CALL US: +1 (860) 266 6738
Help5 EVENT MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR POST-EVENT FOLLOW-UPS
As an event planner, your work is really only getting started when the event ends. After that comes more grunt work; with every event comes prospective customers that you have to nurture to secure as a potential long-term client.
Sure, you can send out a mass survey (highly recommended), but you have to go the extra mile to really connect with guests that indicated a deeper interest in your products or services. These are the people that need to be on your radar and target within hours after the event.
Use these five tips along with your event apps, event management staff, and post-event production tactics.
1. FOLLOW-UP RIGHT AWAY
When you follow up with prospective clients, you have to act fast. By fast, this means within 24 hours or less. People by nature have embarrassingly short attention spans, and if you let several days go by, then their minds will have moved on with the event already a distant memory.
Strike when the event is still fresh in their minds. In fact, it’s even recommended that you send some sort of follow-up message within 12 hours, so that the message is received when they check their phone or email inbox the next morning. Using one of today’s lead retrieval devices is a great way to gather the right information at the right time.
2. BE SPECIFIC IN YOUR MESSAGE
When you send a follow-up message, be specific and remind the recipient who you are and the company you represent. Remember, your booth or workshop is likely just one of the many your prospective leads have visited. They likely received a dozen other business cards and signed to be on a dozen other email lists.
In your email, quickly describe who you are, the company you represent, and remind the recipients that they visited your booth/workshop at the event. You can then follow that up with your offer or originally planned message. You can also include your business logo at the top of the page or even a photo of yourself or booth taken at the event.
3. OFFER AN INCENTIVE
An incentive is perhaps one of the greatest tried-and-true methods for “hooking” in your leads. Your initial follow-up should include some sort of offer exclusive only to those who gave you permission to contact them. An incentive can be a number of things.
The easiest route is a discount towards a purchase or a price slash for membership sign-up. It can also include freebies; in other words, if new members normally get X upon singing up, then throw in Y and Z as well. Make it known in your initial follow-up message what the incentive is and that the exclusive offer is only available for a limited time.
4. PERSONALIZE THE FOLLOW-UP
Now, if dozens upon dozens of people signed up to be on your email list at the event, then it’s not possible to reach out to every one of them personally or remember your specific interaction with each person.
However, you should make a wholehearted effort to try to remember some of the exchanges you had with a select few. There are always a few who stand out. Take quick notes after each conversation with a prospect.
This doesn’t have to be anything in-depth; just a few bullet-points that you can incorporate when sending out a personal message. Here is an example of what a few notes may look like:
My interaction with Bob:
He owns a plumbing business
His company has 20 employees working full-time
He appears to be around 40-50 years of age
He expressed an interest in expanding his business beyond his local city
If your company specializes in the online marketing niche, for example, then how can you use this information when personalizing a message to Bob? A personal follow-up message may look something like this:
Hi Bob,
This is Jim from Online Marketing Express. We had a conversation the other day when you approached my booth.First off, I just wanted to thank you for the pleasant conversation we had the other day. Our company actually has a web designer and copywriter that specialize in marketing for the trade industry. His past clients have included business owners in the plumbing and HVAC service, much like yourself. Since I remember you and our conversation the other day, I can offer you an exclusive membership for our silver membership package. The package will include website and blog post updates exclusively from the staff member of mine I was talking about. If this sounds good to you, then I would like to hear back from you.
This personal message has all the elements of what was discussed so far. It immediately includes the sender’s name along with his company. It’s also highly personalized, mentioning specifically the recipient’s plumbing business. Do you see now how just a few lines of notes from a conversation can yield a highly personalized message?
5. MENTION YOUR SPONSORS
The follow-up should also include mention of your sponsors. This is actually more for the sake of establishing a good rapport with the sponsor rather than trying to snag a prospective lead. Nevertheless, it all needs to be a part of your greater follow-up strategy.
You can mention the company by name when you mention your own company at the beginning of the message. Alternatively, you can mention the sponsor in a more inexplicit manner, such as by including its logo at the end of the email. By doing this, you show to sponsors that you’re willing to continue to help them out even when the event is over.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The Work Continues Well After the Event
When the event comes to a close, you have a very short window to reach out to prospects. Action taken during that small window can yield golden opportunities. The rewards are attendees who may very well be the company’s future loyal customers.
Author Bio: Dan McCarthy is an Event Manager at JD Parties, an event management company based in the UK. Dan has 5 years of event project management under his belt. He has worked on many successful events, and currently he shares his knowledge by writing on the company blog. Follow him on Twitter @DanCarthy2.
Eventprofs today are looking to optimize the post-event flow.Using lead retrieval technology is one of the many and most efficient ways to do so.See how:
