How to Create Quality Leads with Events: Event Preparation, Execution, Follow-up

This is Part 2 of a two-part series. See Part 1 here.

Event Preparation

In Part 1 of this series we talked about planning the event, determining your goals and message, and recruiting your audience. Now that you know what you’re going to say, where you’re going to say it and who you’re saying it to, it’s time to start preparing to host an awesome event.

The most important thing to understand when preparing the event is how everything related to the attendee’s experience reflects your brand. The venue, production value, helpfulness of staff and quality of content will all be tied to your brand. So, when you’re considering venue needs, audio and visual, and your staff, keep that in mind.

The second most important thing to understand is that, try as you might, things will likely not be perfect. Whether it’s big or small, something will probably go wrong. You can limit these potential problems by recording and editing your presentation in advance versus giving it live, or by building in seed questions for your Q+A to limit the possibility of getting caught off guard. We also recommend having backup tools like an extra remote in case something doesn’t work.

The more prepared you are, the less likely you encounter an issue and the more you can control the narrative of the event. If something you’re doing to prepare feels unnecessary or redundant, do it anyway. You’ll never know what you’ll need when you go live.

Event Execution

Now that game day has arrived, here’s what you need to pull it off:

Presentation materials: Less is more–there’s no need for information overload. You are the information. Keep slide text to a minimum.

Keep it simple: It’s tempting for MSPs to go super-techy in their talks. Despite the technical nature of what you do, it’s best to keep language simple, or you risk going right over the audience’s head.

Speak with confidence: Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Remember, the attendee’s experience is a reflection of your brand. Sound confident, and your thought leadership will show itself.

Networking: People like going to events because of networking opportunities, so give them that. It’s also a chance to get a little more personal with attendees. This is harder in a virtual environment, but more platforms are popping up every day to help with virtual networking. Look into the options that might fit your event.

Event Follow-up

Now that the event is over, how will you capitalize on its success? This is how you turn engaged attendees into engaged leads and new customers. Here are a few tips for successful follow-up:

Share recordings: Even the most attentive attendees probably missed at least something from your event. Recordings are very much appreciated and are a great piece of content to share.

Follow up immediately: Your event attendees are busy, so as soon as your event is over they’re probably onto something else. Strike while the iron is hot and connect with them as soon as possible. It may help to have recordings of your presentations done ahead of time so they can be shared immediately as a first touch follow-up.

Don’t ignore the no-shows: There’s a tendency to value attendees more than no-shows, which makes sense. However, anyone who showed enough interest to register for your event is worth talking to. In fact, since they missed the event, you have a great opportunity to propose a one-on-one meeting with them so they can get any information they may have missed.

Don’t be afraid to run it back: Events don’t have to be one-and-done. If your event featured a lot of evergreen content, why not run it once per quarter, month or even week? With this approach, you can turn events into recurring lead-generation machines.

Join Datto for a Webinar introducing a comprehensive new event solution made specifically for MSPs. It takes place on Jan. 19, 2022, at 2 p.m. ET. For more information, contact Eric Torres, Director of Channel Development for Datto, at [email protected].  

Eric Torres is the Director of Channel Development, Datto.

 This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.