A digital exhibition stand can be much more than just a stopgap solution in Corona times! Basically, it is a logical consequence of the steadily increasing digital development towards an increasingly web-centric society. People and (potential) customers already expect to be able to carry out or at least support many processes of their everyday life online, both in private and in business. Fast product support via digital media, social media reviews as an aid to purchase decisions and even B2B online shops have long been established.
Very soon, it will also be part of the expectation to be able to complete a trade fair visit virtually - simply because of the immense time savings this will bring. Companies that recognise this early on will benefit from a highly useful unique selling point and branding effect. They also get a very fast, inexpensive medium for sales, contact making and basically a powerful tool for gaining data as well as using it directly.
A digital exhibition stand is a sales and marketing platform that gives your own business clear advantages through often unimagined possibilities of visual presentation and interaction. In particular, however, it is the data tracking and corresponding reporting that have great potential in the long term.
What data can be collected through a virtual trade fair?
As in every area of digital marketing and sales, a digital trade fair stand also offers a great many possibilities for data collection. Theplatform on which the stand is based is not only a medium for generating and aligning the trade fair, but also an analysis tool. Basically, the same mechanisms can be used for classic address generation as are used at a conventional trade fair. Viadirect interaction in the live chat or stream or surveys, interests can be highlighted, contact data can be requested and of course customer care can be carried out as well as sales can be initiated immediately. Information such as name, company, position or preferences can even be collected before contact is made when visiting the virtual trade fair - namely when registering for the event. In this way, the organizer receives, at best, clues in advance as to how his digital trade fair stand can be optimally aligned in order to create a trade fair that is as personalized as possible. Furthermore, all user activities within the virtual trade fair are to be recorded via visitor tracking. The possibilities are similar to those of tracking and KPI reporting on a website. For example, the traffic, the exact paths, the click behaviour, the conversion rate, further engagements, the bounce rate and goal completions can be analysed.
Using this data, trade fair operators can immediately identify the following success factors, among others:
- Which areas of the virtual trade fair stand are the most interesting from the visitors' point of view?
- Are the business units with the largest share of the booth really the most popular with visitors?
- Which products are best received?
- What causes visitors to abandon their visit?
- Where do visitors stay the longest?
- Were the online presentations, tutorials, media library, etc. as successful as hoped?
- What personnel effort is required for efficient trade fair support?
- And much more...
The data obtained is - as will be shown in more detail below - useful in many ways to effectively drive your own business forward in the long term. For further benefits and general information on virtual trade fairs, we recommend our article "Virtual trade fair - advantages and disadvantages of digital events for companies". Specific tracking information of a digital trade fair stand can often only be obtained - if at all - in the course of personal communication with trade fair visitors. At the digital stand, corresponding data arrives largely automatically, without contact, and can in turn be automatically processed afterwards.
What can the data from the digital exhibition stand be used for afterwards - what advantages does it bring to the company?
Data about customers is extremely valuable for companies. With the receipt of information and a specific data analysis, new sales can be brought about again and again in a highly efficient manner. Prospective customers are always addressed in a targeted manner on the basis of this and are thus convinced to buy.
When it comes to maintaining customer relationships, strategically cleverly used data contributes significantly to forcing repeat sales and perhaps even turning customers into immensely useful advocates of one's own brand. All of this can actually be achieved in a largely automated fashion with the right technology. A connected CRM and marketing automation solution are able to accomplish a lot via targeted data management, lead nurturing or lead management, and email marketing.
A connection is created between the virtual trade fair, CRM and marketing automation. In order to be able to play out precisely tailored, automated campaigns for communicating with (potential) customers on the one hand, and on the other, to be able to effectively process leads from the trade fair that have been qualified by marketing in sales, a smooth exchange of data between the CRM solution and marketing automation should be made possible - bidirectionally. Today, this can usually be done relatively easily via certified interfaces.
Now it is possible to automatically pass on every contact originating from the trade fair to Marketing Automation via an interface and to process them there in a highly expedient manner with targeted e-mail marketing and/or direct campaigns for cross-selling and up-selling.
Data that has been collected with the help of the campaigns, for example on the basis of click behaviour or completed profile processing forms (progressive profiling), flows back automatically into the CRM system and enriches the respective customer profile there.
Marketing can be carried out on this continuously optimized data foundation in a highly differentiated and personalized manner and ultimately in a particularly efficient and effective manner.
The fact that information from marketing automation can be automatically transferred to the CRM system also makes it possible to support sales-side customer acquisition through lead management in a highly efficient and targeted manner.
In this way, the trade fair generates a lead whose interest is continuously developed with the help of value-added content and suitable offers. Marketing automation plays a central role here.
In the course of lead nurturing, it automatically collects more and more information about the lead. In lead scoring, marketing and sales define how the data is to be evaluated and determine a threshold value, i.e. a key figure from profile and activity data. At this value, a prospect is ready to be contacted by sales.
If a probable new customer reaches this threshold, the marketing automation sends all collected data to the CRM solution via the interface. From there, the lead is transferred to a sales employee, who then addresses the lead personally at the best time and thus, at best, achieves a contract conclusion absolutely efficiently.
DSGVO compliant visitor tracking and data analysis
Darauf gilt es bei der Datenerhebung und -verarbeitung besonders zu achten
A digital exhibition stand is highly efficient in combination with marketing automation and can effectively support the processing of contacts - whether new or existing - in various ways. Obtaining the qualitatively impeccable database required for this - without errors and redundancies - is relatively easy with the right systems.
What must not be neglected under any circumstances, however, is legal compliance. According to the current legal situation, personal data of interested parties and customers may only be collected, stored and, in particular, processed for marketing purposes if there is explicit and verifiable permission from the persons concerned. This is best guaranteed by a legally secure double opt-in procedure. It is also important that the person whose data is to be collected and further used is informed about all aspects and purposes of the information request and data analysis before consent is given.
If, as is the case with the combination of virtual trade fair, CRM solution and marketing automation, several systems are used, any relevant endorsements are required. For example, DSGVO-compliant marketing automation requires an endorsement for synchronized data sourced from CRM that consent has taken place outside of the automation system. Marketers and salespeople must also have all existing contacts consent to email marketing or other campaigns being played out across systems.
According to the GDPR, it must also be ensured that trade fair operators only request the data that is really of central importance for their own business. In addition, the entire event should be sufficiently encrypted, from registration to visiting the stand to online presentations or other campaigns.
A data protection declaration in which all the facts relating to the collection and further processing of relevant prospective customer or customer information are clearly set out must also be included. Against this background, trade fair operators are well advised to rely on systems that originate from Germany or at least from Europe and are thus directly adapted to local laws. "virtual booth" as a solution for virtual trade fairs and Evalanche as a system for marketing automation offer an ideal starting position here without further modifications.
Conclusion
A digital trade fair stand has enormous marketing and sales potential and can already be an important factor for companies to adequately meet the expectations of their target group. Soon, corresponding offers will be established on a broad front. However, there are still a number of unique selling propositions lying dormant.
One of the most interesting and promising long-term aspects of the virtual trade fair is undoubtedly its ideal ability to efficiently retrieve a wide range of visitor data. In this way, companies get to know their target customers better and better and can ultimately take measures that respond to their needs or requirements in a personalized manner, which can of course have an extremely positive effect on sales.
On its own, however, a digital trade fair stand never fully plays to its strengths in data collection and data analysis. Only the combination with other systems - especially a CRM solution and marketing automation - leads to maximum benefit.
Our support around the topic of virtual trade fairs to increase the efficiency of your digital sales:
- We support you in the conception of your individual and success-oriented trade fair strategy - according to your intended goals and target groups.
- In addition to the professional implementation of your digital trade fair stand with our virtualbooth tool, we show you how you can benefit from optimal data utilisation.
- Make sustainable use of your digital trade fair stand by not only generating leads, but also developing them into customers in a targeted nurture process at the appropriate points of the customer journey - our experts are happy to help!
- Of course, we will work with you to ensure DSGVO-compliant implementation and will be happy to advise you in this regard as well.
For your holistically successful digital sales, we are also happy to support you around these topics:
Oliver Parrizas will be happy to answer any questions you may have on the subject. 
+49-800-911-91-91
