6 Post-Show Activities That Improve Trade Show ROI

As we gear up for Photonics West and the winter–spring trade show season, we’re sharing a variety of tips, tricks, and insights to help you improve your trade show ROI. This includes everything from promoting your trade show visit on social media to booth staff training. Today we’ll focus on what happens when you return from the show.

Creating a trade show follow-up plan is just as important as establishing your pre-trade show strategy. Here are six activities that should be part of your post-conference to-do list.

1. Promise yourself you’ll never again take the red eye. Mean it. Write it down. (Trust us on this one.)
2. Before the trade show, schedule an hour the day after you get back to debrief with your team. Were all of your goals met? What changes should be made for next year? (Event Manager Blog has a helpful list of other questions to ask.) 
3. Make a list of the promises you made at the show: brochures you said you’d send, people you said you’d introduce, etc. Book an hour on your calendar to complete these tasks.
4. Round up all of the business cards in your suit pockets, briefcase and suitcase, as well as those you gathered digitally. Add them to your CRM and connect with them on LinkedIn.
5. Jot down your observations from the show, including technology trends, emerging applications and industry forecasts. Share these notes with your R&D and marketing team.
6. Develop an email nurture campaign for all of the leads whose badges you scanned and business cards you collected; set your first email to send 10 days after the trade show, and schedule at least two additional emails that offer valuable content to engage your new leads.

Download our Post-Event Activities Checklist to make sure your your lead follow-up and other post-show tasks are handled.