Business Event Tips

Why We Love Business Events and You Should Too

There are business events you attend to network and there are business events you create to gain new business. EAS LeadGen loves to create business events that will give you the best return on your investment and help you meet new prospects all at one time.

There are several ways LeadGen creates an event. We look for opportunities that will bring the pool of prospects to you. We look at conferences and trade shows that pertain to your industry that prospects will be attending. We find the open spot and create an event that the prospects will not want to miss. We call this an “event within an event” meshing the events together. We find this is the best way for you to maximize your attendance to the event and gain the most exposure with prospects.

Anyone can meet for cocktails at a bar or host a dinner, but we look beyond the norm. Having dinner at an aquarium or dining in the start house for the Nordic jump – give us the location and we will find that special place that will hook people on to attending your event.

Before the event takes place we will invite the prospects to the event. Creating lists, emailing, calling and making sure you have maximum attendance to your event. We do not like to see empty seats. We plan and coordinate down to the smallest detail to make sure your plan goes off without a hitch. As an added benefit, we even do contingency planning, meaning if something goes wrong, we have a back plan in place.

After an event we make follow up phone calls or emails on your behalf and gather feedback from the prospects. The greatest part, after an event, is that our clients become the rock stars at the main event. They may not be on stage performing – but people will go out of their way to talk to them at the conference. Their booths have people gathered waiting to talk to them while the nearby booths are empty. This gives our clients more time to establish a rapport with prospects.

Give us the challenge and we will make it happen.

Outrageous Marketing Fails

Did you hear about the company that was using sky writing to reach more prospects? The company, Fluck & Youngman, hired a sky writing company to write “Fluck & Youngman – the Best In Town” over an athletic event. They knew they would have a captive audience and in the market they were trying to reach. What they didn’t realize is there was a spelling snafu – and when the plane was spelling out the message it said “F*ck & You…” before the rest of the message was in the sky. Gasps were heard in the crowd not the positive impression they were looking for. This would have been a marketing fail if it was true! Let’s look at some real marketing fails.

In 2005 Snapple created the largest frozen ice pop in New York City. Unfortunately, the 17.5-ton pop melted too quickly in the back of a tractor trailer, flooding some of the streets in Manhattan with the melted strawberry-kiwi flavored pop. A few minor injuries were reported and the company was exposed to litigation potential.

The Cartoon Network wanted to create awareness for a new show on the channel. They had backpack-sized devices, with wires on the back and lights on the front that was able to display a moving image. They placed 38 of these “backpacks” around the city of Boston in key areas to promote the show. These backpacks created panic around the city – enough to stop boat traffic and the pentagon was monitoring the possibility of a threat. (The devices were also placed in a few other major cities) Realizing what was happening, the Cartoon Network contacted the company hired for the promotion to end it immediately.

Back in 1986 the United Way wanted a safe and family oriented promotion. They decided to break the world record of releasing balloons into the air. 1.5 million balloons were released on September 27, 1986 in Cleveland, OH. The beauty of seeing the 1.5 million balloons in the air – that would just keep on floating up, and up and hopefully pop. What they didn’t plan on is the heavy downpours on that day. The balloons were pushed back down. The havoc of 1.5 million balloons over Cleveland caused a runway to shut down; a horse that panicked over a popping balloon injuring itself resulting in a lawsuit; the Coast Guard unable to find boaters that were overboard because all of the balloons looked like bobbing heads. The United Way ended up facing over $3.2 million in lawsuits. Forget about the environmental harm that the release of the balloons caused – you can’t put a price tag on that!

There are so many great failures that companies have gone through to market their business. At EAS LeadGen, we do not need sky writers, balloons, scary backpacks or giant ice pops or any gimmicks to market your company. We go directly to the decision maker and build a relationship that will result in an appointment for you. Outsourcing your appointment setting leaves your sales team time to sell. Executive, business-to-business appointment setting is what we do and we do it well.

3 Easy Steps to Make your Virtual Event a Success

Let’s face it – in-person events are just not happening right now. But virtual events are having their best attendance ever! Following-up on a virtual event, that you are hosting, is crucial to gain new clients. This is a three-step follow-up process that will make you stand out above your competitors!

After the event:

Send an email to each attendee. Thank each attendee for attending your event along with highlighted information and a link to a recording of the event or an additional information presentation. Also, send an email to all contacts that registered for the event but did not attend with a link to a recording of the event.

Surprise attendees to something special. Mail out a tee-shirt, mug, pen, mask, mints… What would you be handing out at your booth at an event to a bunch of people that may not be interested in your product/service? Here you have a group of people that are truly interested in hearing what you have to say. Reward them. You are saving on your event budget – and this will be a fraction of the cost on what you would have spent with fees associated with an in-person event.

Reach out and call someone. Well, maybe not anyone – just the people that attended your virtual event. Think about it – you sent an email, you sent a gift (surprise) – the attendees will likely be more receptive to taking your call. This is the time to outsource your calling with professionals with expertise in making appointments.

Using this three-step follow up will ensure you with more solid, qualified appointments.