What a trade show campaign is
A trade show campaign is a short series of emails around one show you exhibit at: invitations before it, a reminder while it runs and follow-ups after it. It goes to two groups – people who already know you, and buyers who do not know you yet but are likely to attend.
The aim is not a busier booth. It is booked conversations with the right buyers, and fewer leads lost after the show.
Before the show: fill your calendar, not just your booth
Buyers plan their show days weeks in advance, so the first email goes out early:
- 3–4 weeks before: where you will be (hall and booth number) and one reason to visit – a new collection, a lab-grown line, calibrated melee in stock, memo terms for new accounts.
- About a week before: an invitation to book a short meeting at your booth, with a simple booking link.
- The day before or the first morning: a two-line reminder with the booth number.
New buyers in your target countries get their own, shorter invitation, written for them rather than copied from the customer email.
Why show emails often end up in spam
Many exhibitors send one designed flyer to their whole list a few days before the show. The usual problems:
- the company domain is missing SPF, DKIM or DMARC records, or has them set up wrongly;
- the emails go out in large BCC batches from a normal mailbox;
- the list holds years of old addresses that now bounce;
- the email is a single image or a PDF attachment with almost no text;
- there is no unsubscribe link, so people press “spam” instead;
- the list is only emailed before shows, in sudden large batches.
Gmail asks bulk senders to authenticate their domain, offer one-click unsubscribe and keep spam complaints below 0.3% (Gmail sender guidelines). Before every show we test where your emails land and fix what is wrong before anything goes out.
After the show: the first 48 hours
Cards and badge scans go cold quickly. Within 48 hours of the show, everyone you met gets a short, personal follow-up that mentions the show – and what you discussed, if your team noted it – with one clear next step: samples, a price list or a call. Two more follow-ups over the following weeks reach those who have not replied.
Buyers who could not attend get a separate email with the same offer, so the investment in the show keeps paying after the halls close.
Your contacts and new buyers are sent differently
Your own contacts gave you their details in a business context, so emails to them go from your company domain through a proper email platform, with an unsubscribe link in every message. New buyers who have never heard of you are contacted the way all our outreach works: from separate, warmed-up sending domains, so your company domain is never used for cold email. Keeping the two apart protects both.