From March through June we were contracted to work with roughly 25 events providing pre/post show email services for their exhibitors. All of these events have now been postponed, cancelled, or moved onto virtual platforms. For the last couple weeks, we’ve been working with some of our customers to create sponsorships and programs they can use to: Help their exhibitors reach out to their attendees Generate revenue Hold onto sponsors as they move to virtual platforms to offer continuing education. Here are a few examples: We have one customer whose goal was to have their exhibitors refrain…
Chris
Tradeshow organizers have a new problem. Rogue list brokers are targeting their exhibitors, claiming to have access to the official attendee list. We began seeing this more widely in 2017, and now at the end of 2018, exhibitors at every show we work with are receiving daily emails from these solicitors. Tradeshow organizers are seemingly helpless to stop this and as a result, many of our clients have approached us asking if there is anything we can do to help them stop this. In response to these requests, Event Technologies undertook an effort to look…
The Basics of Exhibitor Email Marketing Exhibitors want to connect with attendees before the event; however, there are very few options out there that are truly effective at increasing booth traffic for your exhibitors. Exhibitor email marketing has proven to be effective for the shows we work with, and until something better comes along, seems to be the only viable tool available to exhibitors. In the five years we’ve been working with events to provide exhibitor email marketing programs, we’ve learned a ton. Here are the most important things to consider if you are thinking about giving…
Ask Permission before Sending Pre-show Exhibitor Emails to your Attendees Your exhibitors want to connect with the attendees before the event to boost traffic at their booths. After working with hundreds of events, we know that pre-show email marketing is an effective tool to do this; however, some of your attendees might not feel the same way. Some of them don’t want to receive emails from your exhibitors. This is the number one concern that we hear from show organizers. They don’t want to anger their attendees by sending them too many emails. We have…
Raise Money for your Charity Almost every association we work with has a charity that they support. Associations typically will run a fund raising event during the show. This can range from a party, to a 10K run, to a golf tournament. The money raised during the event is important. For events that want to raise additional money and awareness for their charities, we have an idea. Pre and post show email marketing programs are designed to bring attention to an exhibitor’s booth to drive more traffic and generate more leads. Integrating the event’s charity with…
Hoping that qualified buyers will randomly walk into your booth is not an effective way to generate leads at a trade show. The truth is that by the time attendees get to the show, most of them have a list of exhibitors they are going to visit during the expo. As an exhibitor, you need to get on that list before the show starts or else you are leaving the success or failure of your lead collection to random chance. Different strategies are required to communicate with the two audiences you need to address: Your…
Customer The National Grocers Association (NGA) is the national trade association representing the retail and wholesale grocers that comprise the independent sector of the food distribution industry. NGA’s mission is to ensure independent, community-focused retailers and wholesalers the opportunity to succeed and better serve the consumer through its policies, advocacy, programs and services. Event Name The NGA Show had 2,078 attendees and 1,112 exhibiting personnel for a total attendance of 3,190. The exposition hosted 316 exhibiting companies. Challenge The NGA wanted to give their exhibitors an opportunity to communicate with their attendees before and after the event. They had…
Event Technologies was recently featured in a podcast on email marketing in the trade show industry including the new CASL – Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation. With greater concern for the attendee’s privacy and the implementation of stronger Canadian anti-spam laws, there are some permission-based marketing principles you need to put in place, whether you’re an exhibitor or a show organizer. To listen to the Podcast click here:
At the IAEE Expo! Expo! tradeshow last week (December 9-11, 2014), we spoke with tradeshow organizers that struggle with the question of whether or not to allow their exhibitors to send emails to their attendees using the show’s registration list. Some have had terrible things happen with their attendee list, including one organizer, from a big show, that found out that one of their exhibitors was reselling the list. This is not uncommon. Offering access to the registration list helps selected exhibitors drive booth traffic, increases exhibitor ROI and thus retention rates. However, how do…
I speak to a great many convention, expo and trade show organizers. A recurring theme of these conversations is the merit of sharing the registration list with exhibitors. Some do but most don’t and for good reason, which was explained to me yesterday by an individual that runs a number of conventions. In the past, they have always given away the attendee list to allow for exhibitor email marketing to the attendees. They trusted their exhibitors would use the list only once and this was the easiest way to allow them to send emails. Up…