Today, virtual tradeshows have become the norm rather than the exception because of the widespread shift toward digitalisation. Many businesses rely on trade shows as their primary sales channel. In 2021, One-fifth of trade shows worldwide were organised as digital events. Safe to say now, tradeshows are here to stay. Nevertheless, industry experts strongly agree that the future is likely a virtual/hybrid model. One which incorporates both in-person and online components. Moreover, it has become essential for businesses to have a successful trade show presence to stay ahead of the competition.
It doesn’t matter what you call them—digital trade shows, online trade shows, or something else entirely—what matters is that they are a powerful B2B sales and marketing artillery tool for generating qualified leads without leaving your office or spending on costly travel and shipping expenses. Since virtual events have a lower barrier to entry, they tend to attract a more diverse audience from across the globe.
Why are Businesses Inclined Towards Virtual Tradeshows?
Businesses are moving their key elements online, including the world of trade shows and events. The draw of virtual trade shows is that businesses can connect with potential customers from all over the globe in one place. There are no geographic restrictions when it comes to virtual events, meaning businesses can tap into new markets and reach a larger audience than they would if they were relying on physical trade shows alone.
Another big advantage of virtual trade shows is that they tend to be more cost-effective than their physical counterparts. Businesses save on travel costs, venue rental fees, and other expenses associated with setting up and attending a physical trade show. Additionally, virtual trade shows often have lower registration fees, which makes them more accessible to small businesses and startups.
Finally, virtual trade shows are simply more convenient for everyone involved. Attendees don’t have to worry about making travel arrangements or taking time off from work, and businesses can save on the costs and logistical hassle of setting up and breaking down their booth at a physical trade show.
Here are some other key factors driving businesses toward virtual tradeshows:
1. Visually appealing and 3D environment
Similar to providing a stunning physical booth for a conventional in-person trade show, exhibitors can create visually stunning and hyper-realistic 3D environments for their attendees. These captivating booths are informative as well as engaging. This ensures that attendees not only click on the booth but also interact with the exhibitors and attend virtual experiences like product demos or guest-speaker sessions.
With a robust virtual event platform, businesses can:
- Captivate their audience with an animated 3D lobby
- Brand the lobby, auditorium & exhibit hall according to their needs
- Customize virtual event booths to include exhibitor branding
- Choose from a range of diverse avatars to populate their venue
2. Smart lead capture and management
With an intelligent platform, businesses today can connect exhibitors with buyers globally with fully immersive virtual trade shows. A ticketing and door management feature helps organizations gather and manage their leads efficiently. Read more on the Top 5 lead capture methods for trade shows
Companies can pre-book virtual meetings with their prospects with a well-planned attendee list. They can reach out to these prospects and let them know they are interested in meeting them and invite them to stop by the booth. As virtual tradeshow hosts, companies can significantly boost their exhibitor and sponsor satisfaction.
- Pick your experience – 3D, 3D animated, and 3D 360⁰
- Customize your Event in a few clicks
- Choose from best-in-class features
- Pay for what you choose; save big!
- Drive-Up Value for Attendees, Exhibitors, and Sponsors.
3. Real-time audience engagement
Audience engagement is a vital component of tradeshow success. And with the lack of in-person face-to-face interaction, keeping the audience engaged becomes even more important. With a virtual event platform, you can employ feature-rich tools to engage attendees in real-time while the virtual show is on.
Organizers can host mini-games and scavenger hunts in real-time to boost engagement and interest.
- Text and Video-based networking
- Surveys, Live Polling, Q&A, Note-taking
- Gamification, Scavenger Hunts, and Leaderboards
- Social Wall & Photo-booths
- Event bag to save and download
In addition to that, other features include on-demand content such as streaming product videos and downloadable PDFs, a networking lounge, educational sessions, and breakout rooms.
4. Seamless management and control
Lastly, in making the event experience smooth and seamless for the attendees, the platform itself should not be complicated to use for event organizers themselves.
A modern virtual tradeshow platform helps organizers keep things stress-free. It provides a single dashboard for all events, comprising powerful tools to manage the event from one place.
Organizers can set up their ticketing microsite and collect payments safely. They get the ease and dexterity to manage the virtual venue in real-time.
- Stats & insights to increase traffic –
- Built-in email marketing
- Structured Onboarding Training
- Supplementing Videos and Calls
- Access to Virtual Best Practices
Also Read | Best Virtual Trade Show Platforms
Gathering Market Intelligence With Tradeshows
Businesses deem virtual tradeshows significantly superior to real-world trade shows in the areas of market intelligence, providing virtual tradeshow visitors with personalized tangibles and information gathering. Rising companies believe that market intelligence is becoming more important with time, and it seems to be on the rise. At in-person trade shows, visitors would walk up to a booth attendant and gather information or spark up a conversation, and the attendant would not have any details about the visitor, but in virtual tradeshows, this is not feasible.
Concerning the data collected and the registration process, virtual tradeshow exhibitors can log and analyze visitors’ metadata voluntarily, such as age, address, the current level of education, and study interests. This information can be further churned to professionalize follow-ups and to provide more targeted information while communicating with a visitor.
Organizers can bypass a lot of middlemen and promote themselves directly to their potential customers. Virtual tradeshows enrich direct communication between future customers and exhibitors. When the need for intermediaries is reduced, organizations can directly access current and future customers and therefore gather direct market intelligence. This, in turn, can be used to develop future marketing strategies.
Conclusion
At Sarcon, we have hosted some of the most prestigious virtual events across industries around the globe: AI, Blockchain, Real estate, Medicine, Travel, MICE, Cyber-security & Weddings, to name a few. With our state-of-the-art technology, your team is fully equipped to run events of all sizes. Our company is synonymous with innovation in the Virtual Events Industry, and our platform is tailored toward providing our users with the desired ROI.
