A physical, online or hybrid fair

WHEN DO YOU CHOOSE WHICH FORM?

Corona time brought not only restrictions, but also more focus on what is possible online: online events and meetings temporarily became the norm. In many cases cheaper, easier to organize and repeat, and more accessible for potential customers to attend. For some companies even more ideal than a physical trade show.

But as the easing of measures continues to take hold, it is also clear what we missed when physical trade shows were no longer possible. Such as the socializing aspect, where you gain new connections, meet potential customers and strengthen existing relationships in real-life, rather than meeting digitally.For those companies that see potential in using the "best of both worlds," online events and now various forms of hybrid trade shows have sprung up like mushrooms.

Now that participating in a trade show is no longer taken for granted physically, as a company you need to choose which trade show form best suits your strategy. We are happy to share our insights to help you tie the knot.

The stock market as a tool for your strategy

CLEAR OBJECTIVES

Before choosing a trade show format at all, your company's overall marketing strategy must be clear. Is a trade show really an indispensable tool in the strategy to achieve your KPIs and company-wide goals, or can you achieve them through other means? If you don't participate, is there a good chance that your competitor will and will win over your potential customers? So the most important questions are: how important are trade shows for the market in which your company operates, and how important is the trade show to achieve your goals?

The second thing you need to think about are the goals you specifically want to achieve by participating in the trade show. Why are you participating, what should it accomplish, and how will you ensure that you then bring potential leads into the sales funnel? These goals can be different for each company. Usually the main goal is that it should lead to more sales, but associated goals can also include strengthening relationships with customers, creating new contacts or positioning new products.Once the KPIs for the trade show have been chosen, think about how you are going to shape the rest of the marketing strategy around it to ensure that you attract enough visitors to your trade show booth. Next, you need to properly figure out the flow of how visitors move through the trade show to make sure they leave their contact information to get into the sales funnel and that you ultimately make sure you have good marketing automation set up to follow up on the leads.

Of course, how you ultimately set up your trade show to best direct that flow and achieve your goals depends on the trade show format.

Physical fair (offline fair) versus online fair

RELEVANCE AND CUSTOMER JOURNEY

"The move to online trade shows we did initially because we had to because of corona. What remains are online events for topics that you can cover perfectly well in an online environment and are also location-independent (and thus international), such as deep dives on the technology behind a particular technical product or service. The discussion about online or physical is easier because we are more used to online. People look differently at trade fairs that are less relevant physically, but are easier to organize online and are often more budget-friendly," says Ton Kuper, founder and managing director of C4Real.

"But when you enter into a big deal with a company as a customer, 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 things are taken and how credible it is. Trade shows are perfect for that, and especially if the favor aspect is important. This allows you to 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 much of the customer journey is also done digitally. With large B2B deals, the journey is often set up so that, for example, the customer only has to stop by the trade show to sign the contract as an important PR moment."