In this article, we will learn about virtual expos, how they work, how they benefit your business, how to organize a great virtual expo, and how Airmeet can assist you in hosting one.
What is a Virtual Expo?
A virtual expo is an online event where exhibitors showcase their products and services to prospective buyers through an interactive virtual booth. The purpose of the online expo is to demonstrate the company’s offering to a global audience in a cost-effective way. Virtual exhibitions are typically hosted on a virtual event platform that simulates the experience of a physical expo.
At such a trade show, participants have the opportunity to navigate virtual exhibition halls, visit 3D booths, learn about the company’s offerings, view multimedia content such as product videos, images, demos, & brochures, and engage with exhibitors through the live video chat feature.
How Does a Virtual Expo Work?
A virtual expo is usually held online using a video conferencing platform. Exhibitors get a virtual exhibition hall with customizable “booths” through which they can showcase their products and services to the participants. Exhibitors are able to set up 3D virtual booths that resemble physical booths so they can showcase their offerings and engage with virtual guests with ease.
Audiences first register online for the exhibition and then gain access to the event. On the day of the exposition, participants visit the booths of various exhibitors, browse their offerings, watch product demos, view materials uploaded by representatives, and interact with vendors through live chat and one-on-one video calls during the session. In addition, attendees get an opportunity to network with other attendees in real-time.
Next, exhibitors track visitors’ behavior and then accordingly follow up with leads accordingly after the event ends. Companies often make content presented in a live expo available for on-demand viewing after the trade show ends, so that people who were unable to attend the live event can watch the recording of it and learn about the unique offerings, which helps companies continue to generate leads.
What are the Benefits of Organizing Expos Virtually instead of In-person?
Virtual exhibitions offer a cost-effective way for an organization to present its products and services to a particular audience. Holding an online exhibition saves organizers a significant amount of money, such as venue rental, catering, travel, accommodation, logistics, staff fees, and more. Virtual events offer robust data tracking capabilities. You can get real-time insights into attendee behavior, engagement levels, and booth visits, as well as know the most popular sessions.
Virtual expos eliminate geographical barriers, allowing attendees from anywhere in the world to participate in the exhibition, expanding the event’s reach and the audience size. Virtual platforms easily accommodate increased attendance, which is why more participants are likely to come to the online expo than to physical event venues.
Most importantly, online expos have a much longer lifespan compared to in-person ones. Recordings of keynote speeches, panel discussions, and exhibitor materials can be available for days, weeks, or even months after the live event ends. You can then turn the recording of the session into on-demand, gated content assets to continue generating leads long after the event, and also share it with those attendees who missed the live event.
Expert Tips to Plan a Virtual Expo
If you want your virtual exhibition to be a success, you need to plan it thoroughly from beginning to end. You don’t just want to bring your target audience to an event and display your products and services; you want them to make a purchase from you, have a superb and branded experience, and be fully engaged at the event. Only then will your virtual expo goals be fulfilled and achieved.
Relax, we have got you covered. Here is a step-by-step guide to plan and organize an amazing virtual expo:
1. Set Your Expo Objectives
Your expo’s objective and offerings are closely tied to your business goal, so define your expo objective first. Clearly outline what you want to achieve from the online expo, whether it’s to generate leads, enhance brand awareness, launch a fresh product, or pursue another objective.
Make sure your goal is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). This will help you strategically map out your further steps.
2. Know Your Target Audience
After setting expo goals, identify your target audience. Conduct thorough market research to learn about your potential audience – their demographics, name, age, gender, location, and more.
Plus, analyze your competitors’ expos. It will help you know their target market, product pricing models, marketing tactics, customer engagement strategies, and more.
3. Design Content
The next step is to design high-quality and engaging content for your online exhibition. Craft high-quality product images and product demo videos to showcase your offering in an engaging and immersive way. Incorporate white papers, case studies, PDFs, and interactive 3D models to provide comprehensive information about your products or services.
Showcase video testimonials, user-generated content, and your products’ success stories as social proof to build audience trust, enhance credibility, and demonstrate the real value of your product. Also, add how-to videos or guides so attendees will know how to effectively use the product.
4. Choose Virtual Event Platform
The next big decision you need to make is choosing a virtual event platform to host an engaging virtual expo. You have plenty of options out there, but choose a platform based on your event’s needs, requirements, and objectives.
Consider the following features when choosing a virtual expo platform:
- 3D customizable virtual booth
- Live streaming capabilities
- Branding & customization
- Registration & ticketing
- User-friendly interface
- Screen sharing capabilities
- Interactive elements like chat, poll, Q&A
- Networking tools
- Gamification
- Lead capture capabilities
- Event recording capabilities
- Data analytics & reporting
- Customer assistance
- Data privacy & security
5. Promote Your Event
Promote your expo on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Share engaging content and organic posts like product teaser videos, infographics, reels, interactive stories, and exhibitor sneak peeks on social pages to pique your social media followers.
Run a paid campaign targeting specific demographics and interests. Partner with industry influencers who can help broaden your event reach and attract a more relevant audience.
Additionally, build an email list and send out a series of engaging and personalized emails to existing and potential customers in order to drive registration.
6. Keep the Guest Speaker Session
Host a guest speaker session to attract more attendees to your virtual expo. Renowned experts will double the audience engagement and significantly increase guests’ participation. You can add speaker bios to your marketing materials, expo agenda, and website to draw in people.
Plus, you can give attendees the opportunity to interact with guest speakers and ask relevant questions. With a guest speaker session, you will provide more value to your expo guests.
7. Follow-up
Once the online expo concludes, follow up with leads to convert them into paying customers. Run a drip email campaign and share valuable content about your product to those who have shown general interest in purchasing your offerings, and move them into the sales funnel.
To pique attendee interest, offer a discount on a product, but for a limited time. For highly engaged leads, reach out to them directly via phone call to discuss their specific needs and how your offering can meet them.
How Airmeet Can Help Host a Virtual Expo?
Airmeet is a virtual and hybrid event platform designed to deliver an unparalleled experience for both exhibitors and attendees. This platform is highly scalable and can accommodate up to 10,000 attendees at each event.
Airmeet is browser-friendly software that allows your attendees to view the exhibit and engage with vendors without having to download software. Similarly, the platform offers a number of features to make your virtual expo engaging, effective, and lucrative.
Let’s know the set of features that Airmeet offers to create immersive and engaging virtual expos:
1. 3D Customizable Virtual Booth
Airmeet offers a 3D customizable booth for exhibitors to showcase unique offerings to the target audience. It also allows you to upload background images, videos, and links to the booth so it will look visually engaging and interactive.
To create a cohesive brand experience and increase brand recall, you can also customize the booth with your brand’s logo, colors, and design.
2. Branding and Customization
Airmeet offers rich branding and customization features to allow you to tailor your virtual expo in a way that you represent your brand identity.
From the event registration page, the virtual stage, and the reception area to the breakout room & networking area, you can customize them all with your brand logo, color, and theme.
You can also upload an engaging welcome video to the entry point to capture attendees’ attention and showcase your brand from the start.
3. Interactive Tools
For real-time interaction at virtual expo, Airmeet offers a range of engagement tools such as live chat, polls, and Q&A. Exhibitors can engage with visitors to their virtual booths through live chat.
Plus, you can launch polls to know attendees’ opinions about your offerings. Through Q&A, attendees can directly connect with the exhibitors and ask questions to address their concerns.
Airmeet offers a “raise hand” feature that attendees can use during product demos and panel discussions. This feature allows you to get the attention of the speaker and pose queries to them without interrupting their presentation.
“Emoji reaction” is another fantastic tool that Airmeet provides, used to get instant responses from attendees. For example, during a product demo, if you showcase its feature to attendees, and ask them questions like “Did you like this feature?” If attendees react with a thumbs-up emoji, they believe the feature is valuable.
4. Gamification
To bring fun and excitement to your virtual expo, Airmeet provides gamification features that involve a leaderboard, point systems, interactive quizzes, and challenges. These game-like elements will allow you to gamify your virtual trade show and engage your participants in a friendly, competitive manner. The gamification feature will truly lead to a more memorable experience for all participants at your virtual expo.
5. Advanced Networking Features
Airmeet offers a comprehensive set of networking features to help participants connect meaningfully with other attendees in a virtual environment. Speed networking, social lounge, and fluid space are networking tools that encourage interaction and create a higher level of engagement.
Attendees who want to connect with a lot of people in a short amount of time, speed networking is the best tool for them. Participants can create their own discussion tables through the Social Lounge and connect with like-minded people and discuss their favorite topics. With fluid space, people can freely move between virtual tables and engage in spontaneous group conversations via video.
6. Backstage Area
Airmeet offers a dedicated backstage area that serves as a private green room for your speakers and event host. Your speakers, booth presenters, and exhibitors can gather at the backstage space, communicate with each other, and have a last-minute discussion before going live on a stage to perform.
Anyone who will be demonstrating products or services live at the virtual booth can use Backstage to practice their presentation, test the content they are using, like product videos, images, and demos, and make sure everything is working perfectly before interacting with the expo guests.
7. Event App Mobile Capabilities
Airmeet offers a mobile event app, making it easy for your participants to join the online trade fair from their smartphone or tablet.
With an internet connection, guests can attend the expo, visit booths, engage with exhibitors, and network with other participants from anywhere and on any device.
The Airmeet event app is accessible on both the App Store and the Play Store, allowing iPhone and Android users to make the most of the exhibition.
8. Real-time Analytics and Reporting
Airmeet has comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities, providing you with real-time data from your virtual exhibition shows. Once the expo ends, you get access to the event dashboard. This allows you to track various data such as total attendance, unique booth visitors, booth engagement, material downloads, number of leads generated, and more.
You can track various reports to gauge the success of your online expo, such as the master report, Q&A report, chat report, and lounge report. Plus, you receive all of the details about the participants who visited your booths, including their name, age, gender, and more.
9. Customer Assistance
Airmeet prioritizes customer experience, providing you with strong support to make sure your virtual expos are an enormous success.
Airmeet offers 24/7 email ([email protected]) support for technical issues and chat support, as well as a dedicated “Customer Support Lounge” where you can get immediate help.
If speakers, exhibitors, or attendees encounter issues with streaming the session, audio, or video, our tech team provides immediate assistance and resolves the problem.
How do Sponsors Gain Benefits from the Virtual Expo?
Through banner posts and advertisements, sponsors are able to showcase their brand to a global audience at virtual expos.
Sponsor companies get an opportunity to place their brand logos in key areas of the virtual exhibition show, such as registration pages, virtual lobbies, virtual booth breakout sessions, networking spaces, and more, increasing brand visibility.
Sponsors sometimes get speaking opportunities in which they can share great things about their brand with the expo audience. Virtual trade exhibitions give advertisers a more comprehensive picture of their impact by offering data insights on attendee engagement, such as sponsored content, table visits, and more.
With these data-driven insights, sponsors can adjust their future marketing strategies.
Final Thoughts
The virtual expo is not just about showcasing the company’s unique offerings to the potential target audience; it is also about providing a positive brand experience, engaging them, and building a lasting relationship with customers. In fact, Virtual expos provide you with a fantastic opportunity to generate high-quality leads and skyrocket your company’s sales.
Businesses of all sizes can host an online exhibition to promote their brand’s products and services to a diverse group of audience and boost their brand visibility worldwide.
Importantly, you can keep the content from your live expo available for an on-demand session for a long time and reach as many people as possible, and continue to generate leads long after the event is over.
Frequently asked questions
Virtual expos are live for a day. Sometimes they remain available for a week, depending on the objective of the program.
You can display your company videos, company website link, product demos, high-quality images, testimonials, downloadable brochures, white papers & case studies at a virtual booth.
