Scale Your Business with Live Streaming in 2020
You already know the importance of video for your business, and how sales are massively improved with the utilization of marketing videos. If you didn't here are some stats to prove it according to Wyzowl:
80% of video marketers say video has directly helped increase sales.
95% of video marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.
83% of video marketers say video has helped them generate leads.
89% of video marketers say video, in general, gives them a good return on their investment.
95% of video marketers plan to increase or maintain their spending on video in 2020.
The value's there for video, but live streaming has become increasingly more popular according to Livestream, 80% of consumers would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog and 82% prefer live video from a brand to social posts. One in five videos on Facebook is a live video. Now that we've established the importance of live video for your business, how can you utilize live streaming to scale your business?
Real-Time Engagement with Marketing Live Streams
Live streaming allows businesses to share information, engage with an audience, and build their community in real-time. A blog shares information and a post can build community with the comments section, but each step is a consolidated event. A blog post can be a stagnant, non-engaging method with the comment section at the bottom of the page and many blogs have the comment section hidden. Even comment threads in video and social posts take time to build up a conversation. Sometimes those conversations aren't even relevant.
However, live videos have real-time chat where the presenters can engage with their audience and moderators can remove any non-relevant comments. Having this amount of control keeps the conversation on topic and marketers can answer questions by real people for all to see right then and there. Being able to communicate with your potential customers directly while also sharing product or service information brings huge brand awareness gains and has the potential to reach a wider audience. Live videos stay posted on YouTube and Facebook meaning they can be viewed and shared after the event is over. After you've engaged with your audience in real-time, now that live stream can work for you overtime.
High-Quality Live Streams Over Quantity
According to Livestream, 67% of people say the quality is the most important factor when watching a live stream. That means people pay close attention to the production value. You may be tempted to simply whip out a phone and start live streaming, as both YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram offer this feature, but you'll be sacrificing on production quality by using an inferior camera and production setup. People will notice. It's better to produce high-quality live streams than simply pump out live streams as easily as possible without proper planning and preparation. You want to impress your audience and engage them, not immediately push them away by poor quality live streams.
Best Camera Quality for Live Streams
These days, you'll be hard-pressed to find a live stream below 1080p HD quality. That's the standard for live streaming and online video, but it's even better to shoot your live streams with 4k cameras, even if you'll be delivering in 1080p HD. Cameras with 4K sensors can capture more information leading to higher image quality and detail compared to shooting only in 1080p HD. Matt Valentin uses not only 4K cameras but cinematic 4k cameras for the highest quality live streams.
Best Live Video Switcher
Using multiple cameras greatly increases your live stream's production value. One camera angle becomes stagnant quickly. Showing your audience more angles builds interest and keep's them engaged. Using a live stream video switcher like the Blackmagic Atem Mini Pro allows you to easily choose which camera you want your audience to see. Matt Valentin provides video switching with an operator so you can get the best shot at the perfect time.
Best Live Stream Lighting Setup
Lighting is another important aspect when shooting video. Without enough light, cameras tend to produce a grainy and distorted image. You may notice this when you try to take a video or photo with your smartphone in a low light situation. You'll want to use proper LED lighting like the Aputure MC to get the right amount of light. You'll need enough light for your presenters, whether that be one or many people making sure you use proper lighting techniques like using a key light, fill light, and backlight for better contrast and depth in your footage. Simply using a room light will make your footage look flat and boring. Lighting makes a huge difference, and Matt Valentin just so happens to be an expert on film lighting. He also happens to provide high-quality LED lighting gear for live stream projects and makes the lighting process easy by imparting his years of film expertise to get the best light possible, leading to a higher quality live stream.
Best Audio Equipment for Live Streams
Audio plays a crucial role in live stream quality and can make or break your live stream. You'll want to use dedicated video microphones, whether that be shotgun mics like the Sennheiser MKE 600 or lavalier microphones like the Sennheiser EW 112P. Both shotgun mics and lavaliers can be hidden well to minimize distractions. Matt Valentin provides audio equipment to capture crystal clear audio for your business live streams.
How to Get Started with your Live Streams
Once you have all the right equipment for your live stream, you'll need to use the streaming program OBS to combine your equipment and send the feed to a multistreaming service like Restream to broadcast your live stream to platforms like YouTube and Facebook. Here's a helpful video on how to connect these services.
High-quality live streaming can be very tedious, especially with all the different aspects necessary. As we stated before, your audience will notice the quality of your streams, so you'll want to ensure you're providing the highest quality to stand out from the competition. If you don't want to worry about finding the right equipment or the right settings for OBS and Restream, simply hire Matt Valentin. We'll provide the equipment and personnel to ensure you get the highest quality live streams so you can reach a wider audience and interact with your community in real-time. There are so many positives to live streaming in 2020. You can interact with your community, share your products or services, answer questions about those products or services, and keep your audience on the topic at hand to increase your brand awareness and even sales, ultimately grow your business...in real-time. Hire Matt Valentin today and start scaling your business with live streaming.
Let’s do this!