The exhibit hall has closed, the booth has been packed up and your team is back at work. But the marketing opportunity is not over.
Some attendees became contacts because they visited your booth, scheduled a meeting or shared their information. Many others never spoke with your team at all.
A strong post-event marketing plan accounts for both groups. It helps you continue the conversations you started while staying visible to more of the audience you attended the conference to reach.
Organize the People You Met
Start by bringing together the badge scans, business cards, forms and notes collected by your team. Then separate the contacts into three manageable groups:
- Priority contacts: People who requested information, pricing, a demonstration or another conversation.
- Longer-term prospects: Relevant contacts who showed interest but are not ready for an immediate sales discussion.
- Customers, partners and industry connections: Existing relationships that require more personal follow-up.
Add details while the conversations are still fresh. A note about someone’s project, challenge or timeline can turn a generic “It was nice meeting you” email into a continuation of the actual conversation.
Not every contact needs the same next step. One person may be ready for a meeting, while another would benefit from a guide, webinar or occasional email. The goal is not to push every contact toward an immediate sale. It is to keep the right conversations moving.
Look Beyond the Contact List
The people you met represent only part of the conference audience.
Attendees do not spend the entire event inside one exhibit hall. They stay at official hotels, walk between event locations, use shuttle and transit routes, meet at nearby restaurants and gather in rideshare pickup areas.
Enradius builds event campaigns around this larger attendee footprint. Depending on the event, that may include venue-level geofencing around the convention center and exhibit halls, hotel-based targeting, walking routes, shuttle corridors, transit zones and taxi or rideshare locations.
The strategy can also account for the event schedule, venue layout and attendee movement. Time, movement and dwell signals help distinguish likely event attendees from people simply passing through a busy convention district.
This is where Enradius’s Map Your Marketing™ approach becomes particularly relevant. Instead of drawing one large circle around a city and hoping the right people see an ad, Enradius examines how the event audience moves and builds a more precise campaign around that behavior.
The contact list tells you who spoke with your team. Location-based advertising helps extend your message to more of the audience.
Change the Message After the Conference
When geofencing and geo-retargeting are included in the campaign, a business can continue reaching an event audience after attendees leave.
Direct follow-up is for people who knowingly shared their contact information. Retargeting uses the event campaign’s audience data to continue delivering relevant digital advertising.
The message should change too. Before and during the event, advertising may encourage attendees to visit a booth, attend a presentation or see a demonstration. Afterward, the message could promote a guide, webinar, product video, consultation or event-specific landing page.
Enradius can continue engaging event audiences for approximately 45 to 90 days, depending on the campaign and sales cycle. Post-event delivery can include mobile display and video advertising, connected TV and streaming placements, along with sequential messaging designed to move the audience toward the next step.
Turn Conference Questions Into Content
A conference gives your team direct exposure to the questions people are actually asking.
What problem came up repeatedly? What did attendees misunderstand? Which demonstration attracted attention? What information did customers request?
A repeated question can become a blog article or FAQ. A presentation can become a webinar. A demonstration can become a short video. Several related questions can become an email series or downloadable guide.
This content can also support post-event advertising. Someone who is not ready for a sales conversation may still watch a short video, read an article or download a useful resource.
Instead of beginning the next content-planning meeting with a blank page, start with what people at the conference already asked you to explain.
Connect the Conference to Year-End Opportunities
Fall conferences happen as many organizations are reviewing current budgets and planning for the coming year.
A prospect may be developing a first-quarter initiative. An existing customer may be deciding how to use its remaining budget. Another contact may need information to recommend your company internally.
Post-event follow-up should connect the conference conversation to those decisions. What can still be accomplished before the end of the year? What should customers begin planning now? Could a smaller campaign allow someone to test an idea before making a larger commitment?
Good follow-up does not manufacture urgency. It makes the conference relevant to the customer’s business calendar.
Measure What Happened Next
Badge scans and booth traffic show activity, but they do not tell the complete story.
Look at what happened after the event. Did people respond to the follow-up? Were meetings scheduled? Did attendees visit the landing page, watch a video, download a resource or submit an inquiry? Did a conference connection become a proposal, partnership or sale?
Those outcomes provide a better measure of event value. They can also show whether direct outreach, location-based advertising, post-event content or a combination of tactics generated the strongest response.
Keep the Opportunity Moving
Businesses receive more value from conferences when they organize the people they met, continue reaching the larger event audience, reuse what they learned and connect the event to upcoming business decisions.
Enradius combines location data, advertising technology and digital strategy to help businesses extend conference campaigns beyond the show floor and beyond the event dates.
Need Help Extending Your Conference Campaign?
Whether you are exhibiting, sponsoring or want to reach the audience attending an industry event, Enradius can help you build a strategy around the locations and people that matter.
Contact Enradius to discuss your event, the audience you want to reach and how to keep the opportunity moving after the exhibit hall closes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is post-event marketing?
Post-event marketing includes the direct follow-up, advertising, content and measurement that continue after a conference, trade show or live event.
What is the difference between conference follow-up and event retargeting?
Conference follow-up involves direct communication with people who provided their contact information. Event retargeting uses digital advertising to continue reaching a broader audience based on the campaign’s location targeting and setup.
How long can Enradius continue reaching an event audience?
Enradius typically continues mobile retargeting for 45 to 90 days after an event. The timing can be adjusted based on the campaign goal, sales cycle and conversion timeline.
