Funny you should propose that Andy and allow me to throw in another example of stupid businesses after an event like this.
When we did exhibit once during Kent 2020, two days after the event we were cold-called by a company offering to collect all those business cards we’d collected during the exhibition and to follow up on them for us – because, as she rightfully mentioned, very few businesses do this.
Well, happily I could tell her that our follow-up letters were already on their way to the post and secondly: why would we hand this task over to a business we didn’t know from Adam? If they had drip feeded us way before the event, that would have been a completely different matter

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

Knowing the way you work with people and the way you build up those important relationships, it’s good to see the same mindset, and it does pay dividends.

Now here’s a thought for you Jo – what if you went round the Kent 2020 exhibitors, getting onto their mailing lists, and saw what came back to you afterwards? Chances are that most of them would be in that “promote ourselves before the event, during the event, and chase leads after the event” but very few would have the mindset of “actually, let’s see if we can drip-feed to these people on an ongoing basis, with their approval, and see what comes out of that in the following months”. Which of course, is when you step in to show them the errors in their ways!

Seriously, Andy, I completely agree with your sentiments. Building relationships through your marketing efforts is so important, particularly for local businesses, whether that be through email marketing, networking online and offline or even through direct mail. But, as you say, this needs to be ongoing, not just around an event. Come to think about it, that is the whole point of a ‘relationship’ – it is an ongoing, gradual build thing not just as a result of one or two actions.