In-person events have been a valuable part of marketing strategies for some time now. They bring a ton of live, up-to-date content and participants get to interact with others interested in the same subject. Many people think live video go against live events but, in fact, live video is one of the best tools to grow in-person events.

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to use live video to grow your live events. Whether you prefer to stream parts of your event or the whole thing, live video can increase your growth.

If you think that live video will hurt your live event and you’ll lose attendees, think again. When people watch a live stream of an event, there’s a 30% chance of them attending the next one in-person, according to Digitell. 

A large event, called Coachella, before they started live streaming in 2011, sold out in 3 days. But, after the first live-streamed edition, the following year, it took only 3 hours for the festival to be sold out.  

Grow in-person events – Before the event

Live video is a great way to bring awareness to your events and to promote them. You can talk about the event on live streams, get people excited about what’s to come. Or, use live video to reveal who will be speaking at your event. Creating teasers will get your audience interested in your event and will keep those who already signed up, engaged.

The level of engagement on a live video is at least much higher than any other medium, so you need to use that to your advantage. During your live videos, push your viewers to take action. Whether you want them to sign up for your event through a landing page or to buy a ticket to be at your event, the directions need to be clear.

Grow in-person events – Stream parts of the event

Using live video as part of your in-person event strategy doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to stream the whole thing with a ton of expensive equipment. There are many ways to leverage the interaction and engagement live video allows.

Sneak Peeks

If the event goes on for more than one day or if you plan to have other events in the future, giving your audience live sneak-peeks will get them excited to join you on the next one. That can be done straight from your smartphone, and it’s all about sharing your experience.

You should also encourage attendees to do the same, with their mobiles and to their audience using a specific hashtag for the event. It will help you grow your audience, and they can also reach more people that are interested in the event.

Interview participants & speakers

Still, on your mobile, you can create live interviews during the event. You can interview participants to get their feedback on the event itself. Also, you can interview the speakers to give your audience even more valuable content.

Once you tag the person you’re interviewing, you’ll also reach their audience. Your event will get more and more popular. If people like what they see, they will probably be attending it next year.  

Behind the Scenes

Going live to show your audience a behind-the-scenes of your event, will trigger their curiosity and chances are, they will take a closer look at your event. It increases your chances of growing your in-person events because it appeals to the audience’s fear of missing out, also known as FOMO. Plus, if they feel like they missed out, they won’t miss out on the next event.

Expand your event’s capacity – Stream your event

Although streaming long segments of your event or your entire event will require a proper setup, it doesn’t have to be expensive. You can also talk to the venue to see what equipment they have and see if there’s anything you can do together.

A basic setup will include one or two cameras, a connection to the speaker’s microphone, a computer, a live streaming software that will put everything together, and proper internet connection.

Pay-per-view

You can offer an online stream of your event as an extension of the actual presence in it. So, you can set up a landing page where people can pay to watch your event online. If your events happen in a small venue, streaming them as a pay-per-view option is a perfect way to grow in-person events.

Freemium

A pricing strategy that can be applied to live streaming to grow in-person events is the freemium strategy. Which means, viewers can access some of the content for free but to watch the entire event. They would have to pay for the “premium access.” This strategy is also recommended if you want to grow your online audience because rich content for free is highly shareable.

Stream the entire event for free

Some will argue that you could potentially lose money if people can see your event for free. But, the truth is, the experiences are entirely different, and there are many advantages to live streaming it for free.

You’ll reach more people than any paid event you do. Online reach is, and it becomes your “online real-estate.” So, sponsors might be more inclined to invest, due to the size of your audience.  Since it’s free, viewers are more tolerant of ads.

Also, many people who watch your live streaming event, wouldn’t be able to make it to the in-person event anyway, so, at least, they joined you online. Most importantly, they will be thankful for the free stream.

For example, the company Salesforce created a conference in 2015, and they had 160,000 registered attendees. But, through video, they reached 75 times that. In other words, instead of being exposed to a hundred thousand people, more than ten million people were exposed to the brand. If there weren’t a live broadcast, they would probably have never heard of your event in the first place.

Key Takeaway

Live streaming your in-person events don’t have to be complicated, and they come in many forms. It can go from high-quality, yet affordable, streaming setups, to handheld mobile live streaming and still bring a lot of value to your event. Live video can help you grow in-person events like no other medium.  If you’re not live streaming your events yet, you should start right now!

Here are other blog posts that you might like:

The Advantages (and disadvantages) of Live Streaming for Brands and Businesses

Live streaming keeps getting more and more popular on the internet. Viewers spend at least eight times more time watching live videos than videos on demand. A video, in general, is the type of content with the best ROI, according to more than half of marketers worldwide...  (Continue reading)

4 Strategies To Get More Viewers On Live Streams

How to get more viewers on live streams? That’s what most, if not all, content creators, businesses, and influencers ask themselves. If you want to grow your audience, reach more people and get more viewers on live streams, this blog post is for you…  (Continue reading)