How to Make the Most of Your Trade Show- What To Do After the Event?

After months of planning and precise execution, you’ve finally achieved what most exhibitors struggle with – trade show success. But, while you have every reason to celebrate this achievement, the job is far from done.

Yes, your booth attracted a lot of traffic, and you've probably collected plenty of trade show leads, but what you do next immediately after the event is equally important, if not more. You need to convert those leads into paying customers to generate positive ROI.  

Here are 5 post-event tips to help you make the most of your trade show investment-

Building the Post-Trade Show Strategy

1. Start Executing Your Lead Management Plan

If you had a sales-related trade show objective, collecting the maximum number of leads would have been a vital part of your event strategy. Now that the event is over and you’ve got the leads, you should start executing your lead management plan.

It is a strategy to manage the collected leads and work your way toward converting them into your customers. The plan is generally divided into four steps-

• Collection
• Qualification
• Nurturing
• Analysis

You can read our detailed post on Trade Show Lead Management Planning to understand better what it is and how to create your own plan.

If you're still planning for an upcoming event, ensure that you make lead management a part of your strategy so that you already know what needs to be done after the event.

2. Divide the Leads and Add Them to Your CRM

The leads should be divided into hot, warm, and cold so you can make individual strategies for people across the buyer journey. Once the bifurcation is done, the next step is to add them to your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.

It is generally recommended that you shouldn’t wait too long to contact potential leads after the event. This is one of the reasons why many exhibitors prefer collecting leads at trade shows through digital mediums.

For instance, a custom trade show trivia integrated with a lead collection platform will digitize the lead collection, prevent lead loss, and also cut short the time spent on compiling offline leads and adding them to the CRM. Moreover, the custom game also offers a host of additional benefits like-

• Helps your booth stand apart and attracts more visitors
• Encourages active participation
• Customized games can assist with event objectives
• Provide visitors with a memorable experience, making it easier for your sales staff to re-engage with the leads after the event

3. Start Connecting with the Leads

Once the leads are divided, assign them to your sales team. The best salespeople should preferably be assigned to work with the hot leads with maximum conversion potential. Phone calls are generally an ideal method to connect with hot leads.

You can work on a follow-up strategy combining phone calls, emails, and social media for warm and cold leads. Ensure that you personalize your communication with the leads for maximum engagement.

Don't forget to send thank you emails to all the visitors with links to your website, social media pages, product demo, etc., to help them learn more about your offerings. Remember, the key is not to be pushy but courteous. Here's a sample email to help you out-

4. Share Your Success on Your Website and Social Media

Once the trade show lead capture and follow-up is taken care of, it's time to promote your success.

After the event, you can post blogs on your website recapping the event, guest speakers, and product demos you organized at your booth. The goal here is to let others who probably didn’t visit your booth have a taste of what it was like and gain some extra exposure for all the hard work you did.

Once the blogs are live, you can promote your success further through these trade show tips- 

• Share updates through your handle on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
• You can also share event pictures on the official page of the event
• If you have event videos, you can also upload them to YouTube
• If you deployed a trade show game, you could share game results and the name of winners on your social media pages

Here are some other digital marketing strategies to promote your booth.

5. Post-Trade Show Team Meeting

Once the trade show is completed, organizing post-event meetings/debriefing is essential. Discuss the experience of everyone involved in planning and deploying the event, and look for ideas to further improve your performance in the next event.

Here are some questions for such post-event meetings-

• What did and did not work?
• Did we achieve our event objectives?
• What can be done to enhance the team’s experience?
• How to improve the ROI further?
• Where’s the success party? (you guys deserve it)

You can also use event analytics to refine your plan for future events. For instance, custom booth trivia quizzes come with analytical capabilities. After the event, the game provider shares event analytics with the exhibitors, including the number of people who played the game, engagement level, and more.  

[READ: Why Have a Custom Trade Show Quiz?]

Making the Most of Your Trade Show Investment

Successful exhibits lay equal emphasis on pre, during and post-show planning. If you've perfectly executed pre and during-the-event strategy, you also need to ace your post-event plan to generate the expected ROI and grow your business.

If you’re currently planning for an upcoming trade show and looking for a fun and engaging booth activity, our custom trivia can be worth consideration. We build customized booth trivia games according to your event objectives to attract and engage visitors. Register for a free demo to watch our trivia game in action.

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