Video live streaming is an effective and impactful tool for marketing in a wide variety of contexts, including product and services promotions, live announcements, Q&A sessions, and allowing virtual attendance at a conference or event.

Since 2017, live streaming has grown in popularity, thanks to social media giants like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram making it easy for anyone to broadcast live video to the world. Live streaming is exciting to viewers because they are a part of something that a brand is offering in real-time.

Live streaming inherently has a sense of urgency. Haven’t you been in the middle of something important - yet you see the notification that “[Brand A] has gone live” and can’t help checking it out? Why? FOMO (fear-of-missing-out) triggers us to click on that notification.

Before planning a livestream it’s important to think about who you want to reach and what message you want to convey. Here are some questions to help you get started:

• How does your brand story help people relate to the announcement, product, or news you want to share?
• What is the most important information you want everyone to take away?
• What action can you ask the audience to take to engage with your brand?

It’s a mistake to simply choose a live-streaming platform, turn on your camera, then hope for the best. Brands who focus on live streaming will definitely stand out in a crowded marketplace. But, to achieve success brands must focus on creating engaging, story-driven content that makes viewers excited and influences them to share the livestream content.

Here are the top four benefits of live streaming:

1). Develop a personal connection with your audience

Most importantly, brands need to share their story so viewers know what makes them unique. Stories conjure a meaningful and memorable interaction. Remember that facts and figures won’t easily be remembered - but stories will always resonate with a large percentage of the livestream audience. Due to the immediate audience interaction, viewers feel a genuine connection and are likely to interact because it is a unique opportunity for them to develop two-way communication with a brand. By utilizing all three major live-streaming services (YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram) brands can build credibility, increase exposure, and show their expertise by reaching fans where they already are.

2). Save Money on Advertising Costs

More and more brands are not interested in paying for television or radio ads that don’t bring the results they are looking for. If your brand uses live streaming on a regular basis, you will seen by thousands or potentially millions without having to prepay for advertising airtime.
Live streaming is vital for brands that want to increase social media followings and SEO effectiveness. Live streaming videos are more likely to be seen on the three major platforms vs. pre-recorded videos or static content. Brands can easily encourage audiences to “like” their page and content, which in turn grows their social media presence in a way that increases traffic and revenue without spending a single advertising dollar.

Additionally, if brands live stream their events they can recoup costs of advertising by bringing on a sponsor and offering the livestream to virtual attendees for a fee. You can bring on sponsors by offering businesses the exposure of having their name and logo appear throughout the entirety of your event’s webcast. You can also offer smaller packages, where each speaker or session is sponsored by a different organization.

3). Ability to Repurpose content

Live streaming is a treasure trove of marketing content. Here are some ideas to re-purpose your content if you are live streaming (especially if you are live streaming an event):

• Archive the entire event on your website - you can sell the video to anyone who missed the event or use it in a membership program
• Upload to YouTube to help increase exposure of your event
• Share short clips on social media throughout the year
• Use clips in your marketing for next year’s event
• Use clips to help convince potential advertisers to sponsor next year’s event
• Use the footage as a reference when writing content (like blog posts) about topics discussed during the event

4). Break through the noise

Never before in history have brands had such a powerful tool to instantly connect and interact with their customers. The three benefits mentioned above are powerful results that were not achievable with one piece of content - these benefits could only be achieved by a variety of tactics, planning, and costly advertising. By simply advertising on social media platforms or investing in organic reach, brands could not have the same depth and breadth of social interaction that is imperative to stand out in today’s marketplace.

By focusing on the four benefits of live streaming, you will increase the impact of your message. Live streaming will grow your audience and provoke engaging interactions with your customers. There are so many tools you can use these days - so go ahead and try it out soon. Not only is it a way to bring wide brand exposure - it is also fun.