Level Up Your Conference Strategy with Video
The booths, the badges, the keynotes, the freebees—there is no denying that conferences can be a whirlwind of excitement and a huge opportunity for connection. Conference strategy is an important part of the sales process in most industries. As a matter of fact, IBISWorld finds the trade show and conference planning industry grows by about 5% each year with no signs of stopping. But with so much going on and limited time to make an impression, you need to make a solid plan for your conference attendance.
If you’re speaking during, running a booth at, or attending a conference, we have a few ideas to make the most of your time, especially when it comes to video outreach for conferences.
Evaluate your conference strategy
To begin, consider your goals to make an appropriate conference strategy. If you’re a speaker, how can you entice people to come to your session? If you want to meet with specific prospects, how can you make an impression?
Tourism Economics prepared a survey detailing the most critical aspects of business travel. Most businesspeople who travel for work said they did so mainly to develop relationships with customers, suppliers, or others, followed by closing sales and building an awareness of products. Consider your own goals and plan your video outreach for conferences around that.
Generating hype before the event
Video outreach for conferences can be helpful on several levels. If you’re a speaker, performer, or “big name” at the event, you can create a video reel of your experience or tease your speaking engagement to send out to attendees ahead of time.
But if you’re like most businesspeople, you want to develop relationships and close deals with individuals. Personalized video—like we offer at Covideo—is well-suited to your conference strategy. Identify the main people you want to connect with and email them a personalized video letting them know you’ll be in attendance and how you can catch up. If you’re running a booth, you can preview where you’ll be located.
Video conference strategy during the event
When it’s time for the main event, keep up with your video outreach for conferences! Take out your phone and record footage you can use to recap the event. This is also a great time to post to social media. Explain where people can find your booth or what sessions you will be attending and add the video to your LinkedIn.
You also can hype up your professional contacts and friends. Record snippets of interesting speakers to share on social media or point out partners with great booths. That effort will help you build connections.
Following up with connections
Your conference strategy shouldn’t end with the event. Sit down with the business cards and names you’ve collected and connect with those prospects on LinkedIn. Send an email with a personalized video saying how great it was to meet them. Plan out next steps for the relationship.
Be sure to hand over any video, photos, or audio you captured during the event to your marketing team! They can make great social media posts or promotional materials to generate more hype.
The Takeaway
Conferences and trade shows are effective times to connect in person, deepen your business relationships, and sell your product. However, you should always have a conference strategy that ensures you’re meeting your goals and making the trip for a good reason! Video will give you a differentiator to delight your contacts and prospects.
Covideo is a fantastic tool to make your video outreach for conferences easier and more effective than ever. Get Covideo free and see results for yourself!
