From Conversations to Conversions: How to Maximise Your Leads After the Schools & Academies Show

So you’ve just exhibited at the Schools & Academies Show (SAAS) - you had some promising conversations with teachers and decision makers, built a full contact list, and you’re feeling energised, ready to secure new business. All the ingredients are there for developing successful relationships with schools…

But before you know it, a week goes by and other tasks have taken priority. Your follow-ups have been relegated to the ‘if time’ section on your to-do list. Those warm leads quickly become cold and just like that, those connection opportunities become lost. So - how can you maintain the momentum and ensure your SAAS leads remain leads?

In this blog post, we’ll run you through our 4 steps to help you maximise your leads after the Schools & Academies Show. These steps are based on our expansive education marketing knowledge and insights at Buzz Education. Let’s take a look:

• Step One: Organise and prioritise your leads

Immediately after the show, take time to capture your notes and categorise your leads.

Set up a quick spreadsheet and add as much information as you can about each lead - any specific challenges their school is facing, what they’re looking to implement, their contact details etc., the more personal, the better. For example, if your contact enjoyed the coffee at the event, jot that down too -  it’ll come in handy.

Label each lead either: ‘hot’, ‘warm’, or ‘cold’ based on the quality of your conversations.

• Step Two: Create a nurture journey

With your leads categorised, it’s time to plan a nurture sequence. Remember, you want to strike while the iron’s hot but you want to do it strategically.

Plan your nurture journey, for example:

1. Immediate thank you (1 working day after the event)
2. Share valuable content (5 working days after the event)
3. Invitation to a meeting/demo (9 working days after the event)

To maximise your impact, consider taking a multi-channel approach. You could use email marketing, LinkedIn messaging, and social media posts for greater visibility. But remember to balance persistence with professionalism - don’t bombard, but equally, don’t vanish after sending one email.

If online meetings and demos form part of your nurture sequence, you could consider inviting an AI tool to join the meeting. They can record, transcribe and summarise your meetings, and provide you with clear, written-up action points. These tools can help save you time and ensure you don’t forget any important details.

Lastly, to go the extra mile with your email marketing follow-ups, track the success of different send days, times and subject line lengths and styles. For example, you could run A/B tests on different subject line types - ‘A useful resource for you, Chris’ vs. ‘Did you see this resource, Sarah?’. These insights will help you to improve your engagement rates and create follow-ups that attract teachers’ attention.

• Step Three: Send your follow ups

With your journey mapped out, block some time out to follow up with each lead. You might feel tempted to send a bulk email out to save time - do not do this. Sending personalised, direct follow ups is crucial if you’re serious about generating quality leads.

In your follow ups, reference the specific conversations you had with each lead as per your spreadsheet notes. For example, if they liked the coffee, mention it e.g. ‘Hi Chris, It was great to meet you yesterday. I tried one of those coffees you mentioned - great shout! As discussed, ...’.

Personalised touches make you memorable and help to cement your relationship. 

In your follow-ups, make sure to share valuable content too as per your nurture journey (see step two). Share sector insights, useful resources or quick-win tips. This will help to reinforce your credibility and confirm to teachers that you’re worth their time. 

To support your long-term marketing strategy and help you coordinate your campaigns to schools at the optimum times, use our free 2025-26 UK Term Dates Guide.

• Step Four - Measure and refine

With your follow ups sent out, track teacher and education staff engagement on your spreadsheet. Measure responses, open rates and meeting conversions. 

This will help you to pinpoint what type of messaging resonates most with education staff, which platform they engage with you on, and help you refine your approach to improve your engagement and success rates moving forwards.

With your data collected, use these insights to guide your strategy for the next Schools & Academies Show. 

Turn your leads into long-term relationships 

Remember, the Schools & Academies Show is just the starting point. Developing a focused follow-up strategy will help you to transform those fleeting conversations into lasting, fruitful partnerships.

In summary, keep teachers and education staff engaged with immediate follow ups, personalise your messaging to help you stand out, use multiple channels to increase your visibility and closely track engagement to identify your unique formula for success.

If you need any support with your education marketing, our team at Buzz Education are here to help. You can access our expansive education database to grow your reach or have our creative team create your email marketing content for optimised impact.