Pre-show mailings used to be sent primarily by snail mail, but marketing emails are becoming more and more common. Using email marketing is a great way to give attendees an early glimpse of the products or services you will be showcasing at an upcoming event, and pre-show mailers are proven to increase traffic at trade shows. So how can you make sure that your emails get through to your target audience without being deleted or caught up in spam filters? I’ve learned a few tips and tricks to improve your email marketing campaigns, and here they are:

1.  Choose the right day to send your pre-show mailers. Emails that are sent on Sunday, Monday, Friday, or Saturday are 2x more likely to be deleted than emails sent on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. You can immediately double your success rate by picking the middle of the week.
2. Choose the right time of day to send your pre-show mailers. The best times of day to send pre-show mailers are mid-morning and mid-afternoon. Your target audience members are more likely to delete your email if they just arrived at work or are about to leave. Usually 10AM - 11AM is the time of day that I find to be most successful.
3. Avoid phrases that would lodge an email in your own spam filters. Using the words “free”, “sale”, “buy”, and “shop” are a perfect way to get caught by the spam filters. Instead, try words like “browse”, “learn”, and “visit”, as these words are much less likely to get caught in the spam filters.
4. Never send an email unless the recipient opted to receive emails from companies like yours. Being reported as a spammer is the last thing you want to happen to your company or your domain name. Technically, you are spamming whenever you send an email to an address that did not opt to receive emails from companies like your own. No one likes junk mail, so don’t add to the problem by spamming your potential clients’ mailbox.
5. Send multiple emails with the same subject line. If you plan to do multiple pre-show mailings, make sure that the subject line remains the same with every email you send. Doing this will build your brand recognition and help to connect the emails you send in the mind of attendees. If your brand is already recognizable before the trade show begins, half the battle has already been won.

In general, pre-show mailings are a great way to increase your ROI at trade shows, but be sure to follow these basic tips to avoid problems with deliverability.