Your Definitive Guide to Virtual Trade Shows (2021 Edition)

Virtual trade shows are a great way to promote your business. They can be used for many different purposes, including:

• Promoting new products and services

• Increasing brand awareness

• Generating leads

• Building relationships with customers

In this article, you will learn all you need to know about virtual trade shows and how to make the most out of your trade show!

Virtual Trade Shows: The Pros & Cons

Virtual trade shows are a great way to reach out and connect with your target audience. It’s also an effective marketing tool for companies that are looking to expand their brand awareness, increase sales or generate leads.

But there can be some drawbacks as well.

Here we will discuss the pros and cons of using this type of event in order to help you decide if it’s right for you.

Pros Of Virtual Trade Show Events

• You can have a virtual trade show event without the cost of real world events.
• It is easy to set up and manage your own virtual tradeshow.
• The attendees are not limited by location or time zone, so you don’t need to worry about them being in different locations at the same time.
• There’s no travel involved for anyone attending.
• Attendees can view presentations from anywhere they want with an internet connection.

Cons Of Virtual Trade Show Events

The main advantage of virtual trade show events is that they are cost-effective. However, there are some disadvantages as well. 

• It’s not possible to have face-to-face interaction with your customers or prospects. This means that you will miss out on valuable feedback from them.
• The quality and quantity of the content produced by a virtual event can be lower than those from an actual physical one. This may not matter if you have only a few attendees or your target audience consists mainly of people who already know about your company’s products/services.
• Virtual trade shows also lack the presence of real people which makes it difficult for potential clients to get in touch with you.

How to Plan and Host Your Own Virtual Event

You need to plan ahead when organizing a virtual trade show because many things must go according to schedule.

If you’re interested in hosting your own virtual trade show, here are some tips to keep in mind when planning and executing your event.

1) Choose A Topic That Is Relevant To You And Your Business

Before starting any kind of online promotion campaign, think carefully about what topic would best suit your needs. If you plan to host a virtual trade show related to technology, then focus on topics such as mobile apps development, web design, SEO, etc.

Choose a topic that interests your target market. If you choose something too general like “Business Opportunities”, then you won’t attract any attention. You should focus more on specific topics such as “SEO” or “Social Media Marketing”.

2) Create a list of questions that you would ask during the presentation.

Write down your target questions that want to ask during the virtual trade show. This will help you stay on track with what you want to say, as well as give you time to think about how to best respond to inquiries if needed. 

It is important to know beforehand how much time you have for each question so that you can prepare accordingly. Now organize all the information you gathered into an agenda format to make sure the meeting goes smoothly. 

3) Find the right virtual trade show platform

Your needs will vary depending on the size of your event. If you are planning a large-scale, multi-day conference or expo, then it’s likely that you need to find an all-inclusive solution that can support every aspect of your event—from registration and exhibit management through content delivery and social media marketing.

On the other hand, if you have a more modest gathering in mind, with just one day of events, then there may be solutions available that focus solely on exhibition services such as exhibiting at trade shows.

Best Virtual Trade Show Platforms

• Socio
• 6Connex
• INXPO
• vFairs
• HexaFair

4) Create a plan for how you want to use social media during your event

Social media is not just about posting pictures from your show or tweeting about what you are doing.

It’s also about engaging with attendees through live chats, polls, contests, giveaways, etc., so make sure you have a strategy before you start using it.

You don’t want to be caught off guard by something unexpected happening when you’re trying to engage people online.

5) Prepare Your Virtual Exhibitors and the Trade Show

You can’t have a trade show with exhibitors! Attract exhibitors by advertising your event online and over social media. Your trade show platform can also help with this step.

Manage all aspects of your event from start to finish, including:

– Registration & Attendee Management

– Ticketing/Sales

– Online Presentations

Make sure to track attendance with real-time reports so you can see who is coming and how many are attending.

How to Make the Most Out Of Your Virtual Trade Show

Here are three tips that will help you maximize the benefits of hosting a virtual trade show:

1) Use Social Media To Get More Traffic And Leads

Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram allow businesses to interact directly with their followers. You should use these channels to create buzz around your upcoming virtual trade show.

Posting updates regularly throughout the week before the event helps build anticipation among your followers.

Create a unique hashtag, and encourage people to share photos and posts via Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Flickr, Vine, YouTube, Snapchat, Periscope etc.

Use these hashtags when sharing information about your booth at other events too!

2) Make sure you know who your target audience is before choosing a platform

Do they use Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? Google+? Do they read blogs? What’s their demographic profile like? How old are they? Where do they work? Are they male or female?

If it’s the latter, what age group? With this info choose an appropriate virtual trade show platform for them. 

3) Create a Customized Marketing Campaign for your Event

Consider using video marketing tools to create short clips on topics related to your business. This will help increase engagement and traffic back to your site. Use social media to promote your business events.

Social media is an effective way of promoting events, especially if you are targeting the right audience.

You can use social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter to promote upcoming events in your city. Make sure that all details about your event are posted online so people know when it’s happening.

If possible, try posting pictures from previous events as well. You can also get more traffic with SEO services.

Closing With Virtual Trade Shows

The virtual trade show is a great way to showcase your products and services. It’s also an effective marketing tool that can help you reach more customers than traditional methods of advertising, such as print ads or television commercials.

However, it takes some planning before the event begins in order for everything to run smoothly. Hopefully, you were able to gain all the info you need to know about virtual trade shows in 2021!