As we bounce back from what has been an extremely busy year, it is also time to focus on your career as a professional. Whether you are just entering the workforce or have already worked for several years, staying in touch with colleagues, superiors, and strangers will always be important!
Interacting with people is a powerful way to strengthen relationships and grow professionally. Plus, being able to show off your social skills is a nice perk.
So how can you use email to stay connected? There’s no wrong way to do it, so long as you keep it productive and natural. With that in mind, let’s review some tips for crafting great business conference follow up messages!
Blastware is content that looks good because of its style rather than substance. A blast message could be about fashion, politics, or something completely unrelated – it doesn’t matter, as long as you include enough information for the recipient to take action (e.g., “You should check out XYZ company at this address”).
The key word here is “enough.” You don’t need to tell your friend all about the cool new product line at Amazon they never heard of before, nor does she want to receive such a monologue. Pick one thing she might be interested in, and send her that.
Make a list of things you would like to talk about in the next conference
Now that you have left the conference, it’s time to start drafting your email!
Since you made an effort to connect with other members of the event community, they will be happy to hear from you and hopefully even provide you with some insights or tips for future projects.
They may also know of additional events or opportunities coming up so don’t forget to add those to your agenda as well.
When writing your letter, try to emphasize how much you enjoyed meeting them and talking about their business. Also, include what actions you will take next and close with your phone number or contact information.
Consider the person or people you met at the conference
One of the things that can get lost in the shuffle after a business event is leaving messages with contacts gathered during the event. Sure, it’s great talking about what happened last week, but this week is different.
This week there’s an important meeting, a major project, or a chance to make some new connections. So why not take advantage of this opportunity by reaching out to these folks?
By starting your email with something friendly and formal, your reader will know how to connect with you. They may even add you to their personal newsletter or list!
Your readers have invested time in attending the event, so they are likely to read your message and respond if you send one from someone else’s account.
But before you dive in, be sure to check out our tips for best practices when promoting online courses. You don’t want to oversell or under-sell depending on whether they paid for the event or received free tickets, respectively.
Think about what they are interested in
Following up with people after a conference is very tricky, especially if you don’t know who they are or what their story is!
Before contacting anyone directly, make sure you have all of their information by looking back through your notes and documents. Also, check out LinkedIn and other social media sites to see if there is anything you can find about them.
Once you have their info, pick one thing that seems most important to you. For example, if there was a speaker at the event that left you thinking “Wow, he is such an amazing person! I want to do things like that too!” then follow up with a comment on his or her Instagram profile telling them so. Or maybe you learned something from someone else at the event that made you feel more confident in yourself – send them a message saying how their words inspired you.
Whatever you choose, be genuine and thoughtful. And remember, even if you never hear back from these interviews, that doesn’t mean they weren’t helpful for them!
That’s why it’s so important to leave a good email trail. You will always come away with some sort of insight from conversations you had at the event.
Reach out to them
Following your conference, you will want to make sure you stay in touch with all of the people that matter to your business. This can be done through private messages on social media, a separate email from your company, or even via phone calls or chat apps like Slack or Zoom.
But what happens if they don’t respond to one of those? Or what if they do but it doesn’t seem like they read your message?
We have some great tips for you here! Read on for our best ways to manage this.
Ask for their opinion on things
One of the sneaky tricks successful marketers use to gain an edge is asking potential clients about past experiences or what they would like to see from you in future business.
By asking questions, it creates a conversation that helps them feel more involved and connected with you. And if you’re looking to grab someone’s attention, talk is always better than no talk!
Ask your contacts what they enjoyed about a product or service and why they liked it. If they did not enjoy it, ask how they thought it could be improved and give suggestions.
This sounds very obvious, but many people do not do this because they think their friends will tell them something that costs money, so they do not want to ask.
It is important to remember that relationships are built upon trust, so try to avoid buying anything unless you really need it. This goes both ways – you can get some great recommendations as well.
Another good question to ask is “What have you done recently that has worked well for your business?” This gives you insight into what types of strategies work for others and may inspire you to adapt one of theirs.
Comment on their blog posts or social media pages
Another way to make sure you are not forgotten is by commenting on their blogs or posting on their social media accounts. If they have an article about how to organize your office, for example, comment on that article saying something like “I love this tip! I use my kids’ toys to help me organize mine.”
Or if there is an inspiring story – such as the accountant who painted his entire desk red to motivate himself – then tweet or post a comment telling them what worked for them and maybe give some tips of your own.
Inter-personal relationships are a key factor in business so don’t forget those!
Now let me tell you why this is important.
Business people spend a lot of time working and talking about businesses. So by interacting with other professionals, you get exposed to different ideas and ways to run yours. You also meet smart people who can be helpful to you. And most importantly, you feel more connected because you shared valuable information and concepts.
This is one of the reasons why it’s so hard to stay alone at home when you are out doing business things. It’s like a mini-conference every few hours.
And since we’re talking about conference calls here, these can sometimes be tricky.
Share content that they may have mentioned in the conference
Many times after a business event, people will mention some of your products or services or things you offered during the talk. If you notice that someone did not purchase anything but mentioned your product, it is worth sending them an email thanking them for talking about you and asking if they found what they were looking for at such and such place.
Your message should be targeted towards getting their attention and maybe even buying from you again!
By including pictures or links to pages or videos related to your product, you can strengthen your chances of getting them to buy.
This article will help you prepare your perfect email follow up after a conference.
Link to their website
Many times after a conference you will receive an email or note with contact information for your business. But what happens next is totally dependent on whether they purchased from you or not!
If they did purchase, then great! You now have a reason to stay in touch and continue to promote your products and services.
But if they didn’t – ouch! Dropping off your hard-earned promotional material can be very frustrating.
Luckily, there are some easy ways to prevent this unnecessary loss of exposure. And even more easily, you can fix it if it does happen!
Here are my tips for how to draft perfect email follow up messages…
1) Use direct messaging software to send them feedback
Most people these days use either Google Apps or Microsoft Office 365 to create and edit documents.
These programs almost always include a feature that allows you to directly message someone else within the program (called ‘conversational mode�’).
This is super helpful as it removes the need to copy and paste content into an external chat app like WhatsApp or Messenger.
By using this internal tool, you save time and hassle!
Many times after a conference event, I will receive an email with only contact information in it. No mention of the conference or anything about buying a product or service.