You might think it strange that we are offering ‘Seven Top Tips for Success’ in this time of lockdowns, social distancing, and global crisis. However, when COVID-19 started becoming something we could not ignore, we began to ask some serious questions about our business and product offerings. We concluded that what we do, and what we offer, has essentially not changed. Therefore, we sought out the tools and technology that would allow us to offer our community our signature ‘Content, Community and Experiences’ through a variety of additional channels.

This is how we decided to launch FTT Virtual / Spring – a ‘Virtual-First’ event that enables our community to learn, network and engage from any location and in any environment. FTT Virtual / Spring is not a temporary product – but is an acceleration of our growing digital offerings. Our FTT Virtual offerings will grow and develop, alongside our physical experience offerings (when things improve), ensuring that our quality speakers and partners will be able to reach a global audience whether they are presenting a keynote speech on the main stage at The Brewery in London or presenting, via Zoom, from their kitchen table in Singapore.

Our team has almost a 100 years’ worth of experience dealing with partners and delivering quality offerings to the FinTech space. Based on that experience here are our ‘Top Seven Tips’ for getting the most out of projects.

The event-only experience is dead

If an event isn’t part of your campaign – why bother? An event – whether physical or virtual – is not just a date on the calendar but should be part of an overall campaign. Whether you are using an event for lead generation or brand awareness, your participation in an event should be enabled by producing content that will showcase your internal expertise, engaging in social media that will create buzz, proactive, strategic networking and coordinated lead generation follow up and actives.

A partnership is a two-way street

When you engage with a marketing or event partner it is important to work together, be aware of resources, and actively manage expectations. Event and experience organizers are working with a large portfolio of participants. If they produce a playbook that offers information on logistics and administration information – such as when and how presentations need to be delivered – please read those instructions, respect and fully understand them.

If permissions and approvals tend to take time at your organization, let your partners know so timelines and expectations can be managed.

Banish ‘ghosting’ to Tinder. Respond, read and react to correspondence from those that are supporting you with your campaign.

You’ve put your booth on the floor, now what?

Whether your booth is in a ‘venue’ or a branded portal on an events platform – that booth is a placeholder for your brand, not an escape pod for your team. Sitting passively at the back of an event booth, not engaging with people who express interest, and not exploring the rest of a conference will result in lackluster leads and an unsatisfying event experience.

Our sales director, Neal has a saying. “Don’t be shy – come and buy!” Your expo booth is not a place to be shy. Step outside your ‘place on the floor’ and make it easy for delegates to discover what you have to offer.

Jobs to be done – not Job Titles

Working with partners on lead generation projects, most will have a target list of companies or desired job titles. What perplexes me is demands for ‘CEOs only’. The issue I have with this strategy is two-fold: It lacks thoughtfulness and imagination and this obsession is really about status.

Keep in mind:

• The person with the most senior or impressive sounding job title may not be the best contact for your business.
• People with senior looking job titles get swarmed – and won’t have time (or the desire) to listen to you.
• Go after the people who will use your product – the people whose pain you understand and offer them a solution to solve it.

Finding that special spot at an organization that will welcome your business like a piece from a primary school puzzle, takes thought and a considered process. Building that puzzle with a box full of ‘CEOs’ will just give you a mess of corners and no pretty picture to glue together.

I am so passionate about this subject that I wrote a blog post on it.

Leads are perishables – not store cupboard staples

When you start sorting out that stack of business cards or Excel spreadsheet worth of names – start connecting immediately. Like, the next day.

Leads can spoil like smoked salmon left out on a sunny patio after a boozy Sunday brunch.

Set up meetings to discuss your solution in more detail. Offer additional content that relates to your offerings. Provide information that may have nothing to do with the SaaS-enabled product you are showcasing. To steal from Dale Carnegie:

• Become genuinely interested in other people.
• Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
• Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
• Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely. (Remember what was discussed the last time you met)

This makes you friendly, human and relatable. These types of people are remembered (and calls are returned.)

Do all of these, immediately!

Social media is meant to be social

Social media was never meant to be a broadcast medium. It was designed to be engaging. By its very nature it is not a passive activity. When working with a community partner – hired for the purpose of expanding brand awareness and amplifying your message – take part in that amplification.

If you are tagged on a LinkedIn or Twitter post – Like it! If someone makes a comment about your blog post, video, panel presentation – answer their question, create a conversation, bring some of the ‘social’ into your media. When you post from your own, or company account, tag your partners so we can all work together to spread your brand message.

We hoped you liked our ‘Seven Top Tips for Success’. Stay safe everyone.