Email blacklisting can happen to you if you aren’t careful!
If your trade show ROI is important, then lead follow-up is important to you, too. Chances are you use email to fulfill most show inquiries (as opposed to print and “snail mail.”) That means there is a chance that your email blasts following a show can get you “blacklisted” as a spammer if you are not careful, and if too many recipients flag your emails as “spam”. And that can mean BIG trouble!
There are four key things you can do to help avoid getting blacklisted:
- Obtain permission from your prospects to email them after the show. (Consider going to your website and have him register online.)
- Immediately email the prospect with a “thank you” acknowledgement for “opting-in” to your list.
- Send your follow-up emails within 24 hours of the show with a subject line: ”Following up your request from the XYZ trade show.”
- In the first paragraph of the email remind them of your meeting at the show and their request for more information.
Most email campaign providers like Constant Contact, iContact, Exact Target & Silverpop have strong anti-spam policies, and you can get shutdown if you don’t abide them. The ability to document that the people you have emailed requested your follow-up can help get you off of blacklists if you end-up there.
So consider asking for email permission while qualifying your leads. It may help you from “seeing red” if you end up “in the black.”
