Event professionals have a tough job. They have to find new business and keep their existing clients happy – all while managing budgets that are often tight and time constraints that are even tighter.
Lead generation is key to succeeding at this balancing act, but it can be difficult for event planners to generate leads on their own without the right strategy.
Luckily for them, there’s an easy way to boost your lead generation efforts: hire an event marketing agency! But first things first: before hiring a third-party firm, you need to make sure that your initial strategy for getting started is solid.
Getting Started
Most people think they know what they need to do, but the list of items on their To Do list is so long that they never finish anything. This can lead to procrastination and even depression, creating a vicious cycle where you’re stuck in limbo with no clear goals or direction in mind. To avoid this trap, set a deadline for yourself and commit to completing all of your tasks before then—or else!
If you find yourself avoiding certain tasks because they’re boring or labor-intensive (like writing emails), try setting smaller deadlines for those tasks and making them more fun by giving yourself rewards after each one is complete. Then go back up top and repeat the process until everything is done!
Step 1. Generating Leads
Generating leads is an essential step in the event planning process. You can think of it like this: If you’re trying to market your event, you need to find the people who will be interested in attending. The easiest way to do this is through lead generation. To get started, here are some tips on how to generate quality leads:
- Find out what your target audience values and offer them something that they want or need. Try not to talk about yourself too much when reaching out initially; instead, focus on making connections with people by talking about their interests and needs first. For example, if you’re selling tickets for a conference on renewable energy, offer free educational materials related to renewable energy as part of your initial outreach effort—this way, you’ll be able to establish credibility with potential participants right away!
- Make sure that any information provided online is clear and concise so that viewers know exactly what they’re getting into before committing themselves financially (or otherwise).
Step 2. Filter Your Leads
Now that you’re getting good leads, it’s important to make sure that your list is as targeted and high-quality as possible. To do this, you’ll want to filter out the people who aren’t going to be interested in your services or who can’t afford them.
As a general rule of thumb: If someone isn’t ready to buy now, they won’t buy from you later (and vice versa). So how do we know if someone is ready? Asking some basic questions about the event or event market will help determine this.
So what should we ask? This depends on the type of event professional you are (i.e., planner, designer). For example:
- What kind of events do you plan? Corporate events? Weddings? Conferences?
- How much does it cost per person for services? What’s the average ticket volume—how many guests are at each event they plan/design/coordinate? Does the company have a policy regarding minimum ticket price thresholds before they consider working with an outside vendor like yours (if so…sorry)?
- What types of clients hire them most often—small businesses or large corporations; private individuals vs. corporations; nonprofits vs . government agencies…etc.? Do those organizations typically use outside vendors like yours for these types of projects (and if so…are there many other similar companies offering similar products/services)?
Step 3. Convert Your Leads to Sales
The last step in the lead generation process for event professionals is converting leads to sales. This can be done by implementing a sales process, setting up a sales team and pipeline, and developing a strategy for finding high-ticket clients.
The first step in this process is to set up an automated system that converts your leads into hot prospects. Then, you need to define your sales funnel by creating landing pages for each stage of the funnel (e.g., “lead”). You also need to hire or train people who will work at each stage of this funnel—from prospecting all the way through closing deals on behalf of your company. Each member will have different responsibilities depending on their role within the organization as well as their level of experience doing what they do best:
- Sales Manager: Responsible for managing processes throughout all stages of conversion; develops strategies based on client needs/budget requirements.
- Account Executive – Leads Generation Team: Manages specific accounts within assigned territory; performs research on targeted accounts; initiates contact with targeted companies via phone call or email; conducts follow-up calls until conversation moves forward towards sale conclusion.
Event Professionals need to make sure their initial lead generation strategy is solid.
The quality of your lead generation campaign will be heavily dependent on the initial strategy. If you’re not targeting the right people, if your message is unclear or confusing, if your offer isn’t compelling enough to make an impact on potential clients—these are all pitfalls that can hurt the effectiveness of your campaign and negatively affect its ROI.
So, before you start gathering leads, make sure that:
- Your initial strategy is solid. Don’t just think of it as a way to get some basic information out there; instead, think about what you want these leads to do after they’ve seen it (if they even see it at all). Do you want them to call? Fill out a form and submit their information? Sign up for an email newsletter? All of these things should be part of your plan from day one because they’ll help determine which channels will work best for you in terms of cost-effective marketing strategies and long-term growth goals.
- You’re targeting the right people with your message. It’s tempting when building out a new campaign like this one just to launch without putting much thought into who exactly might benefit from what we have available here at Event Pros—and why should we care about this stuff anyway when all we want is more leads? Well…the answer lies within our mission statement: We aim high by exceeding expectations every time possible, so customers continue coming back again and again!
That means knowing exactly who needs what specific service offerings offered by Event Pros before making any decisions about how best go forward with their business needs (or lack thereof).
For example: If someone says they’re looking specifically for event planning services but doesn’t mention anything else specific–like catering services–then we shouldn’t waste time talking about catering options until later down line when enough trust has been built between potential customer/partner relationship.
Conclusion
When it comes down to it, the most important thing for event professionals to do is keep up with your lead generation campaign. The best way for you to do this is with a tool like Exceed by Genesys that will help you reach out to prospective clients so they can hear about your services and then contact you if they’re interested.
In a competitive industry like the events industry, you should also make sure to establish your brand as a power player. The Event Planner Expo is a great opportunity for Event Professionals who are interested in doing so. Click here to learn more.
