The 3 most important trade fair alternatives

Update: 04.11.2022

Trade fairs are a very important marketing tool for companies, especially in the B2B sector. They are suitable for maintaining regular customers, acquiring new customers, increasing awareness of the company or brand and cultivating the image of an event among participants.

However, due to the recurring restrictions caused by the coronavirus, tools are needed to ensure that your company's live marketing does not come to a standstill. Fortunately, we now have many other ways to get in touch with customers - digitally. This blog post presents three such alternatives.

Alternative #1: Organize a livestreaming event

What can I imagine a livestreaming event to be?

You can imagine a livestreaming event as an expert presenting their knowledge about products, services or services live in front of a camera. Viewers can tune into the stream live to watch the lecture or presentation. There are various forms of live streaming events: webcasts, webinars and many more. Viewers who tune in have the opportunity to ask questions or comment on the presentation via a chat function. The expert can respond to the questions and comments - so this is another way to exchange ideas on different content.

What are the advantages of a livestreaming event?

As already mentioned in the paragraph above, a livestreaming event is, on the one hand, an alternative for entering into dialog with participants in the livestream. Through direct customer orientation, the customer feels heard and seen. The expert has the opportunity to answer specific questions - just like in a real dialog, but can more easily cover up unwanted questions (whether they should do this is another question). On the other hand, a live streaming event has the advantage that several people can be reached with one conversation. During a real trade fair, you usually speak to a maximum of two to three people at a time. At a livestreaming event, however, you can talk to hundreds or even thousands of people at the same time. The workload of the expert (probably someone from the sales team) is therefore initially reduced.

You can also record a live streaming event (e.g. a webinar), make it available afterwards as gated content and thus generate leads. More on this later.

What is needed for a live streaming event?

In principle, not much physical media equipment is needed for live streaming. A laptop with a camera and a microphone is enough for now. However, it is important that you think about which software you use and which platform you access. There are various providers who offer different software. The functions may differ slightly in some cases, but you essentially have the same options everywhere. The differences are more on the cost side. You will find free and fee-based providers.

One cost factor, for example, could be the capacity of the platform that is made available to you. The more viewers you want to be able to take part in the live streaming event, the more expensive it will be.

What do I need to consider if I want to organize a live streaming event?

Even if a livestreaming event can develop into a dialog, it usually begins as a presentation about your company's content. For example, the employee talks in detail about a product, its benefits and areas of application. Of course, the content of the presentation should be presented correctly and without gaps - and the presentation should not be boring either. As with your trade fair appearance, media and tools are needed to set up a successful marketing measure.

What do I need to prepare for a livestreaming event?

First and foremost is the content. Think about what you want to say and what your goals are. As soon as you are clear about the content of your message, you need to think about how you are going to convey it. Do you simply want to talk into the camera, play a presentation or would you prefer to show the product (e.g. software) in use? Once you are clear about the “how”, you need to prepare accordingly.

What is also extremely important when preparing a live streaming event is that you also announce it via your communication channels and diligently market your event. Whether via your website, a newsletter or social media, make sure that the people you want to reach know of its existence and can attend.

Another important point in the preparation of a livestreaming event is that you check whether and how well everything works. Can you be seen clearly during the broadcast or is the image very pixelated or even black? Can you be heard well or is there an echo in the sound? These are things that are very important, because a blurred image or poor sound will not get your message across in the best possible way. In case of doubt, it will not be conveyed at all because viewers will be annoyed and quickly switch off again.

Alternative #2: Virtual trade fair/digital twin

What is a digital twin?

A digital twin is a digital 1:1 copy of a real object. In event management, this primarily refers to a digital copy of a real trade fair stand. An exhibitor's stand is presented virtually in a live digital environment. This can either be a pure reproduction of the stand of a trade fair presentation, but it is also possible to expand the trade fair stand. The digital environment opens up new possibilities, such as the integration of videos, websites and other things.

Where are digital twins used?

There are more and more areas of application for digital twins. On the one hand, you can display the digital twin on your own website. This allows you to enhance your customers' trade fair experience and use it before, during, after or even completely detached from an analog event.

But you can use the Digital Twin not only on your own website. There are now more and more digital event formats such as virtual trade fairs. This means you can also use your virtual trade fair stand on platforms outside of your company, making it easier to establish contact with people outside of your company.

What are the advantages of a digital twin?

One advantage that has already been mentioned is that digital exhibition stands can also be expanded with digital aids and tools. For example, you can integrate product-related videos or other types of content and media. You can also set it up so that virtual visitors can go directly to your platform's order form by clicking on a product, for example. In this way, you not only create a 1:1 copy of your trade fair stand, but also additional communication potential by digitally expanding the environment.

Another advantage of the digital twin is that a virtual trade fair stand is open 365 days a year and can always be visited live (provided you create the appropriate opportunities). This means that no one is prevented from visiting your trade fair presence due to scheduling restrictions. However, it is not only the time barrier that is overcome by virtualizing the trade fair stand, but also the geographical barrier. This opens up global potential: the digital trade fair stand can be visited from anywhere - provided you have Internet access.

On the one hand, this enables access for more people, and on the other hand, the negative impact on the environment can be reduced. Not only because visitors do not have to travel to see the exhibition stand, but also because the construction of the exhibition stand is more environmentally friendly.

How is a digital twin created?

Even if the digital twin is a 1:1 copy of a real exhibition stand, this does not mean that a real exhibition stand has to be physically produced at an event in order to create a digital twin. Exhibitors' design concepts for virtually all trade fair stands are now created digitally anyway. This creation file can easily be converted into a virtual exhibition stand. Digital exhibition stands can therefore usually be produced more quickly than their real counterparts and even require less manpower. This reduces the planning effort and manufacturing costs.

Studio VirtualShow

Studio VirtualShow is a tool that makes everything to do with the digital twin possible. With Studio VirtualShow, you can quickly and easily create virtual exhibition stands and expand them digitally. Link your trade fair stand with videos and photos of your products, link directly to your website at the trade fair stand and turn your trade fair stand into an interactive experience. You can integrate the Studio VirtualShow exhibition stand on your own website, where it can be viewed from a 360° view and also moved around. This allows you to bring the trade fair experience to your website.

Alternative #3: Generate leads with gated content

What is gated content?

Gated content is content that is made available to a recipient in exchange for their data on a platform, such as a company website. This usually involves white papers. Case studies, webinars, presentations and much more. Before you can download or consume this content, you have to submit a form with your contact details. This means that the content is free - but not for nothing.

What are the advantages of gated content?

First of all, the obvious: you can generate leads.  The person willingly gives you their current details to read your content. Depending on what your content is about, there is a high probability that this lead will be very interested in your products/services. After all, they have shared their data with you in order to get more information about it.

However, there are other benefits to high-quality content. Perhaps you have ended your white paper with an impeccable conclusion that one of your readers finds so informative that they are happy to share it on social networks such as LinkedIn & Co. This way you can enjoy the positive effect that digital goods usually bring with them: You create content (a digital, intangible good) once that can be shared an infinite number of times without incurring any further costs for you. The variable costs tend towards zero and the more often the content is downloaded, the cheaper the content creation was in retrospect.

But it's not just on social media that your company or brand will be strengthened. Good content will also have a positive effect on search engine rankings.

What needs to be considered when creating content?

Probably the most important point is the quality of your content. Make an effort to create high-quality content so that none of your recipients are frustrated and annoyed at having entrusted you with their data. The highest priority is the quality of the content - according to the principle “content leads design”. However, this does not mean that the design should be neglected. Make an effort to ensure that your content is attractively designed.

Another important principle when creating gated content is exclusivity. Make sure that the content is only available from you. The reason for this is obvious. Imagine you are looking for information on a specific topic and find a blog post from company X and a white paper (gated content) from company Y. Then you will most likely read the blog post first before downloading something for which you first have to provide your data.

Conclusion

Think about and develop a strategy for how you can compensate for the losses you incur as an exhibitor as a result of trade fairs being canceled. The most important thing is: don't bury your head in the sand, keep going. There are plenty of alternative ways to generate leads from participants at trade fairs. Find the best solution for your company and get started.