In recent years, there is more request from companies to include live streaming for their events as it will help to boost their corporate branding and reach a larger group of audience. Thus from trade shows to marketing campaigns, live streaming a company events to be broadcast online is becoming more and more popular in today’s technology driven-society.
Streaming a company live event is not only cost-effective for the agenda, live streaming also helps to expand your audience reach, boost engagement and increase the overall Return of Investments (ROI) for the events. For example, when the event starts to broadcast live, the target viewers will watch and consume the content on the event’s time whom are genuinely interested in the company’s brand and will stand a better chance to convert these groups to potential customers in long-term.
Other advantages of Live streaming of the event can boost the page ranking of the website if they upload it there. It is relatively cheap in terms of the cost production, take lesser time to produce the video as it is live feed to the online viewers and live streaming the event can easily engage the audience on real-time such as Q&A sessions during a business conference between the event host and any participant who are not present physically in the event venue.
However, live streaming an event can be stressful without proper planning. Situations like technical glitches or production hiccups will increase the likelihood to lose the audience. To ensure the success of any live event, marketers and the event producers should keep in mind the following best practices as mentioned below.
1. Requirements for Event Registration
Creating a microsite for the pre-event registration allows the event host to keep tracks of the attending registrants and using the webcasting platforms, the host can manage the attendance by sending out event reminders, automated confirmation email to the attendees and detail information about the event.
2. Checking and confirmation of the Event Bandwidth Requirements
This is usually planned and coordinated by the event’s IT team which they must ensure that the bandwidth requirements are efficient enough to broadcast the live event. Information of the expected number of attendees and the anticipated length of the event are important factors to take note as it may affect the quality of the webcast network that in turn will also impact the quality of the streaming media during the event.
3. Timing factor
Event producers must also take in account of the different time zone of the targeted online viewers based on their locations and schedule the best broadcast timing which most of them are able to participate and watch the event live. One of the alternative method is to use certain platforms to record the live and made available on-demand to accommodate to viewers with a big different in the global time zone. One thing to note that the on-demand URL link can be used for the registration of the event to allow easier access to those attendees that are unable to attend the live broadcast.
4. Conducting the full rehearsal and test run for the Live event
As always, it is important to ensure the event crew has sufficient time to set up and test the audio and video equipment and run a full test before the event. Marketers and IT personnel in charge should also look out for any technical issues for the sound, encoder or lighting problems and ensure that there is a stationary background without doorways or windows in the event site.
5. To ensure the Event Content is Mobile Friendly
Compatibility is another crucial factor to maximize the event attendance. While selecting a suitable webcasting platform to upload the content. It is important to make sure that the live event can be easily accessible via smart devices like mobile phone and tablets to maximize the opportunity to engage the participating viewers online.
6. Interaction with the audience
Instead of the host speaking and interacting with the audience, Marketers can use interactive online features such as the live Q&A, social networking, online polling and live chat features into their broadcast. This can maintain the audience’s interest as they can actively engaged in the event and will more likely to attend next event organized by the same company in the future. Interactive features are also useful for companies to collect feedbacks and insights from the key stakeholders that are involved in the event.
7. Maximize Analytics
It is good to take advantage of the webcast platform’s analytics to track and record the attendee’s behavior like the number of questions asked and materials download during the event. By doing so, the event organizer can gather statistics on the positive /negative feedback on their company’s brand, products or services and the event itself. Using the analytics can also determine on factors such as the duration of the attendees that stayed on the event, whether have they lost interest at any point of the event and other related factors. This helps to provide additional insight for the marketers to follow up with the interested parties as potential leads to upsell their company’s product or service.
Generally speaking, by meticulous planning and preparation for the Live event and using the advantage of webcasting platform’s capabilities, companies can easily reach key online audiences regardless of the geographical location, Using live streaming for events can let companies increase revenue and earn a higher percentage of market share in return.
