The Power of Livestreaming Your Corporate Events

Going live has become the next big thing in business marketing. Livestreaming grew over 600 percent from last year for major live video publishers. The industry is expected to grow to $70 billion globally by 2021.

Clearly, this is a huge opportunity for businesses. Yet most businesses do not know how to approach livestreaming or why they should pursue it.

Why not try harnessing the power of livestreaming your corporate events? Livestreaming events have actually been around for some time, but the introduction of Facebook Live in 2016 brought focus to livestreaming as a viable medium for business events.

Livestreaming used to be an adventure for even the most technologically adept companies. Apple found this out the hard way back in 2014 when they tried livestreaming their keynote event only forcolorful bars to appear across the screen for 30 minutes while a Chinese translation track played loudly in the background. The technology has finally changed, and now people like Martha Stewart, companies like Dunkin’ Donuts, and even small companies are using livestreaming events to their advantage.

Livestreaming video has become significantly easier and cheaper to use with a plethora of platform options. (Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and Twitch are top choices.) With HD cameras built right into our phones, high-quality equipment production equipment and creative studios are more affordable than ever.

Why Is Livestreaming So Effective?

At the most basic level, live video is effective because it feeds on the fear of missing out. More than 80 percent of people prefer watching live video to reading a blog or a social media post. People are simply more engaged with livestreams, and for a business, that can equal more interested customers.

Livestreaming a corporate event can bring a human element to your business and show the behind-the-scenes machinery that goes into the products customers buy. Authenticity is the key to growing your business, and livestreaming your events can be the key to building that authenticity. Here are just a few of the major benefits of livestreaming corporate events.

Engage a Bigger Audience and Gain More Exposure

The most obvious benefit of livestreaming is that you can, theoretically, broadcast to everyone in the world. As long as attendees have an internet connection, they can watch your event, no matter the location. This is a boon for people who cannot attend your event in person since it can often be challenging getting everyone under the same roof.

If you livestream the event online, why would anyone attend your event in person? A case study at Meetings Today found that organizations that livestream their corporate events experience a 23 percent conversion rate of remote into physical attendees. By watching the livestreamed event, remote attendees see what they’re missing out on. This fear of missing out is a big reason why livestreaming is so popular.

Engage Your Employees

Livestreaming can also be an excellent tool to promote training, education, and community among your company’s team members. If you have offices in multiple cities, holding an event and funding everyone’s travel can give your accountant a headache. Livestream your corporate event, and save your company money by welcoming attendees from remote locations.

You can increase employee engagement by livestreaming corporate events as well. Ninety-two percent of employees in a Wainhouse Research survey said that live video increased their engagement during online presentations.

The transparent and candid nature of live video can help build trust among your employees and inspire them to work towards the company’s goals. Livestreaming can provide a richer experience that allows for more personal feedback and participation from your employees.

Better Marketing Efforts

Livestreaming your events can become a useful cornerstone for your overall video marketing strategy. According to Facebook Live, users watch livestreamed events three times longer, and livestreamed events receive nearly 10 times the comments of static video. This live interaction opens up a world of interactivity that can be key in engaging and converting customers.

Why do you think Apple livestreams their corporate keynote events? It is a very effective way to market their upcoming product lines and also give the viewer exclusive content like last year’s peak at the new Apple campus.

After you finish a livestream, you can repurpose all of the footage for all sorts of marketing materials. You could split the event into bite-sized parts and create a small series. You could create teaser videos to entice people to future events. You could even use edited videos in an email video marketing campaign.

Livestreamed footage can be a cost-effective way to expand your video content library and enhance subsequent marketing materials.

New Revenue Opportunities

In this burgeoning live video market, many advertisers are getting into the game with corporate events. Live sports events, in particular, are premium ad space because the viewer is a captive audience. Anything can happen during these events, so engagement is high.

The same rule can apply to your live corporate events, and these types of livestreamed events are attractive to advertising sponsors. This captive audience can be sold to other companies who look to market through sponsorships. You can offer to feature advertisers’ name and logo at multiple points during the live broadcast, just like sponsorships do during live sporting events.

You could also consider charging viewers a small fee for access to the live feed, especially if you have exclusive content only for that event. This may lend an air of exclusivity that makes your event more attractive and may increase your online attendance.

Free livestreaming sounds good in theory, but attendance may be lower than half of what you expect if you don’t charge. A paid event increases the perceived value of the event itself, so don’t be afraid to charge a little bit for access to your corporate event!

The Power of Going Live

Livestreaming is the next logical step in video marketing and will be essential to pursue when focusing your video marketing efforts in 2019. Don’t be intimated by live video — it’s not only possible to livestream an event with gusto but can actually be easy! The benefits, like engaging a bigger audience, engaging your audience, creating better marketing materials, and adding revenue streams are well worth the effort.