Harness The Power Of Email Marketing To Boost Your Exhibition Results!

1. Before the event

There are some key things you need to do before the day of the event arrives. The first is simple, tell as many people as possible that you are going to be there, where it is and how they can get tickets. It’s also a good idea to share some information about what your offer will be on the day. Planning to hold a masterclass, giveaway or discount products/services? Let people know in your email.

When you compose your email, make sure to include a link for readers to click to get more information. In doing so, any decent email marketing system will allow you to find out who clicked the link, so you can see if your email was effective. 

Don’t forget, your subject line should catch their attention and ensure they open the email in the first place. Bland email headers don’t tend to get the best results.

2. The day of the event

When you set up your stand, don’t forget to have a clear and concise privacy notice displayed. Presumably, you’ll be trying to collect contact details for your marketing list, so your visitors need to know that you will handle their data responsibly. If you need assistance with this, give us a call and speak to one of our team.

People don’t tend to hand their contact details over without some incentive, so many exhibitors run competitions or giveaways to entice visitors. If you are running a competition for this purpose, make sure it’s made clear that signing up to your marketing list is optional and have your privacy notice clearly displayed.

Staying on the right side of the regulators should be a number one priority.

3. Following up afterwards

Let’s assume that the exhibition was fantastic for you and you’ve got a good number of new contacts with whom you’d like to connect.

You need to do two things immediately:

1. Follow up quickly
2. Categorise your contacts correctly

The follow-up email can be straightforward – perhaps it’s an announcement of your competition winner or a thank you for stopping by. Either way, make sure to add some extra content that’s useful to the reader and reflects your expertise. Maybe include some helpful tips or share curated content that’s relevant to their interests. You could even add a special offer.

Whatever the follow-up is, it needs to position you as the expert but be serving the recipient as much as possible. Inform them, entertain them and engage them, don’t bore them. Once again, your subject line is vital – so make sure it’s tantalising enough to get them to click open.

By cleverly categorising each contact by their location, interests and any other data that is important to your marketing, you can target future communications specifically. Going to be at another exhibition in their local area? Email the people located there who would potentially go to it. Got a special offer? Send an email to the people who clicked a relevant link in your previous campaigns – they are clearly interested in you! 

Help, I don’t have time!

If you’ve read this article but still feel that this is one job too many on your to-do list, don’t worry - we have some great solutions. Smart Messenger is very affordable, from just £10 per month and comes with unlimited advice from your dedicated account manager. If you’ve got budget for more, there are some seriously smart marketing manoeuvres we can do on your behalf. Our managed campaign service is perfect for those with plenty to say but no time to do it themselves. 

To find out more, get in touch with us to discuss your requirements.