Tricky Event Lead Magnets that Gain You More Contacts

Tricky Event Lead Magnets that Gain You More Contacts

One big advantage of events is the opportunity to create more leads for your company or organization.

First off, who is a lead?

In a sales context, a lead is a potential customer or a prospect. Depending on your organization, the definition of a lead can vary. For some companies, a lead is a contact that is already determined to be a prospective customer or has shown past interest. 

Other companies consider a lead to be any sales contact. What remains the same across the different definitions is that a lead can potentially become a future client.

Lead Generation Tips

Events are a source of revenue, but can also be a way to sell a concept to interested more people. Events should be used as a marketing tool to generate even more leads, new customers and boost your conversion rates.

Here are a few clever ways you can use lead magnets at your event to get more contacts: 

1. Set up a wise registration and contact form:

Data collection is important when you are trying to get leads. Whether your objective is to just inform, cross-sell, or up-sell, you need to collect as much information as possible about who is at the event.

Events aimed at generating leads should have a brief registration form asking for relevant information before purchasing tickets either online or at the gate.

Be specific and only ask for the details you need to know to sell. 

You don’t want to bore your customer with five pages of questions that aren’t relevant. Each step in the registration process can lead to a 10% reduction in transactions.

For example, you may want to ask for a job title but geographic location or age can be something that is found in web analytics so you don’t need to bother asking for those on the form.

2. Have a raffle: Let people enter in a raffle with their information or their business card. This gives people motivation to give you their information without realizing it. 

3. Have guests take a survey: Another way to collect information is by having a survey that people can complete to be entered to win a prize upon check-in. Just as with your event form, you only want to collect the information that is relevant for the sales and marketing.

A long survey can deter people from completing the survey and you won’t get the results you want.  A short one only takes a few minutes and they could possibly win a prize ... it's a win win!

4. Have a Photo booth: A photo booth can be a way to add some unique flair to your event and get information at the same time.

Offer free digital prints of their photos in exchange for an email address to send them to. Boom ... new contact!

5. Don't forget to connect with people: One of the most important things when trying to get more contacts and leads is to connect with people at the event.

Ask questions about why there are there. What are the reasons for listening to that particular speaker? If you connect with people and have their information, your lead becomes even more valuable. Remember, they are humans so treat them like so. 

6. Train your staff for lead collection: Your staff should also be involved with the lead generation process at the event. Inform them on how to speak with the attendees, encourage guests to enter raffles, surveys, contests, etc. 

7. Don’t forget to follow up on your leads: If you got all these contacts from the event, it’s great but it won’t matter much if you don’t follow up.

Only a small fraction of leads will get converted, but that percentage will be zero if you don’t even bother to follow up.

If you develop a follow-up strategy before the event, it can be much easier to make sure you are connecting with the leads you gathered.