You just had a great trade show. Traffic was awesome. Attendees were in your target market. Your giveaway bowl had to be emptied 3 times. Now, all you want to do is kick back with your favorite drink and watch the latest episodes of TV that you have been missing in preparation for the show.
But….
The show is not over, now is the post-show marketing and follow up. You get to take all of those leads, all of the business cards and the handwritten notes and decipher them to pull out every ounce of information possible to put into your CRM and email list.
Your leads are useless until you follow up on them.
Multiple studies have shown that the sooner you follow up after a trade show, the greater your response rate will be and leads gathered at a trade show have a greater response rate than other leads
Do not fall into the trap so many people do and just toss the leads or leave them to collect dust in a corner of your bottom drawer. Spend the night and day after a show entering as much information into a spreadsheet or your CRM.
I
My categories follow these guidelines. You will find what works best for you.
- Solid prospects, people I spoke with and notated on their lead cards that I need to follow up.
- Prospects, these are people that gave me a name, phone number, and email address.
- Leads, these are the people that gave me a name and email address.
- Trick or Treaters, these are the people that scrawled a name and phone number just hoping to win what I was giving away.
Then use that information to send out an email. Have a picture of your booth (this reminds people who you are) and thank them for stopping by. I then pick one of the following:
- Offer a limited time discount on products or services
- Hold another giveaway for those people who follow you on social media
- Let people know what other events you will be at
Don’t let those leads go to waste. Follow up and expand your business.