What your virtual marketplace platform should deliver for improved business

Part two.

Via a virtual trade show/marketplace sellers and buyers/prospects are able to meet, instantly or per appointment, and exchange immediate responses and feedback. And the number of booths/exhibitors, as well as attendants who can participate is unlimited.

Furthermore, beyond physical events (often only annually or bi-annually) that lasts for three to four days, a virtual event/marketplace can have as many live days as you’d like, and where communication is organic, ongoing. Then, you can leave it “open” for 30, 60, 90 days or permanently so that partners and consumers can access booths, presentations, documents, videos, etc. anytime. This becomes your virtual marketplace, with the opportunity to truly boost marketing and overall results from digital sales- and marketing oriented events.

Virtual also enables maximum engagement: One can physically only be in one place at a time, while in the virtual world much more can be achieved. In the physical exhibition the prospects who you want to talk to may find repeatedly that you are busy with other clients. But in the virtual expo you can chat, order a one-on-one video call, and ask questions to any booth representative without restraint.

In a B2B event scenario every visitor should, in addition to exhibitor info, also be able have a searchable online list, including profiles of all other attendants, compared to (aside digital matchmaking tools sometimes used) not having any delegate list at all at larger events in the physical world. It is also more powerful when one can virtually connect with one’s own digital marketplace profile, and a business card, to acknowledge and meet/re-connect at some point.

In detail, what you will want to have is a platform that can deliver the following:

• A complete real-time trade show feel and branding, where the entire workflow features and design can fully substitute a physical event – at lower cost, lower to no risk, but with higher ROI.
• A highly customisable booth that features downloadable brochures, audiovisual presentation and video chat functionality etc.
• Ability to present dynamic deals, for instant gratification.
• Attendees can swap electronic business cards with a keystroke and save that data instantly in your database.
• Built for scalability: it allows for unlimited simultaneous events and visitors, as well as booths.
• Visitors can join events and browse digital events/marketplace with the click of a button. Watch, individually, an audiovisual presentation.
• Built-in chat with request-to-talk features and waiting lists functions
• A social media structure, allowing users to create their profile, biography and following feature.
• Organising business/marketplace owners can set the requirements for the type of visitors and companies to join. Invite within a certain industry only, based on certain information users must share (thereby possible to pre-qualify both exhibitors and visitors based on category, location, etc.)
• Enable virtual face-to-face meetings: visitors and business partners can easily connect and network at the booth (s), just like in a physical event.
• During high traffic times the booth visitors can click to stand in line via a real-time virtual queue system, to talk with the business representatives.
• Each exhibitor can have multiple users (team members) waiting virtually to serve visitors. It gets effective when you can talk to/sell to x number of prospects in one day.
• A concierge service to connect relevant visitors and exhibitors in one-to-one video meetings.
• Statistics: a post-event comprehensive overview, with the right data (captureing information you just can’t get at physical events) to understand the impact and ROI of your event and contribute to your follow-up strategy.

Expobo’s innovative virtual trade show platform

Delivering on all the details listed above, Expobo from Norway offers the perfect blend of splendid design and user-friendly navigation. It fulfils needs for virtual trade shows, conferences, seminars, breakout/workshop sessions and marketplaces. It is scalable, and enterprise level. Expobo is built to deliver the best possible marketplace and immersive, fully branded, online experience.

Expobo’s Virtual Trade Show/marketplace functions like a social platform, designed for trade shows and sales-oriented events within any sector! It’s based on a successful and proven concept, namely a job expo platform from Norway (jobexpo.com) and that boasts all features listed in this article.

Expobo stands for: 1. Great infrastructure and ease of use 2. Trustworthiness: it’s safe and secure. 3. Fast and with no bugs and interruption even with thousands of users having interactions online simultaneously.

Expobo is designed as a highly competitive digital event platform – and where your corporate design/branding is also of key importance. It aims to be a game-changer for the way digital events/trade fairs are conducted. This online platform/marketplace is ideally suited to conduct virtual events, or be such a component in hybrid events.

Expobo is in fact built to completely mirror a real event and still be able to sustain the value of a physical trade show with all the bells and whistles – with a focus on your sales. It especially enables the buying and selling of goods and services in real time. Utilise Expobo’s virtual trade show/market place to build high-value relationships and generate ongoing sales!

Expobo brings the marketplace effect (same as a cluster of many business booths inside large events and trade shows, where visitors see the value to get amazing deals during a specific time frame, all in one place) to the virtual trade show market. It allows any business/group the ability to create virtual events and build communities to connect buyers and sellers.

“Expobo offers organizers and exhibitors the opportunity to build their own communities and create virtual deals in real-time,” says Alexander Parry, representing Expobo.

It's active and dynamic; creating urgency for people to join.

With only a few clicks on a device required, registered clients can visit booths inside an event. An exhibitor can also host a group video chat, for example to do a presentation for select attendants/leads.

And specifically it brings a much more complete system to the market; as noted in the provider’s benchmarking: “Our advantage is the LinkedIn social media feeling, that each booth can showcase web shop and comes with video chat/chat request options. Also the ‘design your own booth’ feature stands out,” says Alexander.

“Very few virtual platforms are able to completely replicate physical trade shows and make it look and feel impressive, while including analytical tools to improve leads engagement. Expobo ticks all the boxes and does just that,” he adds.

Each business that organises events or join events will be able to create their own design by using easy-to-follow templates. Expobo also offers custom booth design. The built-in avatar can also be changed easily with an option to upload images of your own team.

Each exhibitor can have a stand-alone booth/marketplace outside of trade events, and can choose to upgrade to be online at the frequency one so wishes–for instance with certain open hours–and can share it via social media channels etc. When a team member is on standby, and logged in, the booth will show: ‘online’ or ‘offline’.

And each user, including consumers, has a verified profile intended for professional business and trade shows (avoiding the use of one’s private social accounts). People prefer to connect and transact business deals via a professional and secure business-to-business platform, with a verified and branded business profile.

A profile is needed to make a purchase or conduct meetings. To join an event you create an account and add required info. It works similar to your Linkedin profile. Based on requiring enough details in the profiles every participating stakeholder can search for and find prospects/other persons one would like to interact with, compared to randomised encounters in a physical event.

The business representative can also do up-selling, based on what interests and specifics that can be learned about the prospect from her/his profile, and during a live conversation.

“To know who the people are in a virtual or physical event is important, and if your average video conferencing tool lacks the business profile and bio of the user, then your business will remain in the dark,” says Alexander Parry.

The organiser/marketplace owner will have rich attendee and digital event data on all sales and appointments that take place, allowing to better nurture leads post-event. The Expobo system generates the history of visits, so for instance a booth will know who visited virtually and can tailor future content and conversations around content found valuable to visitors/clients. Knowing who clicked and took an interest in your business is not necessarily possible in a physical trade show. Visitors can also drop their e-business cards, and exhibitors and visitors can follow each other.

Ask for a demo, contact Expobo in Asia via: https://expobo.siliconhm.com/

“We are much committed to helping organisers to get started with Expobo’s digital events/marketplace platform. We have several no-risk options (allowing organisers to find exhibitors before launching their first trade show) for anyone who wants to create a virtual event,” ends Alexander.

See also part one: Increase business sales with virtual events and marketplace