How do you make the most of your conference and event budget? What will it take for buyers to stop at your booth and say hi? How do you follow up when the event is over?
Reportwell makes compliance a breeze for schools and school administrators. Jacob Allen and the co-founding team at Reportwell started their careers as educators, but quickly became charter school founders, opening up two schools in Indianapolis and Las Vegas. Through this work, they experienced the mountains of paperwork they had to submit for compliance through - we kid you not - old school fax machines. The process was cumbersome, slow, and ripe for error.
The team founded Reportwell to fix just that, and has since created additional products that make the hard work of school administration feel easy and fun. Five Four has been Reportwell’s partner in crime to help them make the most out of their sales enablement and conference activations - ultimately generating millions in pipeline.
With a niche market like charter schools, Jacob and his team knew exactly what conferences to attend. Each state offers an annual convening of administrators -- a clear opportunity for Reportwell to get immediately in front of their exact buyers. While this strategy has a higher expense than paid ads or PR, it’s the most targeted strategy they could execute. If you knew all of your buyers would be in one place, wouldn’t you want to be there? Reportwell understood this and chose a conference strategy for their initial growth phase.
But how would Reportwell make the best use of the event? Showing up is only half the battle. How would Reportwell make sure they generated leads? What strategy would get them in front of the most attendees?
“That pink flamingo was at her desk during our zoom call!”
At one event, attendees grabbed up these rubber ducky-like pink flamingos we had placed on the booth table and in the client's sponsor lounge. Those pink flamingos then went home to the prospects desk, becoming a literal reminder of our client. Later, when prospects showed up for sales calls, they'd talk about the flamingos as a highlight takeaway from the event.
Our client's feedback from these events proved our theory that a solid brand and booth strategy would attract attention.
Reportwell's bright colors and clear messaging drew attendees in, making it easy for the team to kick off demo and sales conversations.
“Reportwell has invested in our brand, and I legitimately don't have enough time to tell you the testimonials we receive on how people view our brand, our style, and our tone compared to competitors in the space. Five Four is to thank for that success. Full stop.
Too often, founders invest heavily in product and sales while underinvesting in brand, even though how a company shows up in the world can meaningfully shape growth, trust, and momentum.”
Jacob Allen, CEO and Co-Founder
Reportwell left a lasting brand impression with their target market, ultimately resulting in more than $1M in pipeline from their very first conference - proving the model, and proving why a continued investment would work.
When Reportwell shows up to a charter school conference, attendees cannot walk 5 feet without seeing and experiencing the company’s brand and product messaging. Conference organizers get excited when they hear that Reportwell is coming, because they know it uplifts the overall impression and experience of the conference itself.
