Alternative Strategies for Lead Gen When Your Trade Show is Cancelled

You’ve probably been a part of these changes, no matter what business you work in. Perhaps your entire staff is working from home, or a business trip has been cancelled. Worse, a conference or trade show event has been cancelled. 

Now, depending on the time, scale, and your organization’s specific plans for the event, a cancelled event might be a minor setback or a significant catastrophe for your company. Either way, missing a planned event means missing out on lead generation that you most certainly budgeted for. Because the threat of coronavirus and other viruses has not been eliminated, industry activities may be postponed for the time being.  

However, if you use your digital platforms effectively and keep your audience engaged, you’ll have no issue making up for missed leads due to a cancelled event. As a result, you’ll need to adapt and make up for any lost leads. We’ll go through how to keep on top of your lead generation goals during this challenging period in this blog post, especially if your trade show or event is cancelled for whatever reason. 

Host A Webinar 

A webinar may be the most comparable alternative to a conference because it effectively simulates the feeling of attending a live event. It’s less of a two-way dialogue than a video conference (more on that later). Still, you’ll get a video that you can use in various ways later on, such as putting highlights from the webinar on your website or sharing segments on social media. 

You can conduct a Q&A session where you accept comments, questions, and reactions if you want to give your guests a more interactive experience. 

The webinar content is incredibly effective no matter what strategy you use. Webinars are frequently cited by B2B marketers and sales executives as the best approach to produce high-quality leads. 

Get Your Virtual Trade Show Exhibits Up and Running 

Perhaps the event organizers are unable to hold a virtual conference for the event you expected to join. In such circumstances, if your resources allow, you can do it yourself. You may easily put together an un-conference that follows the format of the event that was intended to happen. It’s simple to market this type of event because you already have an audience that was looking forward to an event that has now been cancelled. 

You may host a series of virtual meet-ups or video interviews. Any of these online events will appeal to the conference’s original audience, helping you generate hot leads for your company. 

To start, make a list of who was going to speak at the event. Then, let the speakers know what you’re planning and see if you can generate interest. Once you’ve come up with a strong strategy, market it to the people who were planning to attend. 

Repurpose The Content from Your Event 

Don’t let your event preparations go to waste! Turn your materials into an educational guide, a series of blog pieces, or whatever format you believe your audience would enjoy. Then all you need to do is make it available on your website. You’ll have new content to show off without the headache of having to plan it out from start to finish. 

For example, any visuals or charts you created for the event can be recycled as an infographic on your blog, which is a highly shareable and easy-to-read type of content. You could also try tweeting out key takeaways from your event content in bite-sized bits over time. By doing this, you give your audience opportunities to interact with your brand in a new way. 

Leverage Social Media 

You’ll see a lot of messages from people who are devastated that they won’t be able to attend a specific event or who are disappointed that they won’t be able to hear the information that was going to be provided. Gather the names of the people you meet on social media and contact them directly. Let these folks know you plan to conduct your own event or plan something in conjunction with the original conference.  

Many social media platforms have built-in mechanisms that make lead generation simple. Create hashtags relating to the event’s cancellation and utilize them to distribute valuable, related content to a hungry audience. So, take advantage of them to advertise your business. It’s never been easier to draw attention to your newly published webinar or repurposed event content! Social media is a powerful tool, and with a bit of luck and hard effort, you might even start a new trend. 

Social media platforms are also a terrific way to communicate more personally with prospects and customers. (And we all know how crucial authenticity is when it comes to building a relationship with a prospect.) 

Use the Contacts You’ve Made at Prior Conferences To Your Advantage 

If you’ve attended any conferences in the last few years, you’ve almost certainly made some valuable contacts. You most likely have a long list of emails, business cards, and names of people you met at previous conferences. Boost your efforts by using old email lists. 

Why not contact them and let them know you’re arranging a virtual event or a webinar series? Alternately, you may harness their knowledge to create useful material. Create a survey for your contacts, for instance. Inquire about what they want to do this year instead of attending the cancelled event, as well as industry trends. You might compile an industry report based on the responses to the survey from event participants. 

Try Something New: Lead Generation Strategies 

You’ve certainly tried a variety of lead generation methods, but none have proven to be as effective as tradeshows or conferences. The absence of channels, however, is no longer a good excuse. Investing in various lead generation channels is no longer an option–it’s a requirement for your company’s existence and expansion. 

It takes a long time to redirect to new lead generation channels. To develop these channels over time, you’ll need dedication and patience. Find social media groups to join, increase your LinkedIn outreach, develop B2B content marketing strategy, and leverage SEO to increase traffic. This could also be the ideal time to begin investing money in advertisements, as prices drop, allowing you to advertise in places you couldn’t previously. 

Conclusion 

If you let it, a cancelled event can be a significant setback. Thanks to the internet, there are a plethora of ways to communicate with prospects and consumers, and digital contact may become the new normal in the future. With that in mind, it’s critical that you broaden your digital horizons and become familiar with video conferencing tools, webinars, and other types of video-based communication if you haven’t already. 

You’ll stay on track as long as you continually engage those leads and communicate freely. To discover more about how our services can help you boost your marketing efforts, contact us today!