Trade fair leads: how to collect them and not waste them

You get leads at a trade fair by setting a goal in advance, inviting customers to your stand and collecting contacts at the stand straight into your database instead of on business cards. A trade fair is one of the few occasions when you meet potential customers in person, hear their objections and see who is genuinely interested in your product. To turn conversations into deals, you need a form with consent on a tablet or behind a QR code, a tag that tells you which contacts came from the fair, and a follow-up email within 48 hours. Below you will find a seven step process, six mistakes that waste your trade fair budget, and the rules for consent under the GDPR.

Key takeaways

1. A trade fair is one of the strongest offline sources of leads: customers compare suppliers in one place and you talk to them face to face.
2. Without a purpose and a goal expressed as a number, you cannot tell whether the fair paid off.
3. An email invitation two to three weeks ahead brings people who already know you to your stand.
4. Collect contacts with a form on a tablet or through a QR code straight into your database, with consent and the trade fair tag.
5. A business card is not consent to receive a newsletter, it only lets you reply to what you talked about.
6. Send the follow-up email within 48 hours, while people still remember you.

In short: when to start, how to collect, what you need and what is at stake

• When to start: when the previous fair ends, and sort out the stand and the survey several months ahead.
• How to collect contacts: with a Quanda form on a tablet or through a QR code linking to the form, with business cards only as a backup.
• What you need: a goal expressed as a number, a lead magnet, an unticked consent box and a trade fair tag.
• What is at stake: a week later the prospect's inbox holds more offers from your competitors, and without consent you may not add them to your newsletter.

What has changed since the article was published: The article first appeared in Czech and Polish in November 2019 under the title You can collect contacts effectively offline too. It was written in cooperation with Jiří Janeček of Fiveco, a company specialising in trade fair marketing. In October 2026 we rewrote it as a seven step process and published it in English and Slovak too. We added collecting contacts at the stand with a tablet form and a QR code, the rules for consent under the GDPR, form automation and the follow-up email after the fair.

Why trade fair leads are worth it

A trade fair lead is the contact of a person you talked to in person at your stand and who gave you their address. Such a contact is worth more than an address from your website, because you already know what interests them and what objections they have.

When you can buy practically anything online, taking part in a trade fair can look like money thrown away. Yet a trade fair offers three things the internet cannot:

• A personal conversation. You talk to the customer face to face and see how they react to each piece of information about your product. You spot hidden objections you would never learn about online, objections that could block the deal, and you can respond to them on the spot.
• The product in their hands. The customer can look at the product, touch it and perhaps even try it.
• Comparison in one place. A trade fair visitor is looking for a solution and compares several suppliers in one place. That is your biggest opportunity: you can turn anonymous visitors into so many relevant contacts that your sales team lives off them until the next fair.

Taking part in a trade fair also signals a certain financial stability. The customer sees that you are not a company doing things by halves.

How to get leads at a trade fair in 7 steps

Trade fair marketing is the preparation, the event itself and the follow-up communication around a trade fair, all with one goal: turning stand visitors into customers. The following seven steps are in the order in which you will do them.

Step 1: Set a purpose and a measurable goal

Decide whether you are going to the fair to launch something new, to sell or to win new business contacts, and express the goal as a number, for example the number of qualified leads.

Exhibitors fall into three groups by purpose:

• Product presentation. You want to introduce something new or a major innovation so the world knows your product exists.
• Sales. You have the product ready in the quantity needed and sell it at the fair.
• New business contacts. The largest group of exhibitors goes to a fair to win as many new contacts as possible.

A goal quantifies the purpose. If you are going for contacts, decide how many you will get. If you want to sell, decide how much. If you are presenting a product, decide how many customers or journalists you will show it to. Then prepare everything else around the purpose and goal: invitations, the stand and the form. You may not hit the goal one hundred percent, but without it you have nothing to compare the result with. If you are going for contacts, also calculate the cost per qualified lead, that is, all trade fair costs divided by the number of contacts with a specific interest. After the fair, compare it with the cost of a contact from other sources.

Step 2: Find out what interests your customers

Before the fair, send your existing customers a short survey and reflect their answers in the invitation, the materials and the stand.

The old saying holds true: a marketer's biggest mistake is thinking they know what the customer thinks. A survey is a simple way to find out for real. Ask what interests customers at the fair, what problems they have and what they would like to see from you. The answers show you the topics that will grab attention at the stand. How to put a survey together is described in 6 steps how to create a survey.

Step 3: Invite customers in advance

Two to three weeks before the fair, send an invitation with your stand number and a reason to stop by, and a reminder a week before.

In the invitation, say what they will see and get at the stand: a demo of something new, research results or a free consultation. Tag the contacts who replied or clicked, and your salespeople can suggest a specific meeting time. Send those who did not open the invitation a second wave with a different subject line, as described in Second wave email.

Step 4: Build the stand around the customer

Your stand must show at first glance who you help and with what, because visitors decide as they walk past.

Picture a visitor who walks into a hall, stops and looks around. They see dozens of exhibitors waiting for someone to visit. They walk past the first stand, the second, the third, and then just skim the rest. Unless you offer something truly exceptional, you have to catch their attention immediately.

So build the stand around the rule: catch attention, spark interest, deliver the message. The design, graphics, layout and even where the tablet with the form stands all follow from the survey in step 2. A stand does not have to be expensive: companies specialising in trade fair marketing offer folding stands to rent or buy that fit in a van and can be used again and again.

Step 5: Collect contacts straight into your database

At the stand, open a Quanda form on a tablet or display a QR code with a link to it, so that every contact is saved straight away with consent and the trade fair tag.

The form does not have to be embedded on your website. On the Embed Code page you will also find an address where the form is shown as a standalone web page, as described in the help article Inserting the form code. Open it in the tablet's browser. Turn the same address into a QR code with any generator and print it on a stand or a flyer, so visitors can fill in the form on their own phone when there is a queue at the tablet.

Create a separate form for the fair with four fields: email, name, company and a question about when they plan to buy, plus an unticked consent box. Use its automations to set what happens after submission:

• Add label, for example Trade fair 2026, so you can select contacts from the fair for the follow-up campaign.
• Fill in the User field with the contact source, for example Trade fair Birmingham 2026.
• Send email with a thank you and the promised lead magnet right after the form is filled in.
• Send alerts to the salesperson so they know who stopped by the stand.
• Set GDPR details for contacts who ticked the consent box: the legal title, purpose and length of processing.

How to set up automations is described in Form automation: how to set it up and make the most of it. What to offer in exchange for the contact is covered in Lead magnets in B2B marketing, and how to prepare an e-book people trade their email for in How to create an e-book.

Source: Quanda's own experience with forms and contact imports.

Tip: Do not rely on the venue wifi. Bring a phone with a mobile hotspot or a tablet with its own SIM card, and a paper form with the same fields and a consent box just in case. After the fair, upload contacts from paper and business cards with the contact import guide and add the trade fair tag straight away.

Step 6: Separate real prospects from pen collectors

Add one question to the form that reveals interest, for example when they plan to buy, and pass mainly contacts with a specific interest on to your salespeople.

Hundreds of people walk past your stand every day, and each has their own reason for being at the fair. Visitors fall into three groups:

• Pen collectors. Give them a pen and let them move on.
• Potential customers. They will not buy or order today, but you can close a deal with them in the near future. They belong in your database and your regular communication.
• Customers here and now. They came to buy or order what they need. Your salesperson should deal with them straight away.

A question in the form, such as “When are you planning to buy?” with the options within a month, within six months and just looking, saves you hours of sorting after the fair. Based on the answers, you split contacts into groups and send each a different follow-up.

Step 7: Write within 48 hours after the fair

Within two days after the fair, send every contact an email that picks up on the conversation at the stand, and call prospects with a specific enquiry.

A follow-up email is an email that builds on a personal meeting and suggests the next step. A thank you with the lead magnet goes out automatically right after the form is filled in. Our customers' experience shows that it pays to send a personal email from the salesperson within 48 hours, while people still remember you. A week later, when visitors are back from the fair and going through offers, their inbox already holds more offers from your competitors. Anyone who has not responded within a week gets a second email with a different subject line, for example with a short real-life example or an invitation to a demo.

What belongs in a follow-up email:

• A reminder of the meeting: where you met and what you talked about.
• The promised materials: an offer, a price list, research results or a lead magnet.
• One next step: a meeting, a product demo or a short call.
• An unsubscribe link: always in newsletters and commercial emails.

Then add contacts who agreed to receive news to your regular communication. You started a relationship at the stand, and a newsletter keeps it going until the next fair. How to automate follow-up emails is described in Email automation: 8 scenarios that work for you.

6 mistakes that waste your trade fair budget

The six mistakes exhibitors make most often, and the step that prevents each of them:

Source: experience of Jiří Janeček of Fiveco with trade fair exhibitors.

The last mistake is the most common and the most expensive. When you work under time pressure, you do things not as they should be done, but only as you manage them. And when one part is not done well, it shows in the result.

How to collect trade fair leads in line with the GDPR

Consent to receive commercial emails is a voluntary and active expression of will by which a person allows you to send them offers and news by email. The same rules apply at a trade fair as on your website.

In the EU you may send commercial emails only with the recipient's prior consent or to an existing customer with an offer of your own similar products. This is set by Article 13 of the ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC), and each country implements it in its own law, so check the rules of the country where your contacts are. For a trade fair, three rules follow:

• Leave the consent box unticked. The visitor must give consent themselves, pre-ticked consent is not valid.
• A business card is not consent. You can reply to a business card with what you talked about, for example the offer you promised. But add to your newsletter only people who gave consent.
• Record the consent. With a Quanda form, an automation with the Set GDPR details action does it for you. For contacts from paper, you fill in the legal title, purpose and length of processing during the import.

Watch out: A prize draw that requires newsletter consent is risky, because the consent is then not freely given. Put entry to the competition and consent to receive news in the form as two separate boxes.

You can verify an address entered on the tablet with double opt-in: the visitor gets a verification email and appears in Contacts only after clicking the link. Ask them to confirm the email on their phone right at the stand, so you know there is no typo in the address. More on address verification in Double opt-in. What is it and how does it work? and on the rules for commercial emails in What spam is and 4 rules to keep emails out of spam.

Checklist: trade fair leads

Before the fair, at the stand and after it, check that you have a goal, invitations, a form with consent, a tag and a follow-up.

• I have a purpose for taking part and a goal expressed as a number.
• I sent customers a survey and an invitation with my stand number.
• The trade fair form has an unticked consent box and a question about interest.
• The form automation adds the trade fair tag and sends a thank you with the lead magnet.
• There is a tablet with a connection and a QR code linking to the form at the stand.
• I have a paper form as a backup.
• The follow-up email goes out within 48 hours after the fair.
• After the fair, I calculated the cost per qualified lead.

Trade fair leads: summary

A trade fair pays off when you leave with contacts in your database, not a box of business cards. Set a goal, invite customers in advance, collect contacts with consent straight into Quanda and write to them within two days. The same rules apply all year round: regular communication with existing and potential customers through newsletters and useful advice keeps up the relationship you started at the stand.

The article was written in cooperation with Jiří Janeček, managing director of Fiveco, a company specialising in trade fair stands and trade fair marketing.

You can learn how to collect contacts with forms and lead magnets in the free online course Collecting contacts: forms and lead magnets. And if you are not sure how to set up a form for the fair, get in touch, we will be happy to help.