Run a pre-conference campaign
The attendee list lands three weeks out. Qualify it, find a direct line for the people who fit, and book the booth before the doors open.
The conversation
Sample accounts and numbers, for illustrationYouTake the attendee list I uploaded for next month's conference, keep the people who match our ICP and personas, find a verified email and direct number for each, rank them by fit and our CRM history, and draft a short pre-event sequence that asks for fifteen minutes at the booth.
conference-attendees.csv
Unify3 checks · your upload, contact data and CRM
- Resolved each attendee to a company and set aside vendors, agencies and press.
- Enriched the ICP-fit attendees through ContactOut and Wiza for a verified email and a direct number.
- Checked Salesforce for customers, open opportunities, owners and last touch.
Four hundred and twelve attendees on the list. Seventy-four fit the ICP and a persona, and 58 of those have a verified email and a direct number. Here is the top of the ranking.
| Group | People | Verified email | Direct number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fit the ICP and a persona | 74 | 71 | 58 |
| Customers attending | 11 | 11 | 9 |
| Vendors, agencies, press | 203 | not enriched | not enriched |
| Outside the personas | 124 | not enriched | not enriched |
- 1Dana Holt · Northwind LabsRank 1
- 2Nils Berg · Merridian SystemsRank 2
- 3Tara Quinn · BrightpathRank 3
The ranking weights fit first and CRM history second. A speaker slot and a recent site visit move a person up; a stalled deal last year moves them down, not out.
YouPlan the two weeks before the event and tell me what each invite opens on.
UnifyThree touches over 14 days, each with a reason to talk that the person can check against the agenda or their own news.
- Day 14Email: the reason to meetOpens on the talk they are giving, a launch, or a hire, and asks for fifteen minutes at the booth at a named time.
- Day 7Call on the direct numberSame reason, out loud. Booked slots go straight onto the booth calendar.
- Day 3Reminder to the booked, one more ask to the restTwo lines. The booked get the booth number and the time; the rest get one alternative slot.
- Day 0Booth calendarMeetings in 15-minute slots with the reason on each one, so whoever is on the stand knows why the person is coming.
- Openers
- Dana's invite opens on her Thursday talk. Nils's opens on last year's conversation and what changed since. Tara's opens on the two SDR hires.
- Customers
- The 11 customers attending are routed to their owners. They hear from the person who knows them, with a dinner or a session invite, not a booth ask.
YouWhich speakers on the agenda are at target accounts, and what is each one talking about?
UnifySeven of the 74 are speaking, and four of those are at target accounts. A speaker is asked to meet after their session, and the invite opens on the talk.
| Speaker | Session | Day | Ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dana Holt · Northwind Labs | Routing rules past 50 reps | Thursday | Fifteen minutes after the talk |
| Elena Marsh · Lumen Freight | Support across three time zones | Wednesday | Coffee on Thursday morning |
| Priya Nair · Halden Robotics | Panel: who owns the customer handoff | Wednesday | Booth slot after the panel |
| Jon Park · Fernhill Software | Forecasting with a small RevOps team | Friday | Booth slot on Thursday |
Session titles come from the speaker column in your upload. Nobody is asked to meet in the hour before they go on stage.
YouWhich of our customers are attending, who owns them, and which should get a dinner invite rather than a booth ask?
UnifyEleven customers are attending. Five get a dinner invite from their owner, and six get an invite to the Thursday session instead.
Renewal in 60 days and the VP Support is attending. Dinner with Ana and your head of product.
Three people attending from two teams, one of which does not use you yet.
One admin attending. Healthy account, nothing to raise over dinner.
Single attendees in user roles, each invited by their owner with the session time.
A customer gets a dinner invite where there is a renewal, a second team or a senior attendee. Every customer invite comes from the owner, never from the booth sequence.
YouDraft the sequence, put the calls on the dialer, and route customers to their owners.
UnifyFifty-eight invites are drafted and waiting for approval. Calls are scheduled as dialer tasks for day seven. Eleven customers went to their owners.
- Dana HoltOwner AnaIn review
- Nils BergOwner ChrisIn review
- Tara QuinnOwner UnassignedRouting list
Booth calendar · Thursday
Nine 15-minute slots requested so far, each with the reason on it. Slots fill as replies come in, and the reminder on day three confirms the time.
Set up
- Invites drafted for 58 targets One per person, opening on their specific reason. Nothing sends until you approve.
- Call tasks on the dialer for day seven Each task carries the reason and the verified direct number. Outcomes log to Salesforce.
- Eleven customers routed to owners With the event attached, for a dinner or session invite rather than the booth sequence.
The invite asks for a fixed slot, not a stop-by. A time on the calendar is what makes a conference meeting happen.
Pre-conference outreach, with and without Unify
Everyone emails the attendee list the week before. Few of those emails reach the person who decides.
| Without Unify | With Unify |
|---|---|
| The attendee list is worked top to bottom, vendors and interns included | Vendors, agencies and titles outside the personas drop out, and the rest are ranked by fit and CRM history |
| Booth invites go to the badge email, which is often a marketing alias | ContactOut and Wiza find a verified email and a direct number for each target, so the call step lands |
| Nobody checks which attendees are customers or already in a deal with another rep | Customers and open opportunities are routed to their owners for a different kind of invite |
| The invite says stop by our booth and gives no reason to | Each invite names something specific: the talk they are giving, a launch, a hire, and asks for fifteen minutes |
Start from this prompt
Make it your own in Unify, then review the results.
Take the attendee list I uploaded for next month's conference, keep the people who match our ICP and personas, find a verified email and direct number for each, rank them by fit and our CRM history, and draft a short pre-event sequence that asks for fifteen minutes at the booth.
What else you can ask for
The walkthrough is one path through this workflow. These are the turns people take most often.
- Speakers onlyWhich speakers on the agenda are at target accounts, and what is each one talking about?Try in Unify
- Customers attendingWhich of our customers are attending, who owns them, and which should get a dinner invite rather than a booth ask?Try in Unify
- Call listBuild a call list of the top 30 attendees with a verified direct number and a one-line reason to talk at the event.Try in Unify
How it changes by who you sell to
- Software
- Software conferences put buyers and vendors on the same list, and half the badges are other vendors. Ask Unify to drop vendors and agencies first, then rank the rest by ICP fit, and ask for a direct number so the call step can happen before the event.
- Financial services
- Bank and insurance attendees rarely answer cold email in the week before an event. Ask for the compliance and operations personas, book through their assistant where one is listed, and keep the ask to a fixed time at the booth.
- Healthcare
- Health-system attendees travel as a delegation. Ask Unify to group attendees by system, find the most senior person in each group, and write one invite per system rather than one per badge.
- Manufacturing
- Plant and operations leaders attend for the sessions, not the expo floor. Ask which sessions each target is likely to attend from their title, and propose a time between sessions rather than a booth visit.
- Media
- Agency attendees come to sell and brand attendees come to buy. Ask Unify to separate them, keep the brand-side marketing leads, and open the invite on the campaign or launch their brand announced this quarter.
Next in events and inbound activation
First-party audiencesBuild audiences from first-party engagementWebsite visits, content reads and campaign clicks are already yours. Combine them with the ICP into an audience that refreshes itself, and split it by who should work it.
+2Unworked engagementFind engaged accounts sales has not workedAccounts that read your content, opened your campaigns and visited your site, with no sales touch in two months. Marketing did its job. Hand them over with the evidence.
+4Post-event follow-upFollow up after an event with the right peopleThe badge you scanned is rarely the buyer. Drop customers and open deals, rank the rest, and add the decision makers who stayed home.
Connect what this workflow uses
Each guide covers the connection, what Unify reads and writes, and what to check before the first run.
- Connect SalesforceAuthorize Salesforce in Unify, configure CRM field mappings, and choose when to enable writing.
- Connect HubSpotConnect HubSpot to Unify, map Company and Person fields, and plan CRM exclusions and supported write-back.
- Connect GmailConnect Gmail to Unify for sequence emails and replies.
- Connect OutlookConnect Microsoft Outlook directly to Unify.
Questions about this workflow
Where does the attendee list come from?
From the event organiser or your own registration export, uploaded as a CSV of names, companies and emails. Unify resolves each row to a company and a person, then enriches from there.
Why a direct number and not just email?
Attendee inboxes fill up in the week before an event. A short call on a direct number, after one email, books more booth time than a third email. ContactOut and Wiza return the number where one exists.
What happens to customers on the list?
They are routed to their account owner with the event attached, and left out of the booth sequence. A customer gets a different invite, usually to a dinner or a session, from the person who knows them.
How is this different from prioritising attendees?
That page ranks a list by signals so you know who to meet. This page runs the outreach: enrichment, the invite, the call and the reminder. Run the ranking first if the list is large, then this.