Companies across the globe are directly reaching their target audience via webcasting. However, whilst some are ensuring they are getting many viewers, who watch for extended periods of time, others are clearly lagging behind. How do you make your webcasts a must see?
The right content
Naturally, how compelling your webcast is, can sometimes simply come down to the nature of the content. This is ultimately about the value proposition for the viewer. A dull corporate presentation is going to get people turning off almost as soon as they have joined (if they even join), so you need to structure the webcast in a way the makes the topic essential to get people tuning in.
In the B2B world, you could, for example offer advice and tips for your target audience or invite some partners to host a roundtable discussion about your industry’s burning issues. You don’t want to begin any webcast by telling the audience why they should buy from you. The viewers may all be at very different stages of the sales journey. Some may be researching potential solutions, some may be fact finding and some of course will be ready to buy.
Dealing with such disparate needs is key to delivering something that is compelling for all. The ‘Why us?’ message should of course be part of the content but it should be layered through the programme and not over played. If people are watching they are either attracted by a need to fix a problem or they are already considering you as a supplier so tread lightly.
For consumers, it still needs to be a compelling proposition and can be of the nature of watch it live or miss out. We are seeing increasing growth in webcasts that are only live. If the viewer doesn’t watch it at the time they miss out. With compelling enough content this can make your webcast appointment to view and deliver a bigger audience and more social spread than a simple live then on-demand webcast.
Live webcasting comes down to opportunity. Does this webcast allow me to do (ask an expert or celebrity a questions) or see something (the latest tech launch, a one off event) that I would not have access to normally. This can be a range of things from a live only chat with Chelsea players directly into the Facebook timeline to the launch of the HTC One (m8).
That said, it isn’t just the content…
The production
The right look and feel for the webcast is key. The cost of production continues to fall but there is still a temptation to do the minimum required to capture a webcast.
We are sometimes asked by clients ‘Why should we use more than one camera to film the webcast?’ There is a very simple answer to this and we tend to send the client a sample video shot on one camera and ask them how interesting they found it.
The appropriate investment is sometimes difficult to judge and of course varies from scenario to scenario, but more options and more graphical interest will always extend viewing times.
There is also a need for the format in which the content is shown to be compelling. We are now seeing more and more magazine webcasts being produced. We all know this format well from TV with the editorial styles of magazine programmes ranging hugely from Newsnight to This Morning. The strength of the format is twofold. First it is constantly changing so you can do more dynamic things with it jumping from studio discussion to video case study to one on one interview. Second the audience is more likely to continue viewing as they know if they are watching a segment they have less interest in there will be a new segment in the next couple of minutes so they hang on to watch that.
Engagement
Engagement is arguably the biggest piece of the puzzle. Webcasting opens up a wealth of opportunity to get interactive and pretty much every webcast you could class as must see, will have a strong interactive element. There are a number of ways to achieve this, such as Q&A sessions, and running competitions throughout the stream, but for me the most engaging is using polling to ask the audience what they want to see and then changing the content of the programme on the fly. For example ask the audience which topic area they want to discuss, take a poll and when no-one votes for topics A and C you go straight to topic B.
Social media also has a part to play in increasing engagement. We have found that when the webcast is streamed into a social media site, the audience is more likely to ask questions, take part in polls and generally interact. Viewing times are also considerably higher
Discoverability
Of course, no matter how ‘must see’ your video, it makes no difference if people don’t know it’s there. Again, social media has a large part to play here and we have found that social streams generally have greater success with converting social media links and shares into viewers as the audience doesn’t need to leave the site or app to view the content. This also means it is very important to make the stream playable on the mobile devices that people are more likely to use to access their social media.
Over the coming months, we will certainly see the importance of social media for webcasting increase, and we expect to see an increase in live Facebook timeline streaming.
Overall 2014 will be a year when businesses will have to look at how they deliver better video content making it more relevant, easier to find and through interactivity, more engaging.
