Following Up After A Trade Show - Email Marketing Campaign

You built an attention-grabbing booth. You collected hundreds to thousands of names and emails at your last trade show. Now that you've got some leads, its time to put them into a marketing funnel completely independent from your business’s current one. Follow this step-by-step guide to turn those leads into a loyal customer.

Pro Tip: Do as much of the template prep work before your show so your email gets out within 24-48 hours of your show. 

Separate your lists. Keep a list of those who actually visited your booth, a list of those who did not visit your booth but did attend the trade show, and a list of those hot leads you feel confident will turn into a sale.

• Those Who Visited your Booth: Collect your own information here. Some shows offer a swipe in system for registered attendees - lucky you! If your trade show does not offer this, bring tablets or laptops to collect names. Avoid paper at all costs - you’ll lose valuable contacts to the curse of bad handwriting and you'll have to spend extra time inputing those new leads into your digital contacts database.
• Those Who Attended the Show but Did Not Visit Your Booth: Put these names into their own marketing funnel. To compile, take the master list of attendees from your trade show, and subtract those who visited you. Easy Peasy.
• Hot Leads:  After talking with a hot lead you’ll feel confident that they’ll want your product/service, need it, and will pay the money to have it! Give their contact information directly to your sales team for a direct call or meeting. Keep a list, even if it's just handwritten or a pile of business cards, during the show so your sales team can get to work on your hot leads ASAP!

Design Your Template. Just because you have 3 separate lists doesn’t mean you have to create 3 completely different email marketing campaigns from scratch. Create one email template and just tweak your content a little bit for each. Here's what to include:

• About Your Business: Give some details about your business and the product/service you presented at the show. If you had any demonstrations or presentations, feature highlights here. (But not a full summary, you’re just reminding them who you are, not rehashing the entire event).
• A Photo of Your Booth: A lively picture including your sales team, your booth full of happy new leads, or your demonstration. Use this opportunity to remind them who you are!
• 2-3 Calls To Action: This might be the only occasion you’re allowed to include 3 CTAs in your email. It is a segmenting opportunity. Some leads may have loved your product/service and are ready for that free demo - Give 'em a link! Others might want a little more convincing in the form of a video tutorial or infographic, while some might still want more information on your expertise and will request to download your white paper on a related topic.
• Customize your emails to your show. You can use the same basic email template for all of your trade shows, but nothing is worse on a client side than feeling like you’ve been sent an automatic email. Include the name of the show, and a picture of your booth from that show. This extra level of personalization will remind them why they want to do business with you, and separate your brand from your competitors.

Now, Segment. Once your template is completed, make a copy of that bad boy. Label one “attendees” and one “missed ya” and write your greeting for each. Thank your “attendees” for visiting you and say a message about the show, include a significant something that occurred. For your “missed ya” list, something under the lines of “sorry we missed you” or similar will suffice. Again include a highlight of the fair or a feature of your booth. Remind them what you were there to sell and include any videos of your booth demonstrations. The rest will just follow your template!

You are ready to hit send. From previous experience I suggest labeling your lists with the same titles as your email templates. show name - attendees / missed ya. That's it!

You might be asking yourself, what about that hot leads list? Well those contacts should have all been contacted by the sales team within 48 hours of the show. Check in with your sales team to ensure they have begun contacting them.

Once this initial email goes out, your leads will segment themselves based on which call to action they choose. From there you can integrate them into your business’s marketing funnel based on the level of interest they expressed. Ensure you continue to use targeted email campaigns before dumping them into your eNewsletter. It’ll typically take leads 3-5 personalized touch points before committing to a sale so stay patient, and prompt them through your sales funnel with your brand’s in-place methods.

For trade show marketing tips and resources contact the team of professionals at AlphaGraphics of Alexandria. We've helped hundreds of businesses and associations Get Noticed. Get Business.

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