What are the top 5 things to do after a trade show?

Follow-Up Swiftly: Send personalized follow-up emails promptly, expressing gratitude and proposing next steps. Evaluate Performance: Review trade show success, analyzing lead generation, engagement, and identifying challenges. Update CRM: Integrate new contacts into your CRM system for organized post-event management. Leverage Social Media: Share trade show highlights on social platforms to extend engagement and connections. Debrief with Team: Hold a debriefing session with your team to discuss successes, areas for improvement, and lessons learned.

In my experience, the top 5 things should start before ending the Trade shows not after. Every lead you catch should receive a follow-up email that should be customized making reference to the brief discussion you had at the boot, to a highlighted problem or issue or a specific need. Start from the subject to grab attention: a simple title saying - follow up to our meeting at XYZ show- will end up in the trash very soon. Summarizing: 1 - gather detailed info during the show maybe filling a brief report as if you only scan a QR code at the end of the show you won't remember any detail 2 - send customized follow-up emails 3 - assign prospects to proper persons 4 - be fast 5 - follow-up with phone calls

Don't just think of Email; you can call them, text, connect on socials, send them a DM in the post or all of the above. Do this quickly and strike while the iron is hot

Technical Demonstrations are key if you have a suitable product. Be friendly . Smile while talking to customers . Be informative and ask questions from your customers to asses there needs . Show your products and get the customer involved .

Follow up, follow up, follow up! It is one of the biggest mistake exhibitors make is to think all the work is finished at the show itself. Exhibitors often think, business will just come as a result of the 3 days in the show. The real work is what and how you follow up after. One key tip is to set your follow up strategy BEFORE you exhibit and not when you come back. You can do everything right up to and including at the event itself but if you don’t do this step right…it will be a waste of your time and efforts.

Timing is everything when sending post-show communication to new leads. It's important to remember that every exhibitor that spoke to a lead will also be sending them a follow up email after the show. You do not want your email to be buried in at the bottom of their inbox alongside other exhibitors. Ideally, you should upload your leads after each show and send them a follow up email the same day. If a one-time upload is the only option available to you, leads should be uploaded + emailed on the last day of the conference to ensure that you're at the top of their inbox.

Consider Specific Categories: Segment leads based on specific needs, purchase readiness, or demographics. Think budget, decision-making role, or industry verticals. Tagging can be your friend: Utilize CRM tags or spreadsheet labeling to quickly identify promising leads with shared characteristics. Remember the "Nurture Zone": Don't neglect "warm" leads. They may not be ready to buy now, but consistent nurturing keeps them engaged and builds future sales opportunities.

In my experience it is also productive to to share learnings and insights about the trade show with the leads/ clients you are following up with. This shows genuine interest and helps building rapport beyond a vendor-client relationship. Relationship building platforms, integrating with CRMs are always helpful in this endeavour.

While the show is fresh in your mind, make copious notes about the feedback you received on your product/service, and how you could improve your display. How did your installation compare to that of competitors? My favorite show that I worked had jewelry artisans with and without excellent lighting. Guess who got more traffic? At the New York Gift Show, I always favored booths that I could photograph well, for press. Think about how next year’s event could be more press-friendly.

1. How are you going to follow up? Phone, email, zoom, social media, F2F meeting etc 2. When are you going to follow up? What is the time frame that you will use and did you set this expectation with your visitor? 3. Personalisation - how can I make my follow up really personal.

Not everyone is ready to buy when they first come into contact with you. So make sure all contacts are added to your CRM system and keep in regular contact. If this is an annual show, use your list to make a personal invite to come and see you at the following year's show. Keep nurturing those contacts throughout the year.

What's interesting about #2 is that it might be evolving. We always had a policy of 24-hour follow-ups. Most exhibitors never bother to follow up, so you stand out. But sometimes, a second touchpoint well after the show can be helpful. There is so much noise and communication at events that you have to cut through either way.

The five takeaways should have already been established from the beginning of the project kick off meeting. Most events follow a consistent process of leading up to, during, after, and post event client communication. This is all completed during the event “debriefing” that involves all of the event attendees and needs to take place within three business days post event.

One the best selling points of digital caricatures at trade shows is that it provides the perfect excuse to follow up. So much so that visitors chase the client for their follow up email if it doesn't arrive quickly enough.