Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Post-Event Follow-up - by Heather Deloach

Working on a post-event follow-up project for one of our clients recently made me aware of how important post-show follow-up is to event ROI.

Too often, event managers lack a well-planned system for what to do with leads information once it is collected at shows. A strong leads management system and an aggressive post-event campaign are absolutely crucial to a successful event marketing program and positive return on investment.

Companies spend thousands of dollars on pre-show direct marketing, but post-show marketing is where actual business results are likely to be realized. A well-executed post-show marketing campaign such as an email blast sent to qualified leads or a post-event survey serves three major purposes:

• Exposure is recreated for your company and products or services
• Prospects have the opportunity to access and learn more detailed information about a particular product or service
• Prospects are given a way to initiate contact with someone from your organization

In order for a post-event follow-up to be successful, an event manager must plan strategically. The follow-up must be planned well in advance of a show or event. The goals of the follow-up must be explicitly decided beforehand. The questions your team must answer before the follow-up method is agreed upon are the following:

• What products or services do we want to focus on?
• Who are our targets for the follow-up?
• What information is of most importance to our target audience?
• What do we want the targets to do as a result of receiving our correspondence?

Once the answers to these questions are clear, it is much easier to execute a successful post-event follow-up.

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