Conference Success Part 2: 6 Conference Tips to 10X Your Return on Investment

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.

Welcome to part two of our Conference Success series here on The Contractor's Daughter. I'm your host, Jeani Ringkob, and this is part two, like I said, of a three-part series where we're talking about something that I get questions related to or get people saying, “I wish we did this better in our business.”

As I'm looking at my calendar, I'm filling up speaking engagements, and booking my travel to conferences that I'm planning to go to in this busy conference season that's going to be here before we know it, I thought now's the perfect time to actually answer some of these questions.

In the last episode, we talked about what should we be doing before a conference to make sure that we're getting the most out of it, and a great ROI on the time, money and everything that we put into going to a conference, whether we're an exhibitor, whether we're speaking, whether we're just attendee, whether for education, whether for networking, no matter what you go for, we need to be thinking about what do we do preparing for this conference, what do we do at this conference, and what do we do after this conference?

If we can have some processes, systems, and tools to help us during each one of these phases, and we're strategically intentional about what we're going to do during that time, it can be incredible how you can magnify your ROI. I would say you can easily 10x the return on investment than what you're used to getting from going to a conference no matter what your objectives are.

If you didn't catch last week's episode, make sure that you're not only subscribed to the podcast, but that you go back and you listen to that episode. We are also going to be offering, because I know a lot of people want to talk about things in more detail, they want to troubleshoot hotseat things, their elevator pitches, how to set up a booth, how to be really unique, what kind of content to prepare, we're actually going to be offering a workshop where we're going to go through with a limited number of people.

My clients are getting the first access to this but we also are going to be offering some access to some of our podcast listeners so make sure that you go and you check that out and you get your spot for that. You can find information about this workshop coming up in just a couple of weeks at storybuilt.marketing/conference.

Make sure that you get your spot. We're going to have checklists, templates, resources, all kinds of stuff to make this process easier and simpler for you and your team and to help you get to that 10x return on the time and the money that you're investing in going to these conferences this season.

I have six things for you today as it relates to what do we do at the conference to really make sure that we're amplifying that ROI. When we're there, we're networking, we're having fun, we’re getting out, we're staying out maybe too late sometimes, we're also getting up early to man the booths or catch an educational event, whatever that is. It's a lot and it's exhausting.

We have a couple of things top of mind. We've done the prep work that we talked about in the last episode. Then if we have these things in place during the episode, and we remind ourselves to stay focused on these, we are going to make sure that we are on the way to really getting a great ROI.

First off, this might not be relevant for everybody but the first point that I want to talk about, because for most of us it is, if not at every conference, at some conference, is your booth or your space if you're physically participating in it as an exhibitor.

What should happen with your booths in your space? So many times, what we have is we have the single booth that we've had for years, and we just make sure that it's got our brand colors and a logo and it pops up and it travels easily. Then we assume that that box is checked.

That's not exactly the case. There are three things that I want you to think about and this is a litmus test that I use for strategy, for tactics, for marketing content, for websites, for everything that we do, for even job descriptions, and thinking about how we approach workforce, recruitment, and retention.

It's a litmus test that deals with three points: Is it differentiated? Is it relevant? Is it sustainable? This is a really great thing to think about to help you think about how to make your booth stand out. If you're going to go through the time and expense of having a booth, you don't want it to just be consistent with your visual graphic brand, you also want to make sure that it's going to attract people and actually execute on what your objectives are, the things in the metrics that you decided in this pre-prep that you did, referring to the last episode, that it's actually going to get you those results.

Think about how you can be different, think about how you can attract people. We want to attract and then once we have those people there, we want to do two more things. We want to connect. When I say connect, you want to collect information. If you don't collect information and you can't follow up with people, you've really just wasted time and money.

Then thirdly, if you can educate them more or provide value to them, you're going to have a much bigger impression. Instead of just having a very superficial contact point, you're going to become more memorable, you're going to set yourself up as an authority, and they're going to remember you. Think about that.

We're going to talk about one of my points a little bit down the road here about content and that will help with the education piece. But I want you to think about your booth where it's at, if people can sit there, if it draws somebody's eye in. Think about things like are there video, is there sound? What are all the senses that we could tap into?

Doing things like having beer or cocktails later in the day can be a great thing, but a lot of people do it. Why it's relevant, and it is a great idea, also make sure that if everybody's doing that, how can you do it different and still be relevant and something that's sustainable? It can be in your budget. You could do it every single night, whatever that needs to be from the sustainability side.

This is something that we're probably going to talk about during the workshop is if you have a booth, what makes your booth stand out and what could you do? I've seen people rearrange their booths, just do slight tweaks to how it's laid out, and all of a sudden make it much more inviting and attracting and pull people in.

I've seen booths where they actually create paths and walkways that visually draw people towards whatever they're using to educate or where they're collecting that contact information. There's a lot of really great things that we can do to be very, very different.

One of my favorite activities, and something I did at CONEXPO is actually walk around with different clients and we looked at booths and we talked about what is totally different and unique, who has a lot of people really attracted to the right things.

We saw one, they actually had a pathway design and very contrasting colors, it seemed very wide and open and some people would say, “Maybe they're wasting space.” But what they were doing was visually attracting people to and walking them down a path where they were playing a video, they had some demonstrations going on, and they had a really engaged, active crowd at the end of that path.

It was almost like the yellow brick road to the Emerald City. It was incredible the kind of engagement they were getting. Those are the things that we're going to be discussing at the workshop. Start thinking about your booth.

Now let's move on to number two. It's an extension of that because we talked about how can we educate. Make sure that you have the content that you've prepared in advance, referring once again to the previous episode, make sure you have it there and that you're using it.

Whether it's playing on a video, whether it's something people can engage with on computers, devices, or iPads, actually, they're at your booth, whether it's just talking points that you've established for your sales team or your marketing team that's there, whether it's QR codes that are going to send people somewhere.

One of the things I like to see, because people can be really overwhelmed, is using really effective infographics that address the specific pain points that you know people want to talk about. What do people ask you about all the time or what is something that you know that your sales team comes up against that if you could cover that in a really great visual graphic, it would really make them more interested in taking an even deeper dive into what you can educate them on?

If you're familiar with a Google study 7-11-4, it means we basically need to have 7 different forms of hours of content, 11 touch points in 4 different locations. Once we've actually accomplished that, that's when somebody is willing to take the next step with us and really look at possibly converting.

If you think about that, it seems overwhelming, but a conference is a really great way to, first off, getting that unique location touchpoint to give them quite a bit of hours to consume or at least knock out 30, 40, even an hour depending on the types of events, the booth, and how engaging it is, how your sales team is interacting, a conference is a great way to do that.

Make sure you have supporting content ready to go. Even have backup content that you can send people that may be interested in something and you want to send them something a little bit deeper down the road. We're going to talk about that type of content more in next week's episode.

Let's move on to something that takes us out of the realm of that booth. What you might be trying to do is you're trying to capture leads or attract partners, and that is the education piece. If you're there, you have your team there to further education, maybe you're sending HR to learn about some workforce strategies to deploy, really have them some different stuff in that area, if you're sending people to learn about technical stuff, striping, mix designs, whatever that is, make sure that they have a plan in place.

Here are some great tips to actually do while they're in the education session: First off, make sure they make it to the education session, or at least the ones that they really want to go to. They're not going to be able to go to all of them, they should have decided in advance.

But here's what you should do: Be prepared to take notes. That would be my first tip. Also, connect with the speaker or speakers or anybody else that is really presenting or offering value at that event. Connect with them on social media. If they're offering contact information, make sure that you get that. Always these people are more than happy to answer questions.

If you have questions, you don't get answered there, don't have time to get answered, or if you want to go deeper into a topic or ask them for additional resources, examples, testimonials, anything like that, those people are always really able and willing to help you. Make sure that you connect with them. It's a great way to also elevate your network on social media platforms you're using.

Then one of the things that I like to tell people to do is before you get up and you walk out of that room, make a note or even set a calendar event for the following week about if this really hit home and you felt like there was great value, what is the next step that you're going to take as it relates to this topic?

Did they give you marching orders during this? Did they give you a resource that you can use but you need to carve out 30, 60 minutes to actually do it the following week? Make a commitment before you walk out of that room. Whether it's putting in your notes, setting a reminder in your calendar, or actually setting the calendar event to block time out to do it, make sure you do that on the spot.

Let's get on to number four. We're going to go back to one of the most critical things and the things that oftentimes are really tried to measure results for and that is a couple of tips and tricks while you're at the event when you capture leads or you come up with an affiliate or a partner that you know you want to further engage with.

First off, go old school, use cards but don't be so eager to always hand out your card. Make sure you get their card. If they've ran out of cards and they don't have it, actually ask for their contact information and put it in your phone right then and there.

The best thing is to have control of that conversation and you have the contact information so that you can follow up and you can reach out. Don't put it in their hands and assume that they're going to get back to you.

Another great tip is to use any whitespace on those cards to make a quick note about what you talked about. If you promise them some more content or education information, or to make a connection for them, make a note on that so you don't forget.

Another great tip that I like to see is within a few hours of having that conversation, find some of the corner where you can sit down and send a couple of text messages out to some of those great contacts and really move that conversation into that intimate setting of their phone.

People really use a lot of text messages these days, and it will still be there on their phone even after the busy conference is over. Maybe you refer to send them a link for something you promised them or you think was interesting, something you forgot to tell them or share an insight about maybe they mentioned their families getting ready to go on a ski vacation, somewhere you've been before and you share a great restaurant tip. Something that really takes that conversation to the next level.

If you go back to that Google's 7-11-4, that's another touch point. Even if it's not a specific education piece, it's still another touch point that moves you further into the relationship. That's a really great tip right there. Make sure you’re proactively collecting those leads and moving them further down the pipeline immediately.

This moves me into point number five. This can all feel like a lot when you're at the conference. One thing that people often don't think about doing in advance, which is a great asset, is get some support to be supporting you during the conference, maybe back in your home office, or even hire a virtual assistant for a limited amount of time.

You could even get a really great high school or college student that wants to make some extra money and have them kind of be on call. You can send them photos of the business cards. You could have them start connecting on LinkedIn for you.

You could do voice memos and have them actually send follow-up emails immediately to those people so you're already in their inbox with either that resource or that follow-up note so you're really making a great impression. How impressed are they going to be if before you even left the event, they're getting a contact from you? You can have somebody helping you supporting with that.

One of the things I really love to do and I have my team doing there is if I get a really great contact or I promise somebody information, or I come up with somebody that I think there's an opportunity to collaborate on something with, I actually have them not only start connecting on social media platforms, sending follow-ups, we actually start building profiles about that person.

What is their company? How many people work for that company? Who are their customers? Where did they go to school? What does their family look like? What do they like to do? We like to start capturing all that information immediately so by the time I get home, we already have a wealth of information to be entering into our pipeline, to be using to add value to them, determining which resources might we be able to share, who can we connect them within our network, all of those things. Consider having somebody there to support you on the backside.

Let's dive into our last tip, and this is one that we're probably going to get into pretty thoroughly during the workshop, as well as I have an additional resource for you on this one. You're probably wondering how come we haven't talked about the all-important elevator pitch? We all love it. We all hate it. It feels icky but yet in our culture, everybody wants to know, “What do you do?” What do you say when they say that?

Everybody's asking that question. Everybody's getting told what everybody does in these conferences. How do you stand out? How do you be different, clear, and relevant? Those are the things that I like think about. Instead of an elevator pitch, I think of it as a one-liner.

This is the objective for any one-liner. When somebody asks you what you do or you have an opportunity to share what we would traditionally call an elevator pitch, we like to call the one-liner, I want you to know that your objective after you say that is for them to say, “Ooh, tell me more about that.”

Whether or not it's relevant to them as a consumer or a prospect, or they're intrigued about you as a potential partner or affiliate, we want them to be very piqued and interested and know immediately what we do. I had a client that we worked with and after we did the research and we’re developing their strategy, we discovered it was taking them 18 months on average for their prospects to even understand who they were and what they did, how did they fit into the puzzle of the solution they were trying to put together.

That was awful. It was the one thing that we knew not only was an opportunity to shorten our sales cycle, but this one-liner should help them really jump over so many hurdles immediately, what problem do you solve? Even if they're not that person, they should immediately know who in their world do they know that has that problem that you solve?

We actually have a formula for this and it starts with the problem, the solution, and success or the outcome. It almost gives a testimonial in place. But what you notice that's different there and what makes a one-liner different is it has nothing to actually do with you. They may be asking what you do, but what they really want to know is are you important to me? Can you help me survive? Can you help me thrive? Are you going to help me make money? Are you going to solve a problem or pain point that I have? That’s what makes you interesting.

Think about your elevator pitch, and we have a resource and this is at storybuilt.marketing/one-liner. That link is going to be in our show notes. It's actually a really short and concise worksheet that will help you think about the three different components, asking you questions to help you prompt that and clarify those, and then letting you put them together in a very short concise statement.

You can always reach out to us too. We would love for you to share your one-liner, or to make sure you're part of the workshop. We're actually going to have one section of that workshop where we work on one-liners, and you guys could maybe even practice those with one another during that time and we're going to help you really refine those and make them really polished up and ready for the conference season.

Those are the six things that I think during the conference are really going to move you towards getting the best ROI. Just to quickly review: number one is if you have a physical space or booth, how are you going to make it really different and unique? Think outside the box. Look for inspiration in other places. Think about all the senses that people experience at a conference and how you can leverage those.

Number two, have content ready so you can continue to position yourself as that authority that they want to be part of. Number three, if education is important to you or your team there, make sure that you attend the events, connect with the speaker, and actually set aside time for how you want to leverage that in the following week or two in your calendar. Then with your leads, make sure that you're making an impression, you're proactively collecting their information.

We're going to talk about during the workshops and actual technical tools that you can use to streamline and automate this process during that event to make it super easy for you. Make sure you catch that and once again, access to that is going to be at storybuilt.marketing/conference.

The next thing was support. Think about getting support from your staff or a virtual part-time temporary assistant that can help you on the backside to really make you shine, help people be wowed by the follow-up and the information, and just that extra little almost customer service experience that you can provide if you have somebody supporting you on the backside.

Then lastly, polish up that one-liner, scrap the old elevator pitch, and make sure everybody on your team, I don't care if it's somebody who's on the crew, if it's somebody in HR, if it's sales, marketing, owner, everybody should know the company one-liner and I promise you that one-liner will make you money if you nail it.

Make sure you're registered. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast. Next week we're going to be talking about everything we need to do post-conference. When you're tired and distracted, let's have a couple of quick simple things that are going to make sure that you don't drop the ball.

Subscribe, get registered for the workshop, and also make sure that you're checking out all the other great content and podcasts that are part of the Blacktop Banter network. Can't wait to talk to you at the workshop. Make sure you're there.

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.