Whether it is to gain additional revenue or reach a larger audience for your information, the success of your endeavor depends primarily on getting more people to watch your live webcast.
Of course, the fact that you are already involved in Live Streaming, is a great start. Live Webcasts tend to generate urgency, which makes people more likely to sign up, especially when they are unable (for whatever reason) to physically show up at your event.
But making Live Streaming available is just the beginning. You need to put in much more effort in order to bump up your viewership and make your live event a sustainable and even a profitable success.
Here are some useful ways to increase audience size:
1. Promote the Webcast:
- Generate buzz by posting on your blog, social media, and other platforms.
- Send emails.
- Inform your friends and partners. Spread the word as widely as possible.
- Encourage people to pre-register for your stream and use that to capture new leads. This encourages registrants to show up (especially if they have paid to do so!).
- Make sure you send reminders before the event date, then again before you go live – you could even use a live countdown clock.
- Choose a hashtag for your stream. This allows both you and your audience to engage in social media conversations on the topic.
2. Attractive titles and descriptions
Titles and descriptions can make or break your event webcast. They’ll either entice people to watch and keep watching, or drive them away.
When choosing a title, come up with 10 or 15 ideas, narrow the selection down to your 5 favorites, pull out favorite words or phrases. Then do it again. Test your choice with people in your email list, to determine which one people are more likely to click on.
Be brief and keep the title compact because only about 50 characters of your title will show up in search results. You can provide more detail in the description. which can (and should) be more detailed. Make sure you include keywords and phrases related to your event.
Another absolute must is to include a Call to Action (such as signup for our email list), a link to your website and links to your social media channels
3. Tease content
One of the best ways to get more viewers is to tease your content. It could take the form of pre-releasing snippets of information like text from a presenter’s bio or images.
You could even post a short highlight reel of a previous webcast recording to show viewers what they can expect in terms of quality and content.
Tweet content that’s valuable, interesting, and bite-sized, that has a higher chance of being shared. Make sure you include the time and date of your broadcast in these teasers. Definitely include a registration link, or a way to sign up for email reminders.
4. Bribe your viewers with rewards
Reward viewers who show up, using something of value to them. This can take the form of giveaways or raffles, discount coupons from event sponsors and even discounts for future webcast tickets.
5. Lengthen your webcast
While brevity is key for pre-recorded, on-demand video, that is not the case for Live Streams. One reason for this is because “views” are counted differently for live streams. Typically, a view is counted each time anyone logs onto the live stream. Even a passing viewer could end up watching a significant portion of the broadcast that promotes your product, information or your association.
Also, the longer you are Live, the greater the chance that more people will join in. We have experienced that the number of viewers always increases with time. More viewers equate to more comments, more engagement, more information, and more conversions.
6. Cross Promote
Use all your channel assets to promote your Webcast. During the lead-up to the stream, share the URL. Include the compelling description you have written. Once the event begins, you can share teasers or excerpts. Be sure to use your hashtag in all this material!
7. Use professional webcasting services
Better quality will always attract a better audience. Professional Event Webcasting Services,take the challenges of managing technical aspects of the webcast off your hands and make it easy to produce a seamless and reliable stream. Many of these services provide packages which not only include include live streaming, but also Video Hosting, Online Registration, Passwords, security & access restrictions, Interactive Chat, surveys analytics, Monetization, and more.
Professional service providers also employ advanced features like live-switching between multiple cameras angles that will make a webcast look way more professional. They can even insert pre-recorded content in the form of sponsor videos & commercials into the webcast during breaks to spice up the event.
In Conclusion
There are many ways to make your Live Webcast to look more professional, but the success of your webcast depends primarily on having enough people watching – you first need to build that audience!