
Part 2: virtual events
Part 3: snackable content
Part 4: hybrid events
Part 5: this blog
Part 6:choosing between in-person and online events
Part 7: micro events
