5 reasons your business should be live streaming

You may be thinking, Why would my company ever want to go live? After all, live video can be rather unpredictable and can sometimes take a lot of effort to produce. We get it. A company live stream may not sound like a viable idea at first, but hear us out. We argue that live streaming is the new radio: a powerful marketing tool that meets today’s audiences where they are. And no matter the size of your company, live streaming holds tangible benefits for your business.

Going live provides a whole new platform to reach clients and customers, future and existing. Producing a company webcast has the potential to boost engagement, help build a trusting relationship with your audience, and elevate your company’s image.

And with live streaming being more accessible than ever, it’s practically a no-brainer. YouTube, Facebook Live, and many other live streaming platforms offer solutions for live video. YouTube, for example, has 30 million active daily users who collectively watch one billion hours of content per day. What a fantastic opportunity to get your message in front of some eyeballs!

Many businesses are already taking advantage of this opportunity. Epiphan Video is no exception: we’ve been streaming our own Live @ Epiphan show weekly since 2017. We’ve been going live every Thursday at 3 PM Eastern/12 PM Pacific to YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. In producing Live @ Epiphan, we’ve discovered five indisputable benefits of business live streaming.

1. Live streaming can help build trust toward your brand

With live video, creating polished, highly edited video is incredibly tricky. But that’s okay! Viewers understand this. In fact, for many viewers this unedited, unpredictable, uninterrupted approach to video offers a certain charm as it presents the on-screen talent in an authentic and genuine way. This authenticity positively affects the level of trust toward the talent and by extension the brand they represent.

With more viewer trust, your business also gains more influence in your field. Your advice becomes more valuable. If you share your expertise live regularly, you can expect viewers to come back and turn to you for advice.

2. Live video creates real engagement

The content created via live streaming is always very unique. Every moment of video is brand new, never before seen, and special. The immediate and unpredictable nature of live video draws more attention and compels viewers to interact with the content, be it a “like,” a comment, or a share. From here, the word about the live show spreads, and as new viewers tune in your business will grow.

Live video also allows for real-time interaction, which creates an opportunity for you and your audience to ask each other questions and share opinions instantly. This connection helps build a better relationship between your business and your customer base.

Additionally, live video has a much higher viewer retention rate than video on-demand (VOD) content. On average, people watch live videos as much as 10 times longer than VOD content! In this day and age of constant competition for consumer attention, a triple increase in time spent interacting with your content is pretty significant.

3. A business live stream can raise brand awareness and turn your employees into stars

Businesses can use live streaming to project the company message, just like they would through any other type of content. What makes live video different from other types of content is that it’s a much richer medium. The higher engagement and viewer retention rates of streaming present more opportunities for various video formats, whether that’s short announcements, longer shows, or something in between. Putting more live content out there means receiving more attention for your brand.

It’s important to remember that viewers want to see the real you during a live stream. Although hiring outside talent is often a good idea for produced video content, using internal talent proves to be a better idea for business live streaming. Viewers love seeing recurring hosts (and all their quirks!). After a while and with regular appearances, these hosts turn into something more: they become on-screen personalities.

To demonstrate this, let’s take a look at our weekly Live @ Epiphan show. One of the show’s most popular hosts is George Herbert. Even though “on-screen personality” may not have been a part of his job description, since appearing on our live show from the beginning, George has been recognized at trade shows and other events! (We’ve had people come up and ask for a picture with him.) All the while, George was just being himself on camera. The consistency of his appearances and his no-nonsense demeanor boosted his credibility and created a business personality. This goes to show how using business live streaming can transform employees into brand ambassadors.

Curiously enough, through this process of developing on-screen personalities the company also becomes more approachable. Customers are able to put a face to a brand, thereby personifying it. A business with a regular live stream is no longer just some large corporation; it’s a group of real people you can see, talk with, and relate to. This also helps build a better relationship with the audience and boost brand loyalty.

4. Live content is actually easier to produce than polished on-demand video

Starting out, setting up and going through an entire live streaming session may seem intimidating. After all, it can be unpredictable, many people could be watching – and so many things can go wrong! However, with time, live streaming gets much easier. After you nail the basics of live streaming, the process becomes a matter of habit. Having a permanent studio setup makes things a lot easier. After a while, the hardest part becomes coming up with ideas for new episodes.

An added bonus of live streaming is that it doesn’t require much post-production. (You might trim heads and tails to get rid of the pre- and post-show noise, but that’s about all.) This saves you both time and money. After the live stream is finished, in most cases it automatically becomes VOD content that you can reuse and repurpose.

5. Live streaming helps you understand what your audience likes

Live streaming is a great testing ground for ideas. You may be able to judge a concept based on viewership, engagement, and (instant!) feedback during the live stream. Moreover, you won’t have to spend much time or effort on video production, yet the idea will still get out there (live!).

In our own experience, we’ve learned that some live show concepts perform better than others as VOD content. For example, two of our four most popular on-demand live shows compare streaming software, while the two others talk about multi-streaming and multi-camera streaming setups. This makes it clear that our viewers are very interested in hearing about these topics, which for us means we can continue exploring them. Curiously, we found that the videos that attracted the most live viewers were ones that involved collaboration with other creators (something to keep in mind).

Business live streaming can also help you gather great ideas from your audience. This goes back to the idea of instant feedback that comes with live streaming. During a live stream, you can hear honest opinions about your existing products and services, as well as requests for future features. Obviously, not all of them will be gold, but some may very well be worth noting.

Stream with confidence

When it comes to video – live or on-demand – quality matters. The last thing you’d want is for your stream to unexpectedly cut off mid-show and detract from your company’s image. With business live streaming, there is little room for failure. This is why it’s worth thinking about investing in professional live streaming equipment.

Deliver a professional quality live stream every time with Epiphan Pearl-2 and Pearl Mini hardware encoders. Produce professional-quality video content and live streams that will help you reinforce your brand message. Business live streaming is a highly interactive and effective way to communicate with your clients and customers, so don’t miss out!

Learn more about how Pearl-2 and Pearl Mini encoder hardware can help you make your business live stream a success. Be sure to contact our product specialists if you have any questions.