You booked your spot months in advance, designed great Exhibit Booth Displays, shook a lot of hands, and garnered a lot of interest in your company at the last trade show, yet you generated zero sales. How could this be? The fact of the matter is, you can have the greatest custom trade show display but it doesn’t matter if you don’t stay fresh in the minds of attendees.
There’s a lot of focus on eye-catching exhibit displays or booth designs at trade shows. However, follow-up is everything. Seeing someone on the show floor and finding them worth a conversation compared to wanting to engage in B2B relations or business with the person isn’t about the trade show display products they showcased at the event. Instead, business decisions are made based on who has the best product for what you’re trying to do and who will be the easiest to work with.
If you attend such an event and you don’t send a follow-up email quickly, you may have already lost sales. There is a one or two day rule when it comes to these emails. At the very least, the email should be sent within a week of the event. If an email is sent sooner, such as the same day, it could get lost in the shuffle. If you follow-up with leads well after the event, they aren’t fresh in their minds anymore or they may have found someone else they felt was more “on the ball.”
Avoid Weekends
An email sent on a weekend is the least likely to be read. Further, more spam gets delivered over the weekends, and it builds. If they don’t recognize your email address, they might assume it’s more spam and simply delete it. First thing Monday morning, however, you’ll be right at the top. In fact, weekday mornings, in general, are the best time for business communication for that very reason.
What Should You Write?
There are three things leads need to know when you email them: who you are, what you can do for them, and what they need to do next. While this was likely covered at the trade show, they probably talked to a lot of people at a lot of exhibit booth displays around the event. The first goal is to jog their memory. If possible, include a personal touch. However, any detail about your business you know you discussed can help.
Next, they will want to know why they should bother reading an email from you. Beyond just what your company does as a business, what can you do for that client? If you run a marketing company, what type of marketing will benefit the client? If you sell mechanical parts that they use in their services, mention that and discuss how buying from you will support their business. Be as specific as you can to give them as many reasons as possible to reach out.
The last part is what they need to do. Should they call? Can they just email back and you’ll set something up? Would an in-person meet up be best? Make the call-to-action clear and easy. When they finish the email, they should know exactly how to get ahold of you and how the next steps will proceed.
If you’re getting ready for your next trade show, check out TradeShowPlus for options in customized exhibit designs. Catching the eye of passersby at a trade show is difficult. Talk to our team today to find out how we can help generate sales leads through our custom modular trade show options.
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