What To Do When Live Videos and Webinars Aren't Your Thing...
Ideas for us awkward folk who cringe at the words 'live' and 'video'!
You may have seen recently in the online/content marketing world that live video marketing has kind of exploded. Whether it's Periscope, Facebook Live or the obsession with 'webinars', it's pretty difficult to escape live video content and marketing at the moment.
But am I the only one who literally cannot stand the thought of talking *gulp* live on video?
Recording myself talking is bad enough, but doing it live? Seriously, I only just got myself almost-kinda comfortable with one-to-one Skype video calls; I don't know if I can handle live streaming to tens or even hundreds of people!
Why live video is just not everyone's cup of tea
I know I'm not the only one who feels this way - it's almost certainly something that many other introverts will relate to. In fact, I wrote a whole blog post about how your personality can affect how you run your business, and marketing tactics are no different.
It's not just about hating the sound of your own voice or not wanting to appear on screen (although there is that...); a lot of the time it's the intimidation of being live and being worried you'll make a mistake, say something wrong, or just come off like an awkward mess of stutters.
That's what's in my head anyway.
It's also the concern of not knowing who is watching, or perhaps worse - the concern that no one will watch (or near to no one), and you'll look lame and a bit self important in the process.
Of course all these worries are silly and probably unnecessary, but we all have our own boundaries - not necessarily for comfort (the best things are outside our comfort zones, right?), but for the pursuit of less stress and anxiety in our lives.
INSTEAD OF free WEBINARS...
PURPOSE: Many businesses use free webinars to attract lots of viewers, give away some useful information that they can take away, and then 'hook' them with a promotion of a paid product/service.
ALTERNATIVE: You can achieve the same thing with email marketing and opt-in freebies. You entice people to sign up to your email list by using a freebie that gets sent directly to them once they subscribe. Once they are signed up, you can send them useful emails each week or so, but also send out 'hooks', promoting your paid product/service.
Examples of opt-in freebies (that aren't webinars) include:
- Vouchers
- PDF worksheets
- Templates
- Mini ebooks
- Recipes
- Photo packs
I go into this and more ideas in more details in my blog post about building your email list with opt-in offers, but you get the idea!
Instead of paid webinars
PURPOSE: Sometimes people will ask you to sign up and pay to watch private webinars; you could treat this almost as a live paid workshop.
ALTERNATIVE: If you've got something awesome to talk about or teach, why not create an ecourse about it? You can deliver ecourses in text and worksheet format, email format, ebook format or even pre-recorded videos or podcasts (much less daunting than live!).
Here are some awesome articles about ecourses:
- How to Create an Online Course That Sells by Regina
- Build and Sell Your First ECourse by Made Vibrant
INSTEAD OF Facebook/INSTAGRAM LIVE broadcasts...
PURPOSE: To gain engagement on social media and show your audience what you're up to.
ALTERNATIVE: There's no denying that video content does better for engagement on social media (and get around 135% more organic reach than photo posts according to Socialbakers!), but that doesn't mean it needs to be live. Upload pre-recorded video announcements and company news clips instead of text posts to increase engagements OR, if you really don't want to do videos, a photo is still better than plain text.
But instead of just using a random stock photo, try creating your own graphics to add interest and make your social media posts more shareable! I personally love Canva for creating branded graphics for free.
Instead of Periscope...
PURPOSE: As far as I'm aware, most people use Periscope to post mini-webinars, to provide useful/valuable content and gain exposure for their business in order to promote paid products/services.
ALTERNATIVE: Try Snapchat or Instagram Stories for sharing really short snippets of information (you can pre-record these, or record them in the app and restart as many times as you like), or for longer topics or if you want more interaction, why not start a Twitter chat? At a certain time each week you can get people to use a certain hashtag to talk about a topic and have discussions!
What You should Know about Live video marketing...
At the end of the day, I have no doubt that live video and webinars are amazing marketing tools. I see so many articles about how utilising these marketing tactics have dramatically increased peoples' sales and livelihoods, and that's fantastic.
However I don't believe it's the only way to make money and to be successful with your marketing. Plus sometimes it's better to stay focused with your marketing activities and concentrate on what you're really good and what is working well, rather than doing a million different things without the resources to commit fully to each one.
If you are interested in dipping your toe into the waters of live video/webinars, check out these articles from business bloggers I love:
- How to Use Webinars to Grow Your Biz (No Matter What Industry) by Melissa Griffin
- How to Plan Your First Webinar by Think Creative Collective
- How to Use Facebook Live for Your Business by Bloguettes
Final words: The worst thing is feeling stressed that you should be doing something, when you really don't want to do it but you feel like you have to (even if you don't!). If you are stressed because you feel you should be doing live videos & webinars; just stop. No one is making you do it, and there are so many alternatives out there that might work better for you and be less stressful. Seek them out or create your own!
