Many law firms attend at least one to two conferences every year. The key to attending conferences is to maximize your time and go to the conference with a strategic game plan. If you are sponsoring an event in an effort to get more leads for your law firm, then you have to be prepared before you even arrive at the event.
If you are an event sponsor, it is possible to request a list of attendees, sponsors and press that will be attending the event. If you have a referral relationship with the organizer of the event, they will usually honor your request for a list.
Even if you are not a sponsor, but rather an attendee, you can utilize social media to gain some insightful information. Research last year’s event on social media by the tweet hashtag (using Twitter) and see who posted about being at the event or commented on any of the sessions.If they went to last year’s event, it is highly likely that they will attend this year’s event as well.
Three Ways to Build a Contact List From the Event
No. 1: Pull sponsor and speaker lists from the event website. There is also a tool called “LeadIQ” that you can use to pull email addresses from LinkedIn profiles.
No. 2: Ask your current clients to see if they are attending the event and if they know if any of their friends and colleagues will also be attending the conference. Once you have that information, you can introduce yourself as “warm connection” by referencing your client.
No. 3: Find out if you can offer some type of pre-event giveaway that would allow you to get attendees to opt-in to your email list.
There is also a website called “Brite-Verify” which will allow you to scrub your email list of any invalid email addresses.
If you are unable to find valid email addresses for particular people, try sending them a LinkedIn message. Contacting them on LinkedIn is less intrusive than sending them a direct message on Facebook. LinkedIn is also the appropriate social media channel to build and maintain solid business connections.
Some event organizers will also have a built-in social media platform for event attendees to be able to connect with each other. If this is the case, it is in your benefit to allocate some time to post, comment, and make some genuine connections. Furthermore, consider starting a group on LinkedIn for the event and then sending a personal invitation to event attendees to invite them to be a part of your group. Do not add anyone to your group on any social media platform without their consent (this is the easiest way to get blocked and lose their trust).
It is important to not spam attendees but make genuine in-person connections at the event and later follow up with a meeting request.
Advanced Marketing Techniques Can Serve as Ads to Your Prospects During the Event
If you were able to get a list of attendees, you are in luck. You can now create a custom audience and utilize GeoFencing to target them. The purpose of doing this is to:
- Remind people that you are at the event.
- Engage with prospects and set your law firm apart from other firms who have not done this.
- Build an audience that you can continue to engage with after the conference ends.
Other Key Points to Remember
Create a landing page built specifically for the event and come up with an event-relevant offer and message. Also, create a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a useful PDF that has information that would be valuable to your target audience. It can be set up in the form of a checklist or a howto, or it can even answer some of the most commonly asked questions. When someone lands on your event page, they would have to enter their name and email address in order to receive access to the PDF download. As a result, they are opting-in to your email list.
Post-Event Follow-Up
After the event, it is important to reach out to all the connections you made. Depending on the extent of the connection you made at the event, you can either set up a phone call, email them, or send a “nice meeting you at the event” message via LinkedIn. It is imperative to nurture your connections and leads way after the event is over, and that is the key to building meaningful business relationships. Dimple Dang
