Trade Shows – The Virtual Pivot
2nd November 2020
Michael Hussey, Senior Manager Alcohol & Seafood, Bord Bia – The Irish Food Board
2020 has been a challenging year when trying to meet new customers or engage with existing customers. Some trade shows are now moving online as virtual shows. Other shows are becoming hybrid events with stands and booths for virtual meetings between clients and potential customers.
Bord Bia participated in Bar Convent Berlin from October 12th to 18th last with 13 drinks clients.
On the positive side meetings were pre-arranged, to the point and efficient, financial investment was limited, time was saved from not travelling or physically manning a desk all day, and on the whole the event was less intrusive to the running of a business. The technology used was flawless, meetings that took place worked seamlessly and content produced for the event was relevant and interesting. Client had their pre-recorded virtual pitches up on the site that could be viewed by prospective buyers.
According to Cvent who are specialists in online trade shows there are a number of key tips when preparing for an online show.
- Invest in your virtual Booth
Your virtual booth has to be the best representation of your company and brand. Take advantage of advanced features if they’re available, like HTML5 banners or GIFs. Carefully curate the content you’re making available for download. One advantage of virtual trade shows is that since you don’t have to ship any materials to the venue, you can upload content to the platform up until the day of the show or very close to it, making sure you’re always providing current, up-to-date materials.
- Target & pre-book your virtual buyer meetings
Make sure you’re identifying the most promising leads and pre-scheduling meetings with them. But, make sure you’re checking the event agenda first, so your meetings are scheduled at convenient times that invitees are more likely to accept.
- Think strategically about the reps you choose to “send” to the show
Just like with in-person trade shows, think about the type of show and the audience you’re expecting, and then select the reps that have the most relevant product and persona knowledge to have meaningful and engaging conversations. Typically, you would look for reps with the most product knowledge, or with the best relationship-building skills.
- Prepare attention-grabbing messages with relevant content for your reps. Trying to get attention at a virtual show is even more difficult than traditional shows. Therefore, it is important to have crafted messages that will cut through the clutter and prompt participants to read, and engage.
- Have reps capture leads consistently in one place
The bad news is, there is no instant lead capture method (yet) like badge scanning in virtual trade shows. The good news is, it’s typically easier to accurately collect all the information you need by clicking into an attendee’s profile. You will likely find the company name, job title, and email address at the very least. Invest in trade show technology and eliminate the need for Excel or Word for lead collection. Technology will not only allow you to capture leads and qualify them in a consistent format, but if you have a CRM or marketing automation integration in place, your leads will flow seamlessly and automatically according to the rules you have set in place.
Despite the ever improving technology online trade show are not without their challenges. Virtual events place even greater importance on buyer targeting in advance of the event.
For the foreseeable future, trade shows may be either virtual or hybrid, and will be a learning curve for us all. In the post covid-19 era, some virtual elements may remain for the positive reasons mentioned above. However, building relationships is easier with face to face interactions and it remains to be seen whether virtual or hybrid shows will be the norm post covid-19. For further information please contact Michael.hussey@bordbia.ie
Sources: Bord Bia, Cvent, Pixabay.