Live streaming is one of the hottest marketing trends of 2016 due to the fact that it enables businesses large and small to reach a higher audience with the click of a button. Streaming a live video from your company’s training session, lecture or other events can boost your brand’s online success up to a staggering level. In the following paragraphs, we will provide you with useful tips on how to quickly and effectively get to that level.
First Step: Creating the eLearning Video
Videos gather more people when they’re aesthetically enjoyable and intelligent. However, those are not the only criteria. It’s important to also integrate several other factors that influence the live stream video-creation process.
Target Your Live Streaming Audience
Anyone can use live streaming technology. But first, it is crucial to see who exactly is interested in your training courses (and eventually your product), prior to the streaming itself. Information about your audience will enable you to set the goals and targets of your business.
Pick the Date
Picking the date of your live stream is of great importance. You may want to avoid setting the release on a Friday because people are heading home early and are often ready to take a break from work. Thus, they are more likely to watch the stream during the middle of the week. That kind of practice works only on work and education-related presentation broadcasts. For your audience, it’s important to research the times they are most likely to be online.
Advertise Prior to the Stream
Whether you have an online course or just want to make your brand noticeable with the help of live streaming, it’s key to develop a solid marketing strategy before the video takes place. Successful methods include sending out invites to your mailing list, offering freebies such as T-shirts, and sharing relevant content on social media.
Invest in Higher Quality Equipment
Targeting the audience, picking the date and advertising your event are important aspects of live streaming but are still dependent on video quality. By securing high quality equipment, you can expect the video you’re about to demonstrate online to be pleasing to the eye in terms of viewer experience.
Your video should be in high definition: no less than 720p or 1080p. Therefore, consider purchasing or renting first-rate cameras and lighting. Having a high quality live stream experience will help hold your viewers’ attention while displaying your product in the best way possible.
Make Use of Streaming Platforms
The primary goal is to reach a global audience with your video course. As an added benefit, streaming platforms like Teachable, Thinkific, and Yuja allow you to make a profit from live streaming for a certain fee.
Supposing you run a small business and you don’t yet have the resources to pay the fee for a one-time live event. In this case, you can take advantage of social media live streaming. Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter all offer the option of streaming to stream to huge audiences for free.
Tastemade, a food and travel business, is among the most prominent of live streaming businesses. Their live video of a latte artist drawing in coffee foam has reached more than 1.6 million views.
Fabulous Beginnings
The purpose of the first few minutes of your live video is to invite the audience to watch the rest. Remember that the attention span of the average viewer is around eight seconds, and by making the most of that snippet of time, you are ensuring that your video grabs your audience’s attention and entices them to share it.
Keep it Short and Engaging
Let’s assume you have prepared an exceptional video with a phenomenal start, but its length is more than an hour. Try to shorten it: a recent report showed that the average viewing time for live events is 56 minutes. Another way to keep it engaging and shareable is by using hashtags.
Hashtags are one way to filter the information you need on social media so it can be analyzed to your advantage later. For live stream events, they usually come in the form of an acronym or the name of the event with the year (#ADE15). Make your event hashtag unique and as short as possible to make sure your video has optimal reach.
Add an Instant Message Section
When your real and virtual attendees have questions about your eLearning session, try to answer as many of them as possible. Virtual attendees cannot speak to you directly, so the easiest solution for responding to their inquiries involves incorporating an instant message section to the live broadcast.
Second Step: Selling the eLearning Video Online
Once you know how your video is going to look, it is time to stream it live. For those who are unable to view it live, offer them the chance to buy it through an all-in-one platform, as described below.
Upload the Video
After your live video is finished, you should instantly upload it to one of the platforms where you can sell it. The sites listed here all enable you to publish and sell your courses.
- Academy of Mine – this platform lets your business create, sell and market online courses from $199 per month.
- Udemy – one of the most favored solutions for creating and selling online courses for free (you have to give up 50% of the sale if they bring you in a student).
- Ruzuku – an online video selling platform that is very user-friendly with a price from $79 per month.
Give them a Preview
Even though your eLearning video is on one of the platforms, you can still give away a little bit of the content for the audience to see as a preview. Supposing the video consists of several parts, consider giving the first part for free. Alternatively, you can create a video advertisement for the courses you sell, like this Monique Cosmetique commercial:
Interact
Once your live stream video is up and ready for viewing, interact freely via your own social media platforms and your website or blog. Notify your current customers through your email list every time you have a new video course. You can also give them discounts on older material. As for the potential buyers, highlight your services using proven video marketing strategies.
