Writing emails to trade show leads can feel a bit daunting. You know that they’re important to your business and also that every sentence must be strategic. Don’t worry, just follow these seven tips for emails following up after a trade show.
Organize Your New Contacts
Trade shows can be very busy and hectic, so you probably haven’t had a minute to gather and organize all the new contacts you and your team have accumulated. So now that you have time, start going through all your business cards, post-it notes, emails, and crumpled up napkins. Create a spread sheet with the following categories: first name, last name, email, and phone number. You can also add on categories such as: company, position, website, and address, if those are useful.
Segment Your List
“Not all your leads will be equally promising. Separate your leads into different lists because they will be getting different follow up plans based on how promising they are,” recommends William Lozier, writer at Elite Assignment Help. If you met some influencers, friends, and fans, then you can go over the same process with them. If you have a substantial list, you can further segment your lists by location, business type, or company size.
Pass On Your Leads
“Give your most promising leads to your sales team as soon as possible, you don’t want to miss out on an opportunity. Have a quick meeting with your sales team and assign leads in person if you’re worried about emailing them out and something getting lost,” advises Evelyn Lawson, editor at Academized. Hand off less promising leads to your marketing staff to work on for a while until they’re ripe. What’s most important is that every lead is assigned to somebody.
Create Unique Plans for Each Group
Consumers become frustrated very quickly with marketing emails that are not relatable or interesting to them. Companies are increasingly following Amazon’s lead with personalized recommendation engines, so you will be left behind if you don’t create unique experiences for your leads. People love getting emails that are actually relevant to them. For your lukewarm leads, send an email a week for the first month, and then switch to sending them your newsletter once per month.
Structure the Follow-Up
Invest in some marketing automation software, if you haven’t already. Enter in your segments, message schedules, and how long before a lead is dropped from your messaging program. You can start out with a message recapping how much you enjoyed meeting them at the trade show, then another one explaining your product and how it works (case studies are great for this purpose), then an email laying out your entire product selection, and finally one inviting the lead to participate in a sales call. This is just an example, you can tweak your message sequence however you like for your purposes.
Writing the Trade Show Email
Writing doesn’t come easily to everyone, so don’t be afraid to get help from the professionals. Here are some good resources to get you started:
1. AcademAdvisor / Grammar Checker
These are grammar tools you can use to check over your email for grammatical errors. Don’t take any chances, get some help from the experts.
2. Big Assignments / Boomessays
These are services that will help you write perfect call to actions (CTAs.) You can check out their reviews at WriteMyAustralia. CTAs are the most important part of your email, so invest some time and effort into optimizing them.
3. EasyWordCount / CiteItIn
These are writing resources you can access for help improving your email. Even experienced writers can use some extra help now and then.
4. UKTopWriters / OXessays
Check out these editing tools, recommended in OXessays review, for help going over your email for mistakes and typos. Just a single typo can turn a lead off; poor editing shows a lack of professionalism.
Write Your Messages
Now it’s time to craft some message copy. Take some time and find a nice quiet environment to write your email. When you’re writing, make sure you write in a way that is compatible with your brand’s style and personality. Your CTA is very important, so make sure it’s clear, concise, compelling, and that there is only one. More than one CTA can easily confuse your recipient. Always have a coworker look over your message copy before you enter it into your marketing automation software. Often they will catch an error you missed, or suggest a rewording that improves your message.
Conclusion
To get the best results, you need to follow a proper strategy with your emails following a trade show. Don’t squander all those leads by not following up well on them. Use these seven tips for emails following up after a trade show.
