Our team is gearing up for back-to-back trade shows this week and happened to come across Hubspot’s timely article, “Getting the Most From Live Events: A Guide for Attendees, Hosts & Participants.” The article reported a shocking statistic – 80% of companies don’t even follow up with leads after trade shows.
How can that be? With every wise business person shouting, “NETWORK!” from the rooftops, how are marketers ignoring this advice when it comes to the biggest networking opportunity there is — face-to-face live events.
If you jump on over to Hubspot (link above) they’ve outlined in detail how attendees, exhibitors, speakers, and event hosts can take full advantage of these opportunities. Here are three quick tips we’ve developed:
- How to remember people: If your goal is to network (which it should be) it may be hard to remember all those faces and names once you’ve got a stack of business cards in front of you. Jot down notes about who you’re meeting or what you spoke about on the backside of their card in order to jog your memory later. Be prepared for high-tech folks with digital business cards – here are 8 free business card apps suggested by Mashable.
- How to stay on task: It’s extremely easy to get caught up in the commotion of an event and end up getting sidetracked. Don’t waste the money you’ve invested to attend the event by ending up in the corner catching up with old friends. Make sure you define your goal before you step through the front door. Go in with a purpose and don’t forget to follow through.
- How to break through the noise: No doubt there will be many other individuals and companies with the same goals or agenda as you, so you must go in prepared to stand out from the rest. Be ready to market yourself competitively. Give out free samples of your products or services to drive traffic towards your booth, or come up with some other creative ways to set yourself and your booth apart.
How are you getting your ROI for live events? We’d like to hear your methods of maximizing your investment of time, money and energy by fostering relationships that last past the showroom floor.