Guide · 2-minute read
After the fair is when it starts.
Whether a trade fair paid off is often decided in the days afterwards.
By Manuel Bubori, Studio BUBORILast reviewed
For businesses that exhibit at trade fairs and want more afterwards than a pile of business cards.
A trade fair takes weeks of preparation. Its success is often decided only in the days afterwards, when the conversation notes are in a rucksack and day-to-day business is calling again. Here is how contacts turn into enquiries.
The follow-up starts before the fair
Anyone who only thinks about the contacts after the fair has already lost the most important material. Decide three things beforehand:
A short form. Name, company, what it was about, what the next step is. On paper or on a phone, as long as it is the same for everyone on the stand. Two days later, a business card alone says nothing.
A rating. A for a concrete need, B for interest without a date, C for everything else. It takes seconds and decides the order later.
One person responsible. One name who owns the list after the fair. What belongs to everyone gets left lying. How a fair fits into a wider plan is covered under Campaigns.
The first week
Get in touch with the A contacts within a few working days, while the conversation is still fresh. The message is short and personal. It refers to what was discussed and names exactly one next step: the promised sample, the quotation, a meeting.
A group email to all stand visitors does not replace this. It tells the recipient they are on a list, not that someone listened to them.
The B contacts follow a little later, ideally with something that helps them: a technical article, a reference, an answer to the question from the conversation.
What to watch out for legally
A business card is not consent to a newsletter. Replying to a specific conversation is different from adding someone to a mailing list. In Germany, regular advertising by email generally requires express consent. Ask for it in the conversation and note it on the short form.
The evaluation
After four to six weeks, a look back pays off. How many conversations, how many A contacts, how many quotations, how many orders? These figures, not the feeling that it was busy, should decide on the next fair.
The material from the fair keeps working afterwards too: stand photos, visitors' questions and new references belong on the website.
In short
- Fix the short form, rating and responsibility before the fair
- Write to A contacts personally within a few working days
- One message, one next step
- A business card is not consent to a newsletter
Frequently asked questions
Concrete prospects within a few working days, while the conversation is fresh. The other contacts a little later, with something that helps them.
A business card alone is generally not enough. Regular advertising by email requires express consent in Germany. The easiest way is to ask in the conversation and note it.
By what comes out of it: conversations, concrete contacts, quotations and orders. For that, contacts have to be recorded in the same way on the stand.
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agent-view
What an answer engine reads from this page
A search engine returns ten links and the human picks. A language model returns one paragraph and names two or three companies in it. That is the difference between being found and being named. This page is built for the second case.
Retrieval
read: /llms.txt · /robots.txt · JSON-LD @graph · this page
answered: Concrete prospects within a few working days, while the conversation is fresh. The other contacts a little later, with something that helps them.
Allowed agents (21)
Anthropic: ClaudeBot · Claude-User · Claude-SearchBot
Perplexity: PerplexityBot · Perplexity-User
Google: Google-Extended · Googlebot
Microsoft: Bingbot
Apple: Applebot-Extended · Applebot
Meta: Meta-WebIndexer · meta-externalfetcher · meta-externalagent
Mistral AI: MistralAI-Index · MistralAI-User · MistralAI-Training
DuckDuckGo: DuckAssistBot
rule: Allow: / · source: https://www.bubori.studio/robots.txt
Entity
url: https://www.bubori.studio/en/guide/trade-fair-follow-up
inLanguage: en-GB
alternate: de-DE · https://www.bubori.studio/ratgeber/messe-nachbereiten
@type: Article
updated: 2026-10-31
Questions this page answers
- When should you follow up trade fair contacts?
- Concrete prospects within a few working days, while the conversation is fresh. The other contacts a little later, with something that helps them.
- Can you add trade fair contacts to the newsletter?
- A business card alone is generally not enough. Regular advertising by email requires express consent in Germany. The easiest way is to ask in the conversation and note it.
- How do you measure the success of a trade fair?
- By what comes out of it: conversations, concrete contacts, quotations and orders. For that, contacts have to be recorded in the same way on the stand.
Contact
email: hello@bubori.com
address: Industriestraße 3, 78052 Villingen-Schwenningen, Baden-Württemberg
geo: 48.0916, 8.5046
Machine-readable entry points
sitemap: https://www.bubori.studio/sitemap.xml
JSON-LD: in the head of this page
Ten links leave the choice to the human. One paragraph has already made the choice. A company that does not appear in that answer is not on the list being chosen from.