Although content is extremely important for live streams, there is something else just as important. Distribution. To make sure you get as many viewers as possible, follow these tips to successfully promote your live streaming videos.  

The last thing you want is to spend hours creating content for your live video and none promoting it, because you might end up with an empty “room”.

How to promote your live streaming videos?

Create visual assets for your live video

Take some time to create compelling images to promote your live video. Don’t forget to add all the important information, such as date and time, registration link or platform and anything relevant.

There are websites that help you create these images for free, like Canva. While creating the images, think about all the different sizes you’ll need. For example, small banners, facebook post, newsletter etc.

Create a Video Teaser

As we already know, videos are very engaging. Creating a video teaser, very short and to the point is a powerful way to promote your live streaming videos and get people engaged. You can show viewers the highlights of what will happen on your live video and all the information regarding date, time and how to enroll.

Leverage your social media followers

   1.   Use the images you created to promote your live stream on your social media.

   2.  Change your Facebook cover, Twitter cover, YouTube cover etc. to the promotion of the live streaming session. (Keep in mind, they might request different sizes and proportions)

   3. Share your video teaser to reach as many people as possible. You can do it more than once, to create expectation.

   4 .If you have some flexibility on your budget, social media ads can also increase your viewership. Just remember to have your target audience in mind.

Promote Across Platforms

If you’ll be live streaming to YouTube, it doesn’t mean you only promote your live stream on YouTube. Remember to always promote your content across your social media platforms.

This can also help you get followers from one media to the next. We never know what could happen to these platforms, so don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Have a Landing Page

A landing page is a web page focused on a specific topic, usually an offer, with a form of some sort. In this case, it would be a way to further promote your live streaming videos and get people to register with their email, for example.

It’s crucial to get your audience to register because having their email addresses will allow you to send them reminders. It will help you get a good attendance rate.

Leverage your email list

Let your subscribers know you have a live video planned, but don’t over promote. They might not like receiving 5 emails about it. Simply send them 1 or 2 emails, with the link to the landing page where they can register.

You can also use your own email signature to promote your live streaming video, by adding the information at the bottom with the link to the landing page.

Once people have registered to your live streaming session, you can send them some email reminders. Or if you have an email marketing tool, like Mailchimp, you can schedule these reminders. The most important reminder to send is one right before you go live.

When to start promoting?

You should start promoting your live stream at least a week in advance. Ideally, you would start promoting two weeks in advance, to have you enough time to spread the word but not too long that people forget.   

Even if you have less time to promote you live streaming videos, apply the tips you can to get as many viewers as possible.

Promoting your live videos is essential to the success of your live streams. Now that you have ideas on how to distribute your live streaming videos, make sure you invest time on the content.

Here are a couple of blog posts that can help you create the best live streaming videos you possibly can:

Live video content ideas: 8 Live Streaming Ideas Everyone Should Know

Live streaming mistakes: 7 Most Common Live Streaming Mistakes and How to Avoid Them