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…
Email Abuse
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…
Exhibitors have, for years, been given or rented the registered attendee list to send pre and post show marketing emails to increase traffic to their booth and to thank those who visited. Call this Attendee List Rental Version 1.0. However, privacy and SPAM concerns have all but eliminated the practice of giving or renting the attendee list to exhibitors. Enter Attendee List Rental Version 2.0 in the form of eShowMail , a system that enables exhibitors to have their custom email blasts sent without having direct access to the confidential attendee data. Benefits: Exhibitors get…
CAN-SPAM and the Impact on Trade Show Exhibitor Emails Tradeshow organizers gather attendee email addresses in the course of completing attendee registrations and if they are smart, they require them to OPT-IN or OPT-OUT of receiving emails. So the question is what can be done with these email addresses? Quite simply, the show organizer can send CAN-SPAM compliant emails to the registered attendees regarding the show. In addition, they can send emails on behalf of their exhibitors promoting their activities at the show because the emails are technically coming from the show organizer. These emails can be sent until the attendees OPT-OUT. Organizers start to run…
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 read an article by Mike Blackman, Managing Director of Integrated Systems Events, regarding the value of an event’s registration data. I found it very interesting and thought I would share it: Tread carefully when considering whether to rent or sell your attendee data to third parties, says Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events. “Big data.” It’s a phrase that entered into common usage a couple of years back, when it seemed the only companies seriously bucking the recession trend—at least in the Western world—were those engaged in the acquisition, processing and subsequent…
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…