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So you went to a trade show. You met people. You landed great deals. Some things could have gone better. You have some new ideas. Now what?
Here is a checklist for steps you and your team should take after attending a trade show.
download printer-friendly checklist
- Enter new contacts in your CRM
- Prioritize leads & follow up with personalized emails to new leads
- If leads will be distributed amongst your team:
- Host a meeting with your team to review the follow-up plan.
- Provide a timeline and tools like email templates or scripts for reps.
- Hold the team accountable and schedule meetings to monitor progress and keep goals top of mind.
- Make it fun – Hold a content and provide incentives like gift cards for first deal closed, first round of follow up completed, largest sale, most sales, etc.
- If you’re trying to drive sales for a certain product, or category, provide SPIFs for these items
- Schedule a meeting with your team members who attended the trade show
- Review what happened during the show.
- Did you achieve your goals?
- What did the competition do? What was your response when people compared you to your competition? Did it work to set you apart?
- Any innovative ideas sparked from the show?
- Measure your success – What worked? What didn’t?
- Which pitches and what materials worked to capture people’s attention? What seemed to lose people’s attention?
- Are there any updates you should make to your website or marketing strategy based on people’s feedback? Are there any:
- Attention-grabbing headlines you can add to your site’s homepage or use for ad campaigns?
- Landing pages or descriptions that need a bit of attention to make more exciting or clear?
- Keywords to use for content marketing or online advertising?
- Products you need to offer online?
- How will you modify your plan for the next show?
- Add leads to your mailing list
- Divide your subscriber list into different segments to send more tailored campaigns to each group.
- Follow up & nurture leads
- Send out meeting requests, quotes, or proposals – whatever is appropriate for your business.
- Run a post-trade show email campaign and make sure to include:
- Name of the trade show in your subject line.
- First name or company name of your leads in your email’s subject line or body for a personalized touch.
- Photos of your booth and consistent branding and messaging that serves as a reminder for new contacts
- Clear call-to-action (i.e. Click Here or Learn More). Here are some suggestions for content:
- Promotions on new or exciting products that were popular at the show
- Whitepaper download covering a topic that was widely discussed at the event
- A post-trade show landing page or blog post you’ve created- make sure to also include a call-to-action on the landing page or your blog post linking back to your shop or contact info to increase your conversion rate
- Analyze campaign performance
- Monitor email opens and clicks
- Set up automated drip campaigns to follow up with different content for parties who have and who have not shown engagement.
- Provide a timed incentive, such as 20% off if you order by end of month, in an automated third or fourth round follow-up email for those who have clicked but not converted.
- Follow up with personal emails and calls to your new contacts
- With this new experience under your belt, start planning for your next trade show
If you need some help getting started, just send us a note, or call us at 720.408.2660
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