Once a buzzing exhibition event that drew companies from near and far, trade shows have since pivoted to virtual booths in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Despite this pivot, the objective remains the same – provide companies and exhibitors space and opportunity to engage with attendees, inform them about their brand and products, and generate leads.[/vc_column_text]

Virtual Booth

So, What Are Virtual Booths?

Virtual booths are just like a traditional trade show booth; however, they exist within a virtual space. Just like booths in a physical space, each virtual booth is different.

Similar to a trade show, the company or exhibitor may look to display assets to reinforce their brand and mission. These assets include brand logos, videos, chatbots, and banners, among other items. Displaying these effectively build attendee relationships in a branded environment in the absence of in-person events.

Virtual Exhibition Booths and the Future

The virtual events market is fast-growing, expecting to be a $404.45 billion industry by 2027. Even with more areas starting to open back up, it’s likely that virtual events will continue to be utilized for the foreseeable future.

However, a virtual trade show is only one use for a virtual exhibition booth. Many companies have now realized that they can use virtual booths year-round to engage with potential customers and partners in a fun and engaging way.

Keep reading for our top 10 tips and tricks to help you navigate the process of creating and managing virtual exhibition booths.

Web Based Virtual Booths

10 Tips and Tricks to Create and Manage the Perfect Virtual Booth

A place to network and connect, virtual booths allow businesses to engage with more attendees at once, are more affordable to host, and allow for easy collection of attendee information. Check out our 10 easy-to-follow tricks for mastering a virtual experience.

  1. Understand the Opportunities and Limitations of the Virtual Space

Consult with the event organizer or host of the virtual event platform to learn the capabilities of your virtual booth. Is there an opportunity for video content? Will there be a place for lead generation forms? How is attendee data collected and shared?

Beyond these key elements, explore additional considerations, like how your branding will be placed and represented.

  1. Prepare a Knockout “About” Section

Remember that each company has the opportunity to provide an “About Us” section, so prepare one that is highly engaging and unique to capture and maintain your audience’s attention.

Provide intriguing information about your product or service offering and inform your audience about your virtual booth elements that are engaging. This will help people visit your virtual booth and engage with your company.

  1. Make Your Virtual Exhibition Booth Aesthetically Pleasing

Since they are easy to customize, virtual booths should be pleasant to look at and engaging. Utilize your brand palette, creativity, and logo to offer a cohesive experience to your audience.

Offer diversified display elements like videos, static images, and banners to make for a multidimensional virtual booth. This is something we specialize in here at Infuse Media. If you need help with creating a great aesthetical experience, please feel free to contact us.

  1. Add Visual References to Your Product or Service Offering

As your audience won’t be able to physically engage with your product or service, they need to see what it is and how it works. Provide video and image references for them to refer to, showcasing the different shapes, sizes, and styles available.

Accompany each piece of creativity with a clear description by detailing the item and its options.

Virtual Network

  1. Offer a Networking Area

An essential part of virtual events, offer a networking element to ensure a successful virtual booth. Speak with the event organizer to learn more about the software and platforms available for networking through their virtual space.

A top reason people attend virtual events is that  networking is crucial to ensuring an engaged audience, so incorporating this when you can will help keep people engaged.

  1. Proactively Experience the Booth Before Opening It to Attendees

Before opening your virtual exhibition booth to your audience, engage with the booth from the user’s standpoint and address any hiccups. As virtual booths are easily accessible, you must offer a smooth user experience, or the user will engage with a virtual booth that does.

Take the time to test each of the elements of your booth, playing the videos and completing the lead generation forms, ensuring that the user experience will be positive.

Curious to know what this would look like? You can take our demo virtual booth for a test drive at the bottom of our virtual experiences page.

  1. Ensure That Your Team Is Prepared

Check in with your team to guarantee that they are knowledgeable and prepared to answer questions or address glitches. If hosting a virtual booth that extends several days, maintain a “Frequently Asked Questions” document, and regroup with your team at the end of each day to provide insight.

Additionally, have sales representatives accessible in case their expertise is required.

  1. Proactively Engage With Your Audience

Offer lead magnets, social media updates, and polls to build and maintain audience engagement. Allow your attendees to participate in interactive elements, including a form for them to input their information.

Following the event, connect with your attendees via email. Remember to thank them for their attendance, welcome them to your network, and add them to your email newsletter.

  1. Allow For Easy Purchase of Your Product or Service

Studies show that more than 80% of trade show attendees have buying power for their businesses. Ensure that your product or service is easy to purchase and consider an event-specific promo code for attracting attention and attracting customers.

Virtual Feedback

  1. Collect Attendee and Team Feedback Following the Event

Connect with your attendees and team after the virtual booth and collect any feedback or suggestions that they might have. Not only will it establish rapport, but it will improve your business and booth model for future events.

In Conclusion

Even once the pandemic passes by virtual events will be here to stay. A rapidly growing industry, virtual events are highly effective in tapping into a large audience at an affordable cost. There are a variety of tips and tricks that ensure a successful virtual booth, including recognizing the virtual space’s limitations, preparing a unique “About” section, offering a networking area, and offering multidimensional visual references.

Furthermore, those that host virtual booths can proactively use the booths pre-event, ensure team preparedness, proactively engage with their audience, make it easy to purchase the product or service and gather team and attendee feedback after the event is complete.

The more of these steps that you follow, the more likely you are to create, execute, and manage a successful booth. You must facilitate an engaged audience to maintain momentum following the event’s completion, and nurture and maintain those relationships utilizing email marketing and feedback requests.

If the idea of creating a virtual booth feels overwhelming, know that it doesn’t have to be! We’ve helped many companies develop their own virtual booths to use as part of virtual trade shows or their own events. You can visit our virtual experience page to learn more or contact us to learn more about working with us on your own booth.