How to Make Your Event Marketing Convert Clients

Written by Luke Glassford

October 2, 2026

If you've stood in the aisles at BIBA or Broker Expo, you'll know the problem before we even describe it.

Row after row of stands, most of them saying roughly the same thing in roughly the same way, and only a handful that people stop at. The difference rarely comes down to budget. It comes down to whether the stand, the materials on it and the plan for what happens afterwards were designed to work together or simply put together in time for the event.

Don't let the stand carry the whole strategy

A good-looking exhibition stand is only one part of the experience. The businesses that get the most out of an event tend to have thought through everything a visitor sees and interacts with before, during and after the event, not just the stand they happen to walk past.

At a major insurance event, most stands look and sound broadly similar, so yours needs an immediate, specific reason for someone to stop, whether that's a specialist appetite, an unusual capability, an insurer panel, a product or an accreditation. It helps to decide in advance what you most want attendees to remember about your business and build the stand's messaging around that single idea, rather than trying to say everything at once. A focused proposition tends to cut through where a long list of services doesn't.

Consistency matters just as much as the message. The stand, brochures, one-pagers, merchandise, presentations and digital activity should all feel like they come from the same business. Generic giveaways or materials that don't match the stand can quietly undo some of the impression it creates, so it's worth choosing merchandise strategically rather than buying items simply because an event is coming up. Giving people a reason to interact, a competition, a demonstration, a survey or some other small activity, also makes it easier to start a conversation and gets past the natural awkwardness of trying to stop someone walking past.

Start marketing before the event, not on the day

Don't rely entirely on passing footfall. Let clients, prospects, brokers, partners and your wider network know you'll be attending, where to find you and why it's worth them stopping by. Pre-event marketing tends to work better when it promotes something specific and tangible, a competition, a new product, a specialist capability, a meeting opportunity, an announcement or an expert they can speak to, rather than a general ‘come and see us’ message.

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Have a proper process for capturing leads

Decide before the event how contacts and conversations will be recorded. Business cards, handwritten notes and relying on individuals to remember conversations all create easy opportunities for leads to disappear. A name and an email address on their own aren't especially useful; what matters more is knowing what was discussed, what someone is interested in, what was promised and when they should next be contacted.

It's also worth agreeing who owns each lead before the event starts. Otherwise, conversations tend to sit in a spreadsheet because everyone assumes somebody else is following them up.

Follow up while the conversation is still fresh

Event leads lose value surprisingly quickly, so it pays to make contact while the conversation and the event are still fresh, rather than waiting several weeks for someone to work through a list. Follow-up should also be specific to the conversation that took place. A generic ‘great to meet you at BIBA’ email sent to every attendee is far less effective than a message that refers to what was discussed and gives them a clear next step.

Having guides, case studies, appetite documents, thought leadership or other useful content ready in advance so that the follow-up conversations can continue, rather than stalling because there wasn't enough time to cover everything at the event itself.

Get more from the event than just conversations

An event can generate more than face-to-face conversations on the day. Photos, videos, interviews, panel insights and observations can all be turned into social and content activity, extending the reach of the event well beyond the people who were physically there. Most of your target market probably wasn't at the event at all, so social media, email and post-event content are worth using to reach that wider audience too.

Whatever contacts an event does generate should feed into the same CRM and sales processes as leads from any other channel, with clear next actions and follow-up dates, rather than being treated as a separate, one-off list that sits apart from the rest of your pipeline.

Plan backwards from what success means

Before deciding what the stand itself should look like, it is worth deciding what success means for this event: broker meetings, new agencies, enquiries, insurer conversations, appointments, awareness or a product launch, for example.

The scale of the approach should match the event. A major event like BIBA might justify a substantial stand and a broader campaign around it, while a regional broker event may call for something far simpler. The principles stay the same either way; it's the execution that should be proportionate.

Treat it as a campaign, not a stand

The businesses that get the most from event marketing tend to stop thinking of it as buying a stand and start treating it as a campaign with three phases: what happens before the event, what happens on the day, and what happens afterwards. Each phase supports the others, and none of them works especially well in isolation.