As a leading brand in the CRM market, the Client regularly organizes and hosts in-person events throughout different parts of the world. These tradeshows and conferences, including its annual flagship event, typically draw huge numbers of attendees and receive extensive media coverage.

For its Asia-Pacific calendar, the company had a series of live events lined up for 2017. These events—which were scheduled for January, April, and July—would showcase the Client’s insights on how top-performing marketers succeed with customer-centric strategies driven by digital tools.

The Client planned to host each of the events in both Singapore and Hong Kong, targeting CMOs, marketing directors, sales directors, marketing managers, and other persons in charge of marketing and sales at organizations based in the two cities. The three events included separate programs for SMB and mid-market/general business (MMGB) audiences.

The company partnered with Callbox after being introduced by one of Callbox’s long-time clients in the software space. The Client intended to add targeted, one-on-one outreach into the event promotion mix, and wanted to see how Callbox’s Call-to-Invite package would be able to help boost registrations for its January event.

The initial campaign’s results met the company’s expectations, and The Client decided to work with Callbox for the April and July live events.

A Call-to-Invite campaign was planned for each of the three events. The three campaigns combined email outreach and live phone conversations to engage attendees and prospects throughout the event cycle.

STEP 1. LAYING DOWN THE GROUNDWORK

Prior to the start of each campaign, callbox closely worked with the Client to thoroughly prepare for the Call-to-Invite activities:

1. Hand-picked and briefed the campaign team, which included calling agents and email specialists
2. Created the Client’s account on Pipeline, Callbox’s lead management platform, and integrated The Client’s event partner Revolution 360 into the loop
3. Developed the campaign collaterals, including email templates and call scripts which were reviewed by the Client
4. Compiled the target list based on the Client’s ideal attendee profile (table below shows record counts for all three campaigns)

STEP 2. CONTACTING AND INVITING POTENTIAL ATTENDEES

The pre-event outreach cadence started one month prior to each scheduled conference. The Callbox team segmented potential attendees according to location (Singapore or Hong Kong), business size (SMB or MMGB), and target industry.

1. Launched the pre-event cadence with initial email invites
2. Followed up the initial emails with phone calls and another batch of targeted email send-outs
3. Helped contacts complete the registration process
4. Called up registered attendees two days before the event to confirm attendance

STEP 3. FOLLOWING UP AFTER THE EVENT

To maximize conversions, Callbox executed a post-event follow-up cadence after each conference.

1. Sent a personalized thank-you email two days after the event
2. Contacted attendees in order to screen them as qualified opportunities
3. Reengaged registered attendees who were not able to attend as well as reached out to other contacts in the campaign

Going into each campaign, the Client focused on the number of registered attendees as the primary KPI to gauge the Call-to-Invite campaign’s success. The following table summarizes the number of registered attendees from the three campaigns:

In addition, the three campaigns also generated 1,050 new prospects for the Client. This consisted of 394 follow-ups and 656 requests for information.

The Client was very pleased with the results of the three Call-to-Invite campaigns. The first campaign exceeded their expectations that they increased the number of calling seats for the March-April and June-July campaigns. The company has also decided to continue partnering with Callbox for its upcoming Asia-Pacific events.