Follow Up is Key to Effective Trade Show Marketing

As you are planning your booth and deciding what you will offer as free give aways and leave behinds, don’t forget to plan out your follow up weapons. The follow up step is one of a guerrilla’s major secrets to successful trade show marketing. Have your plan completely mapped out well before the show so you can get right into it after the show. Don’t think you will have the time to figure the plan out after the show, because you won’t. Trade shows are usually held on business days, so you will have lost time in the office and will be catching up when you return. Because of this, it might even be a good idea to have some extra helpers lined up to assist you with your post-show marketing.



Although we mentioned to hand out brochures at the show, it is important that you know that 90% of the literature people collect at trade shows gets thrown away before they get home, and even more gets thrown out at home. For this reason, many guerrilla marketers save their brochures and handouts to be sent after the show.

While typical direct mail campaigns yield a 2% response rate, the same direct mail campaign will generate a 20% response rate if sent to contacts made at a trade show. As you can see, anything that you send after the show will be noticed, especially if you personally address it and remind them that they met you at the show.

It is very important to note here that one cannot follow up if he doesn’t have the contact information to do so. For this reason, be sure to collect contact information at the trade show. Guerrilla marketers know that the best way to do that is to have a drawing where the attendees can enter to win something of value. Don’t expect that people will willingly hand you their business card or hand you their contact information because they want to be contacted by you. Some people who know exactly what they are looking for and want what you have will, but the large majority of people don’t want to be bothered. This is why having a drawing will eliminate that problem, and people know that when they enter to win a drawing, they are being put on a mailing list as well. They will not be surprised to hear from you, and if you plan your post-show marketing strategies creatively, they’ll enjoy hearing from you.