Live Streaming

  • Use Your Marketing to Stay in Contact with Your Tribe

    Part of your marketing effort is sharing your philosophy and style with your followers in the hopes that they will get to know, like, and trust you enough to become a client or purchase your product or service (marketing in a nutshell). As with any comprehensive marketing plan, it needs to be in constant motion, continuously bringing prospects into your sales funnel with the hope of turning them into customers or clients.

    What do you suppose happens to those prospects when you go silent, either on social media, your blog, or your email list?

    • Do you think they will search you out
      to be sure you’re OK?
    • Do you think they will just patiently
      wait for your next email explaining why you were absent for so long? Will they
      even remember your name after a long absence?
    • Or will they find another expert who
      is more consistent with their communication and offers to help?

    Your marketing goal is to collect followers on social media, readers of your blog, and those interested in your emails. Sometimes those groups will overlap but essentially, you are gathering your ideal clients across numerous platforms. You’re growing your tribe and they deserve to be treated like gold, especially if they are giving up their email addresses and investing their time with you.

    Avoid Silence; Schedule Daily Interactions

    The only way to prevent your followers from forgetting your name is to consistently put your name in front of them. Don’t spam them with offers but post on social media daily; send regular emails; and write a blog post. The emails and blog posts can easily alternate, but the social media needs to be daily. Enlist the help of a social media manager or a virtual assistant if these tasks take too much time away from your paying clients.

    Outsourcing is a wonderful thing but your interactions with your tribe still need your personal touch. One way to do this is by answering questions and leaving comments on social media. This engagement with your tribe is always welcome, especially if a good discussion is happening. Cross promote your social media links to your email list and vice versa. Always have your social links on your blog so your readers can find you on other platforms. Promote your blog posts via email and on social media but mix those posts with fun, education, and be engaging so people will comment. Share snippets of your real life to show your tribe that you have the same issues they do or to just link a human face with your company name.

    Mix Things Up and Use Different Media to Communicate

    I’m a big believer in stick to what works but that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment in the hopes of attracting new people. Examine your media outlets on a regular basis and try mixing it up a little. Search for podcasts where you can be a guest (or even a guest host, if you’re bold!); hold a webinar, do Facebook Lives, or start recording videos for those who prefer the live video connection. You might just be surprised at how well-received these are from your audience. If one or all of these rocket your number of followers, consider adding them into your regular marketing plan.

    Another Way to Connect with Your Tribe

    A very profitable way to connect with your tribe is to create an online course or webinar. What better way to showcase your expertise and increase your credibility among this very savvy group of followers. Need help with creating your online course or webinar reach out to us. We’ve been creating online education since 2005.

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  • Best Practices After a Livestream Broadcast

    Livestreaming

    So you have decided to use live stream broadcating in your marketing mix. Wise decision since this form of connecting with your audience it SUPER HOT! But once it’s over what do you do next? Remember video is content too so be sure to use it.

    Giving away free information has always been a great way to attract customers into your sales funnel. People still do it because it works if you have the right formula. What is important when giving away information is to make sure it is over-the-top quality and delivers value. Otherwise, people are not going to watch it or read it and it will collect digital dust.

    Live stream broadcasts by contrast, present a higher level of interactivity. Of course, it needs to be said that if your broadcast is boring or does not offer great information, you will lessen the chance of achieving your intended results of getting eyes and ears on your broadcast. Your message will be lost.

    Memberships

    An effective idea on what to use your broadcasts for, is to set up a membership for the broadcasts. Facebook groups or a website membership site are good ways to share your streaming broadcasts. Keep in mind though Facebook terms of service will not allow you to charge members to join your group but your group can be a benefit to an online membership. So decide whether you want to charge members, or keep the membership free and monetize in other ways, like affiliate marketing or advertising.

    The broadcasts can be the foundation of the membership but you are certainly free to add more to it. In fact, you could set up a hybrid membership that allows free members to view the broadcasts but the premium members will get extra content. There are various WordPress plugins that can provide you with membership options like Woo Commerce, WP eMember or Easy Digital Downloads.

    Livestreaming

    YouTube

    Another possibility is to set up a YouTube channel where you will add each broadcast after they are complete. Then, it’s simply a matter of getting people to your broadcasts and asking them to subscribe to your channel. Again, it all must do with quality so if you keep your broadcasts at high quality, people will gladly subscribe. Keep in mind, that you can also livestream from YouTube. As a matter of fact, YouTube is working on enhancing their platform to work better on mobile, too.

    Mashups

    A third possibility is to network with other broadcasters and put together a mashup of related broadcasts. Mashups are fun and take the pressure off just one person providing all the content. This can be done via Joint Venture (JV) relationship. And it can be sold as a larger package and all the JV partners will send traffic to this mega-product but this is a more advanced process that is not for the newbie.

    These are several ways that you can reuse the broadcasts that you create. The one thing you should not do is let your broadcasts sit idle. Always find methods to put them to use so that they can keep working for you. Think outside the box!

    Be sure to connect with us on social media so you can see our live streaming broadcasts.

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  • Major Challenges with Live Video Streaming on Mobile

    Live stream broadcasting is exciting and people are jumping on it like wild fires. But there are some key challenges that people using the technology are going to run up against. Bandwidth and buffering being two that come to mind.

    MOBILE STREAMINGMobile Streaming

    Bandwidth has two issues. Video coupled with audio, uses a high amount of bandwidth. If you are one of those lucky enough to have a data plan on your smartphone with unlimited data usage, you probably have nothing to worry about. Although, talk to people that have reached a high amount of usage even on those plans. They will tell you their providers complain about fair use, etc.

    If you have a plan that is limited, you could end up paying some hefty overage fees if you go over the limit. This may not be a problem if you can monetize because of the broadcasts you are doing. But you will need to make more than the extra charges that your smart device is running up.

    Of course, if you are broadcasting from your home, you could easily set your phone up to use your Wi Fi connection. This will circumvent any usage on your data plan, if your Wi Fi usage is still unlimited. At this point, most home internet plans allow for unlimited use. It remains to be seen if that will last forever.

    Buffering can occur if you have a slow connection

    Video StreamingIf you plan on broadcasting, it is a good idea to stop any background processes from running during the broadcast. Also, you may want to shut down any file sharing and file uploads while the broadcast is running. Remember, you want to make the experience for your viewers as smooth as possible. Since broadcasting is live, any buffering will cause delays for your viewers. This will likely get them to move on from your broadcasts. The idea is to keep them coming back not to scare them off.

    It’s going to be interesting to see, now that live video streaming has exploded onto the scene, how that will affect data plan prices going forward. It could be just the thing needed to motivate the phone service providers into offering more robust plans. These plans may come at a higher price, at least initially. But that is certainly a better option than having to pay per minute overages any time you go over your limits. Besides, as more phone service providers scramble to get your business, the result will likely be lower prices across the board.

    Keep in mind,  there is always the alternative of just broadcasting from your desktop. Although not all platforms support that option. Whatever way you go always keep your followers in mind. Make a great experience for them and they will keep coming back.

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  • Connecting with Your Audience by Using Live Stream Marketing

    Live StreamingIn marketing, we are told repeatedly to connect with our followers. We email our lists of customers that have bought products from us before. However, they don’t always get to know us as they would if we had a brick and morter business. Also, unless we are constantly sending them emails and/or offers, they are more likely to forget about us. That is until you start to introduce live stream marketing into the mix.

    Don’t get me wrong, email marketing is still a fantastic way to connect with your followers but having multiple ways to stay connected to your audience is the way to go because relying on just one source is never the best practice for marketing your business.

    With live stream marketing, you have a way of speaking directly to your customer. You can give them tips and tricks about your products, or you can simply use the medium to keep in touch. You can even ask them if they have any questions or concerns about the products/services that you offer. It can also be used to let them know about your future events.

    Using a Personal Touch

    There’s not too much in the marketing world that gets as personal as live stream media. Unless you plan on contacting to every person on your list, one-on-one via phone, broadcasting via video is the next best thing. Customers will appreciate this kind of engagement because they see it is an actual person running the video. It turns a cold customer into a warm one and a warm customer into a hot one. This increases the trust factor of your customers by a wide margin. The hotter your customers are with respect to trust, the easier it is to get them to buy from you.

    Are You Afraid of the Camera?

    I find that doing a ton of practicing helps you get over it. So, practice, practice. If you have some family members or friends that you can rehearse with as a live audience, then that is very helpful. It also allows you to get comfortable with using whatever platform you stream from. Live Video

    If you are camera shy, you still have options when it comes to live stream. Work with a co-host, outsource the broadcast or bring on a team member or partner to do this part of your marketing.  The person you choose to do the streaming should be on board with what you are trying to accomplish. A complement to your goals. The best way around this is to find people that you have worked with on a long-term basis who are as comfortable with you as you are with them.

    If your monetizing this part of your marketing, you can offer them a percentage of the sales that come from the product you are selling or a flat fee.

    The field is wide open for live stream marketing and it’s going to be interesting to see which players come to the foreground and which don’t. One thing is certain; it’s going to be a great ride for marketers overall.

    If this area of your marketing is foreign to you and you don’t know how to get started reach out to us. We can help coach you through the process so that you can feel more comfortable with live streaming. 

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  • How to Get the Most Out of Your Live Stream Broadcasting

    LivestreamsLive stream broadcasts are extremely popular. Smartphones have made it easy to broadcast to your followers. It’s a create way to promote your business. Here are some tips that top live stream broadcasters use to get the most out of their broadcasts.

    Relevancy

    Broadcasting your dog jumping to catch a Frisbee is fun for dog lovers. But if your followers are entrepreneurs who are looking to market their business, it’s a good bet that you’re going to lose them quickly with broadcasts like these. So needless to say, you want to have an idea of what your topic is going to be and stick to it. It’s okay occasionally to go off on a tangent just as long as it is somewhat related to your topic or it’s about building a more personal rapport with your audience.

    Be a Storyteller

    If you get nothing else out of this post, make sure you pay special attention to this one. Storytelling is going to be the secret sauce to your success as a live stream broadcaster. Since the beginning of time, people have been telling stories as a way of entertaining and educating. It takes some practice, but is well worth the effort.

    Trust

    Even if you never expect to collect a dime from your viewers, build up trust with them. You do this on camera by being yourself and being genuine. Don’t try to trick them or lie to them. Be straightforward and forthcoming.

    Enthusiastic

    There is nothing that will get viewers to hit the exit button for your broadcast quicker than a lack of enthusiasm. Broadcasts are very much like being on TV. If there is a show on TV that is boring, you are going to most likely switch it off. People want entertainment. This takes pratice, trust me, the more animated you are the better the broadcast.

    Engaging

    This word gets overused. But what it means in the context of broadcasting is to encourage viewers to give feedback. Likes and comments are currency in many of the live stream platforms like Facebook Live and Periscope. If someone signs on and says hello in the chat, acknowledge them by saying their name. If they have questions, try to answer them immediately or at least let them know you will hold a Q&A at the end of the broadcast.

    Captivate Your Audiencelive streaming

    You need to hold the attention of the people that are watching your broadcast. Simply reading a script, or from something that you memorized, just isn’t going to cut it in this type of medium. You want to elicit excitement so that they not only stay on the broadcast, but they can’t wait for the next one to start. You can do this by asking a lot of questions that lead to a yes answer. For example, you could ask, “who wants to use my method to make thousands of dollars?” Who wouldn’t answer yes to that? You see this all the time in webinars. The same technique should be employed in your broadcasts. Get their juices flowing, so to speak.

    Give Massive Value

    Whether you are solving a problem for your audience or you are simply giving a tutorial, make it great. When you broadcast, you are essentially stealing away a chunk of your viewers’ time which is something in short supply for most of us. That’s a big responsibility. Let it be worthwhile.

    I hope these tips are helpful and give you some great ideas as to how to make your broadcast more authentic, engaging and relevant so that your followers want more.

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  • 7 Ideas for Your Live Streams

    I’ve been blogging about LIVE streaming a lot and will continue to do so because it’s such a HOT way for you to market your business and it’s only going to get bigger according to all the experts out there like Buffer. Check out their post “The State of Social Media 2016” where they talk about how video content marketing is only going to be growing even bigger in 2017.

    Twitter saw the value in this and bought Periscope before it even released its product. Facebook invested a lot and continues to do so in Facebook LIVE. Be prepared to see a lot of video in your feeds.

    I know that most people are confused as to what to broadcast since many people can find being in front of a video camera intimidating enough so I thought I would put some ideas together for you. It’s easier when you have a plan.

    Repurposed Content

    PeriscopeIf you have been doing online marketing for a long period, there is a pretty good chance you already have a blog or website and have been actively filling it with content. If so, you can use the content from your website as material for your broadcasts. In fact, you can set up a weekly broadcast and discuss one post each week.

    The key to doing this correctly is to make sure you are consistent with your broadcasts. Do them the same day and same time every week. Make sure to have a question and answer period at the end as this is how to get people coming back.

    One way to entice them to join the broadcasts is to offer to give something away but only to those who attend the broadcast. The freebie will be announced at the end. It’s a good idea to make the freebies valuable so they will want to get one each week. A list of great tips is one idea on what to give away.

    Content from Private Label Rights (PLR)

    A lot of people are not familiar with PLR or Private Label Rights/White Label Content. It’s a less expense option than having a ghost writer especially if your trying to keep your budget low. PLR offers you content that you are licensed to make your own so you don’t have to always write from scratch. Our sister company PLR for Business  is committed to producing quality information and products for your business content needs.

    The great thing is that you can take a PLR product and use it in many ways to like live streaming topics. This will help you stand out as an authority which builds the trust needed for your audience to keep coming back.

    Tutorials

    People love to learn new skills. By using broadcasts to teach them something new is going to bring them back repeatedly. This is a great method for engaging your audience with valuable information.

    The topics that you can broadcast about are only limited by your imagination. This is one of those situations where you want to think outside the box to come up with ideas that others are not.

    Roundups and Industry News

    People often don’t have time to find information online or don’t know how to do much more than a simple Google search. If you provide regular broadcasts containing information about the key companies within your industry, you will find your audience to be quite receptive to this.

    You want to make yourself the authority in your industry. Be the person that everyone goes to for information surrounding your niche or market. Scan for news stories and interesting facts about the people in the industry. This can also be a great way to network with these people by letting them know ahead of time that you plan on talking about them in your broadcast. They may even invite people in their own network and lists to sit in on the broadcasts.

    video streamingProduct Reviews

    Most people look for reviews when they are researching products online. Doing so in a broadcast takes it to a whole new level. People will pick up on your emotions as you tell them what’s good or bad about the product being reviewed.

    Product Demonstrations

    It’s one thing to read about the features of a product, but another altogether to see it demonstrated live. The difficulty here is that you need access to the products being demonstrated. But guess what? You can reach out to the product creators and ask if they will send you the products for free. They may be quite receptive to doing this, especially if you are showing the features of their products live on a broadcast. Don’t expect them to be receptive if you don’t have good things to say about the products, though.

    Interviews

    I’ve mentioned this one before but it’s a good one. People love to hear from industry experts via interviews. If you can manage to invite someone who is an expert, this can make for a great broadcast. You will probably need a selfie stick to pass the camera back and forth or just seat next to each other.

    Keep in mind there are new apps being worked on as we speak to bring you together with a co-host via your smartphones and desktop for Facebook LIVE. But don’t forget Google Hangouts on Air still lives as part of YouTube Livesteaming options so you can still do them there for now.

    As you can see, the only limits on what to broadcast are the ones you put on yourself. Use these ideas as well as others to become a leader in the live streaming space.

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  • 6 Ways Businesses Can Use Livestream Broadcasts

    live streaming

    There is a lot of buzz around live stream broadcasting. Have you tried it out yet? You may be unsure on how businesses can use this type of marketing. As time goes on we are likely to see some creative ways that other businesses dive into it but for now let’s look at the 6 more common uses.

    Interviews

    Most businesses can take advantage of interviewing experts in their field. Perhaps the business owner himself will want to be the one interviewed. It is simply a matter of finding someone to interview you and creating the broadcast. But even that isn’t completely necessary as you can run the interview on your own. You simply come up with questions that you want your viewers to know the answers to, then you start broadcasting those answers.

    Customer Q&A

    Why not invite several of your trusted customers to jump on a live stream broadcast and let them ask you questions about your products and services? They can also tell you what they like about your products and what areas could be improved. This is a golden opportunity to connect directly with them and get some great feedback.

    business tipsBusiness Tips 

    Any business can offer to give tips about the business to customers and potential customers. Plumbers could teach people how to identify leaks in pipes. Marketers can give tips about how to increase conversions in a sales funnel, etc. These are just two of many examples.

    Testimonials

    Testimonials help sell more products. Potential customers love to know that others had a great experience with products and there is no better way to provide this than to use testimonials. The challenge will be in convincing customers to do so via a live broadcast. The apps available from Facebook and Periscope have made it quite easy for anyone to create a broadcast with smartphones. A word of caution about testimonials: be sure to ask the customers to provide an honest testimonial. Governments are cracking down on false testimonials or ones that are given in exchange for cash or awards.

    Before and After Broadcasts

    Any company whose business model is to transform something into something better, can easily employ before and after broadcasts. This can help show potential customers just what kind of work the business is capable of doing.

    Crowdfunding

    You can use broadcasting to state your case when you want to raise funds for your business initiatives. You can give information on where the money is going to go. You can also let potential funders know what kinds of rewards are available (if any) at certain levels of funding. Also, you can get people that have pledged money to state why they chose to fund your initiatives.

    I hope you found this list helpful to get you started on ways to use live streaming apps. If you need help in developing a strong online marketing plan reach out to me. I offer coaching and consulting services to help businesses like yours grow their prescence online.

    Here’s to Your Business Success!

    Wanda

     

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