The intricacies of networking events; some love them, others hate them. Still, in an ever-evolving digital landscape, networking events are a refreshing opportunity for face-to-face interactions and developing connections. They are a gateway to your audience and competitors all in one place, and the chance to explore trends, develop connections, and cultivate leads for your business.
Read on as we help to negotiate face-to-face interactions and turn these into valuable leads. Find out how you can get the most out of networking events for your business.
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1. Cultivate Leads Effectively: Building Meaningful Connections
Developing genuine connections extends far beyond the initial conversation with a client. Standing out at these events is essential, after all, they are most likely talking to a lot of other businesses too!
It is important to build an initial foundation with each interaction, diving straight into business jargon can often seem too cold and formal. A memorable conversation will remain with these potential leads, and this is exactly what we want.
Ask people questions about themselves. This both instils a sense of value in the individual and helps you to gain knowledge that could prove invaluable further down the line. Navigating a balance of small talk and business-focused questions is what you should aim for.
Refine Your Elevator Pitch
When delivering your elevator pitch, try not to overcomplicate your offerings, and try injecting a touch of fun where it fits naturally. Ahead of the event, gather all the information you want to include in your pitch, such as USPs, key services, and target audience. Wrap up your pitch with something memorable, leaving the audience intrigued and eager to learn more.
2. Gain Insight: Know Your Audience and Competitors
Networking events are a great place for defining or optimising your small business online marketing strategy. After all, your competitors and audience are all in one place, use this to your advantage!
Uncover Industry Trends
Aim to use this time to gather as much knowledge as possible that could benefit you in the short or long term. Seeing other businesses and talking to professionals can help you discover industry trends and how they might impact your business, consider these questions:
- Do you need to adapt to any industry changes/ trends?
- Is the trend worth following?
- Will it add value to your business and does it align with your goals?
- Are you able to invest time/ money/ resources to adapt to this trend?
Understanding Your Competitors
We can also use this space to see your competitor’s latest moves and use this to increase competitive intelligence, we always want to aim to stay ahead of the game! Consider the following:
- Are you remaining competitive in the industry?
- Are your USPs still unique to your business?
- How are your competitors improving their services or offerings?
- How can you further differentiate from competitors to add value to your customers?
Active listening and taking notes is exactly what you should be doing here, nothing is too small if it aids business development.
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3. Sign Up for Success: The Power of Newsletters
Our email marketing experts highly recommend using events to cultivate newsletter subscribers. This is a two-way street to gain knowledge and improve communication. Seize the opportunity to grow your small business online marketing presence; sign up for information sources that offer you value, while also cultivating subscriptions for your own company newsletters.
Incentives are often helpful to gain sign-ups for your newsletters at such events. Offer giveaways or competitions to increase the likeliness of an individual signing up. People further respond positively to convenience; using a signup tablet removes any barriers that could be off-putting for potential clients, and this provides a quick, effortless transaction.
We offer support as email marketing specialists; contact the InSynch marketing team to begin growing your contact list and, ultimately, build connections.
4. Long Lasting Presence: Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is a buzzword regularly thrown around in the business landscape, but what does it actually mean? Brand awareness refers to the level of recognition and familiarity consumers have with your brand. Maintaining a strong brand image through logos, merchandising stands, brochures, and just about everything associated with your brand helps to create a lasting impression on potential leads.
Our marketing team specialises in professional leaflet design, we can help you develop marketing material for your next event that will leave a lasting impression. Why not contact us for more information?
Nurturing connections beyond the event
Our actions after the event are just as valuable as during. We can’t assume that our fine-tuned elevator pitch and best small talk have been enough to begin generating leads, the next step is to follow these up.
Maintaining contact with potential leads makes you more likely to remain in the front of their mind. Reach out via email, or social media, or invite them to a virtual or face-to-face meeting to carry on discussions post-event. Creating a lasting impression is all about being memorable and offering value.
InSynch is a UK digital marketing agency who are on hand to help, we offer free 1-2-1 consultations so we can discuss bespoke digital marketing solutions with no pressure. Contact us for a chat or book a 1-2-1 via our website.
