We’ve all seen live streaming events on television or online; events which play out around the world and feature multiple locations, drawing millions if not billions of viewers to the screen at any one time.

However, it’s not something that many businesses have considered using to boost their own marketing endeavours, which means they are missing out.

You’ll probably be aware that video content is being hailed ‘a game changer for marketers’ at the moment, but were you aware that it’s thought by 2019, over 80 per cent of internet traffic will be streaming video content?

If you haven’t thought about using this highly effective medium before, then it’s time you did. For inspiration, here are several business uses for streaming:

1. Run webinars and interviews

Streaming webinars (webcasts) and interviews is a fantastic way to strengthen your position as a leader in your field while simultaneously raising your profile in front of peers. Live streamed webinars create authority and gives you the opportunity to take questions from viewers. You can publicise them in advance to ensure as many people as possible will be watching – from locations all around the world. The video can then be kept and shared for months to come, serving as a valuable resource on your website.

Another option is to conduct regular, live FAQ sessions and have specific experts answering pre-submitted questions. You could take people around your premises to solve queries, showing them how business is conducted or how a product is made. This is far more effective than a static FAQ page.

2. Share events and products

This is a great way to engage with your audience and potentially pick up more followers. Sharing a live event stream allows your audience to feel involved and almost participate in what’s going on. It enables you to move around, showing the audience several different things or going behind the scenes, to keep attention levels high.  If you can coordinate this with a live Twitter chat, you could encourage viewers to tell you what they want to see and respond accordingly.

If you have a new advertisement or product coming out, launch it via multiple marketing channels and see your reach skyrocket. You could interact with billions of people in hundreds of locations around the world, showing them how your product works, how it was developed and explaining its uses. How’s that for raising brand awareness and potentially attracting new customers?

3. Hold business meetings

The days of travelling miles and miles for a meeting are / should be over. Video streaming is the way forward. Not only is this a time-saving and economical way to hold meetings, it means parties in several locations can interact without the need to get on a plane. This can even form part of your corporate social responsibility policy, which demonstrates your caring side to potential clients and partners. It’s good PR.

4. Internal communications

Your live streaming endeavours don’t need to be restricted to external audiences; they can equally and usefully serve internal, corporate purposes. Next time there is an important, company-wide announcement, it could be made via video and broadcast to all employees, across all your sites at the same time. Training could be given a new lease of life (and become far less expensive) if you stream courses rather than make students attend in person. You could even boost morale by streaming team activities and achievements on the staff intranet.

5. Create a buzz

When something is billed as ‘live’, it can create excitement, anticipation and curiosity about a brand. The very nature of live-streamed content brings people together, in a desire to be part of something; to see or learn something new and exclusive; to hear the news before everyone else. It creates a buzz that can, in some cases, go viral. Streaming live events regularly is a great way to build a loyal following, reveal your human side, and show how you are a trustworthy and knowledgeable brand. It’s definitely an essential tool to use as part of your marketing strategy.

What are you waiting for?

As live streaming viewer figures steadily climb, so do the opportunities for businesses. It’s a cost-effective way to engage consumers, and it happens in real-time so there are no delays. We’re an impatient bunch and communicating with audiences is only going to get faster in the future. If those earlier mentioned predictions about internet traffic come to pass, then only those who embrace the new techniques and technologies will be able to keep up.

To find out how your business could gain a competitive advantage through use of live streaming, please send an email to nepconnect_sales@nepgroup.com or call us on 01908 865656.

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