Tag Archive for: Marketing Events

B2B event
Lead Liaison

10 Things Event Managers Should Do During A B2B Event

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They say that event planning is one of the most stressful jobs. B2B event planners, do you want to know a secret that might make your job slightly less stressful? Repeatable processes! 

We’re all about processes here. If you can outline the process for your various tasks, then you’ll greatly reduce the time and energy that you’ll have to put into those tasks because you won’t have to reorient yourself with the operation each time you start. 

We’ve created several process resources to help B2B event planners, like our Trade Show Preparation Checklist, Questions to Ask When Integrating Independent Lead Capture, or our Post-Show Questionnaire. Today, we will focus on the tasks that you might want to consider during your B2B event. Download the infographic here, or read below for more details about each item. 

10 Things Event Managers Should Do During A B2B Event

B2B At-Event Checklist

B2B events are fast-paced, but there is a lot of value that your company is going to want to squeeze out of it. Every item in the checklist below may not apply to your company, but we recommend that you take this list and modify it as needed. Then, use this as a part of your “trade show kit” going forward. Your team will be impressed with how well you manage the event, from start to finish.

  • Test your lead retrieval on each other. Scan each other’s badge and make sure the information is collected correctly, and that it feeds into your existing backend systems (CRM, marketing automation, etc.) in a timely manner. If you’ve set up a post-event workflow, this would be the final time to test and make sure all applicable actions are triggered upon form submission. While you should have tested this already, make sure nothing has changed by testing at the event. 
  • Set goals for your booth staff. In our experience, salespeople are born competitors. Surprise your booth staff with a special prize for the one that captures the most quality leads, and let them know in your morning get-together on day one. If they haven’t had their coffee yet, this will grab their attention and kick their competitiveness into high gear. 
  • Establish a central point of contact for any unexpected circumstances. This person might be yourself, but make sure to communicate this to your team. This will simplify your event more than you realize. Many times people like to “be the hero” but end up just muddying the waters. You planned the event. You have all the order forms. You know the process. You should manage the unexpected. 
  • Take a photo of your team in front of your booth. Use this photo in your event follow-up to remind prospects of who you are, and why they are getting the email. Most people need the visual reminder, so this will assist your company in standing out from competitors. 
  • Schedule a post-event meeting with your team. Go ahead and give everyone a heads up that you’ll want to have a quick recap meeting after the event closes for the day. Don’t surprise them towards the end of the day – set expectations early. This meeting will give you a chance to take your team’s temperature. How is the event going? Is there anything they needed today that you can prepare for tomorrow? Bonus points for scheduling this at a nearby watering hole. 
  • Ensure that any pre-purchased elements are in working order prior to the event start (ex: power, wifi). The ideal time to do this is during setup. You’ll likely know if a power source isn’t working right off the bat. But, don’t assume the wifi will work once the event starts. Test it during setup. 
  • Walk the floor. Take at least a half-hour to walk the trade show floor. Bring your cell phone and take pictures of booths that inspire you, and of your competition. You’ll come back to these photos later – I promise. Take the time to orient yourself and note where might be a better booth location next show.
  • Find your show organizer contact and ask for their input on your booth. This person could provide an unbiased opinion of what’s working and what’s not, especially in direct comparison to the other booths. You can take that information and build on it for the next show.  
  • Invite customers in attendance to your booth. Lure them with a special treat, like donuts or a snack basket. The goal is to keep them in your booth long enough to possibly provide testimonials to new potential clients. There’s nothing more convincing than a living, breathing advocate for your product or solution. 
  • Make notes on how to tweak your lead capture process. If you are using a mobile lead capture app over the antiquated badge scanners, you likely built your own lead capture form. What questions are your team skipping? Are there any parts of your lead capture form that could use fine-tuning for next time? We recommend using an independent lead capture solution across all of your events, so you can more easily clone your process from event to event. This also makes it infinitely easier to make minor tweaks to the lead capture and post-show workflow, based on experience. 

With each event that you manage, you’ll find more items to add to this list and discover which ones don’t really apply to your company. The key is to let your trade show experiences build off of one another. They should not be compartmentalized, but rather a cumulative effort to overall B2B event success. 

To learn more about Lead Liaison’s B2B event lead capture solution, request a personalized demo here.

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

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 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.

Lead Liaison

9 Trade Show Booth Design Ideas to Delight Visitors [Infographic]

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Social media may have transformed the way that brands and customers engage with one another, but trade shows persist as a cornerstone of face-to-face marketing. And precisely because so much brand interaction has been digitalized, the potential for trade shows to create a meaningful and memorable brand experience has only become greater. 

One of the greatest benefits of participating in trade shows is that attendees, simply by virtue of deciding to be there, are incredibly receptive to your message. A striking design is arguably the most important factor when it comes to attracting these open-minded, warm leads into your booth.

But standing out in a crowd of competitors is no easy task. While more traditional, tried-and-true booth design schemes that consist of a graphic backdrop, spandex table covers, and a few banner stands may be the best option for traditionally conservative industries, the trends in trade show booth design have in recent years taken a turn for the stunning and creative. Trade show attendees are increasingly expecting more from the exhibits they visit, and a well-designed booth space plays a decisive role in all of these expectations.

Effective trade show booth design ideas serve to do a lot more than just look good. They are the backdrop against which an entire brand experience can unfold. From the first encounter, to interacting with your staff, to leaving your booth with a goodie bag, your trade show booth design can either enhance or detract from a visitor’s experience every step of the way. Engineering your exhibit to be both attractive and functional, both unique and on-brand, may be the single most important project you undertake to make your brand’s next trade show appearance worthwhile.

Looking for some trade show booth design ideas? The following graphic offers nine creative trade show booth design ideas that are eye-catching, versatile, and sure to impress:

Author Bio:

Joseph Robison is the Marketing Manager at Coastal Creative, a large format printing company based in San Diego that specializes in designing stunning trade show booths and branded spaces. He is also the founder of Green Flag Digital, an SEO and digital marketing consultancy.

Lead Liaison

40 Event Marketing Statistics

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Want the executive summary? Download the infographic here.

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

Business is changing at the speed of light. As marketers, it seems like every time we feel like we’ve mastered a new strategy, a new one emerges. Advances in modern technology drive marketing organizations at a fast pace. But, just because more and more people are adopting new technology, it doesn’t mean that one-to-one contact is gone. In fact, most of the technology that we create is intended to give businesses the opportunity to automate administrative tasks to make room for more person-to-person contact.

Marketing events are a great way to engage in one-to-one contact. Multi-day conferences, trade shows, conventions, seminars, thought-leadership workshops…these are all great examples of event marketing. They give businesses the chance to interact with consumers who are already 10 steps closer to purchasing, just by the simple fact that they are at the event in the first place.

Perhaps you are trying to decide if your business should invest in event marketing. Maybe you have already started exhibiting at events and you just want to learn more about them. Or perhaps you are a seasoned exhibitor who’s just looking for a few good stats. Either way, you are in luck! We have rounded up 40 important statistics that help shed light on event marketing for business-to-business (B2B) companies.

Why do Companies Invest in Event Marketing?

  • 63% of marketers use tradeshows as a form of lead generation (source)
  • 79% of US marketers actually generate sales using event marketing (source)
  • 81% оf trаdе ѕhоw attendees hаvе buуіng аuthоrіtу (source)
  • 77% of marketers use experiential marketing as a vital part of a brand’s advertising strategies (source)
  • 52% of business leaders say event marketing drives more ROI than any other marketing channel (source)
  • 48% of event attendees say face-to-face interactions are more valuable today than two years ago (source)
  • It takes an average of 4.5 calls to close a sale without an exhibition lead, and only 3.5 sales calls to close a sale with a lead from an exhibition (source)
  • 73% of B2B marketers say events are better than other tactics for customer engagement (source)
  • The three most commonly used B2B lead generation strategies are email marketing (78%), event marketing (73%), and content marketing (67%) (source)

Strategies

Businesses around the world are investing in marketing events. Here’s how those strategies are affecting budgets and goals.

  • Annually, companies spend about $24 billion on exhibiting at events (source)
  • The top three event marketing goals are to increase sales (83%), increase brand awareness (73%), and to enhance product knowledge (53%) (source)
  • Events occupy 14% of budgets, which is the largest share of B2B marketers’ budgets. (source)
  • B2B companies spend 29% of their marketing budgets on events, on average, versus 19% for B2C companies (source)
  • 91% of event professionals stated that increasing engagement at their events was an important priority for their organization (source)

Event Lead Management

Managing the leads from your event is only part of a robust event lead management strategy. An event lead management solution should not only assist you in capturing your lead, but also in properly managing the data, enabling you to follow up quickly, and helping you track ROI.

  • 17% of respondents still use spreadsheets to store information on their leads. (source)
  • Just 6% of marketers believe their company converts trade show leads, contacts and conversations into customer business extremely well, although 27% feel they do so moderately well, and another 41% feel they’re getting better (source)
  • 14% of marketers plan to integrate marketing automation with their events and only 7% currently do (source)
  • 35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first (source)
  • The top benefits for event technology adopters are: improved ability to track and measure their events (40%), increased process productivity (31%), and a better attendee experience (30%) (source)
  • 76% of marketers say their event and experiential marketing initiatives are integrated with their other marketing campaigns (source)
  • 22% of brands do not have a way of measuring their events (source)
  • 91% of event planners say that adopting a mobile event app has provided a positive ROI (source)
  • The top 5 metrics marketers feel are best for quantifying event value are: new referrals and introductions; quality and quantity of leads; deal closure; value of sales; and upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Yet, only 34% use those 5 metrics to assess trade show and event ROI (source)

Looking into the Future

  • The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics stated conventions and events are expected to expand by 44% from 2010 to 2020 (source)
  • 40% of marketers say they’ll increase spending on hosted events in the year ahead (source)
  • Companies are spending on event marketing at a growing rate, with 54% boosting their event activity over the past three years, and only 17% cutting back (source)
  • 43% of marketers believe the value of face-to-face interactions will continue to increase over the next 2 years (source)
  • 85% of executives say the number of exhibitions will stay the same or increase over the next several years (source)
  • 75% of marketers believe that in the upcoming years, live events will become increasingly important to their organization’s success (source)

Conclusion

You get the picture, right? Event marketing holds a significant position in the future of growing businesses. It’s never too early to start mapping out your strategy – whether you are a seasoned event marketer, or you plan on trying it out for the first time. Below is an infographic that summarizes all of these important stats. 

Luckily, we have many resources to help companies make the most out of their marketing events. Here are a few we think you might like:

And, to learn more about our enterprise-level Event Lead Management solution, click here.

Ryan Schefke

Creative Strategies for Your Next Trade Show or Marketing Event

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Want the executive summary? Download the infographic here.

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

Looking for creative strategies to use at your next trade show or marketing event? Look no further! We’ve gathered lots of ideas that can help you before, during, and after an event.

Before an Event

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

Planning for an event is the most important part of your process. If you don’t get the right tools in place, you’re bound to make mistakes.

  • Do your research and see what your biggest competitors’ booths look like. Track competitors in your CRM so that you know if any competitors stopped by your booth.
  • Invest in a great display, so that prospects will want to invest in you. If your display looks pathetic, so will your company.
  • Send 1:1 emails and offline marketing pieces, such as direct mail, ahead of time offering people a chance to schedule a meeting at your booth.
  • Send a marketing email (or a series of emails) announcing your presence at the event and what you’ll be showcasing. Offer educational content in these emails to establish yourself as a thought leader at the event.
  • Send a reminder email (or text, if possible) to stop by your booth.
  • Engage with conference attendees prior to the event – ask for attendees to vote on what swag they’d like best. This is a great excuse to reach out to attendees and an easy way to get them to engage. Lists of registered attendees can usually be found by contacting the event manager.
  • Speaking of swag, reconsider your definition of swag. A few ideas are: headphones, socks, or a free t-shirt with a offer for a free beer if they are seen wearing it to networking parties after the convention.
  • Post to all of your social media accounts. Choose a different image or message for each platform to keep readers’ attentions and reduce redundancy.
  • Consider how you’re going to capture leads at the event (badge scan, business card transcription, upload registrants, manual form fill, etc.). Some event lead management solutions offer all of these!
  • Do all of these things in your marketing automation platform to track key engagement prior to the event. Find one that does it all.
  • Extra Tip: Ensure consistent lead follow up by setting up an automated process to segment, tag, distribute, and follow up with those leads. Create a nurture campaign in your marketing automation platform to distribute leads, assign tasks call tasks, follow up with educational content, and more. (LL)

During an Event

You already believe in your product or solution. Now, it’s time to show off! Make sure you’re the star of the show.

  • Keep your display clutter-free. Don’t distract visitors. Clean lines and a simple, sleek design allows your message (and the experience) to play center role.
  • Don’t list features on your banners. Keep your message simple. Answer “How will your product make their lives easier? What makes you better than your competitor? What problem does your product solve?”
  • Host a wireless charging station at your booth with a fun activity, or snack, for people waiting.
  • Place devices in front of your booth and run them as a kiosk for leads to self-service (watch videos, submit an inquiry to learn more).
  • Use an event lead capture app, such as Lead Liaison’s GoCapture!™, for all representatives to use in place of outdated badge scanners. (LL)

After an Event

Evaluate & measure ROI. This is key to growth and future success.

  • Evaluate your process. What worked? What didn’t? Did your team run into any issues? Did your technology support your properly?
  • Measure ROI of your event using Cost Per Prospect (CPP), Revenue Generated, and overall ROI metrics. Some event lead management solutions offer an Events Dashboard to compile and report these key metrics, which makes things really easy.

Hopefully you picked up some great tips today. We’ve included this infographic below for you to download and/or share with your colleagues. And, if you’re interested in our home-grown event lead management solution, request a free demo here.

event strategy
Ryan Schefke

Event Strategy: How to Properly Manage Leads from a Trade Show or Other Marketing Event

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Want the executive summary? Download the infographic here.

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

Does your company do marketing events, like trade shows or conferences? Whether you’re just dipping your toe into marketing events, or you’re a seasoned pro, it doesn’t hurt to learn more about how to perfect your event strategy. When preparing for an event, there are two main focuses: getting your “gear” ready for the show, and setting up a process for managing the leads you get from that marketing event. We’ll save the “gear” topic for another day…today we’re thinking about LEADS!

What do marketing and sales always have in common? The answer: leads (duh). Marketing teams generate leads, and sales teams pursue them. Marketing events, and the like (conferences, trade shows, etc.) are incredibly effective ways to generate leads. But there’s often a lot of prep work that goes into these events.

The first step in planning for a marketing event is to come up with an event strategy, which should include a well-thought-out lead management process. Without this, you risk losing a lot of potential leads – leads who have seen your booth, spoken with your sales rep, and shown real interest in your solution. What a waste that would be! Here’s our guide to coming up with the perfect lead management process as a part of your overall event strategy:

Do Your Research

Find an event lead management strategy that works best for your business. Do you prefer to just order a lead scanner and do the rest manually? Or, do you prefer to use a lead capture app that already integrates with the rest of your marketing and sales technology (ex: marketing automation platform and CRM)? We prefer to use our lead capture app, GoCapture!™, as it integrates seamlessly with our marketing automation platform and our CRM. We can easily connect the dots between our event-specific marketing campaigns and the end results. We can also customize our forms so that we capture all of the information that we want/need, and we have limitless options for lead capture (not just badge scanning!).

Map Out Your Lead Management Process

Meet with your team (marketing AND sales) and lay out a plan for how you wish to follow up with your leads. A quick text saying, “Thanks for stopping by our booth!” goes a long way – especially considering the amount of email follow-ups those folks will probably have the next morning. Are there any special offers or messages that you should incorporate into your follow-up? Get to the drawing board (quite literally, if you have to!) and map out how you will nurture those leads (your “nurture campaign”). Part of a thorough event strategy is making sure that everyone is on board and knows what kind of messaging that lead will receive.

Here are a few things you’ll want to consider, when laying out your post-event lead nurture:

  • Determine the proper lead score for this event and incorporate that into your post-event lead nurture plan. Either manually, or automatically if you’ve got the technology, add that number to Prospects’ overall scores.
  • Ensure proper lead distribution. Many marketing automation platforms will allow you to automate your lead distribution based on specific rules, or round-robin. Make sure everyone is on the same page about how those leads will be distributed so there is no confusion later.
  • Incorporate omnichannel marketing in your nurture campaign. Sure, emails are great – of course those should be included. But text are powerful, postcards are unique, and handwritten letters give a personal touch.
  • Set up your post-event nurture in your marketing automation platform prior to your event, so that once that lead is captured, it is automatically tagged, segmented, scored, and placed into an automation.
  • Keep in mind that you can usually clone your nurtures (aka automations). Put the proper legwork into creating a killer nurture campaign, and then rest easy knowing you just have to edit a few minor things (like event name, etc.) next time around.

Train Your Team

Okay, now back to your event strategy: Don’t assume that your sales reps (or other team members attending the event) are up to date on lead capture technology. Although there will probably be some complaining, try to get your reps into a room to refresh them on the process or train them on new tech. If you are using an event lead management app, you can have your reps install it on their devices (or the company’s devices) ahead of time so they can get some real-life practice.

You want your sales team to be on board with your process. If they are not, you maby be less successful than you could be.

Ensure Attendance

More often than not, trade show organizers will provide an email list of people who plan to attend an event. Put some thought into your plan for encouraging attendance at your booth and start building those relationships early. Gone are the days when attendees just show up and wander around. With more and more millennials attending trade shows, conferences, and other live marketing events, we find that attendees are doing more research ahead of time so that they know who they want to visit and can plan accordingly.

Make it easy for them; properly distribute and advertise your location and booth number through marketing emails, social media, and 1:1 communication (like Lead Liaison’s Sales Enablement). And don’t forget to include past attendees in your communication (based on location).

In Summary

Marketing events can be costly, so it’s important to ensure you are getting the most out of it. Properly managing your leads is essential. Include team members from both sales and marketing through as much of the process as you can, so that everyone is on board with (and will follow through with their part of) “the plan.” Below is a quick graphic you can print out and stick on your desk, so that you’re ready for trade show season!

Event Strategy: How to Properly Manage Leads from a Marketing Event