Why Livestream Videos for Your Business?
We all know that COVID- 19 outbreak halted almost all traditional forms of production, human interaction, events and more, forcing everyone to explore new ways to stay connected and entertained.
In “this new normal” people are adapting to new ways to connect and keep up to date with the outside world whilst wanting to be safe. And it’s true, between all these, social media is still all of us saving grace. Most of us are constantly on the social media platform, and we can’t deny the fact that we’re seeing the hype of live streaming increasing lately. Right now, video content is killing it when it comes to capturing and retaining customer attention. Due to which, many businesses professional want to give it a try but are caught up thinking.
Can it help grow business?
Just because many are doing it, should I also jump on the bandwagon? How do I get started?
The good news is we have gathered all the answers for you in Episode #8 of“The Digital Perspectives”. So, let’s dig in!
You see with the growing digital distraction, most of us are visual learners, stats show that 82% audience prefer live streaming video to other social media content. Live streaming videos have provided a sense of shared experience and community. And with streaming being more accessible than ever, it’s practically a no-brainer.
One thing that’s safe to say is that no business can afford to neglect video as a medium for raising brand awareness, generating leads, getting more engagement, and educating their audience. The recent research from Content Marketing Institute has shown that. “28% of the videos has grown from especially from March and throughout & it the number will keep on rising” and Australia is no exception. In Australia, 85% small and mid-size businesses are already doing webinars & live events.
Why should you be doing LIVE – streaming?
Here’s another interesting fact that Vimeo recently disclosed in their latest report, that live streaming is not a fancy or trendy word it is now something that our audience or clients expect from businesses. No matter where your clients or audiences are from or no matter what your industry has to offer one thing is sure that the clients are seeking out to watch more visual content from businesses. People are tuning in different live streams today to not only gain something but also to keep that interaction going on. Live videos are interesting and authentic.
Going live provides a whole new platform to reach out to clients, future and existing. Producing a business live cast has the potential to boost engagement, help build a trusting relationship with your audience, and elevate the image of your business.
With it, you can showcase how your business is operating, portray transparency and accountability towards clients. This, in turn, may result in attracting and increasing new fans and clients. Another thing what’s important is having a trusted content which means building a trusted brand. As you know this is an interesting time and a lot of things are escalating around so it has created confusion between clients whether to trust the content or not. So, the whole idea is when you are doing live for your business or promotion be mindful about the audience, be careful about the value your content is offering to the audience.
A trusted content builds a trusted brand and it helps to position you and your business as a trusted advisor Infront of your audience. These days there are many platforms you can go live from like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and there’s no doubt that these platforms are growing rapidly. We see increased traffic happening at these platforms, as most industry leaders and thought leaders are active in these platforms. If you are in a B2B area, we advise you to focus mainly on LinkedIn but if you are in the B2C area it’s best to focus on platforms like Instagram, Facebook or even YouTube. What you must remember while going on all these platforms is that it’s not only about live streaming it’s more about how your audience or prospects find you, how your content is helping your audience and are they choosing you as their trusted advisor.
You can get started by doing a Live Q&A session, interacting with your audience and providing them with that value with contents according to the context. Clients love interaction and purchase from brands they like and trust, but trust cannot be achieved overnight. Live video allows you to build and reinforce trust throughout all stages of the consumer life cycle.
With our own experience what we found over this period of doing Live streaming was it was very convenient & instant because our audience would be right in front of us watching us live and interacting with us. The result we received for us and our clients were quite remarkable as we didn’t have to delay putting out our video to our audience due to the editing factor.
However, to receive a remarkable result you must have a clear strategy you must have a plan. As they say, “If you fail to plan you plan to fail”, it’s simple as this, you must be prepared especially when you’re presenting LIVE your core focus should be 3 things; Educate, Entertain & Engage. Creating a clear strategy is a key, adding value by providing tips, idea and educating your clients.
The current times are not about selling but it’s about building that trust & educating your clients to be it by sharing the latest insights and trends and giving them the answers, they want to hear.
How important is consistency in Livestreaming?
Recently we have received this question from one of our clients, “During this uncertain time what kind of marketing works the most as we don’t want to spend a fortune right now?”
There is just one fixed answer to this question & that is you need “CONSISTENCY”. To keep viewers coming back, it’s important to keep them engaged on a consistent basis. It makes quite a sense when we say client or prospects put their trust on you and your service simply because they’ve watched one of your live streams. So, you must keep in mind to build that relationship and credibility with your audience. Live streams are a real-time way to interact with your clients & prospects to let them know about you and your business, remember If you are one-hit-wonder your audience wouldn’t stick around waiting for your live streams to happen again. There’s no point doing one live stream and disappearing for the next 3 months.
When you live stream regularly, and you are active consistently, your clients and prospects begin to put their trust on you. Not only that they develop a sense that they can count on your contents. Consistency is a big advantage and essential to captivate your audience or clients for proving your value.
Non – negotiable aspects when doing LIVE streaming!
You have decided to go LIVE but before you do, there are some non- negotiable factors that you need to consider. Factors like having clear audio, clear video are technical aspects that come in mind when streaming live, and it has great importance as well however, there are some other non- negotiable aspects like.
- If you’re doing a virtual event, sending a quick SMS or email pre-event to your database could be one great way to notify them, as sometimes attendees tend to forget because they are consuming so much information through social media and when it gets out of hand they end up being overwhelmed.
- What most people normally slip out of their mind after doing a live stream is to FOLLOW UP with their attendees. Having a good follow up system is a must because this not only boosts the connection but also helps to gain the attendees’ trust for example: Maybe they can provide feedback or maybe they provide you with ideas of what they want to watch in the coming days. Follow up captivates the audience to stay and seek for what’s coming next in your live streams.
- Another thing is, update your audio subtitles as quick as possible. Which means once you have ended the live stream, one easy way is to go to otter.ai and abstract the subtitles, after that you can quickly give it a look edit some errors and update it to you live stream right away and share them via different social media platform. In this way no matter where the audience is from, they can grasp the content and context of the live stream easily.
So, make sure you don’t forget about these non-negotiable aspects. You’ve to put your effort & focus on giving your prospects the content with the relevant context during this uncertain time. Things that resonate with the audience must be the NO 1 priority of your Live stream.
Going live for the first time is scary for most people, but the best way to conquer this fear is by giving it a try! And with time your live streams will only get better & better. Today, live stream has opened a range of innovative opportunities for brands, platforms and, in doing so, will likely change the future for many as they realise the possibilities and power of streaming.
If you are excited to kick start Live streaming for your business but not sure how to, we’re here to help.
We can help you from studio setup to video streaming and marketing it to your right audience, at the right time and channel with the right message. All you have to do is contact us today!
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P.S – As the world is going digital, at VIS, we are pushing our boundaries to help our clients and alliances create their digital brand and monetise it.
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