Increasing the number of viewers can be challenging for entrepreneurs and businesses. Since they are not content creators, they hesitate to get involved with the target audience using YouTube Live Streaming. But keep in mind that businesses can get more views for their YouTube channel via the right tactics and strategies.
Marketing teams and business owners can provide high-quality material and promote live streams in advance if they want to engage with their audience. Don’t assume the audience saw a post on social media because you did so. 10% of the equation will plan and join live streaming. Advertising is also crucial for consumers to understand more and decide whether to tune in and watch.
For instance, the Super Bowl saw a 1000% increase in live video streaming from the prior year, starting in 2014. That was but one indication that live streaming has been anticipated by audiences for some time.
The problem with most marketing teams is that they don’t advertise their live streams and then wonder why they have no viewers or a flat view count. More than 82% of consumers are using the internet to watch video content, and marketing teams can engage with them using the right marketing strategies.
YouTube Live & Its Benefits
YouTube Live is the platform’s live streaming option and features similar to other streaming platforms. With this technology’s help, businesses can instantly connect with potential customers.
Users looking for live videos visit the live section on the platform’s homepage, where they can search for your feed. If a user has connected with a business’ YouTube account, they can also find a live stream hosted by that business because the video will appear on their homepage.
YouTube Live has countless advantages. Numerous small and non-franchised businesses and well-known brands like Bon Appetit have used the site. Among the main advantages are:
Engaging with Target Audience
This is a major issue. All-live everything allows for face-to-face communication through a screen, which is why it is so popular. Business owners or marketing teams can interact with their audience directly by turning on the chat feature, addressing their queries, and fostering goodwill and relationships.
Boosting the Brand’s Recognition & Visibility
About 68% of viewers used YouTube to help them make a purchase decision and purchased a certain brand after viewing it on YouTube. Going live on the platform establishes the brand’s reputation and makes them approachable with a significant, attainable person hosting live events rather than increasing brand awareness.
Running Budget-Friendly Campaigns
An account is required to access YouTube Live, and accounts are free. Businesses also avoid paying the high costs sometimes connected with video production because their video doesn’t need any pre- or post-production.
Building a YouTube Community
Although it is frequently disregarded, YouTube Live was the first social live-streaming platform that supported cooperation.
This feature allows marketing teams to collaborate on a giveaway or cross-promote with another nearby business. This skill also enables businesses to host visitors, allowing the promotional team to increase the size of their audience by highlighting the presence of an outsider.
How to Promote Your Channel with Live Streaming
How do you advertise your streams, though? Now let’s look at various strategies you can use.
Scheduling Announces the Live Streams
As soon as you have decided on a theme for your live video advertising, schedule it to go live. It is the cornerstone of effective live stream promotion and provides potential viewers with all the details they need to watch you live. Therefore, plan your live streams and move chance viewers one step closer to endorsing your company.
Reaching Target Audience with Social Media Platforms
Now that your live video has been scheduled, advertise it on all social media platforms where your audience is present. Create social media posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to spread the word about your forthcoming live video session. Social media users are 40 times more inclined to share visual content.
Two weeks before your live stream, promote it. Then, send a subliminal reminder one week, one day, and finally, two hours before you press the “live” button. When promoting your live video on social media, keep the following in mind:
Using Thumbnail to Grab Target Audience’s Attention
You can add a thumbnail while publishing a post to promote your video on websites like Facebook and YouTube. Use this feature to your advantage to raise your play rates. Create a thumbnail that explains to your viewers what to expect from the live video with the online thumbnail builder.
Giving Engaging and Powerful Title
Speaking of play rates, the name you give your future live session will impact how well it does. Make sure it’s compelling enough to get clicks and keyword-optimized to win the hearts of search engines.
Providing Context in the Description
Make sure your post’s accompanying text or description is as appealing. Don’t forget to use relevant keywords sparingly in the description as well.
Reaching the Right Communities with Hashtags
A hashtag is a sometimes forgotten yet essential part of your social media post. Increase the likelihood that your target audience will see your live video advertising post by including pertinent hashtags.
Pre-Registering Audience to Increase Their Interest
To gather leads and obtain a virtual “headcount,” marketing teams should ask users to pre-register for the stream. The strategy will motivate
the users to start the live-streaming session on time. You can remind the audience by sending an email or text so they don’t miss the live stream, which is valuable for your business.
Improving Aesthetics to Give a Professional Environment
Packaging can frequently distinguish between a great-looking broadcast and a mediocre stream. Investing in your show’s appearance is necessary if you want to stand out.
That includes overlays and backdrops using an encoder and a top-notch thumbnail image. A professional appearance will set you apart, even if you have to invest some time (if you do it yourself) or money (if you hire a designer).
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Releasing Teasers to Grab the Attention of the Audience
Creating a teaser for your live content is effective for increasing views. You may have seen trailers for
a movie or television show since childhood, and you may have seen people talking about a movie before it was released. That’s the power of realizing the trailer. When people get an idea of what they will experience with the live session, they won’t miss it.
Collaborating with YouTubers and Celebrities
The wonderful thing about working with influencers or inviting industry leaders is that it gives your company more legitimacy. Additionally, suppose you produce a high-caliber program. In that case, you may utilize other guests’ and co-hosts’ existing audiences and succeed in attracting new viewers regardless of the live-streaming format you decide to use.
Promoting Next Releasing Live Shows or Contents
Setting up a shelf of playlists is another approach to advertise your live streams in advance if you’re streaming to YouTube. You can add an “Upcoming live broadcasts” shelf to your YouTube channel’s home page, announcing your upcoming show to your current subscribers and any new visitors to your channel.
Click “CUSTOMIZE CHANNEL” and then “+ ADD SECTION” under “Featured Sections” to add this. Choose “Upcoming live broadcasts” from the drop-down menu after that. When you plan a YouTube Live, it will be visible to viewers on your channel’s home page.
Engaging with the Target Audience
We’ve established that one of the best features of YouTube Live is the opportunity for audience engagement, so you should take advantage of it by interacting with them as often as you can.
Marketing teams can create polls for viewers to vote on, have questions ready to ask throughout the live streaming, and keep an eye on the conversation so you can respond to comments. These are all excellent strategies for retaining your audience and encouraging them to bring their friends along the next time.
Making Live Shows Interesting with Jokes and Humor
People watch live TV programs like Saturday Night Live for the mistakes at least as much as for the comedy, and live streaming should be viewed with the same mindset.
While being as prepared as possible, you should also make a strategy to be flexible and have fun. Avoid making fun of yourself, but if something goes wrong—which it almost certainly will—laugh about it. Enjoy yourself and be relaxed; your audience will do the same.
Promoting YouTube Channel with Rewards for Viewers
Encourage users to watch your live broadcast by offering them a prize. Giving your audience something of value is the aim of this tactic. It can come in a variety of shapes. For instance, a social media star in Nepal offered to call a select group of randomly picked viewers who left comments on his live feed. This incentive ultimately resulted in more than 1500 comments.
Holding prizes and raffles are two other methods of rewarding viewers. You might also provide discounts and coupons.
Also possible are social rewards. Being the first to hear important or interesting news might pay off. In conclusion, disclosing insider information is a terrific approach to raising awareness and increasing viewership.
The best approach to reward your viewers is with quality content. Therefore, valuable, problem-solving, actionable, or dynamic information is a must.
Organizing Long Shows
In terms of on-demand videos, conciseness is essential. Live streams, however, cannot be condensed, and that’s partial because “views” for live streaming are calculated differently.
Given that a live stream’s broadcast may cease at any time, a view typically counts each time a user accesses it. Even a brief viewer could see a sizable chunk of the show.
This emphasizes the importance of moving slowly during a live stream for events. You don’t want to make your viewers bored; however, you shouldn’t go through your important material in the first 15 minutes.
Generally, the longer you broadcast live, the more viewers can join you. With time, there will be more viewers, and greater viewers usually translate into more feedback, interaction, knowledge, and sales.
Building Ad Campaigns for Retargeting
Do you think your job is finished once your live stream ends? Think again. Reach participants of the liver stream and remind them to act by retargeting advertising on social media and other sites.
Sharing Valuable Content
We’ve hinted at the necessity of having a YouTube Live value proposition that is crystal obvious to your audience.
You must give someone something worthwhile in exchange for obtaining their most valuable resource, which is their time.
Ensure your content is accomplishing more than just generating noise, whether it’s an unboxing video of a new product or software.
Photo by CardMapr.nl on Unsplash
Using Attractive Call-to-Action
When uploading a YouTube Live video, you should have a clear call to action. While we wish there were a magic trick to get every reader to click the CTA, picking the right CTA requires some thought.
The first step is assessing what you want viewers to do after watching your video. Are you interested in your audience purchasing something?
- Should my viewer set up a demo?
- Should I make other videos for my audience to watch?
- Would I like my audience to follow me on social media?
Once you have the answer to this query, you can choose the CTA that most appeals to your audience and add it to the video’s epilogue. To restate, determine where your audience is in the buying process and utilize an appropriate CTA for that stage.
Conclusion
YouTube Live gives you access to an enormous audience, while live streaming is available on social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch.
Prepare your YouTube Live campaign strategically regarding content, promotion, and call to action.
Live streams should look natural, and adding too many elements and improving will lead to the opposite reaction from the audience.
Make sure to do your research and watch other live streaming from companies in your field before starting your YouTube Live journey. Learning what works and doesn’t will let you customize your video to capitalize on its flaws and ultimately outperform the competition.