Your Marketing Event is Over...Now What?

EXHALE!

Your event went off without any (major) issues! Sure, the speaker talked a little too long on one topic and one of your sales reps no-showed at the last minute. But your guests showed up, the venue worked well, and everyone had positive feedback. On to the next event! But wait, you spent all that time, money, and effort to connect with your customers and attract new prospects. They bought into your brand, raised their hand, and showed up to learn more and to see what you had to offer. Now is the time to capitalize on that. Here are some final to do's to make sure you get the most from your event, even when it’s over.

Send thank-you notes

Never underestimate the power of a thank you. Every touch matters! Send out the presentation and ask if they have any additional questions. Have a plan in place with your sales reps to make sure they follow up to set an appointment. Have guests that no-showed? No problem! That is still an opportunity. They showed interest in your brand and clearly want to learn more; treat no-shows like any other marketing qualified lead (MQL). Send a “sorry we missed you…” email and include a strong call to action (CTA) with next steps on how to opt into a follow-up appointment.

Send a post-event survey

People love offering up an opinion, and a post-event survey is one more way to connect with them while gaining insight into what they liked and didn’t like about your event. Your guests are your target audience, their insight can be invaluable to your future planning and will help you drive more of the right people to your next event.

Collect internal feedback

Hopefully, you included your sales team in the pre-event planning and therefore they felt invested in the event from start to finish. Host a post event review with your team to get their feedback, learn what they heard from the attendees, and make sure they are doing their part for post event follow up.

Start a nurture campaign

Add your registration list to the appropriate email nurture campaign. Depending on where the leads are in your funnel, distribute hot leads to your sales team for immediate follow up.

Adjust your audience profile

Compare your registration list with those guests that actually attended. See a pattern? Did a lot of Directors show up but no C-level guests? Did your event resonate with a certain vertical more than others? Did you hit the right target audience? Compare your event goal with the actual attendance outcome.All of these steps will help you reap the rewards of your well-executed event and create an even better event in the future.