Events are still essential. And lead generation at events still works.
Whether the event is in person, online, or a combination of the two, successful events are a vital component of effective marketing strategies, and they continue to hold significance—despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marketers still seek to use lead generation events to promote their brand and generate business results. In fact, 85% of EMEA event organisers say they organised a virtual event in 2020 and agree that virtual events are here for the long term.
But the same old event marketing strategies don’t work anymore. To generate qualified leads, produce engaging event marketing, and get the results you desire, you must make your event stand out. You need to create an exciting, memorable experience starting with brand new lead generation marketing ideas.
Awesome idea 1 - Allow your sales team to help organise the event
To maximise the success of lead generation through your events, try getting the help of your sales team. You don’t always have to wait for the marketing department to set something up—they’re not the only group who knows how to make an event work or how to generate leads at events. Sales teams are invaluable assets because they possess specific knowledge about your target customer base.
Here’s another thing you should keep in mind about your event: it doesn’t have to be a large gathering with hundreds of people to be successful. Your event can be any assembly; it can contain a great crowd or comprise a small group of people.
Awesome idea 2 - Optimise your events to maximise their response
The old way of managing events no longer works. Because traditional event management—where you had to plan the event, organise everything, and follow up with all the attendees—wastes time and resources and leaves your organisation susceptible to repeating the same mistakes over and over. One powerful lead generation event idea is to make sure you’re maximising your current resources.
Event success management is the way. Here’s how it works: it links all the events within an organisation rather than treating each event like a detached happening. This approach allows organisations to learn from every event they have to measure, develop, and improve the success of each one.
Event Success Management also unifies results among all the different organisers, allowing them to share knowledge that will help produce better outcomes. So, in the end, you run better, more successful, and streamlined events that result in happier attendees who are more receptive to doing business with you.
Awesome idea 3 - Develop your post-event contact strategy
Events are all about building relationships. But a common mistake many organisers make is failing to follow up with leads after an event is over.
Put together a strategy for how you will follow up with leads before your event starts. Get creative and think about what you can do that will make a big impact. Everyone sends an email to attendees, but you should strive to be different. You don’t want to send the same message people have seen a thousand times that reads, “Thank you for attending our event.”
Show attendees how much you appreciated their presence by providing something useful, like a video clip or key insights collected from the event. You also should connect with them on social media to stay in touch and foster a sense of community.
You can also use your Experience Value Score to measure the success of your event. Your EVS will help you evaluate the experience from your participant's perspective so you can see what attendees thought of your event.
Awesome idea 4 - Customise your presentations to your audience
Before you present, think about the audience in attendance and tailor your presentation to them. If you have access to the pre-event registration data, then use it to your advantage!
Whenever you’re giving a presentation, you should always customise it to your audience. Consider their needs and put yourself in their shoes. What do they already know or believe about your topic? What important points do you want them to remember?
After you’ve answered these questions, you can take all the information above and combine it with your knowledge to create a tailored, engaging, memorable presentation.
Imagine how ears will perk up from particular attendees when you start using examples, quotes or screenshots from the companies at which they work when you’re speaking. Use the power of data and generate a lot more interest than rolling out your usual template. It shows you have a genuine interest in the people attending, people you want to become leads, and shouldn’t take too much effort on your part.
Awesome idea 5 - Hold a company events challenge
We’ve already suggested sales get involved in organising events, but you can even open it up wider! You could offer incentives and hold a company events challenge.
To do this, start by educating your teams on what constitutes an event. Make sure they understand your definition is probably much broader than they originally thought. Let them know what matters to you—that events are less about the size and more about significance.
This belief will help steer your teams in the right direction and get them thinking out of the box about all the possible events they can create. It will also open them up to a new way of thinking and allow them to approach event organising from a different angle.
This strategy can also help your company reach more customers. As you allow your teams to organise events, give incentives for the most creative ideas. Which department did the most unexpected thing? Whose idea was the most successful?
Then decide on ways to award teams for their hard work. This can be anything from buying them lunch to some form of public recognition. Something that shows your appreciation so they feel like valued members of your organisation.
Lead generation at events is a source of great potential business for your company. Whether your event is online, onsite, or hybrid, you can use Lyyti to create first-class events that are easy for you to manage and easy for all your attendees to appreciate.
Your event is only as good as you make it. Don’t be afraid to try different, more innovative ideas so you can run smarter events. And here are a few to remember: get your teams involved, customise your presentations, and create a strategy from the beginning. These things will help you run better events every time.
Hero photo by Bedbible
