- What is livestreaming?
- What type of livestreaming videos can help my business?
- How do I set up a livestreaming event?
Imagine Annisa just moved into a new home. She’s purchased furniture and decoration for it, but she’s missing something major kitchen supplies.
At first, Annisa thinks, “A fork is a fork.” but then she considers how much time she’s spent on the rest of the items in her house, and decides to pay more attention to what brand of kitchenware she’ll buy.
Annisa has a lot of different brands she can choose from, however. And to her eyes, many of them seem the same. In the end, she finds a brand that she feels good about buying. What helped Annisa decide?
While a billboard can be a good attention-getter, Annisa probably connected with the brand that let her engage in a live video experience that showed how their kitchenware can be used and made.
Annisa experienced livestreaming, which is the use of high definition (HD) cameras and Internet connection to share live video with an audience.
By casting livestreaming videos from your website, blog, or social media accounts, you can keep your audience interacting and connecting with your brand even when they aren’t thinking about buying your products or services.
This continued engagement can make your brand more likeable and attractive to your audience (AKA raise your brand affinity), and encourage them to give you more business in the future.
Livestreaming can also be a great partner to your other video marketing efforts, and help your email marketing by getting you more signups.
How can you help make sure your livestream videos are something people will actually watch? By livestreaming content that is authentic, unique, valuable, and/or interactive.
The trick to being authentic is staying true to your brand identity and not using your livestreams as a way to sell to your audience.
Remember, livestreaming isn’t about making conversation right now, but instead about raising awareness of your brand and having a conversation with people. This is the moment you can share your brand’s heart and soul.
Livestreaming is a great opportunity to go behind the scenes of your business. You can give your audience a glimpse into how your products are made and put a real human face to your brand by introducing the people that work with you.
Yes, you could do the same thing with a pre-recorded and slickly-produced video. But the “live” part of livestreaming lets your audience know you haven’t done any tricky edits, giving your story a more open and honest.
People also like experiences that make them feel special or benefit them. So, you can capture their attention with unique and/or valuable livestreaming videos.
Often, people tuning in to watch your livestreams are some of your most loyal fans. You can reward their devotion with unique, exclusive content that they normally couldn’t access or find anywhere else.
For example, you can livestream sneak peeks of new products, talks, interviews, or “invite-only” events like products launches or expos.
If you want to add value to your livestreams, try tutorials or “how-to’s”. Think about what type of useful guidance and knowledge your brand could authentically offer your audience.
For example, it makes sense for a kitchenware brand to livestream a chef using their products during a cooking tutorial. But it wouldn’t make sense if they livestreamed how-to’s on home repairs, fixing cars, ore becoming a street mime.
Is it really worth doing live tutorials if they’re only seen once? Well, actually, anything you livestream can be used and viewed again. You can repost your livestreaming videos on social media, your website, and on your blogs, and send them out in your email marketing.
Another way to get your audience involved with your livestreams is to make them interactive. This is a great way for your brand to start conversations with people.
Many livestreaming providers offer a live chat option. This lets your audience ask questions, leave comments, and give feedback as they’re watching your livestream.
Make sure your brand is responding to these questions and comments as they come in. have someone who isn’t starring in your livestream monitor the chat. It’s hard to be in front of the camera and dealing with a live chat at the same time.
Coming up with a great content idea is just the first step to a successful livestreaming event. You also need to do some planning to avoid any on-air disasters.
First, do a trial run of the livestream. This will help you see what type of unplanned issues pop up, how the process can run smoother, which elements were particularly challenging, etc.
Next, test your equipment and connections. Make sure you’ll be livestreaming high-quality video with no blurry images, lagging, or choppiness. Start by making sure you have an HD camera (which can even be on a phone).
Take steps to ensure the video is steady and not shaky, and that your Internet connection is strong and can handle high-quality video. Also, think about the lighting and backdrop. Test how visually appealing they’ll be for viewers.
Finally, find the right place online to host your livestream. Many social media and video platforms like Twitter and YouTube host livestreams, but you can also embed your livestream on your site (on a dedicated landing page, for example)
One reason to livestream on your own site is to get more visitors who are then one step closer to becoming customers. You can also make strategic marketing moves, like asking people to sign up for your email list to watch your content.
Depending on which livestreaming service you’re using, you might need to get software like Adobe Flash Media Converter. It helps you convert your video file as it’s being transferred from your camera to the service that’s beaming it out to your audience.
Along with planning your actual livestreaming event, figure out how you’ll promote it beforehand and how you’ll measure its success afterwards.
Promote your livestreaming event just like you would promote an in-person event. Make your event part of your social media strategy and content calendar, and hype it on social media, on your blogs and website, and in emails.
Create a dedicated landing page on your site that lets people sign up for your livestreaming event reminders. This allows you to email them the day of your event (or even a few days before), and also helps you build up your email list.
After the event, look at your metrics to gauge success. Track how many viewers. Comments, and questions you received, and how many time your livestream link was shared (and on which specific social media channels).
Measure interactions (likes, reactions, etc.) and impressions, how many new emails were added to your list thanks to your event, and the number of conversions that resulted from livestream site visitors.
Also, don’t forget to keep tracking your views after the event is over and you’ve reposted the video of your livestream on various channels.
Your livestreaming checklist:
- Livestreaming content ideas
- Ability to prepare for and promote an event
- Access to a strong Internet connection
- An HD camera or phone that shoots HD
- Research livestreaming services and decide where you want to host your event online.
References: Google Webmasters, Think With Google, Google Primer
