5 Ways To Maximize ASBS 2015 Results By Using Video

Once a year, around 1,400 surgeons and dozens of vendors and researchers gather for the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Breast Surgeons.

I’ll be with my WireBuzz team, this April 29 - May 3 in Orlando Florida teaching breast cancer clients how to decrease their sales cycle using video.

If you’re attending the conference as well, here are a few tips I’ve learned about how to use video to make the most of the experience while ensuring it’s a profitable investment for your organization.

#1) Create a Motion Graphics Loop Video For Your Booth

People process information from a video 60,000x faster than text and recall 68% from a video, as opposed to only 11% from text.

That's why the most successful conference vendors deploy a loop video that features clean motion graphics to help capture attention and relay core messaging to attendees.

A highly-produced booth loop video goes a long way toward standing out from other vendors, and also lends a premium air to your brand.

For an example, here's a sample of two highly effective booth loop videos WireBuzz created for Natera and Invitae: Natera and Invitae Booth Loop Videos

#2) Best Post-Conference Client Follow-Up Strategy

Most marketers spend 95% of their effort on pre-conference strategies, even though 100% of their return on investment will come from post-conference follow-up. Just as in golf, consistent follow-through has a huge impact on your final score.

Viewers of product videos are 75% more likely to buy after watching. So, it's a great idea to to send a follow up email that includes your product overview video to attendees that dropped by your booth. That video should be somewhere between 1-2 minutes in length, highly scripted, and feature motion graphics and supportive video B-roll.

Here’s what I do to maximize my time at ASBS:

• Start building your ASBS contact database right away. Whether using a badge scanner or going old-school collecting business cards, make sure to grab email addresses.
• Organize and categorize your contact list at least daily. You think you’ll remember some important detail later, but trust me, you won’t. Make note of any product interests or commitments you make, like scheduling a phone call or visit, or sending them the latest research.
• Include your product overview video in your follow up email. Adding video to an email increases email open rates by 2x, and shares by 3x 
• By using a product overview video, you can expect more people to open your emails and share them with colleagues. That’s a game changer!

A product overview video and some great videos from the event enhance your post-conference marketing credibility, increase your client’s understanding of your product’s benefits, and shorten your sales cycle.

My WireBuzz crew will be on location for the entirety of ASBS. For any new on-site video requests, we can minimize video production costs and speed up turnaround times. Ideally, you’ll want a video for each of your main products, plus one really powerful client testimonial.

Win-Win!

#3) Amplify Positive Data Using Video

If your company has new data coming out at ASBS, here’s the best way to educate your target groups (healthcare professionals, sales reps on location and key stakeholders):

Create a Powerpoint presentation that explains what the new data means. If understanding the information would also be valuable to the public (patients and support groups), create a simplified version of your presentation. Then, schedule a video recording session with one of your opinion leaders talking through the slides.

The video(s) will be very valuable for educating your target audiences because, as we said earlier, people process information on video 60,000x faster than text and we’ve all become far too lazy to read a full study.

In post-production, have the expert’s video paired up with their slides. When the video(s) is finished, post it on your website and email it to your target groups.

Generally, our clients send the medical version to their sales reps around the world, people who visited their booth, the investor relations team and office staff. The “patient” version can be posted on your patient portal, emailed to your friends at the patient support groups and nurse navigators to share with their communities.

Also, bear in mind that for the patient version, the lighter the branding, the higher the chances are that it will actually be shared with patients.

If the authors of the study are connected with large institutions, send their PR and marketing teams the videos, so they can also promote the study within their circles.

On a personal note, I run a patient awareness website called BreastCancerAnswers.com. If your patient video would be valuable to our 700,000+ social followers, send an email to our VP of Content Development, Kelley Howard (kelley@wirebuzz.com). She’ll make sure our Medical Director, Dr. Jay Harness, has an opportunity to vet it for future consideration.

#4) Best Way To Own The ASBS Social Media Conversation

Attendees at conferences still aren’t using online resources effectively, which means you have a golden opportunity to own the social media conversation. It’s really not that hard. Even better, you can extend that conversation outside the luxurious Grande Lakes Resort, to reach anyone following the conference discussions online!

A few smart moves will ensure that your social posts get lots of views:

• Set up your accounts before the conference so you’re ready to post immediately, grabbing the social voice by being first to report on the event.
• Get set up on Twitter, which is the most effective social platform in this circumstance. (http://www.wirebuzz.com/10-tips-to-dominate-twitter-at-conference/).
• Incorporate rich images like photos and videos into your posts, which will cause your posts to get more views by far.
• Add a social media savvy member to your conference marketing team, a tactician with search engine optimization experience.
• Add someone skilled at cranking out really good videos, which will triple your social shares and improve the comprehension of your content.

Always keep in mind that helpful is the new viral, and design your content to be informative rather than marketing-hype driven.

Throughout each day, share your new videos on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+. Send out a daily email blast to your database. And, don’t forget to use the hashtag #ASBS, so your posts can easily be found by attendees.

Big Picture: The window of opportunity for dominating the ASBS social media conversation won’t be open forever. In a couple of years, everyone at ASBS will be posting on social channels. But today, it’s still the domain of early innovators, marketers who are savvy enough to influence the conversation on social media.

#5) Best Last Minute ASBS Marketing Tactic

At last year’s ASCO - Chicago conference, Genentech did something brilliant. They created a video about their role in treating breast cancer and, using YouTube’s TrueView ad service, successfully targeted every YouTube viewer within the vicinity of the conference who were watching breast cancer related videos. This method is a very targeted, inexpensive way to influence customers.

The best part is that Genentech was only charged when people watched the full 30 seconds of the ad.

So, if someone only watched 5 or 28 seconds, the ad was 100% free! For roughly 11-15 cents per 30-second view, Genentech got their video message strategically placed in front of ASCO attendees for a very inexpensive price.

You could very easily do the same thing at ASBS.

I’ve had the privilege of attending ASBS for several years and each meeting is more rewarding than the last. It’s not because of the business WireBuzz does there, but the relationships that have been built on a common cause: curing breast cancer.

Attend ready to meet remarkable people, to contribute your skills to the community of cancer care and to be humbled by the tremendous work going on around the country.