After losing $30b during the pandemic, marketers are ready to make their grand return.

In fact, more than half of respondents to a study by The Event Participation Index said they’re extremely likely to return to in-person events by the second half of 2023.

We’ve covered trade shows and live events in the past, including an article about why you should host a trade show in which we reported that 95 percent of marketers think live events provide attendees are a valuable opportunity to form in-person connections in an increasingly digital world.

In a follow-up post, we looked at some simple things you can do to facilitate networking at your event.

But there is another critical element of hosting an event or trade show affecting both revenue and long-term relationships: event sponsors.

You’ve convinced brands to participate in your event, sponsoring a booth or a lounge or a networking event.

But what about after the event?

To get sponsors to return, you must show them a return on investment (ROI).

Here are two tips to get you on the right track:

Communicate About Expectations Throughout the Process

Ask your sponsors what they hope to get out of the event.

While ‘more sales’ is typically the underlying motivation behind most event sponsorships, brands should be able to express their goals in more specific terms—and you should be on board with helping your sponsor meet that goal.

Ronnie Higgins at Eventbrite suggests that sponsors narrow their expectations to a singular goal:

“What is the ultimate goal of your event? To generate qualified leads? Attract new employees? To build awareness or launch a new product? After making a list of all your goals, whittle down your answers to just one primary goal — the most important.”

Take your sponsors through this exercise ahead of the event. If their goal is product awareness, maybe there’s a way to work the product into what’s front and center at the event. If the goal is qualified leads, offering follow-up with the attendee list may be more beneficial.

Either way, communicating about your sponsors’ expectations ahead of the event will help you show how their involvement translated into ROI.

Make Sponsorship Packages With ROI In Mind

It can seem temptingly easy to create sponsorship packages. A headlining speaker, a feature in the program, a premium spot for a booth — these are all simple to include and simple to deliver.

But those elements of a sponsorship package are also difficult to translate into hard numbers for ROI, particularly from your end.

The CMO may have a vague idea of how many people approached her after her presentation, but you don’t.

Instead, build additional elements to your sponsorship packages that are simple to translate into ROI for your sponsors.

Include a coupon or link to your sponsor’s site when you send out reminder emails, and track how much traffic they receive as a result. Set up meetups between attendees and sponsors and examine how many personal connections that opportunity delivers. Create social media posts before, during and after the event featuring the sponsor and see where the engagement lands you.

And, provided you have permission from your attendees, offer attendee data to bolster the sponsor’s leads.

All of these efforts give your sponsors more exposure and give you the opportunity to deliver hard numbers when they come asking for ROI.

Proving the ROI of digital events to sponsors

The in-person event corner of the market suffered during the pandemic; the digital corner did not.

In fact, the global virtual events market was valued at more than $114b in 2021 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.4% from 2022 to 2030.

The rise of virtual events and growing participant preference will pressure hosts to prove ROI to their sponsors.

While you could tell sponsors to look at metrics like registrations, leads and demos, pipeline, and poll responses, Airmeet suggests realigning your sites on metrics like customer loyalty, retention, and referrals.

Other questions Airmeet suggests:

• Did organic brand searches go up after the event?
• What speakers and partners are you attracting?
• Have you generated any customer testimonials from attendees?
• Have any accounts expanded?

Switching your vantage point on these metrics and questions will put you in a prime position to measure—and prove—the ROI of virtual events to sponsors.

Proving the Value of Events in 2023

After a few years of budgets shifting away from events in lieu of content creation, digital events, and search ads, brands are returning to convention centers around the country.

While event hosts will remain eager to recoup lost revenue, they’ll be under more pressure than ever to prove their worth—sponsors in the down economy will demand it.

The events that can prove the best ROI will attract the most investments from sponsors in 2023 and beyond.

For more insights, sign up for MediaRadar’s blog here.

Trade shows (and any B2B event, really) are about more than swag and business cards. With the right approach, both brands and publishers can form promising leads and even lasting partnerships through trade shows.

This year we’ve covered a host of B2B event topics, including: 

• Why You Should Host a Trade Show
• 9 Things to Consider When Deciding Booth Sizes for Your Trade Show
• Event ROI: How to Show Your Sponsors Their Received Value 

But what about when it’s show time, figuratively speaking? Once you have your booth bought, swag delivered and business cards primed, it’s time to make a lasting impression on attendees.

The big question is: how can you literally stand out from the crowd? 

If you’re feeling less than inspired, consider implementing a couple of these winning trade show activity ideas from industry players around the web. 

Broadcast Your Audience

“Ever notice what happens at a ball game when someone sees themselves on the Jumbotron screen? They eat it up. You can do the same thing by broadcasting a Facebook Live stream from your trade show floor and showing it on a giant screen for everyone on the floor to watch.” 

~ Event Manager Blog

There’s a reason social media and personalization are so popular: people love broadcasting themselves. Give trade show attendees the chance to participate; ask them questions, let them show off their skills and even pitch their own brand. 

Put Social Media to Use 

“One customer of ours used a large flat screen to show all the latest Tweets with specific hashtags on Twitter. Next, they had attendees tweet at them using that hashtag (#companyxcontest), selecting 1 lucky user every hour the show floor was open to collect a prize. The company would then tweet back notifying the attendee of the win. #Score.” 

~ Metro Exhibits

Trade show activities don’t have to be face to face to be personal. Using Twitter (or even something like Snapchat) during the event will ensure people continue to follow you after the event is over. 

Get Your Trivia On

“Capture leads and engage visitors with a trivia-based game. One suggestion is to create a game of questions based on your service, product, or company. Attendees join the game with their contact info and a leader-board keeps track of who’s ahead. This draws folks back to your booth to keep track of where they stand in the competition, reinforces knowledge of your brand and captures data.”

~ Exhibit Systems

Everybody loves trivia night and a good competition. Keep people engaged throughout the trade show by gamifying your brand awareness a bit. 

Go for Something Memorable

“Contests are an extremely easy way to increase attendee engagement at trade shows. The trick is to do something creative and offer a great prize to winners. At Dreamforce 2017, New Voice Media asked attendees to guess how long it would take for a block of ice surrounding an iPhone to melt. Those who guessed right received a brand new phone for their efforts.”

~ Bizzabo

Contests don’t have to be all branded tidbits and social media plays. Make it unique and fun, and trade show attendees will be sure to remember it through next year. 

Offer a Learning Opportunity

“Attendees come to trade shows to learn. That’s why most trade shows have many sessions along with their trade show floor.  Get some of that action by hosting presentations by your own subject matter experts or company executives. Talk about the latest trends, most wanted how-to topics, and biggest challenges your customers face. Just be sure your subject matter experts are also good presenters – if not, get a professional presenter to learn the content, or to interview the expert.” 

~ SocialPoint

This isn’t the time to make a thinly disguised sales pitch. If you go this route, make it truly informative and engaging. With the right expert, you can position your brand or publication as a conversation starter within the industry. 

Make a Social Space With Yard Games

“Yard games are easy to include and they’re fun. Get an oversized Jenga set, chess board, or corn hole and you’ll have people playing all day long. Since these games are competitive between players, you won’t have to offer prizes or keep track of winnings.” 

~ Infinity Exhibits

If you want people to hang around your 50×50 trade show booth, you’re going to need more than mints and one-sheets. Create a fun space and the most important conversations will come about more naturally. 

Encourage personalized participation

“Get the crowd involved by asking them to write something down on sticky notes. Then use these to decorate your booth during the trade show. Topics could include why they attended the show, something they’re grateful for, or their favorite part about the event. Just keep it positive!” 

~ PeerSpace

Here’s that theme again: involvement and activation. The bonus here is that you can use what you gather in the activity for social media, newsletters and outreach down the line, well after the trade show ends. 

Every year, the Business Information & Media Summit brings together business information leaders to discuss marketing, data, strategy, digital sales and more. 

Using both internal research and insight from industry sources, MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman presented a compelling case for B2B event marketing at BIMS this year. 

The headline is that event marketing is a growing channel for advertisers and a growing revenue stream for publishers. But how is this growth taking shape? 

If you weren’t a BIMS attendee this year, these are the highlights: 

• 30% of marketers say they will definitely increase spend on sponsored events in the next year.
• Two-thirds of attendees at a conference represent a new prospect for a potential customer. 
• 92% of trade show attendees say their main reason for attending is to see the products featured.
• 82% of trade show attendees have the authority to make a buying decision.
• 38,000 brands sponsored or exhibited across just 60 B2B events in 2018. This represents a 6 percent growth YoY. 
• More brands are exhibiting at or sponsoring multiple events per year. The majority still only go to one event each year, but the percentage is increasing. 
• 8.2% of brands were sponsors at a B2B event in 2019
• The percent of brands sponsoring an event has increased 1.7% over the past 2 years.
• A little less than 1 in 5 of sponsor brands sponsor multiple events — slightly up in the past two years.
• Large events average 2800 exhibitors or sponsors. The space saw just a 3% increase from 2017 to 2019.
• But small events are growing at a faster pace, up 50% in the same three year span. 
• Exhibitor and sponsor spend on the average B2B event was up 12% in 2018. 
• Only 10% of events are considered large, but capture 68% of the dollars

The cost of event sponsorship and exhibition is rising as more brands start to treat event as a marketing opportunity, a higher percentage of these brands are buying sponsorships, and the cost of exhibitor and sponsorship fees increases. 

Taken altogether, this translates into higher revenue for publishers from events. IIt also means publishers don’t have to be intimidated by the cost of entry for event marketing, since smaller events seem to be poised for the most amount of growth. Long story short: the degree of events as a revenue driver for B2B publishers will vary depending on the event size and space. 

Publishers face a huge opportunity to grow revenue, particularly as they focus on smaller, niche events. 

Event marketing isn’t going anywhere anytime soon — so how will you make the most of it?

Last week, we looked at why events are so important to B2B marketers. This week, we shift the frame slightly to look at how B2B publishers can make the most of event marketing to drive revenue, grow their audience and engage with advertisers. 

By way of example, Bizzabo points to the Under 30 events they coordinated with Forbes. The business magazine now has an entire team dedicated to managing two types of events: tentpole events that can draw up to 2,000 attendees and smaller, custom events focused on a specific brand. 

“What we find is that, especially for the Under 30 community, they want to connect and they want to engage with the brand,” Marketing Director at Forbes told Bizzabo. “Finding our most authentic voice has been a big win for us.” 

According to Bizzabo, Forbes is diversifying revenue streams by focusing on events. As a result, they saw an increase in 2018 revenue of 18 percent. 

They key is to make it measurable. Translate event marketing into the growth of your subscription base or your ad sales pipeline. 

“Publishers are in a unique position,” Bizzabo co-founder Alon Alroy told the audience during a webinar co-hosted with MediaRadar earlier this week. “They hold the reach and thought leadership needed to develop successful events.”

In operational terms, event marketers at B2B publications should look at how to get every last dollar possible from the revenue their events bring in. One specific way to do that is to get the booth size just right.

It may sound like a small detail, but the booth is the entire foundation of your event, no matter your vertical or niche. It’s what exhibitors pay for, it’s what sponsors pay more for, and often it’s where attendees find a large amount of value. 

For starters, know which booth sizes do well. MediaRadar identified the most popular booth sizes at retail events for 2018. The 100 sq ft (10×10) booth was by far the most popular option, accounting for 50 percent of booths at retail events. Around a quarter of the exhibitors were willing to pay for a 200 sq ft booth, and just 5 percent paid for a 1,000+ sq ft booth. Take stock of your potential exhibitors and offer booth sizes accordingly. 

MediaRadar research shows that it’s a bad idea to discount booths based on size. For 2018, the cost per square foot was almost flat, despite a major increase booth size. That shows exhibitors and sponsors are willing to pay the premium for more visibility at your event. 

In the same vein, carefully consider how you position your sponsorship packages. Silver (or Level 2) sponsorships saw the most growth in event marketing last year, as well as the most popular option among new event sponsors.

However, Bronze is still by far the largest source of sponsorship revenue. At the same time, Bronze (Level 1) sponsorships account for most sponsorships across the board. 

Pricing for sponsorship packages should reflect the popularity of these levels. Think about why people prefer the middle option and go from there. 

There’s no question that events can boost revenue for nearly any B2B publication — not to mention foster advertising relationships, readership and more. 

Event marketing is growing in popularity for B2B marketers, as well. Forrester Research found that the average CMO commits 24 percent of their budget to live events. According to Stephen Kim over at Bizzabo, the large portion of budget is meant to “connect with customers, educate attendees, and generate leads. Given its versatility as a marketing tactic, live events can do a lot for B2B companies.” 

Follow the money, and this rings true. We place the value of trade show sponsorships at $63 billion. And we’ve found that the average retail event brings in $6.1 in additional revenue. 

Just look at some of the biggest B2B retail events from this year, and you’ll see the value that they drive for publishers, sponsors and exhibitors alike. The Ecommerce Operations Summit, for example, brings together reps from warehousing, workforce management, contact centers, inventory management, payment processing and more. Shoptalk bills itself as the fastest growing retail event, drawing 8,000 attendees in 2019 after just being launched in 2015. 

B2B events promise new content and virtually limitless connections. NRF — billed as ‘retail’s big show’ — attracted 38,000 attendees and 80 out of the top 100 US retailers. The event has also grown its Silver, Gold and Platinum sponsorships each of the last three years. 

MediaRadar also found that both sponsorship and exhibitor investments were up in 2018, with a 48 percent increase in sponsors from 2017 to 2018. Shopify — one of the biggest, Internet-native B2B brands — grew their event spending from $115k in 2017 to $300k in 2018. That’s an increase of 163 percent!

Marketers placing emphasis on events means it should continue to be profitable for B2B publishers. “Every event we put on, we expect to have about a 40 percent margin on it in year one,” Forbes CEO Mike Ferdele told Digiday. “As it matures, that goes up to 60 percent, 70 percent margins. It’s become very profitable for us.”

At the same time, there is still plenty of room for growth. Just 11 percent of advertisers in B2B retail print magazines also sponsored or exhibited at an event. The remainder have yet to realize the potential. 

How will you take advantage of this trend? 

Which would you prefer: an unsolicited LinkedIn message or handshake over coffee and pamphlets? 

Social media continues its rapid, upward expansion and targeted ads are getting smarter. But nothing beats a face-to-face connection in the B2B world. 

Events hold an important place in nearly any advertising budget — not the least of which are those within the hospitality market. 

Trade shows provide new opportunities for supplier relationships and events across the board facilitate networking for everyone from attendees to sponsors to host publications or associations. In fact, Bizzabo found that most marketers believe that “event marketing is the single-most effective marketing channel for achieving business goals.” This makes event marketing an essential channel in B2B going into 2020. 

Now, new data from MediaRadar supports the idea that events contribute in no small way to the marketing environment within the hospitality market. Not only that, but spending on events is up within the industry, when looking at the five biggest hospitality events. These run the gamut of interests and specializations, from technology and design to investments. They include: 

• The American Lodging Investment Summit
• Hospitality Design Expo 
• Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition & Conference
• International SPA Association Conference & Expo 
• ISSE 

The Shape of Hospitality Event Spending 

Spending on these top five hospitality events went up 17 percent between 2017 and 2018. The highest grossing event (HD Expo) brought in $26 million across those two years. Attendee fees play a part, but the lion’s share of revenue comes from event marketing in the form of sponsorship packages, booths, placements and more. 

Events are a particularly good fit for the hospitality market: hotels have a constant need for consistent suppliers, and suppliers can grow their business both buy expanding into new markets and upselling current customers. HD Expo, for example, pitched their exhibitor package by reporting that companies that purchased “enhanced marketing opportunities” at the event increased their leads by 140% in 2018. 

Hospitality groups have to source everything, so the product categories within the market span everything from furnishings to food and beverage. 

The top five product categories for 2018 were:

• Furniture: Big advertisers included RH Contract and Charter Furniture.
• Software: Oracle Hospitality and Protel made up a significant portion of software advertisers. 
• Lighting: Currey & Company, Daniolite and Pacific Coast were all among major advertisers. 
• Hair Care: Rusk and Redken were among the top spenders in this product category. 
• Wall Covering: Two of the top advertisers here included Koroseal Interior and TRI-KES.

Event marketing includes everything from program sponsorships to paid keynote addresses. But the hallmark of any exposition or conference is the vendor booth. In 2018, the most common booth size was a 10×10, followed closely by a 10×20 size booth. 

Clearly, event organizers are focused on getting as many vendors participating as possible. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use a hospitality event to build long lasting advertiser or vendor relationships. 
To learn more about event marketing done right, download our recent webinar with MediaRadar CEO Todd Krizelman and Bizzabo VP of Marketing Alon Waks. 

Hosting events provides a substantial revenue stream for trade media companies and a key means of engagement for advertisers. 

Statista reports that event sponsorships are expected to exceed $63 billion dollars this year. And, according to Bizzabo, 81 percent of marketers feel that live events are becoming more important to their company’s success. An even higher proportion of executive leaders believe that in-person events are a critical component of their company’s success.

Hosting an event can lead to better engagement, more revenue and even new relationships. But to get the most out of events, you have to ask the right questions. For any B2B publication, these include: 

• How do you get an effective event strategy in place?
• Where — and what — are event sponsors buying?
• How do you engage with sponsors?
• What is the ROI on creating a new trade publication event? 
• How do you follow up after an event? 
• Where is the most value in a B2B event? Booth sizes? Sponsorship packages? Lead engagement? 

The average retail event can bring in over $6 million in revenue for a trade publication. How can you meet that mark? 

On September 10, industry thought leaders Todd Krizelman (MediaRadar) and Alon Waks (Bizzabo) dove into the power of events from both host and marketer perspective.

They will show you how events can be leveraged to significantly impact your revenue — and answer all of your most pressing event marketing questions. 

Click the links above to download the webinar. You’ll learn:

• Where exhibitors and event sponsors are buying ads
• Key insights into the event advertising landscape for trade media
• What types of ads event sponsors are buying
• What media formats brands are utilizing in their ads
• How an effective event strategy can drive business goals
• How to increase event attendance and analyze ROI
• How the value of in-person connections translates into increasing revenue

There are at least 72 million podcast listeners in the United States, many of whom make up a good portion of a B2B publication’s demographic. 

Because of the promise of this niche medium, we included podcasts as one of the four types of B2B advertising to watch in 2019. 

Read More | Why Spotify Bought Gimlet: The Power of Podcast Advertising

But what about starting a podcast yourself? If you work with a trade magazine, you already have a niche audience and advertisers interested in highly-targeted, industry-specific advertising. A podcast may be the next channel for your advertising opportunities. Here’s what you should consider. 

The Early Success of B2B Podcasting 

Plenty of B2B publications have already delved into podcasting as both a means of expanding their reader base and offering a new channel for advertisers. 

PlayerFM offers a long list of podcasts hosted specifically by magazines — many of which are trade publications or at least carry a B2B focus. From The Fine Homebuilding Podcast to the Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast, the rise of trade-focused podcasts highlights just how much interest there is.

Apart from looking at trade publication podcasts specifically, trade media companies can learn from the successes of more broad based B2B branded podcasts.

More specifically, Rise & Grind by ZipRecruiter is a fantastic example of a branded podcast. “No one wants to listen to a 10-episode podcast about how great ZipRecruiter is at finding a job or helping hire the right applicant,” said Midroll CRO Lex Friedman. “But if we can create a show with someone like entrepreneur and author Seth Godin about what it means to be successful and being the most productive person around, that’s going to appeal to exactly the kind of people that ZipRecruiter wants to reach.”

Look for What Appeals to Your Audience

That’s the key phrase: a trade publication podcast appealing to your reader base and connecting advertisers with them in a new way. Realizing early success in starting a B2B podcast is about starting with the right point of view. 

Look at podcasting the same way you would look at native advertising: what value can it offer your audience and what will it do for your publication’s reputation? 

On that front, consider asking yourself three questions before jumping further into the process of creating a podcast for your trade media company:

• Why start a podcast? Knowing the reason behind the new channel will help you focus on everything from ad sales to ROI measurement. 
• What topics would you want to cover? And how do you plan on tying them in with your existing publication? 
• How will you get the resources you need? Consider your budget, what you need to learn, how you’ll distribute your podcast, potential guest posts and more. 

The answers to these three questions will give you a good baseline to work with. From there, there are a handful of things to think about before moving forward. 

5 Things to Consider Before Starting a Trade Media Podcast

Start by asking the right questions. Then think about the factors of starting a podcast you may not have considered even in answering those questions. These include: 

• Cost. True cost, that is. Getting a quality podcast going isn’t just a matter of recording some audio and putting it up on the platform. Make careful inventory of the costs behind recording, editing, design, hosting, marketing, equipment and more. 
• Relationships. Consider how starting a trade publication podcast could affect your relationships with your current advertisers. If they aren’t yet advertising via podcast, what’s the value offer you can give? If they are already utilizing podcast ads elsewhere, how can you draw them in? 
• Distribution. Decide how you want to distribute and market your podcast. Publishing podcasts works a little differently than other media (i.e. Spotify and iTunes pull from RSS feeds), so make sure you do your homework. 
• Revenue. How will the podcast fit into your existing revenue model, and how will you introduce the model? If you’re looking to expand existing advertiser relationships, running with baked-in ads or even full sponsorship is a good way to go. 
• Measurement. To measure the ROI of your foray into B2B podcasts, you should establish your metrics ahead of time. Do you want ‘success’ to depend on how many people from your audience tune in or on new ad revenue? 

Do you sell ads for podcasts? MediaRadar has the contacts and brand insights to help you win more business. 

The word is out: events are now a major channel for B2B advertising. For most publications, it’s not a question of if. It’s a matter of how. 

For more information on events and trade shows for B2B, check out our resources on why you should host a trade show and how retail trade shows deliver value beyond the booth. 

To get into the details of how to decide on the range of booth sizes for your event or trade show, see our list of top considerations below. 

Our top two recommendations? Don’t discount by the size of the booth, and don’t fall into a ‘one-size-fits-all’ mindset. Offering varied booth sizes and premium spaces will help you create more value for your vendors and attendees. 

You’ll need some careful planning to find the winning mix of 10×10 booths, tables and lounges. 

Size of Your Event Space

The size of your venue will certainly affect which sizes you can offer. Bigger space are more expensive, but can also allow for higher paying vendors. It’s a trade off, and one you should be flexible with. Layout matters just as much as size; look at your logistics and how you want people to move throughout the space before delineating booth sizes. 

Read More: 6 Conference Venue Mistakes to Avoid 

Number of Anticipated Vendors

If you have a high number of vendors coming, fitting them all in with large booths may be an issue. On the flip side, offering smaller booths with fewer participants will make your event look skimpy. 

Attendee:Vendor Ratio 

With a lot of vendors vying for space and many attendees looking to glean value out of your event, balancing booth size can become difficult. The higher the ratio, the more varied booth options you’ll want to offer. To encourage true networking and avoid booth hopping, offer a handful of larger booths or lounges. 

Read More: 5 Basic B2B Conference Planning Tips You Can’t Skip 

Premium Spaces Available

Before offering premium spaces, be sure your event venue can handle it. Will booth spaces have to be limited, or will you have room to sprawl? 

What Vendors Buy Elsewhere 

To have a baseline to work with, first look at what size and types of booths vendors are buying at similar events. You shouldn’t copycat, but it’s good to understand budgets and preferences before even landing on your booth size options. 

Differentiation From Competitors

On the note of looking at what vendors buy, be sure your offerings bring some differentiation from competitors’ events. The last thing you want is ‘just another B2B trade show’. Instead, actively look for ways to build networking into your booth layout, translate the value of various packages to sponsors and have a booth option that truly makes you stand out. 

Read More: 5 Simple Things to Do to Facilitate Networking at Your Event 

Outside Costs

Be mindful of what participating in your event will cost your vendors — from materials to opportunity. Making your event unique is a must, but not at the expense of your sponsors. If vendors have to create entirely new materials to fit your mold, you may want to rethink what you have on offer. 

Communication

If you offer premium options (like a lounge or larger booth), be careful with how you communicate the agreement. Make sure that your vendors know exactly how big the space is and what they need to bring (versus what you will provide at the venue). On that front, be absolutely sure that you can follow through on your promised space before making the pitch. 

‘Value Added’ Work

Value added options are usually great in theory, but work as a double edged sword in event marketing. If you want to win over a particular brand, upgrading them to a larger booth the week before the event may not be the way to do it. You’ve suddenly created a huge amount of work for their marketing department as they scramble to get everything together for a lounge vs. a 10×10 booth. Instead, look for ways to add value without increasing your vendors’ workload — additional social posts, for example, or a special mention at the beginning of a breakout session. 

Networking at events and trade shows is a great way to build rapport for potentially sales-ready relationships.

Usually this means having a plentiful stock of business cards and a well polished elevator pitch.

But everyone else will be stuffing their carry on with business cards and have that tired pitch tagging along too.

How can you get ready for the event so that you’re remembered as prospects board the plane? What is the best way to follow up once everyone gets back to the office? These are our top five tips gleaned from the sales pros here at MediaRadar.

#1: Don’t forget about your current clients

Conferences are not just an opportunity to build prospects; they’re a chance to have some face time with your clients.

Successful client relationships depend on ensuring that you continue to address their business needs. While you may have your own methods for following up on this front, nothing beats an in-person meeting to show a proactive level of customer care.

Ahead of the conference, send out emails to your clients to ask if they will be attending. If they are, be sure to schedule a specific time when you can get together. This will be your chance to highlight any new offerings and tie in a timely conversation with the conference’s topics.

#2: Make use of the conference list

Use the conference list — complete with sponsors, vendors and speakers — to identify prospects you want to get in front of during the event.

Once you have a shortlist of prospects, do your research on each prospect. What has their activity looked like on LinkedIn and Twitter? What kind of media is their brand looking to buy? What efforts have been successful in the past, and how can you augment these successes for them?

Throughout this process, make sure you get organized so you have easy access to the list and relevant information.

#3: Take the time for a tailored approach

Research is one thing, and tailoring your sales approach based on the information you’ve gathered is another.

Using the shortlist you made above, ask yourself (and your sales reps) one critical question: if I get one minute in front of this prospect, what’s one thing I want to be sure that they know?

Having that piece of knowledge in the back of your head means you won’t have to completely revamp your sales pitch. Instead, you can simply plug in a specific value proposition you know will land.

Bonus: ahead of each event, spend some time reworking your elevator pitch — does it pass the “mom” test?

#4: Put that in-flight WiFi to use

During the conference, make note of who you meet and what you talk about. Make notes on the back of the business card if you have to; better yet, get organized with a spreadsheet in the hotel room.

Then, on the plane home, fire up your laptop and get cracking on those follow up connections. Send a personalized message referencing something that you talked about or something you remember about them. It’ll be waiting for them when they get back to the office.

Don’t go into sales mode with these messages. Just make the connection and leave it there for the time being. An initial “Have a good weekend” will sit much better than “Let me know how we can work together.”

#5: Schedule time for follow up  

That initial follow up message plants a seed. But you still have to water it.

The people you meet at events and conferences are real prospects if you treat them like real prospects. After you make that initial connection, schedule time in your own calendar in the following two weeks to send a follow up message with more of a value proposition. Again, don’t just copy/paste. Use your notes from both before and after the conference to be sure you’re speaking on their level.  

Conferences, trade shows and events are fantastic opportunities for prospecting — provided you put in the work. We’re not talking business cards that get forgotten in the bottom of a suitcase. We’re talking research, lists and a dedicated follow up. You’ll be glad you made the effort.