Get More Customers At Business Conferences By Using A Few Crafty Abm Tactics

Attending a business conference with a plan is like entering a gold mine with a pickaxe; you know there are riches to be found, but only if you dig in the right places with the right tools. Business conferences are ripe with opportunities for acquiring new customers, but only if you approach them strategically. One such strategy is Account-Based Marketing (ABM), which can multiply your chances of leaving the conference with a list of hot prospects ready to enter your sales funnel.

Let's dive into how ABM tactics executed before, during, and after a conference can help you transform potential leads into loyal customers.

Preparing Your ABM Strategy Before the Conference

Identify and Pick Your Targets

Weeks before the conference, start identifying the accounts that are likely to attend and hold significant potential for your business. Use the attendee list often provided by conference organizers, or sleuth social media networks like LinkedIn, to identify key decision-makers and influencers from these companies.

Get Personal with Outreach

Once your targets are in sight, tailor your outreach. Personalized emails or calls that mention specific sessions or speakers can pique their interest. Swap generic meet-and-greet requests for invitations to niche gatherings or one-on-one meetings that resonate with their business goals.

Intelligence Gathering

Research your targets extensively to understand their business, industry challenges, and potential needs. Tools like Aomni can drastically cut down on research time by providing real-time, actionable insights that help personalize engagement.

Leverage Social Media

Use platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter to warm up leads. Share content relevant to the conference theme and use the event's hashtags to increase visibility. Engage with your prospects' content to start building a relationship.

Content Customization

Create content that targets the specific industries and interests of the attendees you're courting. By offering valuable insights into their challenges, you'll position yourself as a thought leader and a helpful resource, encouraging them to seek you out during the conference.

Using ABM Tactics During the Conference

Scheduled Meetups

Instead of leaving networking to chance, schedule meetups with your prospects before the event. Use these face-to-face opportunities to deepen relationships and discuss mutual interests and potential partnership opportunities in a focused setting.

Host Impactful Sessions

If possible, ensure that your company hosts a breakout session or workshop. Tailor these to address common pain points and offer actionable solutions that demonstrate your expertise and the value your company can bring to potential customers.

Dynamic Interaction

Equip your team with tablets or smartphones to showcase demos, share digital collateral, and take notes on leads’ specific interests. This makes the follow-up more personalized as you’ll have instant access to a prospects’ preferences and intentions straight from the source.

Leverage Conferences Tools

Many conferences now have apps that facilitate networking, allow you to see who's attending, and even set up meetings. Make sure your profile is complete and active in the app, and use these tools to engage with attendees.

Tag Team Networking

Deploy a coordinated networking strategy by teaming up. As you converse with a potential customer, have a colleague join and enrich the conversation with complementary insights, ensuring a broader and more engaging interaction.

Brand Consistency

Ensure that your booth, if you have one, and your team's presence are not only engaging but consistent with the messaging and value proposition that you've already communicated during your pre-conference ABM outreach.

Post-Conference ABM Follow-Up Strategies

Timely, Personalized Outreach

Right after the conference, when the leads are still hot, reach out to them. Use the insights and notes you gathered during your interactions to make your follow-up highly personalized and relevant to the discussion you had.

Provide Added Value

Send information like customized slide decks, case studies, or white papers that directly relate to the solutions they expressed interest in. Avoid generic follow-up emails that fail to remind the prospect of your interaction and the value you offer.

Leverage CRM and ABM Tools

Use a robust CRM system to organize and track all post-conference interactions, ensuring that no lead falls through the cracks. Employ ABM platforms to continue delivering personalized content and ads to these high-value targets.

Monitor Engagement

Keep an eye on which leads engage with your follow-up content. Their actions will help prioritize the sequence of touchpoints and tell you who is most interested in moving forward in the sales process.

Request Feedback

Ask for feedback on the conference interaction and content you provided. Not only does it show that you value their opinion, but it can also provide valuable insights into how to refine your ABM approach.

Closing Thoughts

By utilizing Account-Based Marketing strategies tailored to business conferences, you not only streamline the vast potential of leads into a targeted, practical list of prospects but also craft a pathway to meaningful engagements that lead to valuable relationships. Remember that the key with ABM is laser precision with a human touch; use data to inform your tactics but rely on personal connections and tailored content to drive your message home.

In the bustling atmosphere of business conferences, let your ABM strategies be your guide to not just any customers, but the right customers, ones that align with your business goals and offer the most potential for longstanding partnerships. Deploy these crafty ABM methods and you just might find that your once-daunting conference attendee list has transformed into your most lucrative asset.