This is a really good marketing idea: a weekly newsletter to registered attendees from the point of registration to the event date. (I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few updates after the show as well.)

The email content includes blurbs about resources that can help me plan my attendance so I get the most out of the event. The “Virtual Conference Brochure” is a guide to all the sessions I can attend, and serves as a great upsell tool. They also have the “MyCES Personal Planner,” which will help me “search for exhibitors, products and educational sessions.” That’s a good benefit for exhibitors, whose biggest challenge is having people find them in the midst of literally thousands of other exhibitors.

Another tool to help the exhibitors: the eBook versions of the show book in English, French, German, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Arabic. That’ll be handy for international visitors… if they use eBook. (Does anybody use eBook?!)

Maybe the smartest thing they do is to enable evangelism… or at least referral. They suggest forwarding this email to friends and co-workers so they can register too. It’s easy to do, and will almost assuredly reach a more highly qualified demographic than any list the marketer could buy or access. Plus, this kind of personal referral has far more impact than any kind of advertising or direct marketing because it intrinsically includes an exclusive benefit to the recipient: your friend is going to be there.

So, reverse engineering the objectives on this marketing piece…

• Reach a highly qualified consumer who will already be attending
  
• Establish a platform for ongoing communications
  
• Upsell the consumer
  
• Set the creative tone that suggests dynamic and exciting preparations
  
• Enable and promote evangelism
  
• Promote tools to alleviate the attendees’ and exhibitors’ pain points
  

I think they accomplished the goals.