This is the cold email plan we'd run for a trade show marketing agency that serves one industry. Trade shows publish their exhibitor lists. That hands you a list of companies with a date and a budget already committed.
Your market is every company in your industry that exhibits. Map Your Show and 10times publish exhibitor lists for many shows. Each list is a campaign with a date on it.
These are the signals worth looking for.
A company on the exhibitor list for a show two or three months out is planning right now.
Their LinkedIn posts from last year's show often include booth photos. A plain booth is an easy opener.
Nothing on their site or LinkedIn announcing the booth number. Attendees plan their visits before the show.
A company on exhibitor lists for several shows a year spends a lot on events and wants each one to pay off.
A new product scheduled for a show needs the booth built around it.
A job post for an events or trade show manager means the calendar is too big for the team.
Lead with the show and their booth number.
Lead with last year's booth photo.
Lead with the number of shows they do.
Lead with the product and the show.
A medical device show and a packaging show draw very different visitors. Keep them in separate campaigns.
The emails and LinkedIn posts and meeting invites to send attendees before the show. Written for their booth and their products.
It works because it is tied to a date and ready to use. Running it is the next step and the booth follows.
All the shows in their industry for the next year with the exhibitor deadlines.
It works because it turns a scattered year of events into one plan. Managing that plan is the retainer.
Write and schedule their pre-show emails and posts for their next show free. They approve everything first.
It works because they see the difference in who shows up to the booth. Booth design and the full calendar are the paid work.
Start at least a month before the show.
Hi {{first_name}},
Saw {{company}} is exhibiting at {{trade_show}} in booth {{booth_number}}.
We run trade shows for {{industry}} companies. Wrote the pre-show emails and posts I'd send attendees for you.
Want them?
{{sender_first_name}}
Hi {{first_name}},
Found a photo of {{company}}'s booth at {{last_show}} on LinkedIn.
Sketched what it could look like at {{next_show}} with {{product}} front and center.
Should I send it?
{{sender_first_name}}
Hi {{first_name}},
We design booths and promote them for {{industry}} companies at the shows they already attend.
{{proof_line}}
Worth a conversation?
{{sender_first_name}}
Swap {{proof_line}} for one real result of your own. A show you worked and the meetings it produced. If there is no result yet then leave the line out.
At smaller manufacturers the owner or the head of sales decides. At bigger ones it is the marketing manager or the events manager.
Results depend on the offer and the list. Three outbound agencies that publish their own numbers land between one booked meeting per 1,000 people contacted and one per 2,000. One of them also tested 650,000 cold emails with a plain offer and got about 3 to 6 interested replies per 10,000 people.
Those are other people's numbers and not a promise about your market. Your market's number only comes from testing it.
We build and run this campaign for one agency per industry.
Thirty minutes on your market and how we'd reach it.