Trade Show Email Marketing Best Practices

There is a misconception that email marketing is dead. This couldn’t be further from the truth, especially when it comes to manufacturing marketing emails.

The truth is, when email is leveraged properly as a part of a larger trade show strategy, it is one of the most powerful tools for connecting with leads and informing them about how your company, product, or service can help solve their problems.

We’ve put together this guide to serve as a general overview for trade show marketing emails -- and the general cadence to follow before, during, and after the trade show to increase your ROI.

4 Pre-Trade Show Email Blasts To Send

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that sending emails prior to the trade show in order to get the word out to your database about your attendance and booth number is a best practice.

Unfortunately, oftentimes many manufacturers do not extend their pre-trade show email strategy beyond this initial booth announcement email. There are several other types of emails that manufacturers can (and should!) send before the show.

1. Introduction Email

This email is a great way to introduce your database to the members of your team who will be at the show.

Bonus points if you include the meetings link for each team member in the email so prospects can book some time at the show ahead of time to meet with your team.

2. Past Attendee Targeting

If your team has lists gathered of attendees / prospects from years prior, this is a great time to leverage those lists.

To increase engagement, send from the member of your team who met the contact, and personalize as much as possible.

3. Booth Teaser

After the initial announcement, be sure to add value by letting recipients know what they’ll get by stopping by your booth.
Are you giving something away for free? Are you offering free consultations? Now that you’ve let your audience know you’ll be there, convince them of why they should go.

4. Registration Discounts

If someone registers using your company’s code, do they get a discount? Don’t forget to share this crucial information via email.

Not only does it help those who are attending, it also conveys authority in your industry to your email list as a whole.

Trade Show Emails During the Show

This is the most neglected area of a trade show email strategy, since most teams are so overwhelmed by the show, they can hardly find time to send an email.

But, when your team meets a good fit prospect at the show, communicating sooner rather than later is best practice. The good news is during show communication does not need to be a fully fledged marketing campaign. Your team wants to reach out 1:1 to good fits, and stay top-of-mind.

The key here is not to be overly sales-y in your communication, but rather, be helpful. If the prospect brought up a pain point that your company can solve, send along some resources from your website and blog so they can read more about it.

The more you can convey to the prospect you are about their company and are ready to help them however possible, the better.

5 Follow Up Trade Show Emails

Though post-show follow ups can take many shapes and forms, we have 5 favorites we recommend:

1. The Simple Reminder: Reach out to the contact and remind them of who you are, and what your company does.
   
   
2. The Request for Chat: Let the contact know where and how they can reach out to you if they want more information.
   
   
3. The Resource Send: If your team does not have time at the show to send out helpful resources, it’s never too late. Send them along after the show.
   
   
4. The Pain Point Soothe: If the contact was talking about something their company struggles with, let them know how you can fix it.
   
   
5. The Reminder: Did your company offer trade show specific deals? Remind them to take advantage before time runs out.

We’ve fleshed out templates for each of these 5 emails here for you to copy and paste easily and become a master of trade show follow up.

Email Is Just One Facet

The truth is, following all of the above best practices won’t necessarily make for a successful trade show. The key is to utilize email as a facet of a larger trade show marketing strategy.

To learn more about how to flesh out the ideal manufacturing marketing trade show strategy, check out our guide.