Step 1: Identify your best prospects
Whom will you target at your next event?
Most companies show up and hope people stop by the booth.
Smart companies pick out the best prospects to pursue.
This could include existing clients, warm sales leads, or new prospects that fit your ideal client profile.
You can use attendee lists, your CRM, and LinkedIn to identify decision makers (HR Directors, Ops Managers, Talent Heads) who will be there.
And most importantly: understand THEIR main reasons for going to the show. (Hint: It’s probably not to talk to a staffing vendor).
The more you know about your target prospects, the better you can craft your “hook.”
Step 2: Create a hook they can’t ignore Simply put, a hook is a reason to meet.
What is the biggest reason why your ideal prospect would want to meet with you?
Is it a problem they want to solve? Information they want to learn? An incredible prize you’re giving away?
The best hooks are specific offers tied to your ideal customer’s current pain points. For example, you might offer a breakfast briefing on using AI to accelerate time to hire or how to keep top candidates from ghosting. You might offer an educational giveaway like a guide to sourcing top IT talent or the 5 most critical questions to ask when hiring call center staff.
My favorite hooks are when you personalize your offer for each prospect based on research you’ve done. For example, “I looked at your career site and identified 5 places you are losing talent. Let’s meet at the conference, and I’ll show you what I found—coffee’s on me!”
In crafting a hook, you can (and should) leverage your domain knowledge: . For example, show people what’s working in staffing, what’s going on with local compensation trends, or what you are seeing that’s specific to their industry.
Step 3: Launch a pre-event campaign
The most important thing you can do in conference marketing?
Get people to COMMIT to meeting with you—before they head to the airport.
And “I’ll stop by the booth” won’t cut it!
Treat pre-show marketing just like you would a direct marketing campaign. Employ a multi-step, multi-channel outreach campaign. For example:
Email drip: 2-3 touchpoints: tease the hook, offer timeslots, reminder. LinkedIn outreach: connect, share content relevant to pain points, tag that you’ll see them at the show. Direct mail or small gift: something physical can be an ideal attention grabber (even a branded notebook or coffee card with “Let’s meet at Booth #123”). Phone or SMS follow-ups: a quick call to request 15 minutes at the show or even leave a message at their conference hotel.
Step 4: Pre-schedule meetings Get commitments. Slots on calendars > hopes.
Use scheduling tools (Calendly, Bookings, etc.) to let prospects pick times to meet during the event.
When someone responds to your pre-show campaign, get their cell number so you can text a time to meet (or confirm an appointment).
Challenge your team to set internal goals: number of pre‑booked meetings vs. booth traffic. There’s nothing like a little, friendly competition among the sales team to drive scheduled appointments!
During + post show: make every minute count While pre-show marketing may be the #1 driver of success, you can’t rest when you arrive on site.
For our Haley Marketing team, we’ve always had a simple rule “be on the show floor at breakfast…and at the bar at closing.”
Yes, it makes for a long day, but the best way to maximize response is to maximize your time. During the event
Run the booth like a mobile office. If you can, have someone dedicated only to meetings—no booth distractions.
Make sure you deliver on the hook promised. If you said you’d bring benchmarks or market data, have them ready.
Capture information rigorously. Scan badges, take notes immediately, categorize leads: hot, warm, cold.
And if you have multiple people from your team going, tell them not to sit together at meals…get out and meet people!
After the event Follow‑up!
The data shows that 64% to 80% of tradeshow leads NEVER receive a follow up!
Send an email. Get on the phone. Better yet, do both within 48 hours of the show’s conclusion. Response = credibility.
Use drip campaigns for warm leads. Tailor your messaging based on what you learned at the event.
Hold your team accountable: track which leads convert, how long, what cost. Measurement will get you performance.
Okay, so how did I get 25% response?
I followed my own advice!
Step 1: Review the attendee list carefully. The event I am at is a small one, and I focused my target list to just 39 companies.
Step 2: I did my homework. I reviewed all 39 websites and noted which sites had a good Career Portal, which had chatbots, which were optimized well for SEO/AIO (none were!), and which followed CRO best practices.
Step 3: 1:1(ish) outreach. I crafted an email to the people on the list that summarized the findings from my research, and I offered to share the results and specific ideas for each company’s website when we’re together at the conference.
Since the list was just 39 people, I manually sent emails and adjusted the copy for each recipient based on our company’s current relationship with them. I also sent the emails on a Sunday morning two days prior to the conference. Most CEOs tend to be working weekend mornings!
The result: 25% of the people on the list responded positively and agreed to meet during or after the event.
Step 4 (today’s work): Confirm a time to meet. That’s what I’ll be doing as soon as I finish this article.
Don’t burn cash at your next conference
In an era when marketing is dominated by digital outreach, conference and event marketing can be a real differentiator.
If you’re in staffing or recruiting and you’re showing up to conferences with a “hope someone interesting walks by” mindset, you’re wasting money.
Build your pre‑show machine. Book the meetings. Follow up fast.
Your mission before the next event: build your target list, craft a killer hook, and challenge your team to schedule a specific target number of meetings before setting foot in the conference hall.
And speaking of conferences, I hope we’ll be seeing you on September 23 at the SMART IDEAS Summit or a few weeks from now at Staffing World!
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