In an ever growing digital marketing world, meeting prospective clients and customers in person is an important resource. Especially when you can meet them in a targeted, niche environment like at a trade show. Preparing for the trade show is important, but what can really drive business growth is what you do with the information after the show ends. Discover trade show follow up strategies to ensure your hard work helps to drive growth after the event.
How To Measure Your Trade Show Success
Trade shows are an important business tool and like all other business tools, it is important to track the conversions. How well your event converts can help determine the success of the event. There are three important key results when measuring the trade show’s success – lead generation, brand awareness, and relationship building.
Lead Generation
Lead generation means reaching out to the people you connected with at the event. These connections could be future clients, customers, partners, or even employees. Trade show follow-up is important for lead generation as this helps to cement a future relationship.
Brand Awareness
Brand awareness relates to how well the trade show leads know your brand. For good conversions after the event, it is important that the people you spoke with remember your brand. A higher brand awareness leads to better connections, which leads to more business growth.
Relationship Building
Making sure these potential leads stay, it is important to quickly build a relationship with them after the event. By waiting too long, the person you met at the expo might have forgotten about your conversation. Without building the relationship, the trade show will have been for not.
Why Trade Show Follow-Up Is Crucial
You put in all the work preparing for the event; scheduling the event, designing and preparing the booth, ordering promotional trade show giveaways and materials to distribute, meeting with everyone. But what happens after the event is what is most important.
Do not lose out on the momentum. Following-up is why you went to the trade show in the first place – to meet people and generate leads. Now is the time to convert those leads.
By following up after a trade show you are:
- Increasing brand awareness by keeping your brand top of mind
- Showing professionalism and organisation
- Converting leads closer to a sale or conversion
- Answering any additional questions
- Increasing return on investment (ROI)
- Building your professional network through these connections
Important Trade Shop Follow-Up Steps To Drive Growth
Follow these tips to ensure you make the most out of your trade show follow-up strategy to drive the business growth you want to achieve.
1. Organise And Clean Lead Data
You have a lot of contact information from everyone who visited your booth. These might include business cards, names, phone numbers, registration forms, or emails. In order to best process the information, you will need to clean and organise the data.
Delete duplicate data and make sure you are not missing any important information. A clean database allows you to quickly identify which leads have the best potential for your brand.
2. Segment Leads
Segmentation allows you to divide the leads up into different categories for maximum returns. Consider where your leads are in the customer journey through their intent. Knowing whether your contact wants to buy your product or learn more about your employment opportunities, this will determine what type of follow-up you need to do.
This personalisation is crucial. Making your contact feel important directly leads to a higher response rate which in turn, leads to stronger connections.
3. Reach Out Through Email
Emails are a great way to make first contact with your leads. The first follow-up email should be sent within the first 48 – 72 hours after the event ends. As the trade show attendees have visited a lot of booths, it is important to stay at the top of their mind with a quick follow-up.
The email should include the following:
- Thank the recipient for visiting your booth, stand, or table
- Reference the specific event, including date and location if needed
- Remind them of your company, products, or services
- Include a clear next step to ensure more effective follow-up
- Ask what the best way to stay in contact would be
- Your contact information, social media, or digital business card
While email templates are a good starting point, it is important to write personalised emails for each connection. Avoid sounding unprofessional by using generic email templates for every person.
For more insights with case-specific examples, read 13 strategies for trade show follow-up emails.
4. Connect On Social Media
Besides email, social media is a great way to connect with everyone you met at the event. LinkedIn is the best place for professionals to network. However, you can also follow accounts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, or any other platform.
Like with the emails, always send a personal message with the social media request. Include key details such as any questions or comments the person made with your brand. These small details make a difference and increase your chances of being accepted on the platform.
5. Deliver On Any Promises Made
In order to show your high level of professionalism, it is important to follow through with any follow-ups you said you would do. This might include reaching out, sending over more information, or sending over a personalised quote.
No matter what the promise was, make sure to do it shortly after the event. You cannot drive business growth if you do not show your level of commitment and professionalism.
By breaking a promise on the first meeting, you are severing what could be a great opportunity for your brand to grow and network more.
Conclusion: Use Trade Show Momentum to Ultimately Drive Growth
You finished the hard work of preparing and attending the trade show. However, the real impact and overall success of your time spent is through the follow-up. Make sure to convert leads in a timely manner to maximise the return on investment for the event.
Clear, segmented leads that you reach out to within the following 48 – 72 hours will be able to help drive more growth for your products or services. See how well a trade show or other event can do for your business or brand.
