It goes without saying that the most successful trade show booths are the ones that place their focus on visitor interaction.
Research is consistently finding that trade show booths which encourage attendees to participate and interact make a much longer-lasting and positive impression than more passive booths – which is the case for both in-person and online trade shows!
However, achieving a high level of interactivity in an online exhibition space is often much more difficult than at in-person events. Indeed, further research has found that interaction is the second-greatest challenge when it comes to virtual events.
So, what should your online trade show booth design include to make it as interactive – and therefore successful – as possible? Read on to discover our six top tips…
6 design ideas for the ultimate interactive trade show booth
1. Make it stands out so that you get spotted in the first instance
In an online trade show space – especially if your booth has been integrated as part of a bigger event – standing out from the crowd is the first step to having the ultimate interactive online trade show booth. After all, it can’t be interactive if there’s no-one there to interact with it!
As our Managing Director, Alistair Reece mentioned in one of our other recent blogs:
“In a virtual space, you need to differentiate more to stand out from the crowd via aesthetics, branding and messaging, not less, and I’m not sure that any simple flat 2D website can achieve the brand immersion that you get in a 3D virtual space.”
So, when you’re considering your online trade show booth design, have a think about what you can do to make it stand out from the crowd, from use of colours to branding and logos, graphics, animations and more.
2. Ensure your booth is brimming with content
According to research, 80% of people attend virtual trade shows for educational purposes.
So, once you’ve attracted delegates to your booth in the first instance, draw them in further by offering them free, educational and exciting content that they can take away with them; for example, a free downloadable resource, booklet of more information on your product or service, and so on.
And don’t just stick to written content – videos are also a wonderful way of attracting and engaging your booth visitors. What’s more, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video (compared to just 10% retention when reading the same information via text), so they’re a great means of instilling your brand messaging, too!
To accentuate this impact further, you could even include 3D models of your products for visitors to explore and play around with, or Augmented Reality via VR headsets – the more hands-on and realistic you can make your booth, the more powerful it’s interactive potential will be.
Plus, to encourage even greater interactivity, make sure your content incites some curiosity or leaves your visitors with a few questions that they can ask your booth manager.
With that in mind…
3. Be ready to chat
Ensure you include a variety of means for your visitors to speak with your booth manager(s) – who, it goes without saying, should be one/some of your best brand ambassadors, offering a fountain of knowledge and experience about your product or service.
Whether you incorporate an instant messaging function or break-out meeting rooms for live video discussions in your design, the more opportunities you give your visitors to talk to and interact with your team, the better its impact will be.
If your booth manager(s) are away from their desk at any time, you could also include a chatbot function to answer FAQs, so that your visitors always have the chance to interact with your booth and find the information they need.
4. Incorporate some interactive demos of your product
At an in-person trade show, one of the greatest means of boosting interactivity with booth visitors is through hands-on demonstrations of the products and services that that booth is promoting.
The good news is that this can be incorporated to an impressive extent within your online trade show booth design too. For example, if you are a tech company promoting your latest laptop, you could include a 3D model of the laptop that visitors can move around, click on and more.
The more realistic you can make these interactive demos (a possibility that we pride ourselves on being able to achieve here at Gravit8), the more opportunities your visitors will have to interact with them, and the more memorable they, your booth and your brand will be!
5. Offer your visitors a space to discuss your booth content
The second biggest reason (after accessing educational information) that people attend trade shows is networking – so interactivity at your trade show booth shouldn’t stop at the booth itself!
In all likelihood, you might have a number of people visiting your virtual trade show booth at once who are looking to connect with other people in their field, and discuss the content and demos you’ve provided.
So, offering them a private break-out room or meeting space attached to your booth in order to communicate with each other (via instant messaging or video stream) is a great way to boost interactivity in your booth and see the awareness of your brand travel further.
6. Let the games begin!
Gamifying elements of your online trade show booth is a powerful tool to encourage interactivity.
From live quizzes where visitors can test their knowledge of the industry or your products and services, to challenges that can be completed throughout the course of the trade show, a little healthy competition can be the difference between remembering and forgetting your booth when the show is over.
You can make this even more impactful by offering your winners branded prizes to pop in the post to them following the event!
And the possibilities don’t end there…
With a uniquely-designed booth on the Gravit8 platform, these are just some of the amazing ways you can boost interaction with and from visitors at your next trade show.
If you’d like to learn more about Gravit8 and how we can make your virtual booth design ideas a reality, simply get in touch with our team today.