When it comes to live video, the possibilities are endless. Whether you need to live streaming content for your business or personal brand, you should have a live video marketing strategy. Live videos can help you increase your exposure, expand your reach and grow your online audience. So, if you are an entrepreneur, a content creator, a YouTuber, an influencer, an online teacher, a streamer, or you want to grow your online following, start creating live videos.
In this blog post, we talk about the different types of content you can create for your live video marketing strategy and how you can decide which one is best for you. If you are trying to plan your content for your business or personal brand, this can help you come up with new ideas and make your life a lot easier.
If you want to get tips on the technical aspects of live streaming, check out this blog post: Live Streaming Setup 101.Â
Content
Maximize audience interaction and engagement
Live streaming videos that maximize audience interaction and engagement
Expand your online reach and get more exposure
Live streaming content to increase exposure
- Live Interviews (In-Person)
- Online interviews
- Live Streaming Events
- Help Raise funds for a cause or charity
- Host a contest or giveaway
Deliver content to establish authority and increase viewers
Types of live streaming content to establish authority
Interview others in your niche or be interviewed
Use live video to promote your brand
Live streaming content – Wrap up
Live stream goals
Before choosing what kind of video content to create, it’s crucial to define your goals. As cliche as it sounds, setting your goals will make your life easier when it comes to deciding what videos to create, when to go live and so on.
Your goals are also how you can measure your success with live video. Sometimes, you get many views but not many sales, or not so many views but lots of sales, depending on your goals, you either succeed or not.
For live videos to be compelling, they require clear planning. Within your plan, you’ll be able to define your live stream goals or objectives. Which means, determine what you are hoping to achieve with your live stream. Are you hoping for more followers? More comments? More sales? Each live video should have a clear objective. Failing to plan is one of the most common live streaming mistakes people make.Â
Clarity
If it’s a series or weekly show, there should be one principal goal and smaller ones for each broadcast.  Because it’s live, we can get caught up in irrelevant details and forget about the bigger picture. Just like many TV fiction series, the season has an overall story, and within each episode, something new and exciting happens. Somehow, it all adds up in the end.
Having a clear goal in mind will help you choose the best type of content for your broadcast. Since there are so many to choose from, it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. Deciding what kind of live stream you should do, can be overwhelming, and many people end up not doing it at all.
Here are a few goals to give you some ideas:
- Get more followers
- Get follower from one platform to another
- Expand your online reach and exposure
- Increase sales
- Increase your audience’s engagement
- Build your email list
- Sell tickets to an event
- Grow your events
- Establish authority within your niche
- Get more viewers
If you decide to create a weekly live stream or a series, you can choose one goal as the main and then, select a second goal for each live. For instance, let’s say your overall goal is to increase sales. Before your pitch, you should get people involved with your brand. So, you can have smaller objectives during each live stream and build up to the sale.
Once you have your objective in mind, you can quickly decide which type of content will help you achieve it and focus on it. So, let’s get into the different ways you can create live video content.
Live streaming content
Though you should focus on one primary goal, a great thing about live streaming content is that each type of video can help you achieve multiple goals. Concentrate your efforts on one specific goal to guide your audience to where you want. But, it doesn’t mean that other aspects of your online presence won’t be affected and improved by live video as well.
Maximize audience interaction and engagement
One of the most critical live streaming benefits is the real-time interaction with your audience. This live interaction brings you closer to them. It creates a connection that can only otherwise be achieved in person.
Instead of meeting each person in your audience, you’re establishing a relationship with thousands of people at once and building trust. That’s why having a live video marketing strategy is vital.
Live videos have one of the higher conversion rates amongst all online content out there. To make sure your live videos increase your numbers, you need to get your audience engaged. Interaction plays a massive role in your audience’s engagement. Here are some audience interaction techniques that you can apply on your next live video:
- Show of hands
- Polls
- Q&A and Inclusive questions
- Storytelling and personal inputs
- Giveaways
There are other strategies to drive focus and get your audience engaged, that you should take advantage of. For instance, the visual elements within a video can have a significant impact on your audience’s attention. Having a brand identity, using different colors and components can help keep your audience engaged.
Also, think about using multiple cameras on your live streams. It creates interest and makes your video more dynamic.
Live streaming videos that maximize engagement and interaction
Every type of live streaming video is an opportunity for you to engage and interact with your audience. But, if your primary goal is to increase your interaction with your audience, create a connection and build trust, these following types of content are the way to go.
Q&A Session – Questions & Answers
AÂ live Q&A session is the perfect opportunity to interact with your audience, answer all their questions and learn more about them. You can gather some questions in advance and take questions live.
The questions you get asked will tell you a lot about your audience. It can lead you to a better understanding of your viewers and help you come up with other content down the road.
Another advantage to the Q&A session is that it doesn’t require a lot of equipment, nor preparation. You can do it from your mobile phone, or you can use a basic live streaming setup with a webcam, computer, and microphone. It’s all about the interaction.
Behind the Scenes (BTS)
A behind-the-scenes video shows what goes on inside businesses, industries, and people’s lives. The entertainment industry creates BTS footage to document what happens on set, mistakes and all. The public loves seeing the actors being themselves, how some scenes were made and the whole production involved in creating a movie.
Nowadays, behind the scenes, videos go further beyond the entertainment industry. The matter of fact is that people are more interested in the processes than ever. BTS is an incredible opportunity to get closer to your audience by giving them a sneak peek behind the curtains.
The setup for a live behind the scenes is simple, a smartphone and mic will suffice. The most important thing here is to talk to your audience and show them your process. If you’re part of a business, show them the headquarters or offices, introduce some of the employees or share company histories.
As a personal brand or influencer, you can also do live behind the scenes as mentioned above. But you can also share more personal tips and talk to your audience about your life, routine and even share vacation sneak peeks.
Expand your online reach and get more exposure
One of the highlights of live videos that marketers go crazy for is the amount of exposure and reach they give people and brands. Platforms like Facebook and YouTube give live videos “special treatment.” In other words, live content wins over contents on demand on social platforms.
Facebook live has a higher chance of showing up on other users’ feed and followers can get notified. On YouTube, a live video, at least while live, will rank higher on searches than videos on demand.
Also, when the content is live, viewers are more prone to share it with their followers because they know it will be over. Getting your audience to share your video is a fantastic way to expand your reach.
What some content creators do is, at the beginning of the live video, they start a contest or give the audience some incentive to share it. For example, “If we hit X viewers, we’ll give you X at the end of the live video!”. In a future post, we’ll go in-depth on promotion strategies, stay tuned! Meanwhile, check out this post for some practical tips on promoting your live streams.
Live streaming content to increase exposureÂ
Any type of live streaming content can increase your exposure and reach since platforms help boost any live content as long as it’s within their guidelines. The following types of content to live stream are shareable and can help you increase your reach even further.
Live Interviews (In-Person)
Participating or creating live interviews are an excellent way to tap into a new audience and massively expand your reach. They are also ideal for building your authority in your niche, but we’ll talk more about on our next topic. When you interview someone or are interviewed by someone, it’s an opportunity to tap into that person’s audience because you’re being introduced to them in the best possible way.
When it’s live, you can get the audience to participate in the interview and bring yourself closer to them. This interaction and the increased exposure can help you and your interviewee grow your audiences and expand your online success.
The equipment required for a live in-person interview is a bit more complicated than the previous examples because it involves more than one person. You should think about having different camera angles so that you can create a dynamic interview.
Also, keep in mind the audio and the direction of the sound, because sometimes just one microphone might not be enough depending on the distance. Before the interview run tests and do a dry run to make sure everything is working as it should.
For more about setups, check out the guide: Live Streaming Setup 101
Online interviews
Live interviews can also happen online, via video calls. The main advantage is the same as in-person interviews, tapping into a whole new audience from a similar niche. Another advantage online interviews have over in-person ones is the simplified setup and the fact that you don’t have to be in the same place. You can interview anyone in the world.
When it comes to online live interviews, make sure your computer and the internet connection can handle all the action. You’ll have several apps running at the same time, and the internet bandwidth will have to be allocated to multiple things as well. Before going live, test, test, test.
Make sure you look your best during your video calls: How to Look Better on Video Calls
Live Streaming Events
Events, whether they are in-person or online events, can be highly effective when it comes to increasing online exposure. If you are attending a conference, you can live stream parts of it, interview other attendees or share your insights with your audience. It helps you establish yourself as an authority in your niche and shows that you keep up with your industry.
To create live streaming content on the go, during live events, you won’t need a lot of equipment. Your smartphone and a microphone will do the job. If you plan to interview attendees bring your mics and backup equipment because high-quality audio is vital. Conferences and events tend to be noisy so you will need a good microphone that can suppress the noise around you.
Whenever you attend an event, make sure you are allowed to record or stream. Permissions can be particularly tricky when it comes to songs playing in the background, during intermissions, because it’s usually copyrighted and platforms like Facebook might take your streaming down.
Extra Boost
On the other hand, live streaming can give any event an extra boost. There are many advantages to events’ organizers to allow live streaming, and if it’s your event, you should definitely consider it. It can help you grow your event and your business.
“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.” – How to Grow In-Person Events with Live Videos (read the full blog post).
To live stream your own events, you should consider a more professional setup, with quality cameras, microphones, computer, software, etc. You might need to position cameras in different places, so you can create some transitions and keep the event interesting.
Extra tip: Check with the venue if you can get a dedicated ethernet cable so you can get enough upload speed to broadcast your event. Wi-fi connections can get unstable as soon as more people start using it.
Help raise funds for a cause or charity
When coming up with content for your live streams, why not help others? If you have any cause or charity you or your business supports, a live video is a perfect type of content for a win-win partnership. If you can deliver value to your audience and give the charity exposure, you’ll hit a home run.
Helping others creates highly shareable content, and it’s for a good cause. You can grow the charity’s online presence, get them donations and expand your online reach. A few ideas here are:
- Interview the charity’s personnel or owner
- Deliver educational content related to the charity or cause
- Create a special offer and donate the profit with the charity
- Start a Q&A with your audience and bring in someone from the charity to answer
- Share stories and testimonials of people helped by the charity
The equipment needed here will vary, but remember to check the charity’s setup as well, if you plan to do a live video call. If their internet connection isn’t good enough, your live video will suffer, and you won’t get the same results.
Host a contest or giveaway
With contests and giveaways, you get a chance to give back to your community and show your followers you appreciate them. As a business, you can give away one of your products or services. But you can also bring in other brands if you want to take advantage of this opportunity to form partnerships and build relationships.
As a personal brand or influencer, this type of content is perfect for reaching out to sponsors. Many brands might be interested in reaching your audience, and you can get some good deals. On the other hand, you know your audience, and you know what kind of product they would be interested in. So, figure out what’s the best deal you can get that would get your audience excited to win.
The key to hosting contests and giveaways is in the promotion. Take some time to promote your live stream and get people excited about it.
To make sure you increase your online exposure, part of the contest entry guidelines should be publicly sharing your video, while you are live. You can also push viewers to engage more, with comments, subscribers and likes. Another tactic used by many is to get the audience to tag a friend. You can offer a prize to the viewer and the tagged friend, to make it more interesting.
There’s no particular live streaming setup to host a contest. A good-enough internet connection, a webcam, a computer, and a mic can go a long way. You can mix other types of live streaming content with this one, to create an excellent material.
Deliver content to establish authority and increase viewers
Another primary goal you might have with your live streaming videos is to establish authority in your niche. Do you want to be the go-to person in regards to a specific subject or industry? Then you should focus on developing your authority.
There are two main paths to build trust and become an authority in your niche, through your expertise or your connection to the industry. Which means you don’t need to be an expert (yet) to gain authority, as long as you position yourself among the experts and show that you’re in on the latest news of your industry.
To increase your number of viewers and establish authority with live video, you need to be there first. Just like the TV news channels race to come out with a big story first. The ones that do, while still doing the job well, show they are on top of their game.
For instance, when you are one of the first to share some important news about your industry, you’ll get more viewers, and they’ll see you as an influential player in your field. Going live on a consistent basis, with up-to-date content, news, and with other experts shows your audience you’re part of that industry.
Types of live streaming content to establish authority
Any content that shows your audience your expertise or that you’re in on the major news and events will help you establish your authority. Also, if people see you with talented people in the industry, they will associate you with that high status.
Interview Others in your Niche or Be Interviewed
We already discussed some of the advantages of interviews, such as growing your audience and the interaction. When you manage to interview relevant people to the industry, your authority expands massively.
An interview is an excellent opportunity for you to network with big names in your field. At first, you might not be able to reach the bigger ones, but it doesn’t hurt to try. You can aim for people at the same level as you, for an “easier yes,” but, in parallel, keep seeking the ones slightly above too.
When viewers see you with all these people, they will associate you with them and as an expert too. You’ll be able to learn a lot from your new connections, gain new followers, increase the number of views and become the go-to person in your niche.
Events
Attending events and documenting it, through live streaming videos and videos on demand, shows your viewers you belong to that niche, and you’re a part of it.
To go further and truly establish your authority, you should aim to speak at these industry events. Contact organizers and see if you can get in on the time slots. Participating in events gives you great exposure and helps you build trust with your audience. The best part is, you can live stream from your phone.Â
Besides, giving a talk creates high-quality content instantly that can be shared as live video and then transformed into videos on demand, shorter snippets on Instagram, photos, blog posts, podcasts, etc. The more content you have out there, the more people will come looking for you for answers.
Webinars
Webinars are one of the most common types of live streaming content out there, but they still work. One of its significant advantages is getting people to sign up for your webinar with their emails, which helps you build an email list that you can leverage later on.
Roughly, the purpose of a webinar is to teach your audience something, in a seminar style. The presenter goes through a slide deck presentation, deliver valuable information to the attendees and interact with them.
Which means, a webinar is a perfect opportunity for you to bring value to your audience while showing them your knowledge and expertise. Delivering a webinar also helps you connect with them on a deeper level, Â which leads to building trust and relationships.
The setup to produce a professional-looking webinar isn’t intricate. You’ll need a computer with a live streaming software and internet connection. As well as, a high-quality webcam and a microphone.  With a software application like ManyCam, you’ll be able to share your screen, add slide decks, your webcam, images, and pre-recorded videos.Â
If you’re starting out with ManyCam, check out this video: Getting Started with ManyCam
E-learning
Other than webinars, there are various ways to teach your audience and show our expertise. For example, you can go live and educate your audience with step-by-step tutorial videos or training videos. If you work specific applications related to your audience, you can show them the ropes.
To gain authority, you can create live videos with steps, hacks, tips, tutorials, insights, and walkthroughs related to your niche. Your viewers will enjoy seeing you in action and will learn something valuable.
To do this, you can repurpose content you already created. For example, if you write blog posts, choose one that has had good feedback and create live streaming content based on it.
The setup to create these live videos will probably be similar to the webinars. But, it always depends on what your content will be. If you plan to teach physical exercises, you’ll need different gear. Nonetheless, the setup shouldn’t be too complicated.
Since live streaming is already challenging for being live, you should keep the setup simple and controllable. Even if you’re on a low-budget, you can still make it happen.
Use live video to promote your brand
Live videos are a fantastic tool for promotion, regardless if you want to promote your business, personal brand, product or service. The reach and level of interaction that can be accomplished through live streaming can help you achieve the results you want.
Because it’s live, you can get your audience more engaged and drive them to action. If you’re trying to make a sale, a live Q&A allows you to eliminate any doubts your audience might have and be the final push for them to make the purchase.
Here are some promotional types of live streaming content:
- Product or service live demo
- Flash sales
- Collaborations
Live demo
Products or services demos can be highly effective if you play your cards right. You can show your audience the best ways to use your product or service and give them a special deal for taking the time to watch you live. Reward them for showing up.
Flash sales
You can create a live video to tell your audience about a flash sale that’s going on. The video is in real-time, so take advantage of that and generate a sense of urgency to increase sales. It can be done with any kind of product or service, even if you work with retail, flash sales with live videos promoting them, work. Check out this post about how to use live streaming for sales.Â
Collaborations
Apart from the content collaborations we discussed earlier, you can also do collabs with other brands to create cool packages for your audience. For example, if you sell socks, you can partner with a shoe company and create a special promotion around a combined product.
Live streaming content – Wrap up
Live videos come in many forms and can have a massive impact on your online success. Regardless of the type of live streaming content you choose, keep in mind that live streaming is all about engagement, interaction and real-time connection. When coming up with your live video marketing strategy, it’s essential to define your goal with your live video production. Your goals will guide you to choose the best types of live streaming content for your business.
Each of the live video ideas can be combined with others. You can create a webinar with a Q&A and a flash sale, all in one. Or, you can produce an interview while raising funds for a particular cause. Get your creative juices flowing, align your ideas with your goals and start creating your own live streams.
