Trade Show Case Study: Automated Pre- and Post-Show Outreach
How an exporter that attends nine trade shows a year turned each show into a three-week outreach campaign that books meetings before the doors open and follows up before the badges are scanned into a drawer.
Overview
The client is a packaging machinery exporter that attends nine trade shows a year across three continents. Each show cost tens of thousands of dollars and produced a stack of badge scans that a sales coordinator typed into a spreadsheet, followed by a single 'nice to meet you' email a couple of weeks later. Meetings at the show were whoever walked up.
Gain Rhino connected the trade-show calendar to the CRM. Three weeks before each show, an outreach sequence goes to attendees and exhibitors in the target segment with a link to book a meeting at the booth. Badge scans on site go straight into the CRM with notes. Within 24 hours of the show closing, every contact gets a follow-up that references their conversation, and hot leads get a call task for the right sales rep.
Research
We looked at the last four shows. The company had booked an average of five pre-arranged meetings per show, scanned about 180 badges, and followed up with roughly a third of them, an average of 16 days later. Sales could not say which shows produced revenue.
We built the sequence templates once and parameterized them by show: dates, hall, booth number, the product being featured. The pre-show list comes from the organizer's exhibitor list and the CRM's own contacts in that region. On-site, reps capture badges and a one-line note in the mobile app; the note drives which follow-up variant a contact receives. Every contact is tagged with the show, so revenue can be traced back.
Result
Every show now runs the same way: meetings booked before departure, badges captured with context, follow-up out within a day. The sales coordinator manages the calendar instead of retyping badges. Leadership sees pipeline by show for the first time.
By the numbers (first three shows):
- Pre-arranged meetings per show16 on average, up from 5
- Badge scans followed up100%, up from about 33%
- Time from show close to follow-upunder 24 hours, down from about 16 days
- Contacts entered by hand0
- Opportunities traceable to a specific show100%
Client identity withheld at their request. Figures reflect the first three trade shows after launch.
