E40 - Mastering Trade Shows and Public Relations with Rob Felber

Episode 40 • 13th November 2025 • Pipelineology • Gary Ruplinger

Rob Felber

[00:00:17] Rob Felber: Thank you, Gary. Happy to be here.

[00:00:43] Rob Felber: Yeah. That's anywhere from two hours to two weeks out, the, the panic sets in. And what are we doing? How are we doing it? You know, what, what got arranged? What didn't it get arranged? And, planning is the key here.

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[00:01:11] Rob Felber: It's a tragic story of, of woe and misery. No, it, in all seriousness, had my company for 32 years and we work exclusively with manufacturers in the business to business sector. I always say if, they're making something for the Walmart shelf, that's not us. Our clients are making things that go inside other machines, not necessarily household names.

It could be, you know, a 3D metal part. It could be a rubber gasket, it could be a wire, a cable, what have you. and the B2B world of sales is very different. but there's still many. Industrial publications that cover this field as well as many trade shows and trade shows are still alive and well, and a great way to, maximize your investment, meet a lot of folks, build that, that pipeline that you may, may know a little bit about.

And, and then, you know, be off and running as a, as one of the many tactics that you can use to, to grow your manufacturing business.

[: 00:02:12

Because I've talked so many people who they're excited and, and then, yeah, somewhere in that neighborhood. And then there's that panic that's coming.

that's.

[: 00:02:41

We work with a lot of clients initially on what we call their, their trade show flight. What, what shows are they gonna gonna go to, and obviously. We probably don't have, the hours that it would take to talk about personas and targeting the right people. But, you wanna make sure, obviously the shows that you're going to, there are prospects on the, on the floor.

There's many resources with the, the trade shows, whether they're owned by a trade association or another company. we're gonna talk about probably the three, key areas that we, focus on is the pre-show. The Journey show and the post show. and, the post show is probably the, the least, you know, explored, opportunity that, that people, leave off to the side and we'll, we'll talk about that.

And then of course, as you mentioned, there is a very strong, public relations component that goes to trade shows. So, most of our clients are in a long cycle. For sales that could be, you know, two, three years and, you know, meeting a prospect as you know, and, and keeping in touch and seeing them over time and using all the, the techniques to, make impressions and touches, trade shows is, is just one of them.

But there's many, other branches that you can do because that's a long sales time. That could be. Four shows, if it's a yearly show that you see that prospect, or it could be the kinda show that maybe is held, you know, once every two years the locations move around. so, preparation, as I mentioned, is key.

The pre-show tactics, a lot of times it's, you know, what, what is available for us, to, to make the most of the trade show and, Our goal in the pre-show really is to, to let your prospects know you're gonna be there. oftentimes, you know, we, we talk to folks that go, you know, we, we, there's prospects on the floor.

How come they don't step our by our booth? and they've missed a lot of the opportunities. Sometimes in your trade show package or your investment, there are many free opportunities to be in directories and other advertising that comes with your package. Now, of course, there's always. Other things that you can, you can purchase.

But, you know, first look at the package, as soon as a, a decision is made to exhibit and you do do your contract, to find out when the, the show packet comes out. because that's where all that information, not only the logistics of, you know, do I need carpet, do I need electric? Do I need, you know, servicing or vacuuming or, you know, those kind of things. But, you know, what do you. Going to get in that package and, and scour that. Make sure you know the deadlines, of course, because you know, you can miss things very easily. but in the pre-show, you know, standpoint, you wanna establish a theme, you know, a theme for your, your show. what is the message that you're trying to get across?

Who are you targeting and to, to what extent, you know, do they have any knowledge of your company? Oftentimes themes, you know, I'll use a simple, you know, maybe it's a, an Olympic year, you know, and you have an Olympic, a theme that you can spread across multiple shows. You can do a lot of content with it.

Sometimes it's a theme that is only lasting, you know, for one particular show. So, you know, establishing that and giving yourself some guidance. on the pre-show side, look at all the advertising opportunities. Are there, publications that cover that show? and this is where deadlines become very critical.

Because when in advertising, especially if they're trade shows, I'm sorry, trade publications, they may come out months in advance. and their deadlines, you know, we're, we're recording this, this podcast here in November, for example, and publications that are out monthly. They may have been put to bed January, may, you know, February even could be done.

So if you're looking at advertising and they're running pre-show, advertisements pre-show, editorial. We'll touch base on, on the, the PR side of editorial in a little bit. but look at that all on the pre-show. This is how, how am I gonna let people know I'm there? what is my booth number and so forth.

Some shows are very large. Are you in a specific industry pavilion within a show? You know, so advertising and of course, all the other things that go with that are the other tactics. Of social media and email marketing, all those come into play, in all in the pre-show. And the goal at the end of the day is you want people to make a beeline for the show.

You don't want them to just show up and open up the show directory and say, you know, where am I? Where am I going? What am I, you know, am I just going up and down the aisles or, you know, or what? and so, you know, giving them a, a reason to come to your booth is critical. and, you know, we're gonna come back to publicity in a little bit, but on the pre-show, you know, those are just some of the, the, the tactics.

In a sense you're opening up a store, whether it be a 10 by 10, 10 by 20, and you wanna consider your booth. also in the pre-show it's time to, you know, look at the booth, layout. one of my pet peeves is, you know, the, the. The table right at the, at the front of the booth and everybody stands behind it.

It's a barrier mentally and physically. And is that really welcoming? Can you put the table off to the side? some people that are writing purchase orders, at a show, you know, they might have a couch or a, a table or, or some other, You know, way that they can sit down and, and, and have some private discussions.

So those are all things that you need to consider in the layout. let alone, graphics and, and such. If you need to build out your booth, you know, what are you doing? Are you doing banners? Are you doing a backlight? You know, all those things can be done. And, and I would encourage, as they do with our clients too.

Look at professional, trade show companies as well that that build booths and, and can advise. some even have the white glove service of storing your booth and shipping it from show to show. You know, a lot of times it's. It's just easier to show up with your business cards and your booth is built.

And that's probably a, a long topic for, another, another episode in all in itself. But, you know, building a booth out and, and message, and that's where again, your theme comes, comes into play. so I, I threw a lot out at you, Gary. I'm gonna pause for a second, see if, you have questions on that so far.

[: 00:10:03

So, as, as I mentioned, I'm very much the amateur at that, I'm like. We'll give it a try, but I'd love to hear from the expert what you would actually recommend, especially if you have assets, as valuable as that is, knowing who's gonna be there, how you would approach that.

[: 00:10:37

So be very, very careful that if you are. Utilizing that, that tactic that you're actually getting legitimate sources. a lot of people do, send out pre-show emails, and I would say, you know, really think hard about what is the message that you're sending in a pre-show email? What is going to get their attention in a very short subject, ultimately to give them a reason.

To come to your booth. Are you introducing, a new product? Do you have a new feature? Do you have a special guest, the CEO or, or an expert or an engineer, you know, who, who, that you know, they may really wanna see. there's also times where people do press conferences at the booth. There's also, you know, ways to do press conferences in other predetermined rooms.

Again, depends on the, the size of the show, you know, and such. if you're doing any. Speaking engagements in your show. I always highly recommend getting a microphone in a, you know, a speaker, sometimes those speakers that are on a stand. because to get over the, the din and the noise of, of a trade show floor, especially with the high ceilings and all the people, you definitely wanna amplify that.

And so, yeah, those are just some of the tactics, you know, again, with, with theme and message, social media, advertising, all those that come into play that you might wanna build out, you know, months before a show, you know, almost build up, you know, the anticipation of, of being at that show, and giving the, the attendee a reason to be there.

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[00:13:02] Rob Felber: I, I, there's a couple different schools of thought. I'm not a big fan of just the big, candy bowl or, or a table full of giveaways. Because really, how are you qualifying that prospect? I'd rather have, you know, a special offer. Send out a scratch off card or something that is specifically targeted to your prospect.

and, and, ideal prospect, I should say, or prospect persona, to get the right people to your booth. Just having something at the table that anybody can, you know, some people just go, oh, I need, you know, two of these squeeze. Toys for my kids. I mean, is that really hitting your prospect if people are just walking by with a big bag taking stuff?

So, so there is that, but I, I have had other shows where, you know, sometimes they're doing entertainment or food, you know, maybe it's a happy hour at the end of, you know, end of the day of that, that particular trade show day. And they might, you know, have some beverages or, or, or such in there. again.

Doing a very specific invite to who you want to come to your show, I think is, is critical. otherwise you're just putting a bunch of giveaways out there and, and I don't think those are really targeting, there are other ways on the pre-show and during the show as we transition into that topic, we used everything from, you know, geo pathing technology to cell location data to to target.

Folks that are gonna be at a show. and, and they all have their, their place in that technology. I go back maybe old school wise where they used to do hotel drops of, of, of materials to, you know, say it's an association, trade show and they know where people are staying, you know, have stuff in the hotel rooms.

I even remember wild things where, you know, they pay cabbies to wear, wear their hats. Back when there was cabs, I guess. And you know, you tell the cab, hey, if someone you know is in your cab and they see that hat and they're part of our crew, you may get a hundred bucks. So, you know, you think of, you know, 20, 30 years ago when it was nothing but cabs, there was no Uber or Lyft.

You might have a bunch of cab drivers, you know, around, you know, all wearing, you know, your, your company cap. So there's a lot of different ways to, to, do that. And some of the really tremendous shows I've been to, some shows where, you know, there's, you know, 30 foot banners across, you know, the roads and, you know, you can get into some, some serious, you know, coin.

But I think, the type of, clients that you and I have are looking to maximize their budgets. and those are not the, the expenses that they're, they, they have, they're, they're looking to, drive traffic to a show. But of course you mentioned, you know, buying lists, but don't forget about, you know, your customers, especially if you know they're coming to that show.

And your prospects, if you have a good CRM, you know, we're very partial to HubSpot. That's the platform that we use and that many of our clients use. and we do a lot of rifle shot targeting before a show. If it's a show that you're returning to year after year. You know, and you have your, your CRM targeted, you may already have some of that data.

So, you know, letting, hey, you're coming to the show again this year. We have some, some new things we're introducing. so that kind of gets us towards the, you know, the, during the show. there's other things that you can do in the booth. You know, entertainment wise, gosh, in my 30 some years we, we used to hire magicians to entertain people and, and, weave our message into, into their act and, and things like that to get people.

But as I mentioned, we're all B2B manufacturing and, at the end of the day, it's a lot of engineers coming to the show. So having displays and machinery or, or, you know, anything that shows, something and how it works or things they can put their hands on. that's, that's definitely, you know, attracting, that particular audience.

And they may not be your ideal buyer, they may be an influencer, and again, sometimes people walk these, these show floors with their company, what I call buying teams. So you may have purchasing and CFO and a, an engineer and, and maybe even a marketing person from all from that same company coming through your booth.

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[00:17:38] Rob Felber: But even if you did spend that money, you know, some people joke, you know, sometimes I get criticized when I say this. Sometimes the last people you want in your show booth are salespeople. Because salespeople are coming off the road. They're not happy necessarily to be there. You're cutting into their sales time.

So some of the bad behaviors I've seen, they're on their laptop, they're on their phone, they're, they're eating a hoagie. All these things that, you know, you wouldn't wanna do in your retail store, but people tend to do it a trade show because they're trying to maximize their time. Sometimes the best people to work a booth are the customer service people that people have never seen face to face, and they go, oh my God, it's Ted or Mary. You know, I talked to you, you know, 18 times a a year and, and it's nice to meet you. They, you know, are happy to be there. So I would make sure that, the motif here is really to train your people, know who's gonna be in the booth, make sure you have enough personnel.

There's nothing worse than, hey, you know, you gotta stand here for eight hours and you don't have a break. And, both mentally and physically, you know, to, to have enough staff to work that. it's also important if you are running any promotions or themes or messaging that you make sure you brief them about it.

Because all of sudden people come in with, hey, you know, I got this passport I'm supposed to stamp. And the person in that booth is, I don't know what you're talking about. That, that doesn't always give the best impression, but, you know, remember you're, you're on stage, so you, you wanna be up, you wanna be on, you wanna be welcoming, you know, you don't necessarily want to be sitting down.

I used to say my rule is no chairs at a booth and. Gosh, Gary, I'm 60. So now sometimes you do need to sit, you know, or maybe take a, a break in an exhibitor lounge if you have enough people. But again, you want it to be welcoming. If you've got materials, you, you wanna get them on what I call the, the, your carpet or that magic carpet.

You wanna have at least the, you know, 20, 30 seconds to talk to them when they're walking down the show. We've all seen it. They walked down the aisle and was like blinders on. And you know, just to get their attention to come into your booth, you know, is, is key. So you wanna be as welcoming as possible again.

Machinery things in motion, you know, on the industrial trade show side for B2Bs. That's, that really is, is what, attracts them. And of course, you, you do wanna consider your messaging, how the booth is laid out. Sometimes there's graphics that are at the bottom of the booth that are being blocked.

You know, by, by other things in the booth, whether it be a cocktail table or chairs or so forth. and obviously back to, you know, your planning, consider your electricity. I'm not a big fan of, of monitors running with loop videos. I'm not sure a lot of people stand there and watch that unless it's some unique process that they can't see anywhere else.

If you have, you know, products and samples, you know, you're a CNC shop or you're, you know, you're stamping metal, a lot of times having parts that you can pick up and show and, and discuss. those were all very helpful for, attracting people to your booth, you know, as they're walking by. you know, when you're doing your planning, you also have to consider, you know, where is your booth gonna be if you get your choice.

You know, can you afford a, an island where you have multiple signs or at least an, an aisle with a corner where you can maximize space? Sometimes you don't get those choices. Sometimes you have to be in an association for 12 or 15 years before you get to bid on the right space. you know, but that's always, you know, again, show, show specific.

But, if we had to steal something from real estate, you know what it would be? It'd be location, location, location. You know, can, are you across from a snack bar? Are you across from a. A, a big high traffic area where maybe it's a stage, and you, and there's people coming, you know, to that stage to hear keynotes and so forth.

Main stage, you know, where there's heavy traffic. sometimes there's bars on trade show floors too, but, you know, there's, there's ways. But those are all things to consider. as you're, you know, attracting people to your, to your booth. and those are, you know, so we've covered kind of pre-show and, and, and during the show.

Any, any questions on that?

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Kind curious where the sweet spot is you found.

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But I would, I would also encourage them to, consider, you know, dressing the same, whether it's company logos. So you walk into a booth and you know, who's. Who's in that store, who's, who's there to help you. also, you know, capturing leads and such, which we'll kind of talk about as we transition into post show.

Sometimes, you know, you're engaged in a conversation, and does somebody else have the, the phone or the scanner to, to scan the, the, the QR code? So it's good to have multiple people, but again, to your point, you know, you don't wanna have eight people in a 10 by 10 space. tripping over each other.

I would rotate people out, keep them fresh, keep them engaged, but don't wear them out as you said, you know, one or two people for a, a three, three day, eight hour show, you know, that can be, that can be tiring.

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[00:23:50] Rob Felber: Definitely, you know, definitely check that out, ahead of time. You know, redundancy is a key, oftentimes you're gonna pay for it. But traditionally internet issues is pretty bad. Depends on where you're at. I think it's gotten better through the years. But if you are gonna do some kind of live demo that, you know, requires internet. Really gotta check that out ahead of time. I've even had situations where I've sent people to that particular venue ahead of time to check the speeds of the internet, so forth. So that's, that's a good point. I mean, everybody wants to stay connected with their, their customers and, and, you know, and such while they're working, you know, remotely from a show.

Again, I don't want to have the, you know, you be that person sitting on a, on a laptop, you know, with their cell phone in their air. completely. You know, un, un attractive to someone to come up and talk to them because, you know, you're interrupting them that they shouldn't be in the booth. That's what the exhibitor launches are for.

But if you need to launch a hotspot or use internet or even pay for the highest speed internet, I would, I would definitely encourage that, you know, and have a backup plan because if that internet goes out, you know, can you do your, your, your demos.

[: 00:25:09

[00:25:52] Rob Felber: Yeah, I mean, I think that's, you hit the nail on the head there, you know, if it's, if it's a special invite, if it's, a hospitality suite or, or such, you know, those can be very, Lucrative to get the right person. but I'd also caution that, you know, if it's a big show and there's exhibitors bigger than you with bigger budgets, they might be renting out the, you know, the top of a hotel.

We did this once with, you know, with the client. you know, we had, I think the top of the palm. I don't even know if that's even still there in Vegas. But, you know, we had room for 200 people, special invite. You know, that was not an inexpensive, endeavor, but you know. It, it did attract a lot of people, but if there's eight of those parties going on, you know, and you have three people show up to a big budget where you can guaranteed all this food to the, to the venue, hotel, it could get very expensive.

So I, I would look at those things cautiously. check the other schedule, see who's, see who's doing what. and if you know, if that's the, the right tactic to accompany a trade show.

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[00:27:17] Rob Felber: Sure. Yeah, we're gonna talk, let's talk post-show and then I'm gonna swing back to one of my favorite topics, which is, public relations and, and engaging with the media at the show. But post show, this is usually how, we get involved with the client because, you know, I say, you know, you, you did that trade show.

How did it go? And, and usually what happens is, they come back from a show. They're buried because they got, you know, messages and, and projects to follow up on. And they have all that stuff in a bag and they throw it in the corner and three weeks later, the CEO walks in and she says, Hey, how was that show?

You know, did you get any leads? I go, oh, let me look. And then they pull out that bag and they start calling people and nobody even remembers them because it's three weeks later. You know, that's a lot of time and, and, and such so. If I had, the gold standard or maybe platinum standard would be, you know, the, the second they leave their, your carpeting from your booth and go on to the next booth that they would get an email Now.

Logistically that's possible, but not realistic. Normally what happens if the, show has good scannable data from the badges, if it's big enough show to do that, you scan those leads and you code them, you know, you might have your own system of, of hot, warm, and cold and so forth. what we like to do is we like to have, preset emails, what we, we call an automated workflow.

It's written, it's on theme. If you remember our discussion on theme a while ago, messaging, the visuals in the email match, the visuals in the booth, and maybe some of the literature. and the second those, leads are uploaded into your database, we could trigger a workflow within seconds that that first email goes out.

Hey, you know, it was great seeing you at the show. Here's some things that we showed. Here's some links to additional information and literature, whatever you may. I think is, is reasonable. and one of my favorite, you know, parts of that email is, here's a link to my calendar. You know, if you wanna jump on and talk a little bit more.

Now again, that's, that's just one touch, you know, granted you had a touch at the booth, but now you gotta touch via email. and I don't know what, what your general, rule is on, on how many touches, but I think sometimes it's 10, 12, 15 touches before prospect might even engage. It's 11. Okay. So I've been in the right range, all week is what I've been saying.

So, and that's just one email. So maybe. Three days later, four days later, another email goes out. there could be other, you know, here's where you can use your multimedia, your social media, your video, your charts, your infographics, all this, And of course you follow all the spam rules and, and such if they wanna opt out.

but you might have eight, 10 of these emails over a three month period. You know, maybe if you're gonna multiple shows, you even start promoting the next show because sometimes your audience goes to multiple shows if you have, new information that's coming out, you know, in between shows. So the post-show and the follow-up.

But there's nothing, you know. Better than just picking up the phone for those hot prospects. you know, I've been at it for many, many years and I still, like everybody, you get jittery, you pick up the phone, but you gotta do it. and if you've got, you know, got a hot prospect, follow up, you know, send them something afterwards, you can even write a handwritten note.

Those used to be, you know, my favorite things to do is have a handwritten note so, you know, have the, the stamps in the envelopes. Maybe, you know, skip that, that second party that night and actually take, you know, those leads and, and write some notes out. Get them in the mail if, especially if it's a destination trade show and they gotta travel back to the home office.

And you can imagine they come back and there's that stack of mail, but right on top is a handwritten envelope from the person they met at the, the show. I don't care how big the show is, that will, that will be, that will stand out because nobody's gonna do that. but that's. That's the key to, you know, how are you gonna measure At the end of the day, this is big investment, you know, between hotel and travel, time away, opportunity costs, let alone the booth, the literature, and, and all the other things.

Even a small show. It's a big investment. So are you gonna do any follow up whatsoever, you know, to engage? That's, that's what we, we like to do. And then, you know, don't forget about the post show, social media, maybe, you know, photos that were taken during the show. And we also, you know, as a, a quick slide back to during the show, we like to do a lot of live photos, you know, from the show.

Make sure you get good photos, not the back of everybody, you know, take, you stand in the aisle, you take a picture, and it's the back of everybody looking at part of your booth. Doesn't look great. obviously if it's a customer prospect, ask their permission. Hey, can we, can we take your picture? but a lot of times my team is standing by awaiting to be either text or emailed, photos from, from the show.

but we've also done social media scheduled. All through the show, you know, back in that pre-show time period. So pre-show, during the show, email, social media, tying all that up. I'll see if you have any questions before I jump into one of my favorite topics.

[: 00:32:39

Nobody, nobody tries. I'll even, I've even baited people and said, here's my address. Feel, if you wanna pitch me, this is where to do it. I, you'll get the meeting. I just, and I'm still waiting for someone to be like, oh yeah, that's it. That's all I gotta do. I have 30, 30 spam emails a day that I get now.

[: 00:33:19

But anything, any way you can cut through the clutter. especially if you had a customized conversation and, and you say, Hey, here's this article that, that, you know, we talked about, you know, when you're in the booth, you know, things like that will really stand, stand out, you know, and again, B2B trade shows, you know, again, it could be a long sales cycle.

You may get some leads that are immediate. and, you know, really show their worth. but the, the topic that I've been teasing on the PR side, is a little bit of what I call long cycle. You know, so your customers are, are pretty sharp. And, and the listeners to this podcast know that, you know, everybody wants that sale, but to get that sale.

You know, people have to know the company, right? To get to know the company. They've gotta learn about them. And how do they learn about them? They do their research. They might see articles in trade publications. but none of that's gonna happen if you don't have a relationship with the media. And there may be boosts from the trade publications that, they're promoting their trade publication.

Maybe they're a free subscription, maybe a paid subscription doesn't matter. But they have people in those booths. That's their job is to sign people up or, or what have you. But the editors and reporters on that particular industry, whether it be automotive or marine or, or lawn and garden, whatever, you know, type of show you're at, they're looking for stories and they're out on the show floor looking booth to booth.

Maybe going to what I love, which is the prearranged appointments. So why would we wanna do this? So, you know, Gary, you and I, right now, we're talking one-to-one, but hopefully an audience, you know, of thousands that are gonna hear this podcast. very similar to, to trade publications. So, if I get an article in a trade publication on a client, whether it be a case study, a, a white paper, you know, particular new product feature that they're, they're offering in the industry. That publication may have a circulation of 10,000, 20,000, 30,000. Doesn't mean all those eyeballs are prospects, but that could be a lot of people that are coming to your, your website.

There's again, another topic on how to attract them in the search engine optimization and, and capturing those leads. but in a, in a trade show, this is what I kind of, I call the long cycle. So to get that one article, to get that one, one, publication that, you know, people read about it and they may take some action.

That's just one, one hit. again, you may have multiple media that are at the trade show. and what we like to do is, we like to reach out to that media way back in the pre-show time. Hey, we're gonna be at the show. We're gonna have a CEO, we're gonna have an engineer. We're doing this demo. Can we, you know, we've looked at your editorial calendar of what topics your publication, is covering, and we think we have some things to talk about.

That's what the media are looking for. They want to provide the best information for their readers and the people that are consuming that publication. So if we can get them to come and at least get to know your company, that's, that's one of the battle, you know, battles right there. if, you know, they come and they say, wow, this is.

This is really cool. We didn't know you'd do this. you know, we'd like to interview or do a factory tour even better. You know, there's a lot of different ways this can go, but creating that relationship is key. the trade show is a great place to do that. now there's, you know, there's some do's and don'ts and, and such on the PR side, and I, I know we'll talk about resources here at the end.

But, this topic of trade shows and PR, separate topics. There's some, three books that are on our website that we can talk about. But, a lot of the trade shows do what they call credentialing the media, which means they, they, if they're gonna give someone a media pass, they wanna make sure they're, they really are, you know, media.

Some trade shows will willingly give out the entire list of the media to the exhibitors for the sole purpose of reaching out, and, and engaging them. Others might say, well, we, we can't give it out to privacy, which drives me absolutely bonkers, but we'll tell you the list, the publications. Then you gotta, you gotta do your research and go say, all right, this publication has 60 reporters.

Which one's going to the show? That's. That's, that's, a nerve that, that I touch on some of these shows all the time, but let's assume we have the right list. we don't reach out and say, Hey, it'd be great if you stop by. What we do, Gary, is we say, Hey, you know. We think we have some things to talk about.

It seems to mesh with the publication, which I've done my research. I know your publication. I've read it and, you know, can we meet at the, the show? We have the, the engineers there. How about two o'clock on Wednesday at our booth And you book as many of these as you can. I have a. A show that the very large injection molder client of ours that had not really talked to the media before and they were going to a large show, we booked 10 appointments, we got nine articles from those 10 appointments.

Now I've never added up all the circulation, but you know, if they, of all nine were 10,000 circulation, some were more, that's a lot of eyeballs. and those. Articles can be used down the road. You can be sending them to prospects, as we alluded. You can use them on your, your website, your press room and and, and so forth.

But when you get a third party endorsement, you know, don't take our word for it. Here's what industry week or Design World or plastics news, here's what they thought of our company. those are very powerful. They take time to develop, they take some nuance, understanding the publications. but the, what I often say about this tactic is it's, I call it long cycle, and here's why.

t'll be perfect for our July,: 2026

but maybe it does come out in July of 26th, that's, you know, seven months later and you may not see benefit from that article for, know, another eight or nine months afterwards. And that was just one article. now you, you couple that with other publications that may have, an online play where the, the news is going out almost immediately.

So you can see the dichotomy between long cycle and short cycle. but I absolutely love engaging with the, the trade show, media oftentimes we hear from. Our prospects and clients, you know, how come there's, you know, they're, they're covering our competitor and, and and such, and they're putting them on the cover in the articles.

And I'll simply say, have you ever reached out to the editor? Have you ever created a relationship? No different than any other sales relationship. They're people, you know, and, and such. So that's. That's my soapbox on, on PR and trade shows and, and really getting a good bang for, for your buck. a lot of the big shows will have what, they call, Daily publications, you know, show publications that have come out the, the first day of the show, that magazine that comes out at the show. That's all content that's written weeks and months before, but maybe day two, three, and four is media and stories that were written that day, that night and published.

and you could be in some of those stories and I, I wouldn't discount also that. there's a lot of them coming out with videos and doing video interviews and so forth, and they'll give you the. You know, the final product, you know, at the end. So a lot of opportunities around trade shows and, and industry and, and B2B.

[: 00:41:27

[00:41:30] Rob Felber: Yeah.

[: 00:41:30

[00:41:33] Rob Felber: It takes, some work. It takes some work, but like I said, when we, when we hit a good vein of, of interviews, it's exciting. The booth people get excited. The, you know, you're on stage, you know, and here comes this editor that, you know, in a sense, I'm old enough to say, I used to say they buy ink by the barrel, but you know, maybe it's not ink anymore, maybe it's digital.

But they still hold all the keys, meaning the keys to get you into that publication. And like I said, you know, if it's a big, prominent publication. that's a third party endorsement. You know, it's, don't take our word for it. The editor of such and such publication thought we were worthy enough to be written about that.

That carries a lot of weight. And, you know, especially think about it, they go to a show, you know, they get your post show emails, then they later see an article about you. You know, those, those are only three of the 11 touches, right?

[: 00:42:22

[00:42:38] Rob Felber: Sure. I mean, you know, if it's us, great if, if they're looking locally, you know, there's always graphic design resources. There's trade show companies that can help, you know, everything from building a small booth to, like I said, the white glove service of building it, packing it, shipping it, you know, getting it to the dock in time and having it set up by what is oftentimes union labor, before a show.

But as far as you know, all the tactics that we talked about, they're more than welcome to look at our website at felberpr.com. That's F-E-L-B-E-R-P- R.com. A bunch of eBooks, up in the upper right corner, I believe is where they're, they live. And a lot of this is, is covered, if they want to reach out.

Obviously they can reach out to me if they think, you know, hey, this is great, but you know, we don't have the time to do all this. You know, especially salespeople that don't have marketing resources, those are often our clients. They, they have a bunch of sales folks running around with spreadsheets and, we try to guide them into some kind of CRM to do all this follow up.

But if they need help on the, the media side, and again, a lot of this is, establishing relationships. We do have, existing relationships with a lot of media and a lot of industries. But it's, it's not very hard for us to jump into an industry, meet the media, get the media list, build it out, and reach out to them before a show, even if we've never even worked in that industry, so they can get ahold of us for that kind of help.

And, you know, we can consult on a, on, on as much or as, as little as they need, think they need.

[: 00:44:16

For anybody, resource.

[: 00:44:21

[00:44:32] Gary Ruplinger: Nice.

[: 00:44:33

[00:44:38] Gary Ruplinger: You know, It's, becoming, it's, becoming a new opportunity of just pick up the phone. You might actually reach somebody.

[: 00:44:44

[00:44:46] Gary Ruplinger: Well Rob, I really appreciate you coming on the show. These are some really, really good insights and I think in an area we just don't see a lot of coverage for everybody, right? AI this and AI that.

But here, go go to a trade show and shake some hands and actually talk to somebody.

[: 00:45:00

[00:45:14] Gary Ruplinger: Well that's great. Well, thanks so much for coming on today, Rob, really appreciate you, you being on and, been, it's been a great conversation.

[: 00:45:22

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