Quick and Dirty Tips for Events + Webinars

If you’re an MSP looking to improve your events game, you’ve come to the right place. Tradeshows, conferences, lunch and learns, and webinars are tried-and-true methods for building brand awareness, driving new leads, upselling current customers, forming new partnerships and, best of all, driving more profits–but only if you know how to make the most of them! Whether you’re attending, sponsoring or hosting an event, we’ve got some tips and templates that make events MSPeasy.

Pre-event Preparations

So, what do you do leading up to the event? As you’ve probably guessed, preparation is key. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to prepare for an event so you don’t have to waste money and/or time on last-minute rush orders or additional promo efforts. Below are some basic pre-event prep tips.

• Spread the word: Alerting your prospects about the event is critical. Leverage all the outlets you have to get the word out via phone calls, email, social media posts, etc. Let people know the 3 Ws: When, Where and What’s in it for them! Two to three weeks prior to the event, send out a pre-event email to prospects.
• Get social: Whether you’re a social media guru or not, it’s highly likely that your clients (or future clients) are on one form of social media or another–whether they are tweeting at a company for support help or part of a niche community on LinkedIn. So get involved!

Day of Event

It’s the day of the event. Now what? Again, preparation is your best friend. Give yourself time to shower and have a full breakfast. Regardless of length, events can be extremely exhausting.

• Prepare for “day of” disasters: Always prepare for technology fails! If your booth includes a digital presentation or if you intend on leveraging anything that needs power, make sure to have extra wires/cords. In addition, practice your pitch prior to the event because there’s nothing worse than stuttering in front of a hot lead. At the very least, make sure you and anyone representing your company can identify the top three benefits of your service and can present them easily.
• Take pictures: Have someone take a photo of your team at the booth and send the image to whomever is managing your social media pages to post and encourage event attendees to stop by your booth (leveraging the event hashtag, of course!). If this event is reoccurring, you’ll be able to use these photos in future promotional efforts.
• Basic booth etiquette: No matter how much effort you put into preparing for the event, designing your booth, customizing brochures, emailing prospects, etc., your booth performance–how you greet and engage with attendees–will make or break your success.

Post-event Followups

The biggest mistake you can make is not following up with those sparkling new contacts after the event. If getting new customers or upselling current ones is your goal, you need to put the time in. So make sure you’ve got a game plan post-event for reaching out to leads via email, phone calls, etc. This includes the leads who seemed a bit cold–your ROI depends on it!.

• Post-event email: Timely, personalized followup is the best touch point for your prospects. Two to three days post-event, send a Post-Event Followup email to prospects with whom you met. Bonus points if you can customize said emails with something you discussed with said people–they will be impressed and feel special. For MSPs who have access to a full list of event attendees, send a Post-Event Followup email to those whom you didn’t encounter at the event. You never know where you’ll find your next customer.

If you’re interested in learning more (how could you not be?), check out our eBook: Events Made MSPeasy. For even more incredible content, sign up for our upcoming webinar, Pricing Made MSPeasy: Successful Strategies for MSPs.

Samantha Ciaccia is Channel Engagement Manager, Datto. Guest blogs such as this one are published monthly and are part of MSPmentor’s annual platinum sponsorship.