The Trade Show Is Not Dead, but Your Show Strategy Might Be—An Interview with Todd Schnick

RainToday.com's Podcast: Marketing & Selling Professional Services

Trade shows today are more than handing out brochures and hoping someone stops by your booth so you can get their email address. If that's your strategy, you're setting yourself up for failure. These days you have to make a concerted effort to connect with people who have a true interest in what you offer.

"Most people go to trade shows to learn and understand new products and understand upcoming trends and to learn new technologies in addition to collect leads, so education is a very, very important part of that," says Todd Schnick, founder of The Intrepid Group, a marketing and consulting firm. "You have to be more innovative in how you educate that marketplace. It's not about handing out collateral anymore. You really need to engage with a little more interactive educational experience."

Some companies do video demonstrations, teach classes, conduct demonstrations, or interview industry experts. Some also take advantage of technology such as social media, QR codes, and geo-location services to engage with attendees, Schnick says.

"The key is to draw interest," he says. "The reason why we provide [our radio broadcast] service is to give our clients that edge. We broadcast live radio from their trade show booth … and we'll be interviewing somebody and people will walk by and stop and listen, take pictures, and video the interview."

Once you pique their interest, you want to initiate a relationship, Schnick says. You don't want to gather thousands of email addresses and hope that after the show those people remember you.

"Collecting a thousand meaningless email addresses isn't going to sell you anything. Interviewing 25 to 30 real serious potential prospects or joint venture partners is meaningful," he says. "So the strategy has to be I want to walk out of there with 25 real honest-to-goodness people who know who I am, care about what I can do and how I can serve them, and are interested in learning more. To me, that's money versus a thousand meaningless emails or handing out a thousand trinkets."

Listen as Schnick discusses how:

• Show exhibitors can better connect with trade show attendees
• Exhibitors and attendees can generate content from shows to help with content marketing
• Attendees can better network and generate their own leads
• Attendees and exhibitors can ultimately grow their business via trade shows