COVID-19 closures and shelter in place orders mean more service-based industries than ever are using live streaming platforms to deliver classes, services, and one-on-one sessions. It’s simple to set up the live video integration through your Vagaro account.
This article includes:
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What successful live streams have in common & how to see if yours measures up
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How to measure your live stream success with data collected from customer touch points: open rate, click-through rate, registrations, and attendees
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How to follow up with participants & gather valuable viewer feedback
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How to shape future live streams & create a successful, ongoing series
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, business owners like yourself have transformed into professional live streamers completely overnight! If you’ve been following Vagaro’s live streaming series, you already know how to create and market your virtual sessions, but are you running reports on them? Measuring your live stream data is important to your overall success as an online business! This data helps you understand if you’re on track with your live stream goals or if you need to improve. Connecting with your audience can boost your metrics and business growth, but you’ll need hard data to do this correctly. Here’s how to measure your marketing and live stream efforts and use viewer feedback to perfect your future live streams!
What Do Successful Live Streams Have in Common?
What does a successful live stream look like? All popular live streams include exciting, informative topics delivered with high recording quality. Pay attention to both the content (what you’re doing and saying) and the delivery (how the live stream looks and sounds.) Here’s a content checklist of what to look for before and after your stream:
BEFORE
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Is the audio crisp and clear, or should you adjust the mic and settings?
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Is the session well-lit?
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Can viewers clearly see your demos, movements, and expressions?
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Do you stand out against your background?
AFTER
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Did you engage with the audience as much as you wanted?
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If you posted your recorded session to another platform, have your views increased? Are there any comments?
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Did you receive feedback during and after the live stream? Review your customer surveys and add any additional elements to your stream that your clients want to see.
How to Measure Customer Touch Points
Now that you’ve considered how your content stacks up, it’s time to review your analytics! There are four customer touch points that measure the effectiveness of your marketing push:
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Open Rate: How many people opened your email?
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Click-Through Rate: How many of those people who opened your email clicked your registration link?
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Registrations: How many of those people who clicked the link signed up?
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Attendees: How many of those people who signed up attended the live stream?
Open Rate
Your open rate measures the percentage of people who opened your email marketing message.
Your open rate measures the percentage of people who opened your email marketing message. It reveals the amount of people who are interested in your email subject line. For fitness and beauty marketing messages, the average open rate ranges from 10.3% - 12.85%. If your marketing announcements didn’t reach that, not to worry! Increase your open rate by jazzing up your subject line to be more fun, for example: “Want better hair now? Watch my live stream!”
Click-Through Rate
The second customer touch point to pay attention to is your click-through rate (CTR). This is the number of people who opened your message and clicked the link in your announcement. You can track the number of clicks to help project your registration numbers. An average CTR ranges between 3.65% to 6.19%. If your CTR falls short of this, create a call-to-action (CTA) that is clear and to the point, for example: To sign up for my live stream, click the "Register Here” button below! A CTA that is unclear or hard to find will confuse your customers.
Registrations
Let’s focus on your live stream registrant list next! Registrants are the people who signed up for your live stream session. To get this number, use your Vagaro dashboard to run a Service and Class Report. You can compare your CTR to the number of registrants and if these numbers don’t match, why is that? Did your marketing message match the information (time, date, etc.) found on your registration page? Before announcing your live streams, check if the details you provide are accurate on all your platforms.
Attendees
Attendees are a lost of people who attended your event.
Now that you have your open rate, CTR, and registration list in order, it’s time to take note of your live stream attendees. Attendees are the people who registered and attended your live stream event. To get this number, use the Zoom dashboard. Ideally, your registrant and attendee lists should match up. If you notice these two numbers are significantly different, investigate as to why. Did registrants receive a confirmation email with a direct link and instructions on how to join the live stream? Did you send reminders of the event? Always follow up with registrants who missed the event with a “We Missed You!” email, linked with a recording of the event.
Follow Up for Valuable Viewer Feedback
What do you get when you add viewer feedback to your video review process? The recipe for live streaming success! Surveys, polls, and follow-ups show you how customers find you, whether your content is working, and what they want to see more of. Who knows—your next live stream topic might come from viewer suggestions!
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Send automated follow-up emails after your live stream to see how participants liked the event.
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Use Vagaro Forms to create a survey and find out how participants discovered your stream, whether they enjoyed it, if they’d register again, and what could be improved.
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Find out what customers want to see next with a poll—they’re easy to create and send with Vagaro Forms!
Practice Makes Perfect
So maybe your first live stream wasn’t a total success—that’s okay! The only way to get better at live streaming is to keep practicing, collecting feedback, staying on top of your data, and reviewing your events. Over time, you’ll notice ways to create a better experience for customers. You’ll find out what gets your audience clicking and registering, and how regular data reviews measure your improvement. All these factors will help you shape and refine your future events and create a successful live stream that’s stronger with every session.
Remote services and classes are a convenient, flexible option that allows customers to access what you have to offer, from anywhere in the world. Vagaro’s new integration makes it easy to go virtual, whether you’re a live stream novice or a video pro. Visit our support page for step-by-step guidance to get your Vagaro account set up to start streaming and give your local—and global! —customers something to keep tuning in to. Click here to read a letter from our CEO, detailing how Vagaro is here to help your business stay open for business, even if your doors are temporarily closed.
Images and Icons: Mia Montemayor via Vagaro