In the ever-evolving world of marketing, marketers have to constantly be on their toes to adapt to newer ways of reaching out to their customers. Today, live streaming is the next step forward for video marketing. It is a powerful tool that is live, interactive, and more appealing to users. On June 15, 2015, Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) pulled in a whopping eight million views within the first 12 hours of coverage. Impressive isn’t it?
Live streaming is on a surge as it is one of the most genuine ways of connecting to the audience on a personal level. There’s so much you can do with live streaming videos – organize exclusive events for customers, launch new products, hold Q&A sessions and so much more.
Everyone is adopting event videography, be it from enterprise-focused platforms like Brightcove or social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the success of live streaming by giving brands an outlet to express themselves and connect and engage with each other even during isolation. So, if someone says live streaming has become even more popular during the pandemic, they are absolutely right.
Well pandemic or no pandemic, live streaming had started gaining popularity even before the pandemic era. Here’s a look at some impressive numbers related to live streaming video.
- 82% of consumers prefer to watch live videos from a brand than read social posts. (Source: Livestream)
- The live streaming market is expected to reach 184.27 billion USD by 2027.
- 63% of people aged 18-34 watch live streaming content regularly. (Source: Neil Patel)
- 87% would prefer to watch online if it meant more behind-the-scenes content than a standard TV broadcast. (Source: Livestream)
- More than 1 in 5 Facebook videos are Live and are watched 3X longer than pre-recorded videos. (Source: Go-Globe)
- The streaming industry is estimated to reach $124.6 billion by 2025. (Source: MediaKix)
- 45% of live video audiences would pay for live, exclusive, or on-demand video from a favorite team, speaker, or performer. (Source: Go-Globe)
- 67% of live video viewers are more likely to buy a ticket to a concert or event after watching a live video of that event or a similar one. (Source: Livestream)
- Video quality is the most important factor for 67% of viewers when watching a live stream broadcast. (Source: Livestream)
- Viewers spend 8X longer with live video than on-demand: 5.1 minutes for on-demand vs. 42.8 minutes for live video content. (Source: Tubular Insights)
Before we look at the benefits of live stream videos, we need to understand what it is actually.
What is Live Streaming?
In all simplicity, a live broadcast of any content, be it audio or video, through the internet is referred to as live streaming. It’s almost similar to a traditional TV broadcast but users have more flexibility on how they would like to consume content. If they don’t like they can switch between content creators. It’s also possible to view in the resolution they want if they have a sluggish internet connection.
Live stream is being used to broadcast a variety of content like gaming, events, behind the scenes, campus tours, vlogs, etc. Some of the most popular platforms for streaming live videos include Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
In these unique times, live-streaming isn’t just recommended, it’s an essential for businesses to survive. Once you embrace yourself to start using live videos for your business, you’ll quickly see what the buzz is all about.
A number of businesses and other organizations have used live streaming for press conferences, product announcements, or webinars. This is how many influencers have grown their personal brands, particularly in niches such as gaming. The unfiltered, “in the moment” nature of live streaming makes people tune in to the live video.
Live Streaming and Its Many Benefits
It is important to understand the benefits of live-streaming so that it can help you develop the appropriate strategy to utilize to boost your leads and convert them into customers, long-term clients, and followers.
- Live Streaming Generates a Bigger Audience
The number of people you can invite to a physical event depends entirely on the space available at a given venue. With live streaming, however, you don’t have to restrict your invite to just a few people. You can send an invitation to as many people as you want to attend the event.
Live streaming makes your content accessible to even those people who wouldn’t have been able to attend it otherwise. You can reach anyone in the world at any time remotely through live streaming video. Your only limitation with live streaming is linked to the server capacity of the streaming service you choose to go live with.
- Live Streaming is Incredibly Cheap
Marketers are always looking to cut costs wherever possible. With live streaming, you don’t have to think about the budget. It’s incredibly cheap and free. You don’t need any special equipment, software, or hardware to go live. You can do that from your smartphone or laptop from an active account on a chosen platform like Facebook Live, Periscope, or any other service.
If your budget tight, then there is nothing more effective than live streaming to connect with your customers. There’s no additional cost of hiring the venue, travelling, catering, or decorations. It won’t take too many live stream sessions for you to see the return on investment.
- Live Streaming is the Best Way to Connect with Your Audience
To make your event a success audience participation is very important. During live streaming, you can invite the attendees to ask questions, share opinions and gain clarity on points raised in the presentation. You can also set up chat boxes where users can post their questions to be answered at the end of the session.
All this creates a sense of community amongst the audience. While organizing live video streaming you would notice that the volume of questions is on a higher side than during a physical event. That’s because the number of audiences is comparatively large and some people feel more confident asking questions remotely.
- Live Streaming Brings a Human Touch to Your Brand
Advertisements, social media, emails, blogs, or infographics are for the masses. They don’t help you make individual connections with the customer. However, live streaming goes beyond all this to bring a genuine interaction with your audience. All the interaction definitely happens online, but live streaming gives your digital marketing strategies a human, personalized touch.
Your customers can see you, hear your voice, ask you questions and get responses directly from you. It stimulates three of their major senses making you more human and approachable. You are not just a brand anymore. You are someone they can reach out to, it gives them human interaction in a digital world.
- Live Streaming Content Can Be Re-purposed Later
Be it audio, video or text, content is very important. Without content, you cannot connect with your audience. If you are using the content to stream a live video today, you can make use of the same content to write a blog tomorrow. Or you can repurpose it into a podcast for your audience. If your audience wasn’t able to watch it when you are live, you can distribute them among different platforms to increase the viewing of your message.
You can also share clips from the whole event in instalments on your social media handles as some people like to watch shorter videos. And you will have plenty of content to engage with your audience for a long time.
- Live Streaming Allows Real-time Audience Feedback
You can ask for polls during your event. You can gather real-time feedback from your audience, which gives you an idea about what’s working for you and what’s not. Whether you are sharing a behind the scene video or giving a sneak peek into something new in the making, you can instantly gather real-time feedback from the audience.
This helps you understand how the session is going. Live streaming opens up a whole new way of communication in a way that has never been possible before. Most of the live streaming platforms would have surveys, polls, likes, and dislikes to let you know right away what content your target wants to see. This data will allow you to execute changes to improve future events and products.
- Live Streaming Can Be Used to Generate Revenue
Instead of giving away content for free, you can restrict access, so users must pay to watch the entire event online. You can also invite sponsors for your live stream. If the stream is free, ads are not likely to disturb viewers.
Sponsorship and paid advertisements are two of the important ways in which live streaming your event can lead to new revenue. Like other forms of media, advertising is possible even in live streaming. You can also have a sponsor for your event so that it provides a mutually beneficial partnership. The event organizer can cover the costs of live streaming, essentially receiving amazing coverage for free, whilst the advertiser can receive fantastic exposure through their logo and advertisements being displayed to a targeted audience.
- Live-Streaming Helps Build Trust
Customers want to know everything that’s going on behind the scenes. They want to know how their favorite brand works. This is where a behind-the-scenes live streaming video can help you quench that thirst. Social media platforms like Instagram, Vine, and Facebook have helped customers lift the veil on how they do certain things.
You can show them a demo of your latest product, or show them the area where you work and even introduce them to some of your staff in real-time. The advantage of this over traditional video marketings is that it makes you feel like you are in the moment with them
- Live Streaming Helps Create a Community
During a live stream, people can comment, ask questions and watch the content at the same time. Your target audience interacts with each other. And as the audience is interested in the same topic or brand, live streaming helps forge a community.
When people connect this way, it’s only going to improve the user experience. They will be more likely to promote your brand because being part of a community is another major plus point. If your content is good, it’s not at all difficult to create a community this way.
- Live Streaming is Easy and Takes Less Time to Produce
A lot of people think live streaming is too difficult to pull off. But, that’s a myth. All you need is relevant video and audio equipment, a stable internet connection, an encoder, and a trusty streaming platform. If you still think it’s difficult and too technical for you, then you can go through documentation and tutorials provided by professional streaming service providers.
Unlike pre-recorded videos, live streaming is really easy to make. You wouldn’t have to worry about editing the footage or doing several takes even if anything goes wrong. Compared to blogs, vlogs, or a video, a live video takes exactly the amount of time you want it to be. For example, a 5-minute live video will take only 5 minutes. It can exactly be the amount you want it to be.
Live Streaming with a Professional Service like Studio52
To truly emerge ahead of competitors, you must consider live streaming. Live streaming helps you connect with your prospects and community in a whole new way, making your brand more real, more relatable, and more accessible. And the best way to attain peace of mind is to consider employing experts. An experienced team can make all the difference.
When you stream with a free platform or your own servers, it’s difficult to attain high-quality streaming, however with a professional live streaming service provider it’s easier to achieve high-quality video. You also have the advantage of streaming ad-free videos so you don’t have to burden your viewers with ads that aren’t relevant to your content.
While you focusing on organizing a live video stream, Studio52 will handle the tech, and help you attain your objective at the venue. Take a look at Studio52’s live stream event portfolio. With all your streaming tools in one place, it’s quite simple to get started. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and contact us! Our team at Studio52 would love to answer all your questions.
