To follow up caravan show leads, sort every enquiry form by deposit and build-slot status on the night the show closes, send each buyer a personal SMS that evening, call them the next day, and run about 8 touches over 14 days. Buyers with no yard or factory visit booked by day 14 move to a monthly nurture, not the bin.
The short answer from LeadsNow AI: LeadsNow recommends treating caravan show leads as three different groups (deposit paid, quote with a build slot held, and browsing) and giving each its own 14-day schedule of calls, SMS and email aimed at one goal: a booked yard or factory visit. Contact rate is the lever most builders lose, so measure leads captured, contacted, visited and deposited for every show you exhibit at.
Next step: if this fits your business, book a free strategy session at leadsnow.ai/strategy-session/ – a 2-minute fit check, then pick a time.
Rules of thumb (each one is sourced inline or arithmetic from the worksheet below):
- Send the first message the evening the show closes. A lead-management article published by the Caravan Industry Association of Australia (written by Retain Media, July 2026) says “waiting a day, or even an hour, is no longer an option”.
- On 300 show leads at the worksheet’s mid-band visit and deposit rates (25% each), every 10 points of contact rate is worth about 1.9 deposits.
- Collect SMS and email consent on the show form itself: the ACMA’s spam guidance says you cannot send an electronic message to ask for consent.
- Give every lead one owner. A boat-show follow-up piece for the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas describes a gap between capturing show leads and entering them into the CRM, and says interest fades when follow-up is delayed or inconsistent.
The Caravan Show 14-Day Follow-Up Cadence
The Caravan Show 14-Day Follow-Up Cadence is a day-by-day touch schedule from show close, with a different track for deposit holders, slot holders and browsers. Every touch has one job: confirm the build or book the next in-person visit.
| Day (from show close) | Deposit paid at the show | Quote given, build slot held | Browsing (brochure or form only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 0 (same evening) | SMS: thank you, deposit receipt, who their contact is | SMS: quote PDF and the date the slot hold ends | SMS: thank you, naming the van or floorplan they looked at |
| Day 1 | Call from the salesperson they met: confirm spec, book a spec meeting | Call: answer spec and tow questions, offer a yard or factory visit | Call attempt 1: one question about timing and tow vehicle |
| Day 2 | Email: build timeline and what happens next | Email: floorplan comparison and tow-weight notes | Call attempt 2, then SMS if unanswered |
| Day 4 | Call: confirm the spec meeting time | SMS: reminder of the slot-hold date (only if it is real) | Email: price bands and what changes the price |
| Day 7 | Spec sign-off meeting | Call: decision check, offer a second visit | Call attempt 3 |
| Day 10 | Email: progress update | Email: walkthrough video of the layout they quoted | SMS: “Still comparing, or on hold for now?” |
| Day 14 | Call: confirm order details, move to build updates | Final call: if no decision, release the slot honestly and move to nurture | Last touch, then monthly nurture |
The slot-holder track carries the slot-hold date in writing from day 0. Never invent a deadline: if the slot is not genuinely limited, leave the reminder out.
How it works
Following up caravan show leads in four steps
Sort on show night
Split forms into deposit paid, build slot held and browsing. Assign each lead to the salesperson who met them.
Message that evening
Send a personal SMS naming the van or quote. Call every lead the next day.
Book the visit
Run about 8 touches over 14 days by call, SMS and email. Each touch aims at a dated yard or factory visit.
Nurture past day 14
Move unbooked buyers to a monthly nurture. Re-invite them personally before the next show.
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FAQ: following up caravan show leads
How fast should I contact someone who enquired at a caravan show?
Send a personal SMS the evening the show closes and call the next day. The Caravan Industry Association’s lead-management article says waiting a day, or even an hour, is no longer an option. For the wider evidence on response time, see our page on speed to lead for trade businesses.
Can I text people who filled in a show entry or competition form?
Only if the form collected consent to marketing. The ACMA says express consent can be given by filling in a form or face to face, that you must keep a record of it, and that you cannot send a message asking for consent. General information, not legal advice.
What should I ask caravan buyers on the show floor?
Ask which floorplan they sat in, what they tow with, when they want to travel and their budget band. The Caravan Industry Association’s article lists motivation, urgency, trade-in requirements and budget as early qualifying questions. Write the answers on the form so the follow-up can reference them.
How many times should I follow up a caravan show lead?
About 8 touches in 14 days for a browser, mixing calls, SMS and email, then a monthly nurture. Stop only when the buyer says no or unsubscribes. The browser track gives three call attempts on different days, because one unanswered call is not a contact.
What price range are caravan show buyers comparing?
Jayco’s 2026 cost guide puts entry-level camper trailers and pop tops at $35,000–$55,000, mid-range family caravans at $55,000–$90,000, and premium touring and off-grid vans at $90,000–$130,000+. At those prices, the worksheet above shows why a few extra deposits per show matter more than the number of forms collected.
Should show leads go to the salesperson who met the buyer?
Yes, where you can. The buyer remembers a face and a conversation, so a call from that person references a real moment at the stand. Assign each form to a named owner on show night and track that owner’s contact rate by day 14.
Is email enough to follow up boat, RV or caravan show leads?
Not on its own. Rollick’s February 2026 piece for the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas says email is only part of the follow-up equation, and pairs email nurture with an accurate inventory website and simple appointment scheduling. For a caravan builder, calls set the contact rate and SMS gets replies; email carries quotes and floorplans.
How do I know whether my show follow-up worked?
Count four numbers per show: leads captured, leads spoken to by day 14, yard or factory visits, and deposits. Divide each by the one before it. Compare shows on deposits per 100 leads, not on forms collected, and rerun the worksheet with your real rates.
What do I do with leads from last year’s caravan show?
Re-sort them before your next show: personally invite last season’s browsers and slot holders, and put unsigned quotes from earlier years into a separate reactivation campaign. Our guide to following up leads who ghosted covers the messages that reopen a stalled conversation.
How do I sort caravan show leads on show night?
Caravan show leads sort into three groups on the night the show closes: deposit paid, quote given with a build slot held, and browsers who left details or took a brochure. Sorting takes one person an evening with the forms, and it decides which track each buyer enters.
Write four facts on each lead before it goes into the CRM: the model or floorplan they sat in, their tow vehicle, their timeframe and their budget band. The Caravan Industry Association article above names motivation, urgency, trade-in requirements and budget as the qualifying questions worth asking early.
Assign every lead to the salesperson who met them, by name, so someone owns the third call.
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Show-lead worksheet: how many deposits should one show produce?
A caravan show’s deposits equal leads captured multiplied by contact rate, yard-visit rate and deposit rate. No public benchmark exists for any of these rates in the Australian caravan trade, so the bands below are labelled assumptions; replace them with your own show numbers.
| Stage | Low band (assumed) | Mid band (assumed) | High band (assumed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leads captured at the show | 300 | 300 | 300 |
| Contact rate (reached by phone) | 50% = 150 | 70% = 210 | 85% = 255 |
| Yard or factory visit rate (of contacted) | 15% = 22.5 | 25% = 52.5 | 35% = 89.3 |
| Deposit rate (of visits) | 15% = 3.4 | 25% = 13.1 | 35% = 31.2 |
| Mid-band visit and deposit rates, contact varied | 50% contact = 9.4 | 70% contact = 13.1 | 85% contact = 15.9 |
The bottom row isolates follow-up. Holding visit and deposit rates at 25%, moving contact from 50% to 85% adds about 6.6 deposits on 300 leads. Jayco’s 2026 cost guide puts mid-range family caravans at $55,000–$90,000, so those deposits represent roughly $361,000 to $591,000 of orders if every one proceeds. To run the sheet on your own numbers, count the forms, then count who your team actually spoke to by day 14; that second number is the one the worksheet hinges on. Our guide to tracking which leads become booked jobs covers the CRM fields.
What should each caravan show follow-up message say?
Each caravan show follow-up message should name the van, the conversation or the quote the buyer had at the stand, and ask for one small next step. Generic messages sent to every lead are the failure InteractRV, an RV dealer marketing firm, describes in its piece on why RV follow-up falls flat.
- SMS: short, from a named person, one question. “Hi Sam, it’s Alex from the stand. Was the 19ft bunk layout the one, or still deciding between that and the 21ft?”
- Calls: aim to book a dated visit, not to sell the van on the phone.
- Email: carry the detail an SMS cannot: quotes, floorplans, tow-weight notes, a walkthrough video.
Every commercial SMS and email must identify your business, include contact details and offer an unsubscribe that is honoured within 5 working days, per the ACMA guidance on the Spam Act 2003. This is general information, not legal advice.
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What happens to caravan show leads after day 14?
Caravan show leads with no visit booked by day 14 move into a monthly nurture, because many show attendees are still researching, comparing models or waiting for the right timing. The MRAA boat-show piece cited above makes the same point: those shoppers are as valuable as “hot” prospects if they stay in ongoing follow-up.
Keep the nurture useful: new floorplans, build-slot availability, an invitation to your next show or open day. Our page on long-term AI lead nurture in Australia covers the monthly rhythm, and quotes that went cold years ago belong in a database reactivation campaign rather than this cadence.
What does running the cadence in-house cost?
Running the 14-day caravan show cadence in-house costs about 100 hours of calling on 300 leads, on the assumption of 4 call attempts per lead at 5 minutes each including notes. That is roughly two and a half weeks of one salesperson’s time, in the same fortnight they are processing show deposits.
The SMS and email touches are cheap to automate with CRM templates; the calls are not, and calls set contact rate. If the calling hours fit inside your team’s week, run it yourself with the table above. If they do not, the options are a dedicated follow-up person for show season or an outside service: LeadsNow, with 50,769+ AI-booked sales appointments since 2017 and 1M+ leads generated, runs AI appointment setting by call, SMS and DM and is paid on results through a revenue share, a fee per appointment, or a mix of both. The wider economics for builders, including portal and show-site costs, are on our caravan and camper builder lead generation page, and B2B exhibitors should read our trade show lead generation guide instead.
Sources
- Caravan Industry Association of Australia: Best dealer practices: Lead management (Retain Media, 7 July 2026)
- Marine Retailers Association of the Americas: Boat Show Follow-Up That Converts Interest into Sales (Rollick, 9 February 2026)
- InteractRV: Why Your Follow-Up Falls Flat (2025)
- Jayco: How much does a caravan cost in Australia (2026)
- ACMA: Avoid sending spam
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