Trade Show Planning Check List & Time Line Part 3: Follow Up

Xylea Wood Blog Follow up

In our last two posts, we outlined the importance of pre-trade show planning, shared a timeline of tasks and tips for making your trade show display a success, and highlighted tips for maximizing your time during your trade show experience. Now that you’ve rocked your event, it’s time to get ready for follow up!

Follow these tips for making the most of your trade show experience by leveraging the leads you worked so hard to get.

After the Show

Trade Shows offer great opportunities for making connections and after the show, you’ll want to devise a plan for following up with them. Whether they are leads for potential clients, customers, influencers, or affiliates, it’s important to prioritize each lead and follow up accordingly.

Follow-Up: 1 Week After

  • Organize and prioritize leads generated from trade show.
  • Follow up with your VIP list within 24 to 48 hours
  • Follow up with 2nd tier contact list within 30 days
  • Follow up with others by adding them to your email list/newsletter list (always be sure to ask for permission to add to email list).

Compare planned budget with actual spend. Be sure to include all your costs.

Evaluate results

Analyze – Do a SWOT Analysis (Measure Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats)

SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, and a SWOT analysis examines these factors for a given business, project, or personal objective. The idea is to define an objective and then use the analysis to determine what internal and external factors may support or hinder that objective. Strengths and weaknesses represent the internal factors affecting an individual or organization, while opportunities and threats constitute external, environmental factors.

A SWOT analysis helps to measure risks and rewards while also identifying the key factors related to accomplishing the stated objective. If done effectively, a SWOT analysis should lead to a strategy for dealing with negative factors while maximizing strengths and opportunities. The more precise your SWOT analysis, the easier it will be to create an action plan for accomplishing your objective, maximizing your trade show and making it a success.

Click here for free SWOT Analysis templates from SmartSheet.

Learn from your Experience

Learn from your experience and apply what you learned about your trade show costs, service, product, and pitch and get ready to plan your next show and pivot as needed!

If one of your takeaways from your analysis is that you were over budget and you need to save money on your trade show display or that you need to expand your exhibit, Xylea-Wood Slatwall can help you save money and increase your ROI!

If you are looking for a trade show display solution that can help save you time and money, Xylea-Wood® can help! Utilizing our revolutionary, patented slatwall display system, Xylea-Wood® offers the most affordable, easy-to-assemble, lightweight displays that bring big savings with shipping and set up, featuring interchangeable panels, shelving, and racks that allow you to maximize your display efforts with merchandising made easy.

Contact our expert trade show consultants today for a FREE no-obligation consultation or for a quote at 909.860.2695.