In-person events remain a cornerstone for building relationships, generating leads, and showcasing products or services. However, the true value of an event extends far beyond the event itself.
From our experience, clients who prioritize a comprehensive planning process to implement effective post-event marketing strategies tend to achieve the highest return on their investment. By focusing on post-event strategy from the beginning (and during the event), they maximize the impact of their events and cultivate lasting connections. Let’s dive in and see how you can accomplish that.
The Foundation: Setting Clear Objectives and Goals
First and foremost, before diving into any plan, establish clear, measurable objectives for your event. While this post isn’t about pre- and during-event marketing, it’s still important to understand your overall goals. Conder: Are you aiming to generate a specific number of qualified leads? Increase brand awareness? Generate content? Launch a new product? Your goals will shape every aspect of your event strategy, including your post-event marketing strategy.
Maximizing opportunities during the event.
The foundation for your post-event success begins to take shape during the event. Here’s why: if you remain passive during the event, you’ll miss valuable opportunities to share and promote afterward.
As the event progresses, make it a priority to gather essential data and contact information from attendees. Engage actively with participants and collect compelling content that will be the backbone of your post-event strategy. Doing so ensures you have a wealth of material to share, promote, and nurture collected leads, maximizing your event’s impact long after it concludes. During event activities to fuel your success, post-event include:
- Effective Networking: Train your team on networking best practices to forge meaningful connections with event attendees.
- Lead Collection: Implement a streamlined system for collecting quality leads and contact information.
- Gathering Insights: Conduct real-time surveys and gather feedback to understand attendee preferences and pain points.
- Capture Content: Designate team members to take notes, photos, and videos for future content creation.
For more on during event marketing>>
Post-Event Marketing Strategies: Extending the Value
Post-event engagement is critical to any successful event strategy, extending the value and impact long after the final attendee has left. By implementing thoughtful post-event marketing tactics, organizers can transform a one-time gathering into an ongoing conversation, nurturing relationships and driving long-term business outcomes. Let’s explore some effective strategies to ensure your event continues to deliver value well beyond its ends.
Content Creation
Now that you’ve gathered content from your event, what’s next? It’s time to turn that material into valuable post-event content pieces that will engage your audience and new leads and extend the impact of your event. Here are some winning ideas for content creation:
- Create infographics summarizing key takeaways or videos highlighting event highlights.
- Develop whitepapers and case studies based on insights or wins gathered during the event.
- Craft engaging social media posts and blog articles to keep the conversation going.
- Develop webinars and Virtual Events based on popular topics from the event
- Create content engagement centers to demand content from recorded sessions
- Post-show newsletter
Strategic Lead Nurturing: Implement a targeted lead nurturing strategy
- Segment leads based on their event interactions and interests.
- Utilize marketing automation to deliver personalized follow-up campaigns.
- Create a series of touchpoints that guide leads through the sales funnel.
Social Media Engagement: Keep the momentum going on social platforms
- Share event highlights and behind-the-scenes content
- Encourage attendees to share their experiences and insights
- Host post-event Q&A sessions or live streams to address follow-up questions
Empowering Your Sales Team
You’ve done everything you can do on your end; now it’s time to collaborate with sales to stretch the event ROI even further. Here are some ways you can equip your sales team with event-related content, insights, and next steps:
- Provide targeted follow-up materials based on attendee interests.
- Facilitate warm introductions based on event interactions.
- Create segmented lists of qualified leads based on attendee behavior and profile information and rank leads by engagement level and likelihood to convert.
- Share key learnings and attendee feedback to inform sales strategies.
- Provide recordings of product demos or presentations given during the event that sales can reference or share with prospects who missed them.
Now that we’ve explored effective post-event marketing strategies to amplify your event’s success, download the accompanying Post-Event Checklist! It’s your essential to-do list designed to keep you organized and focused. Get Your Copy Now>>
Remember: our top tip for success is to create a solid plan before the event! A post-event marketing strategy that’s well thought out will unlock lasting value from your B2B event long after it wraps up!
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