Ideas for Prospecting Conference Attendees

[JTay8]

Hello!

We're headed into conference season and as my company is B2B we want to document and track notable attendees we should connect with. 

We're currently just using  Google Sheets to track Companies, Attendees (Contacts), notes, priorities, and industry categories but want to utilize HubSpot to the fullest extent. 

Any ideas on best practices here? 

I'm thinking of importing a Company List of confirmed company attendees, but gets tricky from there if I'm creating custom properties specific to one conference versus adding to the standard properties (ie notes). For example, we have High, Med, Low connection priorities for the conference but that doesn't align specifically to our target accounts or another property. Or I'd want to enter a contact attendee when we confirm or connect, but I don't think I could create the proper association that EmployeeA is attending but not EmployeeB. 

Am I just creating bulk in our CRM if I add new properties to track? Or is there a different function besides properties and Lists that I should try?

Trying to have a streamlined way to use HubSpot so our team doesn't want to simply use the Google Sheet and potentially lose data. 

[Josh · Accepted solution]

Hi @JTay8,

I think you're on the right track with custom properties. First instinct would be:

• Confirmed Attendance
  • List of tradeshows you're attending as multi-checkbox
• Priority
  • High-Med-Low OR use target accounts Tier 1, 2, 3 (but you stated these aren't necessarily in alignment)
  • Train the sales team on how to use the basic tools in HubSpot needed to accomplish these basic tasks - even if they've used it before, a refresher might help

I would also recommend creating a Campaign in HubSpot by the name and year of the conference. You can then associate a static list and activities with this campaign to better track ROI. 

These are my initial thoughts based on the info I have, but I'd be happy to chat through more of the details with you if that would help.

Josh

Thanks for the ping @TiphaineCuisset!

[JTay8]

Thanks Josh! Getting a better handle on this, especially considering we're just on the Marketing Starter/Sales Pro plans.  

Looks like a Company based list will do for now with thoughts of switching over to Contact based list as we identify particular attendees. 

[Josh · Accepted solution]

Hi @JTay8,

In my opinion, the best way to do this is by using the AMB/Target Accounts tool in HubSpot. However, you won't have this functionality on Starter.

Without the tool, I'd probably rely on lists and custom properties. You can create an Active contact list that uses Company based properties to populate. The company can exist first and as you add contacts to those companies with whatever properties you set that trigger membership of the list, those contacts will start to populate. If you only want one contact per company on the list, in tandem you can use a contact property such as "Primary Contact" or "Decision Maker" as additional criteria for the list.

I hope this helps!

Josh

[Josh · Accepted solution]

Hi @JTay8,

I think you're on the right track with custom properties. First instinct would be:

• Confirmed Attendance
  • List of tradeshows you're attending as multi-checkbox
• Priority
  • High-Med-Low OR use target accounts Tier 1, 2, 3 (but you stated these aren't necessarily in alignment)
  • Train the sales team on how to use the basic tools in HubSpot needed to accomplish these basic tasks - even if they've used it before, a refresher might help

I would also recommend creating a Campaign in HubSpot by the name and year of the conference. You can then associate a static list and activities with this campaign to better track ROI. 

These are my initial thoughts based on the info I have, but I'd be happy to chat through more of the details with you if that would help.

Josh

Thanks for the ping @TiphaineCuisset!

[JTay8]

Thanks Josh, I'm about halfway there! Hit a couple of roadblocks. 

We're only on Marketing Starter (Sales Professional) so don't have the Campaign feature although thanks I'll look into it (maybe try the trial shortly before events). 

I imported Notes and unfortunately realized that won't show in our list. (Misc info, progress, fit notes at the moment) Thinking I may make a custom Event Specific 'Note' multiline property, although it's not the most elegant solution. Suggestion if you have one.

This element has me stuck: Do you have any ideas of how to associate/track/add a particular contact with the Company List?

I usually use Contact Based lists but in this case, we don't have contacts until we prospect through the company first. And I don't want to have a Contact List adding 15 contacts because they're associated with one Company attending. 

[TiphaineCuisset]

Hi @JTay8 

Thank you for reaching out.

I want to tag some of our experts on this - @Josh @Aakar @GeorgeBThomas what are your thoughts and advice for @JTay8 on this? 

Thank you!

Best

Tiphaine