Live streaming has exploded over the past few years and became a necessity due to the pandemic. The ability to live stream events, promote upcoming events, or even check in with clients through live streaming technology is now one of the easiest ways for brands to interact with their customer base.
In this article, we will examine how live streaming technology is essential for events to be successful.
Live Streaming to Promote an Upcoming Event
Whether you plan to host an entirely virtual, hybrid, or in-person event, the use of live streaming technology can help you promote your event and reach a wider audience. Corporations can do promotional live streaming through social media services such as Facebook, Instagram, or many other platforms.
The benefits of live streaming to promote your event are numerous and include:
- The ability to drum up excitement for your event before it starts.The ability to answer audience questions to clarify any details.
- The ability to poll your audience and determine what they want to see during your event.
Live Stream Events
If you want your virtual event to be successful, your live streaming capabilities must meet your individual needs. This will require the use of a service that is:
- User-Friendly. You don’t want to run into a problem during your event and be unable to fix the issue. Additionally, you’ll want a service that has customer support ready to help you and your attendees at all times.
- Interactive. During a fully virtual event, there needs to be a bi-directional method of communication. Your event attendees should be able to reach you, just as you should be able to reach them. A live streaming service that doesn’t allow easy interaction to make sales, discuss products, and establish relationships is not a service worth considering.
- High Quality. A choppy, low-quality video during a live event is one sure-fire way to lose an audience. Make sure that you select a high-quality streaming service that fits the needs of your event.
Live Streams for In-Person and Hybrid Events
Events that have an in-person component can also benefit significantly from live streaming. While there are many reasons why you may choose to incorporate live streaming into your in-person or hybrid event, three important ones are:
- Creating FOMO in your audience. FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, is a powerful phenomenon that can make your at-home audience wish they had chosen to come to your event if live streaming is used successfully.
- Reaching those who prefer to stay home. Whenever restrictions are lifted, there will still be people who would like to attend an event from the comfort of their couches.
- Allowing attendees to revisit a product after the event. After the event is over and everything is cleaned up, having a virtual component will make it extremely easy for customers to reach out afterwards and make a purchase.
Platforms for Live Stream Events
There are many platforms available when it comes to live streaming for marketing. Your choice of platform should align with the goals of your campaign.
White-label live streaming platforms refer to platforms that are customized for your business by another service. Although the development is done by the other service, there will be no indications that it is done by them. You will also own the content and data derived through this made-for-you platform.
Large businesses can anticipate high returns by using white-label live streaming services. Retail brands can also make use of white-label services to develop or integrate live stream shopping features into their platform.
Examples of white-label live streaming platforms would be BeLive Technology, DaCast, and IBM.
Social media live streaming platforms refer to the mainstream social media platforms that offer live streaming capabilities. The biggest examples would be Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Smaller businesses that are still in the process of growing their user base can greatly benefit from live streaming on social media platforms. It would be easy to reach their target audience, and for new potential customers to come across their live streams.
