The Difference Between Virtual and Traditional Tradeshow Exhibits

If you’re planning a trade show or event this year, there’s no better time than now to begin preparing. Trade shows are an important way for companies to meet and work out strategies for their next marketing campaign. But the cost of a trade show can be prohibitive, especially when companies factor in hotel room and travel expenses as part of their booth rental. Hiring a virtual trade show vendor can help cut costs, many ways including cutting booth space rental and transportation costs.

Virtual trade show exhibits mean attendees and/or vendors can save a significant amount of money on a hotel room, travel, advertising, promotional items, and so on usually associated with live trade shows. The reduced expense of virtual exhibiting enables many more exhibitors to come to the event, which inevitably increases the overall value of the trade show as well. These exhibits allow companies the opportunity to make their presence known without the costs, inconvenience and annoyance often associated with setting up and operating a physical booth. By avoiding travel, meals and accommodations, exhibitors save not only time but money. In fact, virtual exhibits have proved to be cost-effective means of marketing and promoting in the past.

Many companies have found great success by capitalizing on their online trade show exhibits by leveraging social media, creating quality content and engaging attendees in real-life conversations. By utilizing social media, companies are able to share information, post photos, videos and links from their event without actually having an exhibit. Social media gives companies an opportunity to engage customers and potential customers in conversations. By creating and maintaining relationships with followers through social media, companies can significantly boost their return on investment by driving qualified leads and generating high levels of traffic to their booths. Qualified leads, the term used to describe people who have expressed interest in your company and what products and/or services they might be interested in buying, are much more likely to convert into clients and significantly increase the likelihood of revenue growth.

If you do not have an online gallery to share your exhibitor booths with, you can always rent one at a nominal fee. Virtual exhibits are also much easier to set up than traditional exhibits. Companies can easily rent a virtual booth that will help them promote their event throughout the course of the entire trade show weekend. Renting a booth also offers many benefits to companies, including the ability to reduce staffing costs, save on exhibit rental fees and provide additional space for promotional activities.

With webinars, companies have the ability to demonstrate how their product or service can solve a potential customer’s problem. This hands-on approach allows companies to show off their progress, generate interest and build trust in their customers. Online webinars are much more convenient than traveling to attend physical trade show exhibitions as well. You no longer have to change hotels when you want to attend a business conference. And even if your browser does not support the video tag, you can still use the chat function to broadcast your online webinars. This gives you more exposure, which could lead to increased business once you start getting referrals from your audience.

Both virtual tradeshows and traditional trade shows have their advantages and disadvantages. There is no definitive winner between the two. There are definitely advantages for exhibitors who choose to exhibit at a virtual trade show over a traditional trade show. In the end, it all comes down to the type of business and the strategies used to promote their products at trade shows like these. It is important for companies to consider all the options available to them before deciding on the type of exhibit and show they wish to participate in.

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