A physical, online or hybrid fair

WHEN DO YOU CHOOSE WHICH FORM?

The coronavirus period not only brought restrictions but also a greater focus on what is possible online: online events and meetings temporarily became the norm. In many cases, they are cheaper, easier to organise and repeat, and more accessible for potential customers to participate. For some companies, they are even more ideal than a physical fair.

However, as the relaxation of measures continues to take effect, it is also clear what we have missed when physical fairs were no longer possible. Such as the socialising aspect, where you make new connections, meet potential customers, and strengthen existing relationships in real life, rather than meeting each other digitally. For companies that see potential in using 'the best of both worlds', online events and various forms of hybrid fairs have mushroomed.

Now that participation in a fair no longer happens automatically in person, you as a company must choose which fair form best fits your strategy. We are happy to share our insights to help you make that decision.

The fair as a means for your strategy

CLEAR OBJECTIVES

Before you even choose a fair form, the overall marketing strategy of your company must be clear. Is a fair truly an indispensable means in the strategy to achieve your KPIs and company-wide goals, or can you also achieve these with other means? If you do not participate, is there a good chance that your competitor will and win over your potential customers? The key questions are: how important fairs are for the market in which your company operates, and how important is the fair for achieving your objectives?

The second thing you need to think about is the objectives you specifically want to achieve by participating in the fair. Why are you participating, what should it yield, and how will you ensure that you bring potential leads into the sales funnel? These goals can differ for each company. Usually, the main goal is to lead to more sales, but associated goals can also include strengthening the relationship with clients, creating new contacts or positioning new products. Once the KPIs for the fair are chosen, consider how you will shape the rest of the marketing strategy around it to ensure that you attract enough visitors to your fair stand. Next, you need to carefully plan the flow of how visitors move through the fair to ensure that they leave their contact details to enter the sales funnel and that you ultimately establish good marketing automation to follow up on the leads. 

How you ultimately set up your fair to guide that flow as effectively as possible and achieve your objectives is, of course, dependent on the fair form.

Physical fair (offline fair) versus online fair

RELEVANCE AND CUSTOMER JOURNEY

"We initially switched to online fairs because it was necessary due to corona. What remains is online events for topics that you can easily handle in an online environment and are also location-independent (and thus international), such as deep dives into the technology behind a certain technical product or service. The discussion about online versus physical is easier to have because we are more accustomed to online. Fairs that are less relevant physically but can be more easily organised online and are often more budget-friendly are viewed differently," says Ton Kuper, founder and managing director of C4Real.

"But when you, as a customer, enter into a large deal with a company, you want to know who you are going to work with. You want to know who is sitting across from you, what type of company it is, how seriously certain matters are taken and how credible it is. Fairs are perfect for that, especially if the trust aspect is important. This way, you can see not only the faces of those who work at the company, but also the overall appearance and professionalism. Of course, this is best conveyed in physical form, but a large part of the customer journey is also conducted digitally. In large B2B deals, the journey is often set up in such a way that the customer only needs to come to the fair to sign the contract as an important PR moment."