Help your business thrive with this step-by-step guide to export growth in a virtual world.

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Effectively carry targeted messages to your company’s prospects and in-market partners using dynamic and measurable media that are compatible with Virtual Trade activity.

Sign up early for events and communicate confidently and frequently on social media.

Build a presence in the market by joining social media groups such as LinkedIn and Facebook. When you engage with companies via these channels, you can gain market intelligence on potential customers and channel partners.

Ensure your digital media presence (logos, colour, images, tone and messaging) supports your brand. Establish credibility and organizational legitimacy through testimonials, references and certifications Review the support materials on your website: research documents, white papers, news articles, and testimonials from customers who are similar to the attendees you are targeting at this conference. Ensure links are working from the published papers that used your technology or product, so when a user reads these documents they are led to a custom landing page on your site that is a friendly environment for this customer, and that can be tracked using your web analytics. Promote these digital documents to the attendees you have identified.

Study the event’s program carefully to identify speakers and topics that are likely to attract your targets. Prepare questions in advance of each session and have them ready so that you can get them into the chat box for the speaker’s question period. Asking a thoughtful question helps raise your company’s profile. It will have to be a well-crafted question even to get recognized and, more so, to establish a connection to your product. This is why it should be written in advance and based on a deft understanding of the session theme, the speaker(s), and of course, your brand. Also, monitor other questions, as this is an opportunity to reach out to people of interest.

Have something to announce during the event timeline – pre, during, or post – that will be new and of interest to your target customer. This could be a new piece of research that your team has conducted about product usage among their peers, a new customer who has signed on and why, an innovation to your product line – all of which is supported with social media posts (yours, and those belonging to the event) within the event platform and other business platforms.

Be engaging, network, host post-event discussion session. Create your own pre-or post-event.

 

Social Media Effectiveness: Questions to ask yourself:

What platforms do we already use? What do we need to learn to use the technology?

Who are the best team members to run my team’s social media? Do I need more personnel for this?

Do we have the right digital assets for all social media channels I want to use?

You should ensure that information on all of your social media platforms is up to date. Some VTA platforms allow you to link to social media in your profiles so that, for example, a LinkedIn profile would be available to attendees in place of any contact information.

As a sales and marketing strategy gets mapped out for a specific virtual trade event, creating a schedule or calendar for publishing to social media will be essential. This will support your participation, and help you identify and engage with other attendees while learning more about them as potential prospects or sources of competitive intelligence. It will help build your community, which will live on long after the event has ended. A social media calendar helps clarify in advance what you will communicate, and when. It is like interactive advertising with messages specific to each social media platform. Specify who will be responsible for it and how you plan to measure effectiveness.

“Prepare questions in advance of each session and have them ready so that you can get them into the chat box for the speaker’s question period.“

“Have something to announce during the event timeline – pre, during, or post – that will be new and of interest to your target customer.“