Lead Liaison Press Release
Lead Liaison

Event Lead Capture Provider Lead Liaison Unveils New Resources for Trade Show Event Planning

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Lead LiaisonDallas, Texas – Lead Liaison, the powerhouse behind the event lead capture solution, GoExhibit!™, is set apart from competitors in the industry due to their extraordinary level of customer support. In true form, they released two helpful resources this week which are geared to help trade show coordinators prepare for high-steaks events.

Their Trade Show Preparation Checklist takes the stress out of preparing for trade shows by keeping track of responsibilities in a simplified checklist, along with tips on how and why each item should be completed. It’s extensivity makes the checklist an excellent tool for beginners as well as seasoned trade show planners. The resource also includes a Sample Packing List, as well as a Sample Team Itinerary.

“I use our Trade Show Preparation Checklist for every event we attend,” says Jen Worsham, Director of Marketing at Lead Liaison. “It was something I’ve formulated over the years, and it’s my number one planning resource. I am excited to share it with others in the industry.”

In addition to the checklist, Lead Liaison has just published a collection of Questions to Ask When Implementing Independent Lead Capture Software. A hesitation often encountered by trade show exhibitors, when considering the implementation of an independent lead capture solution, is how complicated it might be to integrate the solution with the show-appointed lead retrieval. 

It is a process that sounds more complicated than it is, so Lead Liaison *created* this resource, which can act as a phone script when speaking with show organizers and lead retrieval providers, to *clear the fog*. The phone script was compiled during research performed by the Lead Liaison event marketing team, speaking to dozens of show organizers and lead retrieval providers. Not only does it provide a list of questions, but also the background as to why the questions are necessary. 

To access the Trade Show Preparation Checklist, click here. To access the Questions to Ask When Implementing Independent Lead Capture Software, click here. These, and many more trade show-related resources can be found in Lead Liaison’s Resource Library. 

About Lead Liaison
Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that help businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and sales automation to boost sales effectiveness. Additionally, Lead Liaison is the global leader in event lead management, enabling companies to capture and manage leads from trade shows and events. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible architecture, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237). To access our Press Kit, visit www.leadliaison.com/press-kit.

How to Integrate Independent Lead Capture Solution
Lead Liaison

Questions to Ask Trade Show Organizers When Using An Independent Lead Capture Solution

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Trade show exhibitors often hesitate when integrating an independent lead capture solution with show-appointed lead retrieval. Will it be simple or complicated? How do I find out if I can connect my system? Am I asking the right questions?

We’re breaking down that barrier with this phone script that exhibitors can use when coordinating with the show organizer.  By connecting with the show’s lead retrieval provider, you will get the contact information that the show collects upon registration (name, email, company, job title).  Regardless of the outcome of the below conversation, you will still be able to (and are encouraged to) include other qualifying questions in your lead capture form.

Who is the lead retrieval provider?

First, ask the show’s management who is providing lead retrieval. It’s very straightforward, but be prepared for event organizers to drag this out. Some event organizers won’t lock this down until a few weeks before the event.  

You’ll also want to make sure you are asking the right person. Don’t ask an event sales rep, who might not have access to this information until closer to the event. Ask whoever you are speaking with to point you in the direction of the person managing lead retrieval; that will be the person you should ask.  

If they don’t understand what they mean by the person managing lead retrieval, ask them who is providing the barcodes for their name badges. This rarely fails to get you to the right person.

Who should I contact at the lead retrieval provider?

It’s good to know the name of the company, but it’s even better to have a direct contact. Asking this question will eliminate any bouncing around that might happen if you call the lead retrieval provider cold. 

Pivot: What if the show isn’t providing lead retrieval at all?

In that case, you’ll still be able to capture leads with a business card transcription method, manual entry, or a kiosk mode – where the booth visitor will just type their information in. 

If using GoExhibit!™’s business card transcription method for one-by-one scans or bulk scanning using the “Rapid Scan” feature, you’ll benefit from the industry’s fastest and most accurate turnaround times. The faster you get the leads in the system, the sooner you can follow-up. And it’s important to remember that 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds to an event lead first (source). 

Questions to Ask Lead Retrieval Provider When Using an Independent Lead Capture Solution

What is the lead retrieval method?

Once you have the correct person on the phone at the lead retrieval provider, the first thing you’ll want to ask them about is the lead retrieval method. Are they providing badge scanners to be used with event badges? Or, are they asking exhibitors to download an app on their mobile device? Knowing this will help you determine how you’ll want to set up your lead capture software for this event. 

What is the cost to use the show-appointed method? (overall and per user)

If you have already committed to using an independent lead capture solution, this will be moot. However, it’s always good to keep a pulse on these prices to ensure that you are making the right decision for your company. 

Using an independent lead capture provider is typically less expensive in the long run, especially if you plan on having multiple booth representatives. Each one will need a method of scanning, and that can add up quick. If you’re looking to compare, you’d want to:

  • Consider the overall cost, in addition to the cost per user, of using the show-appointed lead retrieval provider. 
  • Consider how many users (booth representatives) you’ll have.
  • Consider the resources you’d need to use on the backend to process leads. For example, if the show lead retrieval provider can’t provide a list of leads captured until after the event has concluded, you’ll miss a crucial window of time that you could have been following up. Your competitors will likely follow up sooner, thus seizing the opportunity faster. How much will these missed opportunities cost your business?
  • Consider the time you’d spend pulling together event-specific ROI data; something independent lead capture solutions often calculate automatically.

You can use this Trade Show ROI Calculator to get a better idea of how independent lead capture will save your company money. 

Additional Good-to-Know Prompts

If you have already chosen an independent lead capture provider, you should be able to answer “Yes!” to the following questions. Unfortunately, many show-appointed solutions cannot do these things. Ask them and see the difference between a holistic independent lead capture provider and a show-appointed lead retrieval provider. 

  • Does your solution enrich records?
  • Does your solution integrate with my CRM? 
  • Does your solution integrate with my marketing automation platform?

Do you offer an API or Developer’s Kit?

You will need to connect your independent lead capture solution with the show’s lead retrieval. You will do that by utilizing their API or Developer’s Kit. An API and a Developer’s Kit are essentially the same thing in this circumstance. Think of an API or Developer’s Kit as the link between your lead capture solution and their data. It’s how the two communicate. Your lead capture solution provider will need this information to ensure a successful transfer of lead information.

What is the cost of the API/Developer’s Kit?

This is the only additional cost your company will incur when using an independent lead capture solution, so it is important to ask this up front. 

If no API/Developer’s Kit, ask if they have a post-show merge option.

Some events do not offer an API or Developer’s Kit. In those instances, they will hopefully support post-show merge (sometimes referred to as post-show reconciliation). To use this method, your booth representatives would scan badges as normal throughout the event, but those leads will not be instantly synced. After the event has completed, your team (or your lead capture provider) will submit all bar scans to the show’s lead retrieval provider. They will match the scans with their system and return an .xlsx or .csv file with all the available lead data, which you can then import into your independent lead capture solution/CRM/marketing automation platform. At that point, any post-show workflows will be triggered.  

Additional Post-Show Merge Questions

How long will it be before we can access our leads?

If using post-show merge, this is an important question because it will determine how you structure your post-show follow-up. It can be anywhere from a few hours to a few days. 

How are those leads accessed (through a portal, post-show reconciliation, etc.)?

If a show does not offer a Developer’s Kit, you’ll have to access the leads post-show. They may have their own portal (either in-house or through 3rd party lead retrieval hired for the show). If they offer a portal, you will be able to log in and view leads instantly. However, post-show merge without a portal often can take 3-5 days before you’ll have access to your leads. 

Conclusion

The benefits of using an independent lead capture solution far outweigh using the show-appointed lead retrieval provider, even considering the conversation required above. Consistency across all of your events, lower overall cost per event, and the ability to communicate to leads with highly personalized content tip the scale. 

Given the amount of money that your company invests into trade shows and events, it only makes sense to give your sales team as much high-quality information as possible. Features like audio notes, voice-to-text transcription, conditional questions, real-time content sharing, and more make independent lead capture, like GoExhibit!™, the best choice for B2B companies.

Lead Liaison

How to Prepare for a Successful Trade Show

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When preparing to exhibit at a trade show, it’s critical that you stay organized. The success of your trade show hinges on your team’s ability to execute each part of the process properly, and on schedule. No pressure, right?!

Take the stress out of preparing for your next trade show by keeping track of responsibilities in a simplified checklist. If you’re looking for a place to get started, you’re in the right place. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of tasks to help you prepare for a successful trade show.

To download the checklist, which you can edit and personalize to your business needs, click here. This is a resource you’ll turn to time and time again. In addition to the checklist, we’ve also included a Sample Packing List (tab 2), as well as a Sample Itinerary (tab 3). These additional resources are best stored together, in our experience.

Below, we’ve outlined the tasks in a bullet-point list, so you can get a feel for what’s included in the downloadable checklist.

  • Research show information & request application materials for exhibitors – Be sure to note how much your desired booth space might cost, along with any other required fees such as carpet or power.
  • Review Event Manual to understand all event-specific details – Do this early so you can plan accordingly. Note any special events that your team will want to attend, and add that to your itinerary.
  • Research booth display vendors and artwork deadline(s) – If you plan on creating a new booth display, start looking into vendors to understand cost and deadline(s) for artwork.
  • Outline your budget – Outline the expected budget for this show. Include the cost of the booth space, booth display, booth attractions, lighting, rigging, electrical, Wi-Fi, carpet, T&E, lodging, and lead retrieval.
  • Evaluate promotional opportunities (like mailers sent from show organizer, for example) – Most trade show attendees create an agenda for who they’d like to visit. Make sure you’re on their list! Interacting with attendees ahead of the event is key, so educate yourself on the opportunities that the show organizer will provide for exhibitors. Mailers sent from the show organizer are a great example of interacting with registered attendees in a way that stands out from the rest of the email blasts. Find out what your options are, and the due dates for submission.
  • *Evaluate lead capture options – Most trade shows partner with a lead retrieval provider for exhibitor lead capture. Badge scanning is antiquated and cannot fully integrate with the technology you already have in place. Consider an event lead management solution, like GoExhibit!™, which integrates seamlessly with their in-house marketing automation, sales automation, and CRM solutions OR the 3rd party CRM software, marketing automation software, or other technology you already have in place.
  • *Request Developer’s Kit (or API) from Lead Retrieval Provider – This step will only be necessary if you plan to use an independent lead capture solution. The benefits of using an independent lead capture solution are extensive, but one is that it provides a consistent experience for your booth representatives across all of your events. You’ll simply need to facilitate a connection between your lead capture solution and the show-appointed lead retrieval provider per event.
  • Host a Team Meeting, #1 – Use this time to announce company attendance and discuss details such as who will attend, what your goals are for lead capture, and so on.
  • Register booth personnel – After your team decides on who will be in attendance, make sure to register them with the event organizers.
  • Submit Directory Listing -The show organizer should provide a deadline for when you’ll need to submit your information for the Directory. Don’t miss this key step, so registered attendees know that you’ll be there.
  • Outline your promotion strategy – How will you advertise your attendance and entice visitors to stop in? Try an omnichannel approach, which can include direct mail, email, social media, and more!
  • Plan booth design – Where will you set out business cards? How will traffic flow through your booth? Where will you display your product or solution?
  • Plan booth attractions – Everyone loves a good booth attraction. We recommend announcing your booth attraction in your promotional material to increase the hype around your booth.
  • *Outline your post-show workflow – Map out how you plan on communicating with Prospects post-show. We recommend an omnichannel approach. Sending a text message immediately upon lead capture can be very impactful, and will keep your brand top-of-mind. Email follow-ups a few days after the event has concluded (so that you miss the Out-of-Office window) with a picture of your team at your booth will remind your Prospect of their conversation with your team. A handwritten letter that includes a business card (or even a $5 Starbucks gift card!) sent a week or two later will really drive home your message and further solidify the relationship you team started at the event. *Pro Tip: Personalize your follow-up by merging any combination of data collected from your lead capture form. Include links to educational content based on the product or solution that they were most interested in.
  • Finalize attire – Do this early in the process so that you have time to order anything you’ll need customized (matching collared shirts with company logo, for example). And don’t forget to advise on required pants/shoes, too. You’d rather be over-prepared than run the risk of having a newbie show up in jeans and flip flops.
  • Host a Team Meeting, #2 – In this meeting, review your promotional campaign, post-show workflow, booth design, booth attractions, attire, and more. Make sure everyone is on the same page before creating all of the material.
  • Notify show management if using the show organizer-appointed contractor – If your trade show requires that you use a show organizer-appointed contractor of things like installation, make the proper arrangements early to avoid last-minute fees.
  • Analyze all existing exhibitors – Most show organizers will provide a list of other exhibitors. Of your direct competitors, who will be in attendance at this event? Stalk their Twitter to find images of their previous booths and make sure yours is up to par. Are there any companies in attendance that you could partner with for booth attractions or takeaways?
  • Create and execute your social media strategy – What’s great about social media is that you can go ahead and schedule all of your posts leading up to the event. This is a great task to get out of the way early. Make sure to include relevant event hashtags!
  • Order booth giveaways (t-shirts, pens, etc.) – Make sure you order these in plenty of time, and provide a cushion in case they don’t turn out as planned. If you have access to the event attendee list, go a step further and poll attendees ahead of time to see what they might like to receive most. Then, they’ll really be looking forward to visiting your booth!
  • Secure travel arrangements & lodging – If your event involves travel, make sure that everyone on your team has appropriate travel arrangements and lodging. Make sure to account for setup and breakdown of your booth. Rumour has it that Tuesdays are the best day to purchase airfare. Also, most trade shows offer a discounted rate with a local hotel. Check for that first!
  • Order Carpet – Carpet is required for most indoor trade shows. If you don’t need to match the carpet to your booth theme, consider using the same color as the event organizers are using in the walkways to encourage traffic flow into your booth.
  • Order Electrical – If required. Tip: Find out how much power your booth lighting will need, and order that at a minimum.
  • Order Wi-Fi – If needed. Tip: Bring your own hotspot to avoid costly fees.
  • *Create your lead capture form – If using a customizable solution like GoExhibit!™,  you’ll want to create your lead capture form early and share with your team. Ensure that you are collecting everything you need from booth attendees. Create conditional questions based on interest, and include voice recording and voice-to-text functionality so that your sales team can record important data quickly and easily.
  • *Create the content for your post-show workflow – You already mapped out your post-show workflow. Now all you have to do is create the content and piece it together!
  • Prepare for technology needs (iPad, laptops, mobile devices for lead capture, etc.) – Make sure that each piece of required technology is on your Packing List, and don’t forget extra phone charges, charging blocks, extension cords, etc. (This checklist has a Sample Packing List included on tab 2!)
  • Plan exhibit setup/dismantle – Assign responsibility for showing up early to help with setup and assign team members to the breakdown process, as well. Make sure to give anyone setting up or breaking down enough cushion between travel to make it work without stress.
  • *Create an itinerary – Outline when your team should be where, so there’s no confusion. Include time frame for badge pickup, setup, exhibit hours, session hours, happy hours or client dinners, tear down hours, etc. If you are using an independent lead capture solution that supports documents, include your itinerary in the app so that your booth reps can easily access. (This checklist has a Sample Itinerary included on tab 3!)
  • Host a Team Meeting, #3 – In this meeting, review your packing list and itinerary. Send a follow-up email to each of your team members with the exact items they are responsible for bringing. Answer any last-minute questions.

Lead Liaison offers one of the most powerful and holistic event lead management solutions in the industry, GoExhibit!. Above, we’ve noted which line items GoExhibit! can support with an asterisk (*).

To see a demo of GoExhibit!, request one here!

PHOTO CREDIT: https://uk.edubirdie.com/
Lead Liaison

The Anatomy of a Great Event Lead Capture Form

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When exhibiting at a trade show or other marketing event, your lead capture form drives success. That’s not to say that having an enticing booth and properly staffing it doesn’t matter, too. But without an effective and efficient event lead capture form, you’ll inevitably fall behind.

That’s why we wanted to provide an outline of a great event lead capture form. If you include these key components, you’ll be sure to set your team up for success (and sales) post-show. When someone visits your booth, your team should be focusing on making a connection, not killing the moment with a long list of questions. A complicated lead capture process can turn an interaction into an interrogation. So simplify your event lead capture form by narrowing it down to the suggestions below.

The Anatomy of an Event Lead Capture FormDownload this Graphic

Quickly and Easily Collect Basic Lead Info

Based on the show you are exhibiting with, you should be able to integrate your event lead management solution with the show lead retrieval. In our research, we have found that nearly 80% of events will integrate with an event lead management solution.

If integrated, a great event lead capture form will include a badge scanning element that makes it easy to collect basic contact information without needing to hold up the flow of the conversation. Most event lead management solutions support barcodes, QR codes, and even near field communication (NFC) badges.

If the show doesn’t offer integration, simply include a Business Card Transcription element instead. Most event lead management solutions support transcription of the information on a business card. Lead Liaison’s GoExhibit!™ features transcription service with a 99.9% accuracy and near-immediate turnaround time.

Qualify Your Leads

Meet with your team to narrow down exactly what constitutes a qualified lead, and include that question (or those questions) immediately after your badge scanning element. You want the form to flow the same way the booth representative’s conversation would go. They’ll collect basic information, and then they’ll consider if the lead is qualified.

Not everyone who gives up their information represents a real business opportunity. In your preparation, consider what the top three most important characteristics are to identify qualified leads. Assessing whether a lead is worth pursuing allows you to easily progress your sales process in any post-show automations.

Using a temperature scale is a simple and effective way to gauge interest. “Hot” signifies that they are almost ready to buy. “Warm” means they need to be nurtured a bit before they’ll make a purchase (make sure you have an excellent post-show nurture campaign). “Cold” leads are not even worth your sales team’s time yet. They can still be nurtured, but your sales team can probably skip any aggressive post-show outreach.

If you wanted to get a little more detailed, you could further qualify your lead by asking:

  • How much buying authority or influence does this person have?
  • How soon is this person likely to make a purchasing decision?

Investigate Key Interests in Your Event Lead Capture Form

If your company is showcasing multiple solutions at your booth, your Key Interests field should contain a checklist of those solutions. If your company is showcasing a single solution, your Key Interests field should contain a checklist of various problems your solution can solve.

If your event lead capture solution supports conditional fields, you could design your form so that additional questions populate based on the prior selections. That way, your booth representatives won’t have to waste time scrolling through questions that are not relevant, but they are prompted with the appropriate questions when applicable.

For example, if your company offers Solution A, Solution B, and Solution C, your event lead capture form could populate a different follow-up question based on if they are interested in A, B, or C.The follow-up question could inquire about what particular problem the prospect needs to address with your solution. Of course, every answer will be slightly different, but you should be able to put any answer into a few different buckets. And since you’re using conditional fields, why not have an “Other” option that triggers a text field so your booth rep can fill it in?

Help Your Team with a Voice Notes Component

Voice notes can be one of the most useful components of your lead capture form. They allow booth representatives to focus on conversations instead of note-taking. The goal, remember, is to have an organic conversation so that you start building that positive relationship from the start. If the prospect feels like the purpose of the conversation is to check boxes, they’ll be less inclined to open up.

The opportunities that a voice notes component provides are endless. Voice notes can be used to record an answer to the single most important question on your lead capture form. If the prospect is comfortable, you could record the entire conversation so you don’t miss a thing.

When a booth rep concludes a conversation with a prospect, voice notes allow them to easily step aside and quickly rattle off all pertinent information within a minute, rather than writing them in a notebook or keying them into their lead capture form.

Some event lead management solutions even offer voice-to-text transcription, which makes the process even more efficient. Now, your booth reps have no excuse for not taking great notes!

Simplifying your form to include these items will not only make lead capture easier for your staff at the event, but it will also make it easier for the marketing team to follow up appropriately based on the answers collected. Some event lead management solutions even offer ways to deeply personalize follow-up based on the answers collected at the event. A handwritten letter sent a week after the event can reference their specific need. A follow-up email can contain a link to a detailed overview of the solution they were most interested in.

The possibilities are truly endless when using Lead Liaison’s event lead management solution, GoExhibit!™. If you are interested in learning more about our solution, click here.

Lead Liaison

These Tech Tips Will Boost Event Lead Capture Success!

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Welcome to part two of our series on how you and your team can get the most out of your trade show experience, optimize lead capture and enjoy a high level of customer lifetime value from these leads.

In a previous article, we discussed some valuable ideas you can leverage to capture more leads at your next event. Today, we continue that conversation. Let’s discuss specifically how you can harness the power of technology to capture and collect as many leads as possible, engage with them right away (even while you are still at the event) and set the stage for converting them into eager prospects and buyers.

Rethinking Your Lead Capture Form

Put yourself in your booth visitor’s (your potential lead’s) shoes. Attending a big industry event can be an overwhelming experience for them! This sense of overwhelm felt by so many trade show attendees can cost your company lead capturing and nurturing opportunities.

So what can you do about this situation and turn it to your advantage?

What can you do that will make their experience more enjoyable and help you have a more meaningful engagement? What generates a massive impact that will help keep you and your brand in the forefront of their minds? Keep reading to find out…

When you are engaging in conversations with leads at your booth, don’t waste your time or theirs by asking the same dull, boring, unimaginative questions every other exhibitor is asking them. Aside from the basic information you can get from their badge scan, add targeted, relevant questions to your all-important lead capture form. Questions that will not only help you follow up more efficiently and effectively but will also help you keep your lead, the one you worked so hard to capture at the event, engaged.

Why is this important? The more engaged your lead feels during the buyer’s journey, the more of their very limited attention you will win and keep. The more likely they are to buy from you. So how can you keep them feeling engaged?

Remember what we talked about in our review of lead capture tips: every time you ask your leads and prospects to do something, they are asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?” You want to tell them what’s in it for them. So take the answers they give to the questions on your lead capture form to help you do this. Analyze the information they give you, and craft responses that show your leads how your product solves the problems they want solved.

Doesn’t it make sense that if, in response to their questions, you were equipped with answers they found to be highly relevant to their situation, that you could give powerful answers to the question, “What’s in it for me?”

Ask Better Questions. Enjoy Better Lead Capture Results!

On your lead capture form, ask questions that relate to the problem they have – the one that your product helps them solve. Include conditional questions that pop up based on their answers to the questions you previously asked.

Here’s an example of a conditional question: if you ask a lead what role they play in the company, and they say “I do the research for new technology”, you’ll select “Product Research” from your dropdown. With a little research, you’ll be able to create a list of potential job titles that you are likely to run into at the event. Selecting “Product Research” will then trigger a new, role-specific question: “What’s the first thing you look at when researching?”

Do you see how this approach can help you target your post-show marketing responses and deliver a win-win solution for both you and your leads?

As you are communicating with them post-engagement, use the answers they gave you to deliver content, in the format they prefer, that keeps them engaged and interested in what you have to say.

What’s the bottom line? You want to use your lead capture form not just to capture the lead’s contact information. You want to use it to help you make your post-show marketing process more personalized, persuasive and, ultimately, much more effective

Embrace Audio Notes

Like we discussed a moment ago, a trade show or industry event can be overwhelming. And given your primary goal of lead capture, you don’t want to ask your team to spend their vitally important booth time typing notes into their phone or writing them down on a notepad.

If your salespeople at the trade show are taking too much time scrambling to finalize their notes from previous conversations, they are likely losing valuable opportunities to engage with new booth visitors.

The perfect buyer may have just passed by your booth and been snatched up by a competitor!

Rather than burdening your team members with these highly inefficient methods which could easily cause valuable information to be lost, why not find a lead capture solution that gives them the option to record an audio note which can automatically be transcribed once the event is over?

Tailor Follow-Up to the Individual

Here’s the thing: your booth visitors have talked to a lot of exhibitors at the big event, including your competitors. Will they remember you after the show, or will you be promptly forgotten?

You must do something that will really help you stand out in the eyes of your new leads. Don’t merely employ a “default”, one-size-fits-all event follow-up strategy. Ask them how they prefer to be followed up with, and with what type of content. Use a lead capture form that contains a dropdown selection which allows you to select their preferred method of follow-up (phone call, email, or text).

Then, tailor your post-show communication to that specific prospect’s wishes. It will mean a lot to them. And it will leave a positive, lasting impression. The type of impression that just might help your company win another customer!

Obviously, if you are going to successfully carry these ideas out, it helps you to have the right marketing and sales automation platform. This is how our team at Lead Liaison can really assist you.

Our innovative, robust, cloud-based software combines fully-customizable lead capture forms, real-time lead tracking, lead qualification, lead distribution, database segmentation, lead nurturing, social media engagement and ROI reporting into a single platform.

We make some bold claims, but as our happy clients can attest, we can back them up. Want to find out more about how you might become the next Lead Liaison success story? Contact us today to arrange your complimentary demo of our event lead capture solution, GoExhibit!™.

Lead Liaison

After the Event: Post-Trade Show Questionnaire

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The actions you take after exhibiting at a trade show are equally as, if not more, important than what you did to prepare for it. Following up with prospects in a meaningful way is the top priority. The amount of business you close from the event is likely the most telling sign of a successful trade show. But, that’s not the only way you can evaluate your participation. Another means of evaluation, which is often overlooked, is asking your team what they think about the event, your booth, and your methods. After all, they were the ones in the midst of it. They have first-hand experience about what worked, and what didn’t.

While you aren’t expected to make every change suggested, it’s very helpful to collect input from the team that was onsite or “in the trenches” as they might say. It doesn’t hurt to ask. And you never know! You might be surprised to find some easy changes you could make at your next event to make it even more successful.

This Post-Show Questionnaire is free to download and makes it easy to collect valuable information from your event staff post-show. Its easy-to-read format is perfect for winding down on the plane ride home. We’ve also included the questions below, and why they are important. Add this resource to your trade show process now!

Download the Questionnaire

Bonus Hack: If you are using a marketing automation solution with a form builder and landing page builder, consider creating a simple form/landing page to include these questions. That way, all you have to do at the end of each event is send them the link to your survey page. They can take it online and their answers will be recorded for future use.

What was the most useful part of our trade show lead capture form? (i.e. Which questions were most helpful?)

While you probably made it very clear to your team which fields were most important to complete, they undoubtedly gravitated to the ones they felt were most important mid-show. (They are salespeople, after all!) Let them tell you why, while it is still fresh in their head.

What was the least useful part of our trade show lead capture form? (i.e. Which questions were least helpful?)

Make sure you understand which questions become more of a distraction than a helpful prompt. Sometimes our desire to collect ALL THE INFORMATION overpowers our better judgment to keep things simple. Or perhaps you included some custom content in your lead form, like a video demonstration, that not a single booth rep used. Learn more about what you need to eliminate next time around.

Did visitors like our booth? Did it help with engagement, or distract?

Here’s where you can collect great feedback about your booth attractions, displays, banners, demo stations, kiosks, and more. There may be one overly-opinionated booth rep that absolutely hated the demo station, while several other mild-mannered booth reps actually appreciated the ability to show off your solution in real time. Instead of asking this in a group setting, a 1:1 survey helps eliminate the fear of speaking up and will give you a more accurate representation of opinions. 

How do you feel about the location of our booth within the trade show exhibit hall?

Location is everything. Although your location probably depended more on your budget and the time you registered for the event, it’s still helpful to see what others think about the booth you chose. Did your team appreciate being closer to the bathrooms because of the additional foot traffic? Did they hate being towards the front due to the increase in uninterested attendees taking up space?

What would you add to our booth to better present ourselves to trade show attendees?

We’ll ask about specific booth attractions in the next question. For this one, your team should focus on what they recommend adding to your booth next time that adds value to their conversations. Perhaps a demonstration table would have been helpful, or a tall bistro table for better conversations.

Do you have any cool ideas for booth attractions next time?

As your team is winding down from an event, competing booths will be fresh on their minds. What did they see that they thought could be easily incorporated into your booth? The timing of this question is everything. Asking prior to the event might result in lukewarm input. Asking this immediately following the event will elicit feedback that is driven by recent experience. That’s invaluable.

Is there anything else that we should consider bringing to the show to make our team more successful (more power blocks, gum, pain reliever, duct tape, etc.)?

This question can help you build a Trade Show Survival Kit that your booth representatives will appreciate tremendously. It may also help you pair down the kit so that you are only providing things that you know your team will need/want. 

Do you have any feedback about our post-show follow-up, as of now?

This question could be considered premature, but it’s worth asking anyway. If you’ve thoroughly covered your post-show workflow with your team, they will undoubtedly have changes or feedback they want to provide now based on their actual conversations. For example, if you included a follow-up text* sent within minutes of submitting your lead capture form, your team might determine that the text should actually come an hour or two later instead of immediately upon submission. 

Which exhibitor had the best booth at the event and why?

This will help you set your goals even higher for next time. Plus, it will be interesting to see the variety of answers you collect since everyone will have their own unique opinion about it. 

While you were at the show, did you hear of any other shows that you think we should consider attending? Why do you think we should attend?

Event attendees are always buzzing about other events “you have to attend!” Your team may learn of a trade show or conference that wasn’t even on your radar. Or, their feedback may further endorse your current trade show schedule.

Conclusion

Asking your team to complete this questionnaire is only half the battle. Show them that you read their feedback and that you care about their opinions. After collecting everyone’s answers and reading through everything, consider having a team meeting to review common concerns or to clarify anything that seems unclear. Let your team know that their feedback has been heard and that it matters. If this isn’t a key part of your process, you can count on getting fewer and fewer responses as time goes on.

*If you are interested in learning more about an event lead management solution that supports all of the capabilities mentioned above (like the post-show text message), contact us for a demo!

Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison Sales Technology of the Year Award Finalist

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Lead Liaison has been nominated for the Sales Technology of the Year Award at this year’s Sales Innovation Expo held at the Excel London on March 27th and 28th, 2019.

Our Event Lead Management solution, GoExhibit!™ is the only fully integrated event solution on the market with end-to-end visibility of the customer journey. Here’s an example of how it works:

You meet someone at an event and scan their business card or barcode, or fill out an electronic form. Then, they instantly receive a personalised response via either email or SMS. When they engage, you’re able to see them on your website Let that sink in for a moment, real-time engagement tracking for your show leads.

You’ll be able to track how many website visitors you’ve had during and after an event, as well as how engaged they are. All reporting is live, so you can check up on how many leads each salesperson has collected as well as the quality of the conversations they’re having.

Big tech for big events, we support multi-language input as well as having native marketing automation and visitor tracking to enable all of this to work all within a single platform.

Come and see us on stand 2782!

Lead Liaison Press Release
Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison Makes Splash in Lead Capture Category at EXHIBITORLIVE 2019

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Dallas, TX – GoExhibit!™ made its trade show debut at EXHIBITORLIVE in Las Vegas this week. The event lead capture & management solution has been sweeping the industry since its release in late 2017. This was the first time the company showcased it live.

Conference attendees were highly attracted to the revolutionary solution for event lead capture. Lead Liaison’s booth buzzed with excitement as the staff demonstrated GoExhibit!™ by using it to collect their own lead data. GoExhibit!™ integrated with ITN International, the show’s lead retrieval provider, to support lead capture via NFC badge scan. Booth attendees received a text message follow up, often before they had even left the booth, and ensuing communication as post-show engagement continued. Real-time demonstrations emphasized the company’s belief in immediate, intentional, and personalized follow up. GoExhibit!™ was mentioned in several of the educational sessions and conference panels throughout the week, as well.

“The show reinforced the fact that we have an industry-leading solution with distinct competitive advantages that people are craving,” says Jen Worsham, Director of Marketing at Lead Liaison. She continues, “Hand-held badge scanners are antiquated, and alternative lead capture solutions don’t hold a flame to the fully-integrated, easy-to-use features of GoExhibit!™”

Lead Liaison surpassed its goals for the show. Much of their success can be credited to the use of their own solution at the event. In addition to using their mobile lead capture app, aptly named GoCapture!™ in the app stores, Lead Liaison had laptops on-hand tracking real-time event data. Representatives were able to demonstrate the Events Dashboard, a key feature of GoExhibit!™. The Events Dashboard displayed live data such as Total Prospects Captured, Average Engagement Score, Top Performing Sales Representatives, and more. Lead Liaison also showcased another crowd pleaser with their Run Your Own Event solution. This solution was on full display at EXHIBITORLIVE 2019, demonstrating how businesses can use it to run user conferences, vendor conferences, and road shows.

What sets GoExhibit!™ apart from the other lead capture exhibitors is the fact that it enables businesses to foster stronger relationships from capture to close. GoExhibit!™ integrates with a multitude of CRMs, including Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics, as well as marketing automation platforms such as Salesforce.com Pardot, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce.com Marketing Cloud, Adobe Marketo, and HubSpot. It supports all types of events; even those without badges. It’s compatible on all devices and Lead Liaison doesn’t charge per user, so companies can have as many lead capture devices onsite as they want.

Lead Liaison plans to attend several other shows in 2019. “This kind of environment is exciting because we can actually see the spark in people’s eyes,” says Worsham. “It solidifies our position in the market with a solution that stands out from the crowd. We were so excited to be a part of the show this year, and we enjoyed connecting with both current and prospective clients. This year’s theme was “Connect With Your Species” and that’s something I believe we did well. You’ll definitely be seeing more of us.”

To access an overview of GoExhibit!™ features, click here.

About Lead Liaison 
Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that help businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and sales automation to boost sales effectiveness. Additionally, Lead Liaison is the global leader in event lead management, enabling companies to capture and manage leads from trade shows and events. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible architecture, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237). To access our Press Kit, visit http://www.leadliaison.com/press-kit.

Lead Liaison Press Release
Lead Liaison

Lead Liaison Announces Next Iteration of Event Lead Management, GoExhibit!™

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Dallas, Texas – Lead Liaison first launched their event lead capture solution, GoCapture!™, in October of 2017. They have rapidly become the global leader in event lead management. Today, they announce the next iteration of their solution, GoExhibit!™, which includes advances in customization, event creation workflow, enterprise-level ROI reporting, registration, check-in, upcoming Windows support, and more.

The company, known worldwide for their marketing and sales automation solutions, has been hyper-focused on supporting live marketing events over the last year. They started by answering the need for a better, more efficient way to capture leads. Antiquated badge scanners and arbitrary lead collection apps weren’t giving enterprise businesses everything they needed.

Lead Liaison designed a single solution that manages pre-event communication and preparation, onsite event lead capture, and intelligent post-event follow-up. The updates announced this week further distance GoExhibit!™ from competing solutions.

The enhancements allow companies to customize the lead capture experience with brand colors, logos, other custom content such as explainer videos or maps. Furthermore, GoExhibit!™ now provides enterprise-level reporting. The Events Dashboard allows users to track their events and measure ROI. Example data points include average cost per lead (CPL), revenue generated, return on investment, post-event engagement activity, and more.

GoExhibit!™ isn’t just for exhibitors. The solution also supports companies running their own events with a customizable check-in and registration system. An integration with Avery, announced last month, allows companies to customize and print badges in real-time, or prior to an event.

The GoCapture!™ app is compatible with iOS and Android smartphones and tablets with Windows support right around the corner. GoExhibit!™ integrates with all major CRMs (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, etc.), marketing automation platforms (HubSpot, Eloqua, Salesforce.com Marketing Cloud, etc.), analytics solutions (Domo, Revelation™, etc), and lead retrieval providers (Cvent, Experient, etc.).

To commemorate the release, Lead Liaison collected a host of resources for businesses interested in implementing this show-stopping solution. The Event Lead Management Kit contains many educational resources, including a detailed presentation of the features GoExhibit!™ has to offer.

To learn more about Lead Liaison’s event lead management solution, GoExhibit!™, click here.

About Lead Liaison
Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).

Lead Liaison

21 Questions to Ask Your Event Lead Management Vendor Before Making a Purchase

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To download the PDF of this resource, click here. 

To access our Event Lead Management Kit, which includes this resource, click here. 

According to Forrester, marketing events such as trade shows and conferences occupy the largest share of B2B marketing budgets at 14%. Choosing the right event lead management solution for lead capture will be the most important decision you make. Before signing a contract, here are 21 important questions to ask your vendor.

1. Does your solution integrate with my CRM, marketing automation platform, and/or analytics platform?

What good is capturing lead information if you don’t accurately save the information and prepare it for follow up? Ensure that your event lead capture/management solution integrates with the technology stack you already have in place. If you don’t have the proper solutions in place, like a CRM or a marketing automation platform, ask your Event Lead Management (ELM) vendor if they offer solutions for that need, as well. Communicating with the registered list of attendees prior to the event, and with the qualified leads after the event, is essential to converting your marketing event efforts into closed business.

2. Does your solution allow for immediate follow-up?

Insidesales.com conducted a study that found 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first. The amount of time that goes by before you take action on your leads is important. Many event lead management solutions require additional, manual steps to follow up with a lead. Some, however, allow companies to instantly sync leads to your system of record so that you can communicate with the Prospect before they’ve even left the conference.

3. Does your solution allow me to respond to new leads via email, text, postcards, letters, and other types of communications?

Make sure you don’t limit the touch points you can send to new leads. According to MarketingProfs.com, 98% of all text messages are opened. Being able to instantly (or even introduce intentional delay) send a text message to new event leads could be vital to your strategy. You might also benefit from sending different types of touchpoints to nurture prospects through their journey.

4. How will you support me?

Some vendors in the ELM industry are headquartered in Europe, while some are in North America. Think about where your events will occur and make sure your vendor can support you. What if you have a problem on a Sunday while you’re setting up for your event on Monday? Will your vendor be there to support you? Are they truly a vendor or a partner?

5. Can I import and merge leads into your event object as if I captured them on the lead capture app?

You might attend some events where you’re collecting leads at your booth, and at the same time you get a CSV file with leads from a speaking session that occurs in parallel. Make sure your vendor can import your CSV file from the speaking session, and most importantly, merge the data with data you might have already collected at the event to avoid duplicates and keep your data clean.

6. Do you have an API for your event data?

Whether now or in the future, you might have a need to pull event data into your custom/third party software. If your vendor provides an API then you’ll be all set for your current/future needs.

7. How accurate are your transcriptions?

Why you should ask it: If the event lead management solution you are considering offers “business card transcription” as an option for lead capture, make sure you investigate a little further. You’ll want to double-check how accurate those transcriptions are.

8. How fast is the turnaround time for transcriptions?

The faster the transcription can happen, the sooner you can respond to your lead. Quick responses are vital. Your provider should be able to turn your transcriptions around quickly, within minutes, without sacrificing accuracy.

9. Do you offer true ROI metrics and allow me to see how much revenue we generated from an event?? Do you connect with the opportunities in my CRM?

Events occupy the largest share of B2B marketing budgets (14%), tracking accurate return on investment is critical. You’ll also need a lot of other key event data to be able to improve your process. Talk to your prospective ELM vendor about the data their solution can report back. Can you track cost per lead? Can you track which sales reps collected the most leads? Can you track post-event engagement? Can you track true ROI percentage, connect to my opportunities in my CRM, and show me revenue figures from my events?

10. Can I customize my lead capture forms? If so, how much? What about creating conditional questions?

Being able to customize your lead capture forms is important because the information a business wants to collect on a lead varies from company to company. You should look for an event lead management solution that allows you to customize the information you collect on the lead capture form.

To take it a step further, talk to your ELM vendor about customizing the look and feel of the form. A truly enterprise-ready solution will enable you to use your specific company colors, logo, explainer videos, etc.

11. Can I customize the invitations sent out to reps? Can I send an email and text message invitation?

Enterprises and large companies have large sales/marketing teams and get lots of email. If invitation emails are standardized, and not clear, you could risk inefficiencies by having your invitation emails deleted or marked as spam by recipients. Your vendor should help you custom your invitations. Also make sure you can send email, text, or both at once, so your invites are successfully received.

12. Do my reps have to log out and log back in to see changes?

Attending an event is stressful. The last thing reps need to deal with is logging out, tracking passwords, etc. to see changes/updates that might be pushed out to the mobile device. Make sure your vendor can push out updates in real-time without requiring people to log out and then back in again.

13. What if my team onsite at the event calls me at the office, explaining that they need to make a change to the event form? Can I make last-minute changes?

No matter how much you prepare for your event, there is a good chance you’ll need to make some last-minute adjustments as the team onsite adjusts to the environment and the audience. Look for an event lead management solution that supports instant updates. You want to be able to make changes to your event form in real time to best support your event staff.

14. Do you have offline mode?

Internet at trade shows and conferences can be spotty and expensive. You want to make sure that the solution you choose will support offline lead capture so you don’t lose a single opportunity.

15. Can I run my own events with the same platform?

If your company hosts its own marketing events, or even if you think it might be a possibility one day, ask your ELM vendor about running your own events. The solution you commit to should offer the option to run event check-in and registration. Bonus points if it supports the ability to print badges based on your registered attendee list.

16. Can you scan NFC badges?

Over time barcodes and QR codes on badges will be obsolete. The code consumes real estate on the badge. The modern way to create a badge is to embed a NFC chip into the badge (think Apple Pay) and hold a NFC-enabled device up to the badge to collect lead info. If your vendor doesn’t support NFC badge scanning then they’re not ready for the future and might not be ready to support you down the road.

17. What does your solution offer, on the back end, to enrich lead data and ensure that everything is up-to-date post event?

Let’s say that your team has a great conversation with an interested buyer. Your team collects their business card to follow up. But, wait! This person’s business cards was printed over a year ago and their phone number has since changed. Look for an ELM service that will enrich data. A superior solution will add key lead data such as gender, age, social presence, affinities/interests, social profile URLs, and much more.

18. Can you help me qualify my leads? Do you provide lead scoring and grading?

Lead qualification will help you differentiate look-alike leads and keep your sales team focused on important leads. Scoring helps measure how engaged a lead is, and grading measures how well they match your ideal buyer criteria.

19. Can you help me distribute my leads and report back to me on which reps are missing any response time requirements we put in place?

You might need to distribute leads based on various criteria, such as geography, names accounts, job titles, and more. You might also be interested in adding SLAs and report back to management for any reps that don’t follow up with your leads in time. Make sure your vendor can support your lead distribution and SLA needs, whether you have them now or are planning for them in the future.

20. If I have a list of registrants, can you help me market to them and/or load them into the app to search for them at my event?

Some providers have communication platforms that can help you reach out to a list of registrants prior to the show and build rich profiles at the same time. If you have registrants, you might also want to search for them on the lead capture app, select them, and pre-fill the form with their information. Make sure your vendor can help you make the most out of your registration lists.

21. Can you track the entire lifecycle of a lead, before and after an event?

Your engagement with a prospect may not start, and hopefully doesn’t stop, at your event. Look for an event lead management solution that can keep all engagement (inbound/outbound) in a timeline in addition to what info was collected when the lead was captured at an event. Examples of that activity are website visits, email link clicks or content downloads.

To set up an appointment to ask our team these questions, click here.