Lead generation: collecting and digitizing contacts at the fair

Why to invest in lead generation

Lead generation and contact management is essential for any kind of business. Taking part as an exhibitor in a trade fair has generally high costs. It is therefore necessary to maximize returns on investment by collecting a good number of contacts and planning an effective lead generation strategy.

It goes without saying that taking notes on paper and collecting dozens of business cards is obsolete, chaotic and time-consuming (someone will have to manually insert the contacts collected at a later stage into an Excel file and in these cases the error is always around the corner).

It is therefore essential to automate the collection of contacts. How? Let’s have a look together.

Automate lead collection

You can automate the collection of contacts by recording them in a format (eg. CSV, xls or xlsx) that guarantees automatic import into your CRM or the registry system. Or you can create an ad hoc landing page for the event, by setting up a form to fill in the fields you need (name, surname, email, company, geographical area, products or services of interest, etc.). By doing so, you will be able to invite visitors to your stand to fill in the form on site and you will collect the data directly on your website.

Before the event: send the invitations

If you have a DB of existing and potential customers, send them a DEM to invite them to the fair and report your stand’s location. You could also invite them to make an appointment or, even better, you can provide them with free entrance tickets.

After the event: take care of your contacts

Leads, i.e. people or companies who showed interest in your product or service at the fair, must be contacted within a reasonable period of time. Write a thank-you email for their visit and take the chance to immediately see who is still interested in your product / service and who is not. In our opinion, it is preferable to personalize the messages, avoiding the sending of catalogs and generic offers. This approach, which recalls the one of traditional media, cools the relationship created during the event and differs greatly from the dynamics of the web and marketing oriented towards personal involvement and user loyalty. Good lead management, on the other hand, is what succeeds in the difficult aim of establishing a valuable relationship with the people met during the event.

Summing up

To collect a good number of quality contacts, it is necessary to set up a clear strategy, to use marketing automation tools for data collection and profiling and to invest in loyalty activities.

Maximum flexibility in a simple management software

In our experience of software development for event management, we have learned how important it is to integrate as much information as possible into a single system and make the client independent in its use, in order to ensure a smooth management of the event.

Therefore, we have developed Jolie. The event management software is perfect for trade fairs, as it collects a number of useful features such as:

– Automatic scanning of business cards to speed up the registration of new guests and potential contacts, minimizing the possibility of error (the recognized languages ​​are countless)

– Dynamic email template generation

– Dynamic registration form generation, by setting the fields you need. Jolie gives you all the tools to be able to do it independently

– Web console integrated with apps for smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android) to make updates visible in real time to all the players involved in the event

– Automatic generation of QR code to enable the potential prospect to easily access the online form via smartphone and record data independently.

Would you like to know more? Contact us without obligation!