Despite the increasing digitalization and web-centricity of the business world, a presence at trade fairs is still one of the most important marketing instruments in many industries. In fact, trade fair appearances serve as anchor points for a variety of communication activities and ultimately for personal customer loyalty and, not least, customer acquisition, especially in view of increasingly anonymous, sometimes only automated business processes via web applications. Trade fairs have a multi-sensory effect, i.e. they appeal to all the senses, something that other marketing instruments are unable to do. Within the framework of a trade fair, elementary aspects of the (new) customer approach can thus be conveyed very effectively without a doubt, which include above all reliability, trust, personal appreciation, the consideration of individual requirements and dialogue orientation.
A cancellation of a trade fair does not only result in high financial losses with regard to the previous organisation, the creation of a trade fair stand, the production of advertising materials etc., but also in the absence of - so important - new contacts (leads). However, there is a practical solution to this problem: the virtualbooth. Read in this guide how "virtual booth" works, what added value a digital trade fair stand offers you (compared to a presence at a trade fair - even beyond Corona) and more.
What is a "virtual booth" and how does it work?
"virtual booth " is an all-round efficient solution for setting up a digital trade fair presence. With regard to today's strongly web- and online-marketing-centered business structures, the trade fair serves, among other things, as an important instrument for companies to be able to leave the abstract, virtual space of the Internet with their goods or services. The point here is to present oneself in a concrete, "all-encompassing tangible" way to (potential) customers, possible partners or even trade journal editors. Trade fairs are of such great relevance not least because digitalisation is increasingly eliminating personal touchpoints with one's own brand - which are extremely important for business, especially in the B2B sector. Ultimately, the real corporate presence at relevant trade fairs cannot be replaced by digital measures. However, "virtual booth" provides an alternative that transfers the aforementioned and other central concerns of trade fair appearances in the context of a trade fair failure very realistically to the web.
With the help of this technology, you can develop completely digital, 3D walk-through trade fair stands under your corporate design as well as other design specifications with various trade fair themes, which are in no way inferior to those at the presence trade fair in terms of features.
Personal communication with (potential) customers and other interested parties is also a central factor here. You will have the opportunity to get in touch with visitors "as usual" within your virtual trade fair stand. A live chat or video chat is available for this purpose. Likewise, typical trade fair presentations or tutorials in the form of live or on-demand broadcasts or webinars are not to be missed.
Furthermore, "virtual booth" offers you the opportunity to precisely track the activities of your stand visitors, which enables a very targeted follow-up of the trade fair - even if no contact was made at all.
Depending on your company's requirements, "virtual booth" can be individually tailored. This means that you ultimately proceed with maximum economy in all your digital trade fair activities.
How to use "virtual booth" to absorb losses in the event of a trade fair cancellation?
Should a single trade fair be cancelled or, as in the context of the Corona pandemic, should such and similar events be cancelled for a longer period of time, the negative consequences are usually enormous. You and your employees have spent months preparing for the trade fair appearance - determining your target group, finding out how best to address them at the trade fair, planning trade fair specials such as lectures or other events, and perhaps even engaging well-known personalities from your industry for activities at your stand. Last but not least, considerable effort went into the design of the booth and corresponding promotional materials, such as digital features, flyers, brochures, etc.
By using "virtual booth" you can in fact absorb most of the effort involved in such a planning process or resulting from it in the run-up to a trade fair that has already taken place and can no longer be undone. Thus it is possible to transfer the design of your intended exhibition stand practically one-to-one into the virtual space. Implement your goods or services and the already existing materials as previously determined in your exhibition. With the help of typical trade fair paraphernalia, such as partitions, plants, seating and the always extremely important lighting, a very real ambience can be created.
If a (potential) customer shows increased interest in your services, he has the opportunity to contact one of your trade fair employees directly via chat or video conference. On the other hand, visitor tracking provides you with precise information on the preferences of your trade fair visitors, enabling you to address them directly afterwards.
Furthermore, "virtual booth" offers you the opportunity to hold/virtually play outpresentations and other specials on your stand as planned. If, for example, you have engaged a guest speaker, he or she can deliver the agreed scope of work digitally. It is even possible to have direct interactions with the participants in the form of questions, suggestions, etc. when live. You can easily make such or similar events available on demand to later visitors.
What are the advantages of a "virtual booth"
compared to a conventional exhibition stand?
"virtual booth" indeed offers not only a very good opportunity to compensate for costs in the context of trade fair cancellations, as is currently the case due to the Corona pandemic, and still generate important trade fair leads. The concept of a digital trade fair presence also offers numerous advantages in general.
In this way, barriers are reduced, for example in the form of high financial and personnel input, which prevent smaller companies in particular from presenting their services at trade fairs. The creation of a trade fair stand with a "virtual booth" usually requires significantly less effort than a presence at a trade fair. Of course, large companies also benefit from the good price-performance ratio.
In addition, a virtual trade fair presence can sometimes even attract more visitors to your own trade fair stand than would be the case at a presence trade fair. This results in particular from the fact that a visit to a trade fair presence on the web also means far less effort for your (potential) customers. They do not have to plan for long journeys or accommodation and catering costs. Everything runs conveniently via the company computer or even the smartphone or tablet.
In this context, it is important to emphasize the considerable time savings that a digital visit to a trade fair stand provides. During peak production periods, it is not uncommon for managers to have difficulty leaving the company to visit a trade fair. However, this is not an issue in the virtual space. For this reason - and also due to the following arguments - the provision of a virtual stand is also quite suitable parallel to a real trade fair presence. Those who have little time can thus still visit your trade fair stand in person.
A very important advantage of digital trade fair stands concerns the almost infinite possibilities for individualisation, which are of course never available to you in this form at a presence trade fair. In the run-up to a trade fair appearance, you must, among other things, decide on specific trade fair topics and consider how you can convince your target group(s) as comprehensively as possible with your exhibition. This is also true when using "virtual booth" - but you also get the opportunity to consider not only groups of potential prospects, but even individual buyer personas as well as existing customers/leads and their customer journey very specifically. This gives you the opportunity to carry out targeted lead nurturing during your trade fair presence.
In principle, the immense number of advantages of the digital world - which are not infrequently integrated into real trade fair stands at great expense in order to create a unique position - are quite easy to implement in the context of a virtual trade fair presence. For example, by integrating systems to create augmented reality, you can give your customers the opportunity to view the goods you sell or even the results of services directly in the subsequent real environment via smartphone or tablet.
It is true that you can observe your visitors closely at a trade fair and draw useful conclusions about their interest in certain products or services from this and the personal conversations on site. However, these insights are often based on subjective interpretations and are usually not sustainable in detail. The "virtual booth", on the other hand, offers you the opportunity to track the behavior of your digital booth's guests in a highly precise and individual manner and to carry out data-based evaluations based on this. With the help of the corresponding data, you can follow up precisely after the trade fair. This is also possible when generating leads at real trade fairs and is in fact one of the most important economic aspects of such a presence. In the digital environment, however, you do not only receive leads when interested parties leave data in a personal conversation or fill out a trade fair questionnaire. Here, the visit itself is already enough to be able to take specific measures.
The data-based approach avoids media discontinuity from the outset. This allows you to reduce sources of error that ultimately lead to incorrectly addressing leads or sending inappropriate content. Using the right system, all steps can be completed completely digitally and in a single (at best) extensible application. This is one of the most important efficiency arguments of a digital trade fair presence.
One of the main concerns in the process of trade fair-based lead management is lead nurturing that is as targeted and economical as possible. Given the prerequisite of a digital trade fair and the diverse data that can be generated with it, which can be routed from A to B absolutely efficiently without media breaks, it is possible to proceed in an incomparably small-scale manner here. Among other things, it is possible to track exactly which products individual customers have looked at, how long any communication took and (ideally) what it was all about. Already at this point a precise segmentation of the leads up to the classification "qualified" can take place. Corresponding data is available to the marketing automation solution almost immediately and can be processed as quickly as possible. In the context of a real trade fair appearance, all of this - even when using an automation tool - is significantly more complex and consequently takes longer.
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
