Tips on Using Email for an Awesome Trade Show

Trade shows can be costly investments so you want to make the most of them. We’ve talked about driving traffic to your booth on this blog and also improving your interaction with would-be customers at a trade show.  While there are a lot of things you can do at the trade show don’t forget your methods of communication before and after.

 

Using Email to Improve Trade Show Sales

Segment Your List

If you are an exhibitor at a trade show, you’ll receive a list of attendees prior to the event. Do a little research and segment the list. Look for things like:

• Do you have any current customers in attendance?
• Do you have any people in your sales pipeline who are on the list?
• For people who don’t fit into the above categories, take a look at the size of their companies and other demographics to isolate people who are a good fit for what you’re offering.

Emails for Everyone

Trade shows often have limits as to how many emails you can send to attendees, usually one before the event and one after. If you’re allowed to send one before, write an introduction where you get right to “What’s In It For Them.” This form of email is akin to a cold call so you need to pique their interest right away. Invite them to stop by your booth or give them something of value from a content perspective. You can then track who downloads the item.

Better yet, use your segmentation work from above and only send the email to those who fit your ideal customer. You don’t want to jeopardize your email send rating by spamming the whole attendee list.

Follow-Up

After the awesome trade show is over, follow-up with all of the interested attendees, thank all of your current customers for stopping by, apologize to the current customers you didn’t have a chance to see, and follow up with ideal potential customer who didn’t stop by. You’ll need a customized email for each of these groups.

Some trade shows are cracking down on unsolicited emails and not providing exhibitors with attendees’ email addresses. If that is the case, you can always reach out through social media and build a relationship there. This doesn’t mean you’re off the hook on following up with people who stopped by your booth. You have even more of an incentive to customize the email you send to them. Use your contact log and notes to add a personalized touch to each qualified potential sale.

When using email as a sales tool the most important thing is to create a personalized message. After all, people are growing increasingly immune to SPAM.