In 4 steps to an efficient follow-up of your exhibition leads

Rowan van der Veen
Oct 8, 2018 8:21:00 AM

After months of preparing, the tradeshow is over. Looking back with your stand crew brings up some great successes and brings you to the next thing on your ‘exhibition to do list’: the evaluation and follow up of the gathered exhibition leads. We don’t have to convince you of the importance of a good follow-up, but we can give you some tips on how to follow up in an efficient and successful way. In this blog, we’ll share the steps of an efficient follow up and we give you the opportunity to put these steps into practice by offering you our extensive free whitepaper!

 

Step 1: Speed of following-up is key

During the exhibition your stand crew has met a lot of visitors, shook plenty of hands, discussed many topics and collected plenty of e-mail addresses. It is of high importance that those visitors will hear from you within a couple of hours (or even minutes) in order for you to stay on top of mind. Research shows that a quick follow up is key, because your competitors will make the same efforts, so better be early than sorry! 

 

Step 2: Categorize your leads

It is important to get to know your leads in order to achieve maximum results. In the ideal situation you’d like to proceed with the conversation you had during the show. An efficient way to personalize the follow-up is by categorizing your leads into different stages in the pipeline. Some people might be familiar with your organization whilst others have never heard from you. You don’t want to send an introduction to someone who has worked with you before, right? You can even create sub-categories such as product of interest, age and country. Create content based on the specific buyer-stage of the leads in each category.

 

Step 3: Personalize your follow-up

In previous step, you have categorized your leads to your preference. Now it’s time to create content based on the specific buyer-stage of the leads in each category. Think of an introduction mail to those who have never heard of you before and a product-specific e-mail to those who have showed interest in a specific product or service. Don’t forget to include a picture of the account manager they have talked to during the show. Try to make an impression and show some creativity! 

 

Step 4: Make your leads part of your network

Not every lead will become a customer immediately. Therefore, it is important to save their names and email addresses. They have shown interest in your business, so it would be a waste not keeping in touch with them. You can either do this by sending them a monthly newsletter or by adding them to your Linkedin network. This way, you’ll keep them engaged with your business. Once they are ready to buy, they will definitely get in contact with you.

 

Download our exhibition lead follow-up whitepaper

At KOP, we know that following up exhibition leads is quite a responsibility and can be a time-consuming task. Therefore, we have written an exhibition follow-up plan whitepaper, including many tips and tools for a flawless follow-up of your exhibition leads. This whitepaper is a practical guide for exhibitors who like to get more out of their exhibitions. Curious? Send ‘follow-up whitepaper’ to marketing@kopexpo.com to receive your copy!

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Rowan van der Veen
By Rowan van der Veen Online marketeer

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