Following Up After The Trade Show: Creating A Profitable Strategy
Many say that research shows that 80 percent of leads generated from trade shows fail to get any kind of follow-up. Individuals have cited a variety of sources like Exhibit Surveys, CEIR, Exhibitor magazine, and many other industry publications and organizations.
However, in our research, we have been unable to find that any of these sources has published anything of the sort. The 80 percent is simply fiction. Of course, the reality is not much better. Research actually shows that less than 70 percent of exhibitors have a process in place.
People and companies spend thousands of dollars but have no idea how they will use their generated leads. Why is this? Research shows that most exhibitors do not have a plan in place for following up with leads.
Let that soak in for just a moment.
Seven out of every 10 trade show exhibitors spend a significant amount of money at trade shows. The single factor that has the chance to boost their success is left to chance. As a general rule, the hottest leads will be followed up immediately by the sales team, but what kind of follow up will that be? What will happen to the remainder of the leads?
Creating a Successful Follow-up Plan
#1: Develop a Program
Your follow-up campaign for the trade show should consist of multiple stages. You will need:
- To design targeted landing pages
- To write follow-up e-mails
- To print and prepare literature for electronic distribution
- To identify and task stakeholders with certain responsibilities
Developing the process is the hard part, and making it work is the easy part. What you need to remember through it all is that a professional and prompt response will help to enhance the results of your trade show.
The majority (70 percent) of trade show exhibitors are not properly prepared, and as a result, it may take them days or even weeks to actually follow up.
#2: Offer an Assortment of Responses to Leads
All leads aren’t ready to create an order. For that reason, you should provide your leads with some options like:
- Viewing a short video
- Signing up for a newsletter
- Downloading a white paper
- Requesting a personal demo
This will allow you to track the leads that require the more urgent responses from your team members better.
#3: Provide Specific Call-to-Actions
You don’t want general CTAs like “for more information” or “to learn more”. Instead, you want to specify a specific action like:
- Watch the video
- Download the white paper
- Sign up for the newsletter
- Request the demo
You will want to keep things simple and real, yet specific at the same time.
#4: Give Prospects a Reminder of What You Do
You may assume that you have a unique relationship with all of your prospects, but you have to remember that they saw hundreds of other exhibitors at the trade show.
Luckily, you have the chance to follow up with them with an e-mail, which is the ideal opportunity to remind them of what you discussed at the show.
Make sure that this e-mail has a photo of the event booth—and hopefully include one that shows the booth crowded with lots of people. This photo subtly implies that you were successful at the show.
#5: Make Things Personal
When you send a follow-up e-mail, you want to make sure that you don’t fit in with all the large-scale companies. Make sure to add a little personality to your e-mails.
You will want to find out the sales rep who is handling each prospect’s area and use their name and contact information in the e-mail. This makes it easy for contacts to do business when they’re ready.
#6: Don’t Overlook the Ones You Missed
Some people aren’t able to make it to the trade show, or they aren’t able to stop by your booth. Just make sure that you don’t write those individuals off.
With a tweak here and there, you will be able to use your follow-up e-mail campaign to appeal to these prospects. The overall message and CTA can remain the same, but the initial message will need to change.
In the e-mail, don’t thank them for visiting your exhibit, instead let them know you’re sorry that you missed them at the show.
#7: Never Give Up
The majority of companies will send one e-mail to their prospects. In some cases, one e-mail will be sent to their entire list of attendees. Then, they’ll put everything up and move on to the next trade show, leaving the lowest hanging fruit behind.
You don’t want to do this. You need to strategize and have follow-ups planned for your e-mails—at least two or three of them, though six or seven may be necessary, according to research.
Each time, you should plan on offering a different message. You can’t hit them when they are hot the first try every time.
The aforementioned tips will help you get a leg up among the rest of the trade show exhibitors. By proactively following up, you will be able to realize the benefits of doing so. By planning ahead, you will see enhanced results from your trade show efforts. These kinds of improvements will only help your company sell more services or products.
Don’t assume that your follow-up plan will help you win it all, because you still need to focus on the design of your trade show booth. If prospects are simply glancing at your booth and walking away, then you have a problem. You need to make a memorable impression on the floor.
Whether you need a new trade show booth look or help crafting a follow-up strategy, contact us at Expo and Show.
