Attending an exhibition is a very powerful way to connect with leads, meet potential customers, introduce your exhibition stand solutions to new audiences, and ultimately gain contacts. But your post-exhibition follow-up process is when you really convert those leads into lasting business relationships. Without a structured approach, this leaves many companies overlooking opportunities, so having one in place is imperative.
For this article, we’re going to focus on following up with the leads you have at an exhibition. These strategies will help you, whether you’re an experienced exhibitor or a first-time attendee, to maximize your exhibition results and build stronger relationships.
Organize Your Leads Immediately After the Exhibition
Organize your leads immediately after the event and you’ll have the first step to a successful follow-up strategy. By the time the show is over, you’ll have met a lot of people; some will be interested, some will be very interested, and some of them won’t be interested at all. To do this properly, they need to be organized.
- Prioritize high-interest leads: Filter out high-priority leads, these are leads who expressed interest immediately, and asked the right questions, or explicitly requested to know more information.
- Categorize leads by interest: Divide your leads into categories. This will also help you prepare follow-up communications and keep yourself organized. Keeping track of leads, storing notes, and scheduling reminders can be difficult, however, this can be simplified with a CRM system.
- Assign follow-up tasks to team members: If you have a sales or marketing team, assign specific leads to someone so you don’t leave any leads gathering dust.
Example: “It was great to meet you at [name of exhibition]! If you are interested we would like to let you know how we can help with [product/service].”
Send a Personalized Follow-Up Email Within 48 Hours
The quickest way to keep momentum with a lead is to contact them immediately with a personalized email. To keep the lead thinking about it, your email should be sent within 48 hours of the actual showing.
- Personalize the email: If you have a recorded phone call or message, reference specific details from your conversation and don’t forget to note the broader thoughts of your organization.
- Include a link to relevant content: And then, share a case study, product demo, or some other content applicable to their needs.
- Keep the tone professional but friendly: Try to keep a conversational tone and try to show interest in helping them.
Sample Email:
” Hello [lead name] It was great to meet you at [exhibition name]. The specific service/product was [something] that you were very interested in. Find a link below to our detailed brochure that can give you more information about how we can help you reach your goals.”
Share Valuable Content to Keep Them Engaged
Once you make contact, continue to nurture the lead by providing the value the lead wants, in a way that fits their business needs. Posting content establishes your brand as a thought leader, and lets the lead know you’re thinking about delivering solutions.
- Share case studies and success stories: Provide real-life examples of how your exhibition stand solutions have ensured that others have succeeded.
- Provide access to educational resources: Blog posts, guides or webinars about industry trends or even your special services.
- Send a follow-up article or video: A few days after the initial follow-up email send an email sharing an article, video or some other content that continues to support your value proposition but isn’t overly sales-oriented.
Leverage Social Media Connections
A subtle way to stay top of mind is to engage on social media, starting with LinkedIn. Many people may already be associated with multiple companies, and so keeping your brand top of mind can make a huge difference.
- Send a personal connection request: A simple note referencing your conversation will go a long way.
- Engage with their posts: If you agree with their ‘LinkedIn Publishing’ article, go ahead and like, comment or share their post on LinkedIn.
- Post event recap content: Recapping or highlighting the exhibition on your social pages can also help generate interest and attract leads to your page.
Make a Follow-Up Call to High-Potential Leads
For high-value leads, a follow-up call can warm up those leads by creating a more personal connection. It’s also a direct way to communicate that can help build rapport and open up the conversation about how you can best meet their needs.
- Prepare for the call: You can look at notes from the conversation at the exhibition and expect them to ask questions.
- Highlight the benefits of your solutions: Make sure you are clear about what your exhibition stand can do to solve their problems or boost their event attendance.
- Be friendly and focused: Be concise, focus on your potential customer’s interests and keep the call to the point.
Offer a Special Promotion or Limited-Time Deal
A special promotion can motivate a lead to take the next step, especially if it adds to their exposure goals. This could be a discount, free consultation, or complimentary add-on to your services.
- Craft an Exclusive Offer: Customize the offer, if possible, based on what types of inquires were received at the exhibition.
- Create a Sense of Urgency: Creating urgency will involve that the offer is exclusive and time limited.
- Highlight the Value: Ensure that the lead understands what you’re promoting and why.
Example: “With the hope that you will use our services to start your upcoming projects, we have decided to offer you a 10% discount since you can find the exhibition name.”
Create a Follow-Up Schedule and Stay Consistent
Successful follow-up must be consistent. Set up a structured follow-up schedule, emails, calls, social media engagement, to keep repeating contacts over time.
- Plan regular check-ins: Don’t bother the new lead with follow-up messages. The follow-up rule is simple: after the initial email, then after a few weeks.
- Send reminders for upcoming events: If you have exhibitions or events in the future, let your leads know. This lets them know about other things they can attend and leverage to stay connected.
- Track your follow-ups: Document all touch-points in your CRM to measure engagement to see what’s working best.
Evaluate and Refine Your Follow-Up Strategy
Then, after a few weeks, evaluate your follow-up strategy to see what’s working and what’s not.
- Review open and response rates: Start looking at email open rates, clickthroughs, response rates, etc. to determine how effective each method is.
- Adjust your approach: Rely on the data and fine-tune your follow ups, live messages, timing, and promotional offers.
- Analyze conversion rates: Find out how many clients you’ve acquired from each lead, which is the best indicator of how successful the follow up has been.
Start Turning Your Leads Into Clients Today!
These tips on how to follow up leads after the exhibition and turn them into your valuable customers can help you follow up your connections and turn them into real customers. Following up is not just about making a sale, but about building a relationship. Using a structured approach to every lead gives each one a chance to become a long-term partner.
Are you able to achieve more success at exhibitions? If you are looking to showcase your brand at events, contact Exhibitsexpo today and learn how our expert exhibition stand solutions can help showcase your brand at events. We are your team on the road from lead generation to relationship-building and coach you to get maximum results from every exhibition event. Contact us today to begin the process of turning your leads into long-term relationships!
