Are you doing everything you can to attract visitors before they walk the floor, or sell to them after the show?
The time, money and hard work invested in a trade show can go a long way if yo
u have a strategy. For most exhibitors, the leads collected at a show often go wasted. Not intentionally, but because the team is mentally and physically exhausted. A few days of recovery, quickly lapse into a week of ‘catch up’ followed by some sporadic follow up of the ‘hot leads’ all others left to do later.
Only… later never comes.
With a little planning, ahead of time, you can increase the likelihood of closing business after you’ve returned to the office, and take the pressure off staff to do all the follow up manually. The beauty of a post-show email marketing campaign is that you create it well in advance, promote the resources you are going to include and then automate the process. Start with just a few of these hands-free and fruitful follow up campaign ideas and watch the ROI from your next show grow!
Post-Show Email Marketing Campaign Basics
The purpose of a post-show email campaign is to take every contact or ‘lead’ you meet at the show and market to them in a way that delivers value. These campaigns can be as simple as three emails, or as complex as a ten-step sequence promoting a webinar.
First, create your theme. What are you promoting in the booth? If you are not selling them a product onsite, you can use a webinar about a week later to re-engage the leads from the show in a sales conversation aimed at explaining your product or a related educational topic. It has been proven that leads who are invited to, and attend a webinar within one week after an event have the highest potential to convert into a client.
Here is an example of a post-show email sequence. Use this as a guide for creating your own, or switch out the messages to others more relevant to your product and ideal client.
Email 1 – Subject: Great to meet you!
- The content of this email should be a casual follow up. Reach out, let them know you enjoyed speaking with them, and provide your contact information.
Email 2 – Subject: Attend our free webinar on Tuesday!
- Invite them to attend a webinar that you will host
Email 3 – Don’t miss our free webinar tomorrow!
- People are busy, and they may have missed or neglected to read your first webinar invitation. By sending out an email the day before, you remind them of the event and the late readers will have one more opportunity to check their schedule and register.
- *If they do register for the webinar make sure you follow up with them after the webinar.
Email 4 – Did you know ___?
- Share industry news, a little-known fact about your product. This email should be light, and informative to keep you top of mind and at the top of their inbox.
Email 5 – How one of our clients ________?
- Use a customer story to showcase the value and benefits of your product. Especially with Business to Business sales, many decision makers gain confidence before the purchase by learning about a similar businesses success.
The above emails should be sent no later than five days after the conference. Then, send each consecutive email out between three and seven days apart. Depending on your industry, and length of your sales cycle immediate and constant follow up with your event leads can make a huge difference, giving you a second chance at the sale.
Extra Credit!
Many trade shows provide exhibitors with a registration list. Have an office staff member add email addresses to the post show registration list exhibitors receive. These can be found on their websites, or by converting stacks of business cards you received into an excel spreadsheet. Once you have compiled a list of your leads with email addresses import the list into your email marketing tool and send the same email sequence to the group.
You can change the content in Email 1 to be a “reconnecting with you” message, sent to older leads who you may not have spoken to in quite some time. After Email 1, continue with the same sequence of emails to revive leads that are currently sitting untouched.
E-mail marketing continues to be one of the highest return on investment marketing vehicles. If you have questions about the sequence above, or would like assistance crafting one for your next show please contact chelsey@legaltechmg.com
