Live Stream as a Tool For Brand Growth And Awareness
A live stream can be useful in myriad situations — yet when most people think of live streaming, events are often the first use-case that comes to mind. However, this is only one way to use a live stream video to your advantage.
For brands, whether they be personal or commercial, live streaming can be a powerful tool for growth and awareness. Live streaming as a marketing technique can serve its purpose with various tactics, and has even helped such well-known brands as Tough Mudder and Dunkin’ Donuts to further extend their presence and impact.
Announcements And Messages
Whether you’re filming the opening of a new location or showing off your company’s latest product, live streaming is a great way to spread the word of any news involving your brand. This method also allows your consumers to feel included and engaged on a personal level, rather than a scripted commercial or advert. Simply put, a live stream is more personal. It gives your audience the feeling that you are almost personally talking to them instead of talking at them. A single camera shoot might be most effective in accomplishing this sense of intimacy.
Questions and Concerns
Think about what you see at the end of almost any page selling a product. It’s typically the frequently asked questions, specifications, or purchasing details. Instead of addressing these questions as they accumulate and leaving it up to your customers to do the digging, you can bring answers to your customers or fans more quickly in a live stream format. This can help you talk directly to a large group of your customers and streamline any feedback or troubleshooting process.
Education
It’s entirely possible that your target audience knows little to nothing about your brand. A livestream is the perfect place for you to educate anyone who is watching about your brand story and brand value. In general, there’s one major tip for this: make your livestream succinct and interesting to watch. This can be difficult, if you don’t grab people’s attention immediately, they’ll likely tune you out or turn you off. So be creative and only include what really matters. With the popularity of DIY and other how-to videos today, there’s a lot of opportunity to create engaging, informative content that will encourage people to share your brand’s message with others. Again, being interactive with your audience is going to help.
Call to Action
Think about TV infomercials. At the end of each one, you usually hear something along the lines of “if you call now” or “this is a limited time offer.” While this was once a clever, effective tactic, it’s a bit outdated today. A live stream is an ideal, modernized way to share a limited time offer. Why? You know that your audience is watching you live, so obviously these viewers can’t miss the offer if they’re paying attention. If you can catch the sense of urgency in your live stream correctly, and you have a quality offer, you should be able to convince the majority of your audience to take action. A properly directed multi-camera shoot could be a particularly effective tool to help relay this sense of urgency.
Longer Messages
When you livestream, you don’t have to worry about cramming your message into a 30-second television ad. Instead, you have an unlimited amount of time to define and explain your product without any extra charge. This is perfect for conveying more complex ideas that are too long for a commercial but too dry to want to read about in an article or press release. With that said, use the time wisely. No one wants to feel as though they’ve wasted their time. That sort of feeling will ensure a lower viewer turnout the next time. Remember: live streams give you a lot of freedom, but you can’t take your viewers for granted.
Dramatic Flair
If your live stream is bland, you’ll begin to see diminishing viewer counts in subsequent live streams. At the end of the day, everyone wants to be entertained. One way to do this is by building a feeling of suspense. Don’t just drop something on the viewer. Set the stage. Lots of Television series, YouTubers, and musicians use this technique for special live streams right before a premiere or event. They often take viewers backstage or make them a part of the action by following the performer as he or she walks down the hallway before stepping on stage. While these situations may not perfectly apply here, finding exciting ways to keep viewers on the edge of their seats before making an announcement or reaching the climax of your show will create a sense of anticipation that keeps them watching and excited for more.
At the end of the day, your goal should be to give the impression that you’re continually producing engaging moments, and live streaming is the perfect tool to do just that!
