We’ve compiled a list of 10 ways to keep both visibility and connections high, so you increase your chances even before the event starts. All of these avenues (and more if you get creative) will demonstrate to your prospects that you’re a leader in the space and will support your sales teams in making that next connection and closing the deal.
- Plan Your Follow-up Before the Event. Once you return to the office after being out for a day or two, it’s tempting to catch up on backed-up internal communication and miss the window of opportunity to keep the connection fresh. The other ideas in this list will help you brainstorm what to do as your follow-up activity.
- Be first. Our human brains are wired to recall with the greatest ease only two things in a sequence—the first and the most recent. Aim to be the first person to follow up after the event so you have a great chance of being seen as the one who is responsive, outgoing and friendly.
- Have Something To Invite Them To or Share. The event you attended was likely related to some topic. Curate a small library of 3rd party content that can provide a new perspective, success stories or tips for getting started that relates to the topic at hand.
- Create LinkedIn Group(s). Certainly the people who attended an event together have common interests and goals. Pick a goal that you and your connections are interested in staying focused on after the event, and use a LinkedIn group as an accessible and convenient way to keep the conversations and accountability going.
- Thought Leadership Content. Create a content asset summarizing your key insights from or lessons learned at the event. Share that asset on your own channels, and share it with the event producer. Often times, the event producer is happy to share value-added information with participants and the community at large if it casts the event in a positive light. This will give your asset additional legs, provides valuable thought leadership and keeps your brand front and center well after the event.
- Photos. Take your camera to the event and snap as many photos as you can! Photos can be shared with people you meet via email, on social media along with post-event updates, internally and in presentations to keep the memory of the event alive.
- Video. If your organization is giving a presentation or has a speaking role, record it! After the event you can broadcast the recording in a webinar setting, take a short clip of the recording to use as a teaser video to get users to perform a desired action (i.e. visit a landing page), use the video as social media content, or come up with a new way to use the footage – the possibilities are varied and abundant.
- Blog. If you attended an interesting workshop at the event, blog about it to share what you’ve learned. Include pictures or even a slideshare of your key insights. Once you write a blog, you have another reason to reach out to your connections to share via email and also to post on your social media channels.
- Share internally. Make your company newsletters livelier by taking photos at the event and adding them in to the content with a snippet of what your team experienced.
- Create Social Content. Review your notes after the event, and pull interesting quotes or facts you heard either from the speakers or other participants you networked with. Send them to your graphics team, and then post the excerpts as social media content.
If you implement these creative and varied ideas following an event, you will have a high probability of success with keeping in contact with the people you meet and prospect opportunities you identify at any event.
Let us know in the comments below any additional ideas for follow-up that have helped you keep your connections strong and improved your event ROI.
