The trade show market is one of the top performing funnel tactics for B2B demand generation. In the U.S. alone, the B2B trade show market was $15.7 billion in 2019, with half of the revenue attributed to registrations and a quarter to exhibit sales. Yet with the world currently in the midst of a socially distanced lifestyle, these events are racing to adapt, with many turning to hosting completely virtual endeavors.
Ready to learn how you can successfully navigate through this change and how to frame your business? Let’s get started.
Trade Shows: The Why
The standard for virtual events is still yet to be decided. Exhibitors want to achieve the same in-person experience virtually but may be questioning if the value of attending will be worth the effort.
So why attend trade shows at all? It’s imperative to remember the value trade shows supply to participants. Certain goals for attending may include:
- Building or strengthening relationships through interpersonal interactions; often times a cocktail hour or dinner event was held for further interaction among peers
- Enhancing awareness and reach of your brand through booth promotion, giveaways and product demonstrations
- Discovering and even testing new products from other brands through hands-on demonstrations that could help your business
- Scoping out the competition and gaining a feel for what’s currently trending in your industry
- Collecting and distributing promotional freebies
The loss of these enriching in-person interactions has left a gap in how businesses can achieve these same experiences. There are advantages to shifting your approach to a virtual landscape, though, allowing for a similar—if not more personalized—experience.
Adapting to the Era of Virtual Attendance
With a surge in virtual events, exhibitors are rushing to deliver the same experience one would achieve in person while providing a safe, cost-effective, user-friendly solution. Yet, there are still ways you can find value in attending—and adapting is key.
Virtual events can offer a plentitude of benefits:
- Enhance Cost-Effectiveness: Attending virtual events can save your company money, allowing you to reallocate some of the budget to other departments while still participating in a unique promotional and learning experience.
- Save Valuable Time: A virtual trade show means a reduction in time required for travel, registration and moving from booth to booth throughout the day. The more time you have to tend to customers or attend more events, the more opportunities you have to grow your business.
- Improve Networking Capabilities: Online, you can easily connect with others via social channels or booth chat rooms—and can continue the conversations virtually at any time with people from all over the world.
Preparing for Your Virtual Attendance
When preparing to exhibit your business at a virtual trade show, you want to ensure you’re still able to connect meaningfully with attendees, even without an in-person interaction.
Remember the “why” when determining your goals, then adjust your approach to meet those goals. The below tactics can point you in the right direction.
Enhance Your Efforts with a Microsite
Set realistic goals and ensure you are equipped to achieve them. One way to further your efforts? Consider implementing a dedicated microsite to generate leads and engage with customers. A microsite offers additional space to deliver your brand’s message, promote your products and services and serve relevant content to visitors and should include:
- A White-Labeled Design: Your microsite will be branded to fit your company and includes your company colors, logo and the overall tone of your business so that when users visit your page, they’ll recognize the web page as yours.
- Detailed Product and Service Information: A third-party hosting platform brings industry peers together—but may lack the in-depth capabilities needed to effectively promote your business. By creating a dedicated microsite, you’re able to customize it with all of the information needed that can go beyond images and descriptions. Showcase engaging how-to videos, 3D product imagery or demos that inform and engage visitors.
- Live Sessions and Webinar Promotion: A microsite allows you to develop a schedule that more easily informs visitors about any live sessions or webinars your business will be participating in or hosting. Break it down day by day and offer snippets of what guests will learn, who will be hosting and how they can attend. This keeps visitors’ minds on your business’ participation in the event and ensures your sessions are properly promoted.
- Metrics and Analytics Integration: Metrics and analytics help you gain insight into the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and the successfulness of your trade show experience. Exhibiting your company on a third-party hosting platform, though, may not offer the trackability you need to gather the metrics of your marketing efforts. Implementing a microsite into your trade show marketing plan means you’ll have the ability to better track the usage of your site, including site traffic, page visits and downloads.
- In-Depth Lead Generation: When you drive trade show guests to visit your microsite, you can better facilitate connections with those who may be interested in learning more. Have a contact page that directly connects leads with the appropriate sales representative who can answer their questions and guide them through their buyer’s journey.
Whether you choose to create a microsite on your own or decide to bring on a team of marketing experts, this integration into your trade show marketing plan gives you more control over what you’re promoting—and allows you to better track your ROI.
Promote Your Attendance
Utilize your business’ social channels or develop email blasts and route them to your current customers, letting them know that you’ve launched an informative microsite and offer learning opportunities for those interested. If the event has a dedicated Facebook Group or Twitter hashtag, use those opportunities to network with other attendees and exhibitors—and get your brand’s name out there.
Live Virtual Sessions: Making the Most Out of Your Attendance
In addition to promoting your business’ presence, you and your team members may have the opportunity to attend unique learning and networking experiences to further your knowledge on the latest trends within your industry. There are a variety of ways to greatly benefit from your online experience, so keep these best practices in mind to get the most out of it.
Set Up Your Tech Beforehand
There’s nothing worse than running into technical difficulties during a live session. It’s imperative that you set up and test your computer, video and audio prior to your event. Ensure your computer, laptop and wireless mouse are charged and ready to go. You’ll also want to make sure the platform you’re using, such as Zoom, is downloaded and updated prior to the event.
Map Out Your Schedule Prior
Events will release their schedules in advance, so take the time to go through it and create your own schedule of sessions that interest you. This will help you get the most out of your experience—and avoid missing potentially useful sessions.
Make the Most Out of Your Experience
Remember, these events are supposed to be an exciting occasion to meet likeminded individuals, grow your professional network, increase leads and learn something new. Everyone is adjusting at their own pace and there are bound to be bumps along the way. Have patience, be kind and enjoy every moment.
What’s the Future Hold?
No one can say what the future of in-person events will look like but planning for the digital wave now can set your business apart in terms of preparedness and success.
At Concentrek, we put your objectives at the forefront of everything we do. Need help aligning your strategic events planning? Contact us today to get started!
