Attending an expo or event is a big investment. Done right it can yield a great number of leads and sales.

The key to achieving a great return on investment from an expo/event is coordinating the on-the-ground efforts with a digital marketing strategy in order to generate your pipeline generation sales team, and help your business grow.

Understand Your Investment

Whether you’re already committed to an event or are considering one for the future, take the time to quantify the true cost.

You have to pay to exhibit and need booth design and construction, marketing and promotional materials, staffing, travel, accommodation, shipping, and lead capture tools.

The cost ranges by event, industry and footprint, but generally, businesses spend $10,000-$30,000 on each event¹. This is why it’s so vital to maximise the lead capture and conversion from this investment.

Digital Marketing Can Maximise Your Return

Often businesses are so consumed with the on-the-ground work that surrounds an event that they forget to build a digital marketing strategy to accompany it.

A good strategy should be executed over eight weeks, with the event itself being in the middle. Our Maximise Your Lead Generation From Events & Expos worksheet breaks this down as a worksheet your team can follow.

The steps include:

Lead Capture: strategically planning how you will capture leads.

• What is the value offering
• What details need to be captured
• How will details be captured
• How will additional information be captured/consolidated
• Prepare the CRM

Organic Social Media & Email: engage your existing database and following to drive attendance

• Design social media posts for before, during and after the event
• Post at the right time
• Email your database before and after the event
• Encourage a social media following

Summary

In summary, success at an event or expo can be greatly enhanced by a complimentary digital marketing strategy. Taking the time to plan that out is crucial and working with a good digital marketing partner can help maximise your lead generation from those events/expos and beyond.