Interesting question.
Attending events is one of the best ways to get close to your customers. You can be face to face with everyone and talk about your audience, gather people's problems and see how your ideas fit in their daily life.
In this article, we will see how you should approach or arrange an event, talk to people, and following up.
Bonus: You will find an Email Sample Template right after the video further explaining on following up after the event!
Arrange an event
If you are attending an event, you can skip this segment. Just know that the organisers charge for an event, only to show you the value they see you will gain from it.If you are planning an event, let's see if you should price your event, or leave the admission free
One of the most common topic while arranging an event is the entry price. Some suggest you should keep it free, while some say you should ask for an entry fee.
From personal experience of attending and arranging events, I can provide you with some insights here. Your aim for this event is to invite as many people as possible to attend. The common reasoning dictates the event should be free. But you also need to consider human psychology while making this decision.
The most common thought process of an Event Attendee is
If it's paid, it can expect a certain level of value to gain by attending the event.
I paid for a ticket, This leaves little room for me to find a reason to avoid attending at the last moment.
Simply put, by arranging the event with a free admission policy, you are undervaluing the event, and increase the chance of people dropping out on the day of the event!
Keep it paid. Don't set it very high, or too low. To give you a ballpark, price it around the cost of two cups of coffee.
[caption id="attachment_9135" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Inputs from Sales Team can help find the niche of audience you want to attract while deciding How To Get Leads Through Events[/caption]
Engage with the crowd
Once the event is over, get on the floor and talk to people. Set a goal in your mind "I will talk to atleast 15 people today" and try to give you extra.
Remember you are here to get leads. You could go around the room handing out your business card but you are mostly wasting your business cards. Instead, try going around learning about people. Understand their problems and listen to them talk. End the conversation by exchanging business cards. On the back of the card, remember to write a key take away about them. Things like "We talking about Salesforce's latest strategy!" or "We had a time collaborate during The podcast workshop!"
This way you will remember who there were, and it will help you in writing a follow-up email!
There is an art to master here, that can't be taught, but learn through practice! If you are still wondering how to get leads through events, the trick is not over yet.
Aftermath: Follow up!
Following up with attendees after the event is as important as networking with them. People attend events to learn something they are interested in. Keep this in mind while writing your followup email.
You can find a sample email template towards the end of this article, right after the Video by Sampath Mallidi explaining the 4 rules to follow while following up with people after an event. We highly recommend you to watch the video for more information!
When to follow up? Its a norm to wait for about 5-7 days before following up. The reason for this is to allow people to settle back in their regular life and process the entire event.
Email or social media? recently thanks to the boom of social media, a lot of people prefer talking work over social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. It is completely fine to follow up people on other platforms. The goal is to get in conversation with the people, the platform hardly matters.
How To Get Leads Through Events Followup email Template
Following up on {Name of the event}
Hi {First Name},
It was a pleasure connecting at the {Event Name}. I hope you learnt something new. This link is the presentation I have used during the event. I was hoping to connect to discuss how we can apply the lessons that we learnt from the event. Does this {date} suit you?
Regards, {Your Name}
Inputs from Sales Team can help find the niche of audience you want to attract while deciding How To Get Leads Through Events[/caption]