Conference Follow-Up Sequence
Tiered follow-up executed: Tier 1 personal within 48h, Tier 2-3 sequences within 1 week. CRM tagged with attribution. 90-day ROI report.
Before you start
- Conference attendee list (collected via badge scans, sign-ups)
- Approved follow-up templates per persona
- CRM with conference source tracking
- Attendee list with conversation context (badge scan note, demo request, etc.)
- Conference theme and our presence (booth, talk, sponsorship)
- Sales rep notes from the event
The steps
- Consolidate the attendee list — Within 48 hours of conference end, consolidate: badge scans, demo requests, business cards, talk attendees, party guests. Deduplicate. Tag each contact with the conference source for attribution.
- Segment by interaction depth — Tier 1: Demo requests or extended conversations (handle personally). Tier 2: Booth visit + question. Tier 3: Badge scan only. Tier 4: Talk attendees we have data on. Each gets a different follow-up.
- Send Tier 1 follow-ups within 48 hours — Personal emails from the rep who spoke with them. Reference the specific conversation. Propose next step (demo, content, intro). Don't templatize Tier 1 — those conversations are remembered.
- Send Tier 2-3 sequences within 1 week — Email sequence: Day 1 (recap event + relevant resource), Day +7 (case study or content), Day +14 (soft CTA — want to chat?). Tone: warm, not salesy. They met us; they're not cold.
- Coordinate parallel LinkedIn outreach — For Tier 1-2, send personalized LinkedIn connection requests with a reference to the conversation. Don't pitch in the connection request. LinkedIn complements email, doesn't replace it.
- Update CRM with conference attribution — Tag every contact with: conference name, date, interaction type, rep who spoke with them, follow-up sequence. Conference attribution is critical for ROI analysis — without it, every conference looks unprofitable.
- Report conference ROI 90 days post-event — Compile: attendee count, follow-ups sent, replies, demos booked, deals closed, revenue attributed. Compare to conference cost. This is the data that decides whether to attend next year.
If it goes wrong
Tier 1 follow-ups slip past 48 hours
Build the follow-up list during the conference, not after. Reps draft on Day 1 evening and send Day 2 morning. Velocity kills.
Sequence-fatigued attendees reply 'unsubscribe'
Cap sequence at 3 touches. Don't blast every conference attendee with a 7-touch nurture. Quality of touch > quantity.
Conference ROI looks bad because attribution is missing
Make conference tagging a hard step in CRM intake. If a deal closes from a conference contact and the tag isn't there, ROI math is wrong.
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