Are you worried that livestreaming your event could be costly, or reduce your onsite attendance? This doesn’t have to be the case and livestreaming can actually increase your revenue and widen your audience.
So let’s look at why you should livestream your next event.
1. Reach a wider audience
By livestreaming your event, you can reach more people than would ever physically come onsite.
You can reach people who may live overseas or who have other commitments which mean they can’t spend the time and money to attend onsite. These people are an untapped market, both for getting your message to, but also to sell tickets to.
I livestreamed a conference that had a sold-out onsite attendance of about 200, but the livestream reached over 5000 people – that’s 25 times more people that got to engage with the event.
2. Increase future onsite attendance
Online attendance offers a lower barrier for people to get a taste of your event. Typically lower ticket cost and not having to pay for travel and accommodation allows people to try it out online. But a study conducted by Digitell showed that 30% of people who attended an event online went on to attend the next event onsite.
If you structure your event so that those attending via the livestream get all the key content, but there are added extras to attending onsite (networking, social events, fringe events etc), you can draw new people into deeper engagement with your organisation.
3. You get a recording of your event
As well as watching live, our livestreaming package includes a recording of the event. This can allow attendees to watch back to points they missed, or didn’t understand, but can also open the event up to people who were busy at the time or live in a different time zone.
You can also clip short sections of the event to use on social media or as part of the promotion for your next event or your wider organisation and build brand awareness.
4. Bring in more money
Conferences and events can be very costly, and if you limit your audience to only those who can physically attend you are limiting your potential income.
Online tickets are generally cheaper, but allow for a wide range of people to book and can really help the bottom line. But you can also monetise the livestream in other ways. Some organisations sell separate ‘watch again’ tickets so that when people rave to their friends or colleagues about the talk they heard at your event they can spend a small amount to catch up.
If you have event sponsors, you can upsell your packages by including advertising during the livestream breaks in the same way you may sell advertising spots in the printed programme. We recently worked on an event where sponsors and partner organisations were given a 30 second spot during the coffee break to show slides or a promo video.
Helping people and organisations with a passion and a message to reach more people is why I run MC Online Events. So, if you would like to explore livestreaming your next conference, presentation or event, I’d love to support you. I offer a free initial consultation so we can discuss your needs and then I can offer advice and support in the planning, delivery and post-event stages. Just drop me an email at matt@mconlineevents.co.uk