scanbizcards-blog1

[scanbizcards-blog1]

How B2B Marketers Can Improve Brand Recall During Lockdown

Due to the lockdown, people are working out of their homes now. With business uncertainty and significantly reduced cash flows, buyer confidence has been steadily going down. There are multiple buying decision makers in a B2B sales process, and businesses realize that they cannot, singularly, do much to revive the economy but they can assess their own financial situation. 

Due to this, they have altered their buying habits in the past few months as the lockdowns have continued. Hence, as an organization, if you want to stay in business, then it is imperative that you focus on growing your brand equity - it is the only way brand recall in the minds of the consumers would remain high. 

Let’s find out how. 

Consumer Spending Has Not Stopped Altogether

If the pre-COVID-19 and the current purchase index are compared, the change that has occurred is quite significant. This implies that businesses are no longer splurging money. However, it does not mean that they have stopped spending altogether. Their buying focus has now shifted to items that would make their operations easier while teams remain confirmed at home. So, now is when you should reach out to your customers and build on your brand recall in their minds. The brands that will offer reassurance are the ones that will be remembered most. So, portray yourself as a brand that produces quality products or services, is focused on employee welfare, and who has the best interests of the consumers in mind. 

Essential Things for Business Continuity and Productivity Will Be a Priority

In B2B scenarios, business buyers are now focusing more on buying what is essential. So, businesses that offer products or services that are ‘essential’ for running business operations  have begun to advertise in full swing. Also, companies that were not earlier producing such products, features, or goods have also begun to shift their focus! 

For example, Google has made its video conferencing app, Meet, free for all users who have Gmail accounts to take on rival Zoom. The app was earlier only available as a part of the G-Suite account.  

So, if you want to win the race, or in fact even stay in it, you need brand advertising that is unique. With so much advertising happening all around, buyers will remember you only if you can bring out your USP with your message and the special features of your product or service. 

Currently Non-Essential Items Have Become Unimportant 

In today’s setting if you are producing a “non-essential” item, then you are running the risk of losing out on brand recall in the long run. These include brands operating in industries like travel, transportation, hotels, hospitality, and many others. It is hence important for brands in these industries to continue reaching out to the customers. However, to be positively remembered, your advertising during this time needs to be thoughtful and sensitive - after all, you do not want to be remembered as the brand that was insensitive. Here are some ways that you can build on customer confidence:

Alter your message so that is sync with the current times

Don’t be too salesy - make your message more subtle

Use channels that have the most audience exposure in current times for advertising

Share news updates on various social media sites. You can also provide real-time updates in the geographies where you are present by tying up with resident associations 

Use humor in your messages - the current time has brought with it a lot of fear and nervousness. Using humor will portray you in a positive light

Keep the Future in Mind

The current time will not last forever - times will change and customers will return to their normal spending habits. When that happens prospective customers should be able to recall your brand with ease. So, use this time to invest in building your brand image. Some ways that you can do this are:

Collaborate or partner with other businesses that customers already know of - especially if you are a brand that is unknown to people. Trying self-advertising for brand awareness can prove to be expensive for you.   

Offer freebies but when you do so you must identify the freebie that would be appreciated by consumers and also portray your brand in the right way. For instance, you can offer no sign-up or renewal charges for the next 3 months. 

Create a slogan or a catch-phrase for your brand that will address the current times and also be catchy enough to make a mark in the consumers’ minds.

Keep customer engagement going. In fact, try to engage with them in real-time and address their issues.

One brand that has been successful in its endeavors is ScanBizCards - a popular app in the B2B events community space. It has over 2.5 million users and is ranked as one of the top 10 apps in the ‘Business’ category on the Apple App Store. The brand’s marketing teams have been continuing with the marketing efforts even during the lockdown to keep the brand recall on top of mind, to deliver value to users, and also to help clients during this lockdown. 

The efforts of the marketing team is making users post reviews about their experiences using the app. Yes, the cancellation of B2B events has impacted its daily active user base and net new installs of the app. However, on the other hand, many of the existing users are not more active and are spending more time on the app. This is because users now have more time on their hands and so are productively using it to clear their backlog of business cards, and are using features such as human transcription service and email signature capture more actively. The engagement on the monthly newsletters, updates, and new releases has also risen considerably. 

Media Consumption is Growing

A study by Nielsen US showed that while people stayed at home, their media consumption would rise. With customers now viewing more ads by different brands, you need to step up your campaign lest you are forgotten about. Spending more on brand promotion via advertising at a time like this would help you to, in fact, reach out to a greater audience at a lower cost. You would also be able to make a mark in the customers’ minds as the brand who was around and was supportive during difficult times. 

High Brand Equity Leads to Quicker Recoveries

Building brand awareness familiarises customers with your brand and helps them to become comfortable with you. Hence, even during this lockdown phase when business is slow, you need to keep brand recall high in the customers’ minds. Studies, in fact, have shown that recoveries are quicker and easier for brands with the strongest brand equity. So, you should keep working on improving the way people see you and so that potential customers won’t forget about you. Your efforts, after the pandemic is over, will help you in the following ways:

To capture a greater market share by attracting the prospects who you have been building up during this time

If you build on a brand image that shows that you positively contributed to the community during the pandemic, you will be remembered positively by consumers

It will help you to know your audience better which you can use to devise new and more effective strategies 

Summarizing 

The current times would have affected your sales and, no matter what you do, recording the same numbers as before would be tough. So, instead of focusing only on how to sell more, put in efforts to build your brand image. You will reap the benefits of this when normalcy is restored. Doing this won't be an easy task though and you would need to assess your budgets as well. However, remember that times have changed and huge behavioral changes are occurring in the customer base. So, how you engage with customers will be important to determine your performance and your growth in the long run. 

[scanbizcards-blog1]

Why Business Cards Still Remain Popular

Business cards were used many years ago by the Chinese to inform people about the reason for their visit and by European merchants to promote their goods. 

Even in today’s digital age, they continue to remain popular and with millions of business cards still printed each year, they will stay popular in 2020 and beyond. Here is why. 

Business Cards Convey a Professionalism

When you meet a prospective customer, instead of scribbling down your contacts on a piece of paper or telling them verbally, you should always hand over your business card to them. This is essential because:

If you tell the prospects verbally, they might not get the details right when they save it on their phones or might even forget about it

If you write it on a piece of paper, a napkin, or even on a sticky note, they might lose it and it will also look unprofessional

A business card has the name and logo of your company. So it is an extension of your brand's image. Hence, handing over a business card that is good-looking and of high quality card will create a great first impression about your organization 

It will ensure that you leave a physical record of your contact info with your prospects which they can use whenever they want to reach out to you

Contact Information can be Easily Saved or Exported 

If you use a business card scanner app like ScanBizCards, you can easily convert the contact information on business cards into digital format. This is done by clicking a picture of the card which then scans the information and uploads it in your phone’s address book, exports to a .CSV file, or to a CRM system. 

Thus, during meetings or events, prospects having a business card would mean that contact information can be saved or exported into a centralized database more easily and swiftly. 

Contact information can be Shared Without Internet Connectivity

Events often have low or fluctuating internet connectivity. In situations like this sharing of contact information might become challenging. While you could write the details down on a piece of paper, it would look extremely unprofessional. Also, the information might not get noted down due to bad handwriting, rush, or due to the noise all around. 

This is where business cards come in handy - you can exchange the information without any internet and do it extremely professionally as well.

Information is Exchanged Quickly

An event is attended by hundreds of people, if not thousands. These visitors want to visit all the booths that have been set up. Hence, time is of the essence to them. In such a situation, you need to quickly make an impression on a visitor who comes to your booth and also exchange contact information with them. In fact, if you notice that some contacts are in a rush, you must still request them to leave their business cards with you. 

This would help you to capture potential leads who you can follow-up with post the event. Once you have the business card all that you will have to do is to use a lead capture app like ScanBizCards. This app will scan the information and store it in the database that has all your prospects’ contacts. 

Brand Recall is Higher with a Business Card

Your brand’s identity gets reflected in the business cards that your staff uses. Hence, while designing a card you must pay attention to its design, font, and colours such that it accurately reflects the value proposition of your brand. A unique design will improve the brand recall in your prospects. 

When this happens they are likely to pass it on to those in their network, thus generating more referral leads for you.

Some business card designs that will be popular in 2020 are:

Usage of heavy cardstock as it give a premium look and conveys a strong brand image

Cards with minimalistic, and the most important, information only as customers get confused when they see a card with a lot of details in it

Unique designs, with a focus on colors and typeface. For example, 2020 will see larger typeface as it draws more attention

Cards with texture 

Those in the social media or in the entertainment space, can add puns or quotes to the cards as it will make them unique

Business Cards can Beat Language Barriers 

At events and meetings, you might meet people who don’t speak your language or whose language you are unable to decipher. This is where business cards come in handy because the cards will at least help you to exchange contact information. 

All you need to do after this is to use a business card scanner app like ScanBizCards. It is the best business card scanner app as it can scan cards in 22 different languages other than English. 

Business Cards Take up Little Storage Space

When you meet a prospect at an event, if you write down your contact information at the back of pamphlets or brochures, it is likely that the information will get lost. This is because there are very few visitors who actually carry all the literature back with them - most get dumped into the nearest trash can. Also, there are chances that your information will get lost amidst all the other literature that the prospect collects from the other booths. 

This is why you must carry your business card with you - it takes up very little space and the prospect can fit it easily in a wallet or in the trouser pocket. Thus. there is a lesser chance of it getting lost. On the other hand, you can also use a business card scanner app like ScanBizCards to ensure that you store the information of the leads safely as well.

Forms a Part of the Branding Strategy

Marketers are always looking for new and innovative ways to promote their brand, while keeping a check on the budget. Business cards can thus be used as an effective and yet an inexpensive way to promote the brand. This is because a business card not only carries contact information but also the company’s logo and the value proposition of the brand. 

At the same time, when compared to the amount spent on advertising, they are not expensive. Thus, handing over business cards to prospects will create more awareness about your brand while not burning a hole in your pocket.

Business Cards Will Keep Trending in 2020!

In today’s age, your business can grow only with networking and by building long-lasting professional relationships. While technology plays a key role in consolidating all your efforts, you cannot forget about the importance of traditional tools like business cards. 

[scanbizcards-blog1]

Top 5 Android Apps for Events, Marketing and Sales Teams

If you want to be successful in your business, at hosting events, or as a sales and marketing rep, you need to remain productive. In today’s world, when there are a lot of things that need to get done at the same time, the only way you can be productive is if you can master the art of multitasking. 

Thankfully, there are apps for most uses that will simplify your work and make the task simpler. Else, managing leads, writing emails, remembering to keep in touch with customers, attending meetings, monitoring the team’s and your own performance - all at the same time  - would have been near impossible. 

Read on to know the top 5 Android apps for events, marketing, and sales professionals that will help you to stay at your productive best. 

Slack: Helping to Keep in Touch

With over 4 million business professionals using this instant messaging app globally, it is definitely one of the top Android apps that sales and marketing professionals should use. 

Since it offers instant messaging, it will help you to keep in touch with your team. Some of the advantages of this app are:

Through this virtual chat room, you can create different groups based on different criteria

You can send direct messages to your team 

Data is not lost as tracking of all conversation threads is easy 

If you are working on something important and you do not want to be disturbed by chat messages you can choose the ‘Do Not Disturb’ 

You can create profiles for each of your team members with their phone number, Skype ID and others. This will help you to locate them easier

You can get in touch in real-time with audio because this app has a built-in voice calling feature

If you are a part of more than one group and you need to switch between chats, you can do that with ease as well - all you need to do is to use the sidebar

Check out Slack for Android

2. ScanBizCards: Helping to Simplify Contacts and Leads Capture 

Imagine attending an event, collecting a large number of business cards, then spending hours manually entering the contact details to create a database of the leads generated. This is how it used to be till some time ago, but times are changing. Now there is an app called ScanBizCards, one of the best card scanner apps, that is being used by more than 2 million users globally, which will help you to create this database in a very short period of time. 

After a business conference or a trade show, when you have acquired many business cards, all you need to do is to click a picture of the card. The app then uses OCR technology and exports all the scanned information directly into a CRM or email marketing system. After this you can:

Create personalized folders for each contact

Send introductory emails to all the contacts in your list. You can even add your picture to these emails

You can also find new contacts from email signatures

This app has two versions - a free and a premium version that costs $0.99. You should use the enterprise edition if you use the Salesforce CRM. This allows you to scan an unlimited number of business cards. It has other attractive features also. For example, it will assign you a dedicated admin panel with custom controls for all its associated apps.

Check out ScanBizCards for Android

3. Gmail: Helping to Make Email Sending Easy

While the user base of At one time most used to use Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and other email services. However, this has changed in recent times. Nowadays, almost all have a Gmail address. 

This is because Gmail has powerful features and is user-friendly. Some of its features that makes it the most popular name in emailing are:

An individual can have multiple accounts on the app 

The Gmail app integrates with other Google services, like Google Drive, Google Docs, and Google Sheets.

If you receive an invite  on the Google Calendar, you can respond to it to from your email 

You can sort your emails into different categories like primary, social, promotions, and more

Searching for emails is easy

Emails can be snoozed

If an email gets sent, the act can be undone

Check out Gmail for Android

4. LinkedIn: Helping Professionals to Connect

One of the most popular Android apps to network professionally is LinkedIn. With this app you can:

Look for jobs or advertise openings in your organisation

Build on your portfolio by publishing your own articles. As more people view it and comment on it, you will build your image as a thought leader of your industry

Add important people from your industry to your network

Engage with others in your industry. You can do this by commenting on the content that they post

If you see content that is not of interest to you then you can hide it or mark it as spam. LinkedIn will accordingly show you only that content which you like

Join groups that are of interest to you. These groups will help you to learn and also participate in various conversation threads 

LinkedIn is also an important app for marketing people as the Campaign Manager can be used to run InMail campaigns. Since these advertisements  work on a pay-per-click format, you will need to pay only if someone takes an action on your advertisement.

Check out LinkedIn for Android

5. Calendly: Helping to Remember Important Events

You need to hold a meeting, but you don’t like sending emails. If this is you, then Calendly is the Android app for you. This is a user-friendly, automated scheduling software that will make fixing of meetings an easy task for you. 

For this you will need to set up options when you are available, inform the others who will attend the meeting about it by sharing the link, and let them decide on the time that best suits them. When they choose a time, it gets added to your calendar. You can use this information to fix one particular time. Using this app is advantageous because you can:

Integrate it with Google, Office 365, and Outlook calendars and also with apps like Salesforce, Stripe, GoToMeeting, and Zapier

Prevent conflicts as it does not allow double booking 

Customize reminders that you send to invitees for a meeting

Use it on desktops, phones, and tablets as it has no compatibility issues with them

Hold secret events by using the various privacy controls that it comes with

View the availability of your team on a single page - this will help you when you are fixing a time for your team’s meeting

You can also use this app while hosting online events like a webinar. This is because the app allows the same slot to be chosen by multiple invitees. 

Other than these advantages, you can also avail of an email service If you sign up for the premium package.

Check out Calendly for Android

Summing up

There are many Android based apps that are available today. They all look attractive and hence sometimes choosing the right option becomes challenging. However, these five apps will definitely help to ease your task and make you more productive in your work. 

[scanbizcards-blog1]

How to Triple Your Trade Show Marketing ROI

When you participate in a trade show, your goal should be to get the most out of your investment. After all, exhibiting at a trade show means that sufficient time and finances would get invested. So you need to devise effective marketing strategies so that your return on investment is maximized. If you are keen to know how you can achieve this, read on. 

It All Starts with the Right Marketing Plan 

Deciding to participate in a trade show is just the beginning. The success of your event will depend on how well you build your marketing plan. This involves paying attention to how you will let people know about your event, your plans during the event, and your strategy to follow up once the show is over. Let us address each point one by one. 

 Pre-show Tactics

When you pick a trade show to exhibit at, your audience needs to know about your product and its USPs. You can promote your brand among your prospects by:

1. Informing them about your event through various social media channels. 

2. Generating interest by advertising about giveaways for those who’d attend the show and visit your booth.  

3. Reaching out by emailing newsletters or through direct phone calls. 

Since most businesses in the industry frequent prominent events, reaching out to connections from previous events can be a very effective way to get back in touch existing leads you’ve not contacted in a while. If you use an event lead-capture tool, such as a business card scanner, then you will have a list and contacts of all your clients and prospects from previous events and would also know the most qualified ones. Reaching out to them personally and asking them to visit your booth at the show would work well for you. You can win their interest by asking them to participate in interactive sessions such as talk shows or networking sessions or drinks that the event organiser might be conducting, or even by giving them gifts. 

While devising your pre-show strategy, don’t forget about the media. Get in touch with the press and various radio stations to promote your participation. The more the media talks, the more exposure you get, and it will reflect in the number of people who visit your booth. Of course, the length and breadth of your channel strategy depends on your budget, so spread it well across your channels.

 Event-Day Tactics

Have an Eye-catching Booth

To attract potential clients to your booth, you not only need to set it up on time but you also need to make sure that it is an attractive one. Hire a company that can professionally design it for you. Do remember to share your overall budget with them so that you don’t overshoot your budget. You should also remember to connect with the event organizer well in advance so that the space where you would be setting up your booth is a good one. 

Choose Your Most Efficient Staff to be at the Booth

All your pre-show planning will come to naught if you don’t do it right on the day of the event. Hence, make sure that you choose your most efficient staff. Give them an official attire with the company logo to wear as it will make them look more professional. See that they all have a business card scanner app on their phone. This will help them to add the contacts of the leads being generated easily into their phones. Before the event, train them on what they should say, how they can sell your product better, and what giveaways to give to those who are visiting your stall. Do make sure that they don’t start cracking business deals of their own with your competitors though - after all these shows are often the hub where new deals are forged! 

Efficient Interactions Outside the Booth

Simply manning the booth is not enough. You should also have your staff roaming around in the show. This way they will be able to interact with those who have come to the show but are not reaching the booth. Make sure that your staff have their business card scanner apps ready so they can capture leads instantly. ScanBizCards, a popular card scanner app, can help your sales team to instantly save the contact information from business cards into the phone’s address book, or to the CRM, with the help of just a single tap. When all contact details of potential leads get stored in one database, follow-ups post the event become streamlined. 

Participate in the Talk Show

Event organizers often hold talks. When you are participating in such an event, you should approach the organizers and look for opportunities to speak at the event. When people hear you talking - be it about your journey or about your product - they begin to associate with you and see you as being an expert in the industry. It is then but natural that they will visit your company’s booth to know more about your product. 

Party After the Show

Trade shows hold after-event parties where participants and visitors can interact in a casual environment. You should make sure that you have your staff at these events. When the atmosphere is an informal one, the exchange of contacts becomes easier. 

 Post-show Tactics

It is possible that you managed to get a lot of leads on the day of the event, However, if you don’t have a proper post-show strategy in place then you will not be able to convert these leads. So that you don’t miss any potential business generation, this is what you need to do. 

Follow-up Immediately

Keep your follow-up email ready so that when the time for it comes after the show you don’t waste your time drafting them. The quicker you send off these follow-up emails, the more the people will remember you. So that their brand recall is more, you can send some pictures of your stall as well. 

Keep a Record of all Leads

Imagine you got thousands of business cards at the event, but now you can’t find them. What a setback that would be. This is why you should have apps like ScanBizCards, one of the best business card scanner apps, on your phone so that no contact gets missed. When you have an exhaustive record handy, the process of sending all the follow-up emails becomes that much easier. Also, when you have this list, don’t forget to categorize them. This will help you because you will know who are the ones you really want to make your customer and hence need to constantly follow up with. 

Non-conversions Are Important Too

If you thought that all the contacts that you got at the trade show will become your customer, then think again. There are bound to be non-conversions. However, that does not mean that you forget about them. Always keep them on your newsletter mailing list and follow up with them once in a while. This way they will remember your brand name and will reach out to you when they want to buy your product. 

 Endnote

Trade shows are an extremely effective way to generate new leads and create brand awareness, it is also one of the most expensive ways. If you want to maximize your trade show marketing ROI, you need to plan minutely and carefully. If you do it right, the returns are significant.   

[scanbizcards-blog1]

7 Mobile Apps For Sales and Marketing People To Stay More Productive in 2020

Sales and marketing people are some of the busiest professionals. They need to keep themselves updated on what's new in the marketplace, they have targets to chase, revenue numbers to contribute to, and keep active on the professional  networking front.

Fortunately, there’s an app out there for essentially everything that needs organization. You just need to find the right one for you. There are a bunch of business productivity apps available on the Google Play Android store and Apple iTunes iOS store to help you accomplish more in less time. This article will help you to choose your best fit for you.

1. Slack

Slack aims to replace email as the default mode of internal communication, primarily. It lets you send messages to your team directly and create groups for team dialogues. 

Slack has over 4 million business users using it everyday. It keeps you connected and fosters collaboration.

Check out Slack for iOS and Android

2. ScanBizCards

ScanBizCards is a business card scanner app that uses OCR technology to snap contacts from business cards and conference badges simply using your phone’s camera. You can export contacts directly to your Salesforce CRM (and many other CRMs and marketing automation systems) or save to address book and export cia a CSV. You can also create personalized folders for contacts and send quick intro emails along with your photo so they recall you. 

ScanBizCards has both a free and a premium version. Ranked #9 on iTunes in the USA, it is one of the best business card scanner apps for marketing and sales professionals.

Check out ScanBizCards for iOS and Android

3. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics app that helps you to track and measure your website visitors and their behavior on your website. 

It uncovers valuable statistics such as sessions, duractions, bounce rate, traffic sources, demographics, devices and operating systems, the amount of traffic generated from external and social media sites and much more depending on how you set your Goals, Events and UTMs and so on.

See Google Analytics for iOS and Android

4. Evernote

Evernote is a very popular app among marketers because of its ability to make notes in a fluid manner. It's available for iOS, Android and Windows devices. 

The app lets you save images, contacts and files and saves you from the hassle of having to manually manage your files, images or contacts list. You can upload PDF files, audio files, image and video files easily with Evernote.

See Evernote for iOS and Android

5. CircleBack

CircleBack is an AI-driven address book manager app that lets you sync your addrress book contacts. That’s not all -- the app does a lot more. It uses AI to find missing contact information wherever it’s available from your Google, Microsoft and exchange account and also removes duplicate contacts. 

The app also has a useful business card scanner feature that allows you to scan business cards and add to your address book.

See CircleBack for iOS and Android

6. BaseCamp 3 

Basecamp is a project management and team communication app that can help you to collaborate and manage tasks or projects within your company. It has chat rooms, a message board, a scheduler, automated check-ins and much more. 

If you’re part of or  manage a sales or marketing team, you can easily add your team members with their details and track items. The app works perfectly for managing small and large teams alike.

See BaseCamp 3 for iOS and Android

7. Expensify

Expensify is an automated expense management that helps you to generate and track your receipts and manage expenses on the go. 

This is quite a handy tool for sales and marketing people as they’re always on the field incurring expenses. You can take a photo of your receipt and have it automatically transcribed. You can easily review your personal expenses, view them just by tapping a button and easily submit business expenses to your company.

See Expensify for iOS and Android

If you’re a sales or marketing professional, you’ll always have a lot on your plate. These 7 apps can help you to do your daily tasks faster and more accurately. 

Which ones do you already use or will start using now? Let us know.

[scanbizcards-blog1]

Going To An Event? Here Are 5 Things You Must Do

Meeting new people at events isn’t always easy. If you aren’t fully prepared with your demo or pitch or agenda, and especially, your goal or objective of the conversation, you might find yourself lost in the crowd! 

If you are a sales or marketing professional or a business owner, B2B marketing events are always going to remain a crucial source of lead generation and can go a long way in creating brand awareness for your business. The most important part of attending events is business networking and generating new leads for your business. Each new conversation can offer new possibilities, you just need to be well prepared to make the most of them. 

Marketing events provide a congenial platform to meet new people, make new connections, nurture existing leads, and ultimately grow your sales funnel. The key is to make sure you capture every single contact so you can turn opportunities into potential revenue.

You just need to keep a few simple yet effective things in mind for successfully networking and winning at marketing events. When done right, these things will help you to find qualified prospects and get the most out of your investment.

1. Do Your Research Ahead of the Event

It is important to acquire information about the event you’re attending. Do your research about the guests attending the event, the companies that are sponsoring, the sessions being held and so on. If you’re targeting a particular company account and the company you’ve been pursuing is also attending, get the contact info of the company representatives going to the event and try to set up a time to meet during the event in advance. 

Be prepared and be informed about the schedule so you can pick what’s most important for you. It is also essential to set your priorities and goals ahead of the event so you can focus on achieving them.

2. Focus On What and Who Is Important To You

As pointed out above, focus is key. Thousands of people attend events and you’re not going after everyone. It's not feasible to meet everybody and it isn’t the best use of your time either. Strike conversations with the right people, ask the right questions, get the right info that you need, and have your follow-up plan in place. 

Everyone is there to do business, of course, but it doesn’t have to be all about selling. Remember, you are not selling your brand; you are building it. Start with general discussions and slowly start building up your pitch without being salesy. Don’t sell, but build rapport. 

3. Exchange Business Cards & Capture Every Single Lead 

You’ve spent time and resources in preparing and getting to the event, you’ve done your research, you’ve met the right people - it’s important you capture their contact so you can nurture these leads. Make sure to exchange business cards with the people you meet at the event, follow up, and close. 

Now, it’s not uncommon to collect hundreds of business cards at an event, only to lose them and miss out on potential sales opportunities. Surprisingly, a lot of companies rent out event badge scanners and business card readers. Some even use paper forms to capture leads. These practices can often result in lost and incorrect information. 

Use technology to overcome these problems. Mobile apps can help you capture leads easily, like the ScanBizCards business card scanner that adds contacts to your phone's address book from business cards instantly, simply by snapping a photo. It also allows the export of saved contacts to a csv or CRM systems such as Salesforce and others. 

You can download the app on Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

4. Build Rapport So Your Prospects Remember You

Always show genuine interest in what your prospects have to offer to you to expect them to show the same level of interest in your offering. Ask relevant questions, listen carefully and build rapport with your prospects. Remember, everyone present at the event has something to take and something to offer. The important thing is to find synergies so you can connect with your prospects (and their business) in meaningful ways. 

5. Follow Up!

This is what it all comes down to. Research has shown that a whopping 88% of the event leads gathered in the field fail to make it to the CRM. All networking efforts will prove to be futile if you don't follow up with the leads you’ve gathered. 

You can follow up with your prospects or the specific companies you’re prospecting through email, phone, on social media platforms or perhaps at a future event that they're also attending. For your next meet up, consolidate your connections and greet them with short and sweet messages as you close off the event. Of course, if you have the right tools to be able to do these effectively, you’re going to succeed! 

Summing up

Networking events are an essential tool to develop and nurture new connections. Key is to blend interpersonal skills with the right technology tools. 

Apps like the ScanBizCards business card scanner app will help you to capture contacts and add them on your phone’s address book or CRM. CRMs and email marketing tools will help you follow up, track and convert. There are tools for every aspect of event marketing, you just need to have your plan in place and execute with the right tools.

So when attending the next meeting or event, go with confidence and create a lasting impression!