Many marketers dream of broadcasting a live event, and for good reason. Live video has been proven to capture audiences’ attention by giving them the opportunity to be “first to know”. But what was once considered a privilege is now seen as a right by your audience. Common streaming social networks such as Periscope and Facebook Live have caused requests for live video to skyrocket.
The future of communication is not just video, but video: That’s why companies using video need to deliver their video in high quality and responsive formats, while creating an online destination that builds audience loyalty. But to do this, they don’t need to be technical experts. In fact, live streaming doesn’t have to be complicated or resource-intensive. What’s more, there’s no risk involved. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, it is, and here are some reasons why you should live stream your next event or series of events.
THE BENEFITS OF LIVE STREAMING YOUR NEXT RROI-GENERATING EVENT
- Expanding your brand’s audience: Live video experiences attract attention. Live streaming increases brand awareness , and drives more engagement and conversion.
- Enhancing your brand’s authenticity: person-to-person relationships or face-to-face conversations can take place in the digital space through video. What’s more, live video promises authentic, unedited communication and, done correctly, enhances your brand’s credibility
- Prolonging your brand’s video investment: live video provides you with rich live video content to repurpose. Turn it into short-form video content that audiences love. Video-on-demand (VOD) modified from live broadcast content extends the value of event investments by creating content for weeks, months or even years to come.
B2C and B2B brands are using live streaming to create unique business models and online experiences. And they do so using user-friendly video platform tools, as well as workflows that can be easily repeated and save resources. Not only is a live event easy to stream, but you can monetize your investment in the event before, during and after it.
HOW TO MANAGE A LIVE EVENT VIDEO STREAM – FOR THE UNINITIATED MARKETER
1. CREATING EVENT ANTICIPATION WITH A PRRRE-EVENT PAGE!
A pre-event page creates a destination for your live broadcast in advance, and allows you to promote your event early and regularly. So, at the time of the event, there’s no confusion about where to go. Even for the tech-savvy, setting up a web page on the day of the event and managing the live feed turnover can be taxing. Instead, create a space to interact with your audience before the event and streamline your event workflow. You’ve probably created a hashtag, now it’s time to liven up the conversation and animation around the event. Use this space to gather your audience’s views on social networks and observe in real time how your brand’s story is being told.
The final action before the event is to create templates of your live stream in a simple, repeatable process. A branded landing page on your domain, which includes features like conversation, social network sharing prompts and real-time hashtag control centralizes pre-event audience communications and quality assurance. In this way, you also avoid an empty, uninteresting video stream. By using a live event video template, you also spend less time and effort on it, so you can concentrate on coordinating a successful event. Synchronize with other members of your marketing team about pre-event promotions to brainstorm other creative ways to use the page.
For example, DemandGen will want to know how to attract potential customers through this video site. Of course, provide something useful! You could simply offer to send an alert to your visitors when the next live broadcast takes place. If your schedule is confusing, you understand this added value. People are afraid of missing out, so a friendly reminder from a company is often a welcome communication, and a way to lead to more engagement.
2. Ensuring a quality experience with a live event page
It’s time to move on to the event itself. Live streams can attract visitors who may not be able to physically attend the event. In the past, the audience had to be content with watching a video, a rather passive experience. Today, the modern content consumer wants to interact. Your audience expects to have an experience as pleasant as the live one.
- Furnish an optimal video experience: our attention span is short – infinitesimally small. As a result, visitors are unlikely to enjoy a poor-quality video experience. Make sure that the attention of interested parties doesn’t wane. Be sure to evaluate your live streaming environment to ensure that your live stream is responsive on mobile devices and delivers high-quality video. Broadcast your live event stream over the internet and on iOS and Android devices. Don’t be afraid to be bold about the size of your video: it hooks audiences, who stay focused on the live stream.
- “Broadcast to a second screen” your experience: what does this mean? Basically, put your social media team, or delegate in-house representatives, in charge of following the conversation and interacting with the audience. As the event is broadcast, the audience will naturally switch between widgets on social networks and the live event. You don’t slip away – you take an audience’s natural inclination for the second screen (or distracted nature) and use it as a way of bringing attention back to you. Visitors can continue to watch the video via a minilector, even if they’re busy on other features of the page broadcasting the live event. So keep adding video content that may be associated, advertising for partners or long-term resources, and even event calendar downloads. When they scroll down to see the rest of the content, the live stream will follow.
3. Continuous promotion and repurposing of your live video content
You’ve spent time organizing your event, promoting it and making sure it runs smoothly. Make sure your event continues to attract attention once it’s over. The best way to do this is with a post-event video landing page. This page allows you to add clips of the event’s highlights, and set features to engage new visitors who would have liked to attend, but weren’t able to.
The marketing results of a live event are not limited to the number of visitors. With a live event video template, archiving event video is quick and easy. It’s done seamlessly, so the event is never really over, even once it’s finished. The live stream is on-demand, so it’s omnipresent and always relevant! Also consider creating clips of your video content on the most interesting or striking topics so that visitors can be drawn back in when they visit the site. As with any content, a video can and should be repurposed, when appropriate for your audience. Here are a few ideas.
How do you design a campaign around VOD content?
Everyone will want to get in on the action. Give your team access to video content and design a multi-channel plan around live video content. Where can you place your live video content?
- Landing pages: Live events or content series (think podcast or webcast) contribute to the success of your thought leadership efforts. Encourage visitors to register for your next event using previously recorded live content. Consider breaking your video content into chapters and placing them in a playlist. A lead form can be activated once the visitor has watched several videos and shows great interest.
- Blog: transcribe your video content and create blog summaries. Use a tool like Storyify to add value to the story by integrating reactions on social networks. You can also use the same selection mentioned above, open, and integrate interactive elements that ask visitors to “choose their own adventure”.
- Emails: your live event has been appreciated. Don’t lose the essential information shared by your speakers. Integrate these e-mail excerpts into pre-existing relationship-building campaigns, or create an entirely new campaign.
- Site internet: integrate your page into an event resource and video platform right up to the launch of the next event, be it annually, quarterly or monthly. Potential attendees can learn so much through video. Use this platform to drive engagement, with email sign-ups for example. In addition, encourage attendees to interact after the event by soliciting user-generated content and placing it on your platform as well.
- Social networks: social video is increasingly used and, when well targeted, can generate a more positive brand experience (organic or paid). Live video streams can be trimmed and then, using an online video platform with a social video distribution tool, you can trim them back into clip lengths optimized for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Multiple sets of video assets are created to be used in a variety of ways.
The number of possibilities is endless, just like your event.
With the growing number of affordable video production tools and all the high-end, consumer-friendly options available, live broadcasting is no longer reserved for companies with big budgets.
In conclusion, the possibilities of live broadcasting for marketers are numerous. Live streaming experiences can delight your audience while meeting the objectives of your marketing and sales teams. Your audience expects to see live video content that they can interact with using their social media accounts. Using a live event template, optimized for video broadcasting, means that you and your company can create video experiences and reap the benefits of live broadcasting without a specialized internet team or IT support. Broadcast your next live event and get the team together to work out a plan, but keep in mind that IT team involvement is optional.
