Conference Success Part 3: 5 Post-Conference Tips You Can Use to Increase Your Success

Welcome to The Contractor's Daughter, your go-to podcast for eliminating random acts of strategy and marketing in your highway construction business. Hello, friends. I'm your host, Jeani Ringkob. I'm a third-generation asphalt contractor and an absolute brand strategy and marketing geek.

So we made it. We're in part three of our three-part Conference Success Series. We're talking about almost the most important part and the part that most frequently falls apart on us. It's the post-conference portion. What do we do when we get back from the conference? We're tired. We probably have just a backlog of emails, phone calls, and people asking us to take care of stuff. We're just overwhelmed.

We probably have the next conference coming up. We have projects where we have our operations team that is needing things from us, all the things come piling in, and you have all these opportunities. It's really unfortunately too easy to let it not happen and to really not hit it as hard as you could.

If we have a couple of simple steps in place, we can create a process and system, even start automating things and getting things into tools and systems to help us make this really easy so we don't drop the ball. I'm going to give you five steps for this post-conference.

When we do our workshop, our Conference Success Workshop that I'm going to give you an opportunity to register for, we're actually going to share some templates that you can use to actually give to your marketing team, your sales team, or they can actually attend this workshop too so they actually have a place to start. They have the copy and the words for different types of contacts, and we'll talk about that as we go through these five steps.

Make sure that you're registered for your spot in that conference. Since we're going to get pretty interactive, we'll probably have to limit the capacity. That's going to be at storybuilt.marketing/conference.

Let's dive into step number one right now. That's get everything into your pipeline tool. If you don't have a tool, make sure that you start looking at it and it's something that even pre or during conference, you can have your team start researching and report back to you.

It's time to implement something like HubSpot or some form of CRM, even if it's a simple spreadsheet, a business development spreadsheet. We can actually share a template with you guys during our workshop of what this could look like so you actually have one that you can start.

If you don't actually have a CRM in place, they're using Salesforce, HubSpot, any of those can be great sales and marketing tools so that we can make sure that sales and marketing is working together. The sooner you get those things into that system, or like I said in the previous episode, somebody can actually be working on this right away before you even leave the conference, you can scan, email, or take photos of your business cards or notes and have somebody actually start getting this in your system right away.

But when you get back, make sure that this task gets completed first. Also, when you're doing this, take heed to think about four different categories that they might fall into. Are they warm leads? Are they cold leads? So maybe they're a fresh lead, maybe you didn't talk to them directly, they were recommended to you but you didn't actually have a conversation.

Are they a hot lead? Did you guys actually have a conversation and there were ideas in synergy already really starting right there in the room and you were talking about what this could potentially look like and you could probably put the deal together quite quickly and get some big successes and wins to help make sure that ROI for your conference really pays off quickly?

The other category that people don't think about, are there any no-shows? Are there people that you wanted to meet with in maybe that app directory, the list of participants, or people that you talked to in advance that you wanted to talk to there, but they weren't able to make it for some reason?

Make sure you include no-shows. They could be really great opportunities to have in your pipeline as well. The fact that they couldn't make it is a great conversation starter, you can talk about how you missed them there and offer insights for them.

Let's move on to part number two and probably my favorite and the biggest one is I like to say have a strategy sprint. When you get really good at this and you're implementing this process, both pre, during, and post-conference, you might even start doing a little bit of this in advance or this is going to get super simple because you might use the same overarching strategy and just refine it a little bit based on the type of conference, the type of people attending, where your business is at in its cycle, what types of products and offerings you have really on the docket right now.

As you do this, this piece is going to get easier. Do a quick strategy sprint and think about what are the communication pieces you've had. If you've been following this podcast series, you know that I recommended during the conference that you actually try to make quick text messages or emails to people immediately at the conference.

Text is my favorite way because a lot of people have out-of-office replies, they're going to have big piles of this but you can quickly make a connection, remind them of something maybe you forgot to tell them during that conversation you had just two hours ago, whatever it is, so you may actually already have your first touchpoint and the first piece of your strategy already moving into execution.

Strategy needs to really focus on what type of touchpoints or touchpoints along that customer journey were you trying to move them closer to the purchase phase are you going to be having.

Let's talk about modalities first. Don't just call. Don't just text. Don't just email. Use all of these elements. Different people like different things and research tells us that we're actually going to move the relationship further and faster if we leverage multiple different modalities.

Use email, use texts, use phone calls, use actual snail mail, send them something in the mail, something that maybe you picked up from the conference, something that based on the conversation you think that they would find interesting, maybe even send them a photo of you guys together at the conference, something that's going to capture their attention, even a small gift that you can relate to making speed decisions like a stopwatch, something that’s going to start a conversation and make them remember you and be a really intimate touchpoint.

After we talk about modalities, during your sprint session, you're going to want to talk about ideas and actually generate a whole list of ideas that can be touchpoints. What types of gifts or items can we send in the mail and what would we write? Would it be a personal note? Would it be just a simple Post-it note? What is it that we can include in that? That's one idea.

Also, a survey is a great idea. What if you wanted to collect information about the experience that people have there, what they thought about it, all of those kinds of things? Even if you're not the host of the event, you can always do some type of information gathering right after the event when it's fresh in people's mind, when they have opinions about stuff.

Maybe it's even about what education events were your favorite? What insights did you gain from them that maybe you could share with us or share with other people? Anything to put together a survey and actually have them engage with you. It's a great way to indicate interest and get them communicating.

People like to offer their opinion and insights. You can also put in some questions in there that are going to help you really on the sale side when you're having those early conversations that are going to give you some early indicators as to what their thoughts are about their experience with you as well.

Case studies or any kind of data that you can share based on a conversation that you had. Maybe they mentioned they're curious about a certain thing and you have a case study that’s relevant, make sure that you share that with them. Then also photos, share any images, photos, things that you collected, maybe you've had a photo of somebody else that would be interesting to them, or you interviewed somebody and you videoed it, share that with them.

If you had actual interactions with them that got captured, people would always love that as well. If you went to educational events or you took great notes about your thoughts and reflections on the conference, that's another great thing that people might want to get access to and would really appreciate. Share your notes and your takeaways from the conference.

In those early touchpoints, we might be talking about something different than we are further down the line. Also, in your strategy sprint, what you need to think about is what is your long-term follow-up schedule and where are you trying to drive these people? What is your call to action? What do you really want them to do? Make sure you don't lose sight of that.

Let's talk about what an example of this might look like. We'll be getting into this more in the workshop. You can actually build a follow-up schedule for your own company for your marketing and your sales team to be able to collaborate in the workshop. But that first touchpoint, which may even happen while you're still there, could be a reference to the conversation.

Remind them who you are, give them some context. Usually, it's great if it's in a text or an email so that they can go back and reference that because remember, just like you, they're overwhelmed, they had a lot of contact, and they have a lot of stuff they're trying to keep on top of their plate.

A great example of what the next step could be is send value. Once again, this goes back to that case study or an article that you read, something that actually adds value for them and any problems that you discuss that they might be facing.

The next thing that you can do is invite them to something, whether it's just to have a meeting with them, whether it's a webinar, a workshop, or some kind of event that your company puts on or your salespeople, maybe it's a demo, maybe it's to come out to a project and actually watch the process in place, maybe it's to actually meet with a current client of yours that might be able to answer questions for them, invite them to something.

Another great idea is if you have data, a brief, or case studies that you can turn into presentations, invite them to a presentation that is actually relevant and adds value to them, something that helps them understand the marketplace, how to make better decisions, how to possibly solve a problem.

Then the next step, the next touchpoint might be a video call or even better, maybe it's in person, and you're actually delivering that information, delivering that value, making a connection even if it's just helping them have a network connection and you're doing that in person. Then you're also giving them a call to action.

If they're a great prospect, make sure they know what are the next steps. A three-step process, no more than four of what does it look like to work for us, we do this, you get this, and this is what success looks like. Make sure you're actually calling them to action and you're telling them what the next thing is.

Oftentimes, people just need to be told that it's time to make a decision and take action. If you're still not converting them or not in a partnership with them the way you want to be, make sure that you're going back to step one, which is that tool they're using that you've collected all that contact information in and you're continually following up.

Just because somebody isn't ready right now or a partnership doesn't make sense for them right now doesn't mean that it doesn't in three months, six months, or even a year. Make sure that your strategy includes consistent follow-up that uses lots of modalities and you're always brainstorming how you're going to be adding value and offering really great connection and follow-up with them.

Let's move on. That was a big one, right? The strategy piece of post-production but make sure it's a sprint, make sure it happens quick, and it gets implemented. Number three, publish content. Hopefully when you were there, you were taking photos, taking notes, maybe taking videos.

A lot of companies these days are actually bringing somebody along with them to help them capture all of that stuff. This is something that we're actually doing at most of our events these days because it's hard to do that and be really engaged in the conversations.

But everything that you gathered there, and you should have been gathering stuff, make sure you're publishing that, you're dripping it out, you're connecting with your marketing team, and really tying it into the sales strategy and you're tagging people there, you're tagging event hosts, you're tagging the event itself, people that you have conversations with, current customers, and your toadying their success and their experience there as well.

Publish the content, really get some traction out of the event, post event. It should be part of your social media calendar and strategy for problems in the next three months. Then also, you can recycle that content again when that event starts coming up again in the next year and you're wanting to start talking about everything great that happened there and how you're really excited to do it again. You can get a lot of mileage out of this content that you're going to publish.

Now, tip number four. Post-event, you can create a landing page on your website. A lot of times, we're really underutilizing our websites, and we're not getting the most out of it. This is another way and a really creative way that you don't see very often that you could actually create a website that you can use in all of that strategy and the follow-up communications to send people to it.

On this website, you can share photos, videos, highlights of your insights, and takeaways from the event. If you and your team gave a presentation or there’s a presentation you really loved and that presenter is willing to share some of their information from that event and you want to showcase that there, you can share that on that page. That's also another great way to start a partnership.

Also, maybe stats or reference things. I know that when we were recently at CONEXPO, though, it was a record-breaking year and people were blown away by the number of people attending education, just attending the event overall. Share some fun stats. People really love to hear that stuff, especially those people that were no-shows or couldn't attend an event or they want to share that information with other people that they're connecting with.

An event or a page would be a great way to do that. If you do that though, make sure that you include a call to action on that page and you're actually inviting people to engage with you. Maybe it's to get one of those case studies, to connect with you or your team, to get a presentation about some of the information that you collected or briefs that you have that are relevant to the industry. Make sure that has a call to action even if it's just to contact your team.

Then lastly, but not least, make sure that you're tracking the results. It's really important to know what type of leads are you getting a great result with. Are there certain modalities or touchpoints that you're doing a certain way, case studies, value they're adding that are getting better results with the people that you want versus others?

Make sure that you're connecting the dots. All of the things that you did at the conference, you also want to be tracking results at the content that you're publishing, that's going to help you understand how to do it better in the future. What are people engaging with? What do they like? What are they talking about? What are they sharing? What gets them to actually enter into a communication with you on those social media platforms that therefore turns into one of the great leads in your pipeline?

There are five tips that you can use post-conference, and some of the things we're going to do in the workshop is we're going to actually work on the strategy pieces. What could your strategy be? What are some ideas that you guys could have for that first big bucket of touchpoints that you can create as you're implementing and rolling out that follow-up?

We'll probably also talk about some of the best tools that you can implement to really automate and create, maybe you have some emails that can be automated because you're sending the same email out to everybody that you met at that conference. That could be one way that you're streamlining things. We'll probably be talking about some tools to actually implement that.

One thing we're definitely going to talk about is some scripts and some templates to help your sales team and your marketing team get started. We're going to differentiate in our workshop between cold leads, warm leads, and hot leads, and what are some of the things that we need to be saying and talking about in each of those different situations and actually give your sales team and your marketing team some scripts that they can use to support moving this business development process along and getting people closer to that point of conversion.

Make sure once again that you register for the workshop. It's at storybuilt.marketing/conference. You'll be able to get a seat in there. If it gets too full, maybe we'll even host another one. But for now, we're only planning on doing one so make sure that you get a spot.

It's going to be really interactive. We're going to have checklists, templates, copy that you guys can use, some tips to help you guys actually build some of your strategy right there on the site because we're moving into conference season and you want to have the stuff in place.

Make sure that you've done some of the prep work, and that you're prepared for this and you know that at every single stage, you have a plan on what you're going to do, it's going to help you enjoy the conferences more. If we go in with a clear plan, and we have a strategy to execute and leverage everything that happens during the conference afterwards, you're going to enjoy the conference so much more and you're going to increase your ROI easily tenfold by just having a plan and a strategy to follow during the conference season.

I can't wait to see you guys at the workshop. Can't wait to see you guys at the conferences. Make sure you register but also make sure you're connecting with me on LinkedIn. I'm speaking at lots of great events this year. I'm super excited. As I look at my travel schedule, I'm a little a little bit nervous, but it's going to be great and I would love to connect with you guys there.

Make sure that you reach out. Connect always, always. I will respond to you guys and would be happy to connect on events to tell you more about what we're speaking on, about what some of the other speakers are that we're excited about, and anything we can do to help make sure that your conference season is a success for your sales team, your marketing team, operations, HR, and everybody in your company that can benefit.

Thanks for joining us. Make sure you subscribe and you're always catching The Contractor’s Daughter podcast, checking out everything that Blacktop Banter is doing as well, we love being a partner with them, and all of their partners have so much great stuff going on so make sure you're connected there as well. Talk to you soon.

Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of The Contractor's Daughter. If you liked what you heard, be sure to subscribe and review. But most of all, share this with all of your friends, partners, and customers in the highway construction business. Thank you for building the infrastructure that we all rely on.