How Bloggers and Freelancers Can Offer Live Video Events to Sell More Services with vcita

Are you finding that you are plateauing with your blog or freelance services online? With so many different options on the web, it can be difficult to make your business stand out amongst the rest. However – it can be done with a little creativity. 

One of the best ways to set yourself apart can be to offer live video events to your customers. Usually, small businesses tend to stay away from live video events, as they can be challenging to organize and promote, but that’s part of what makes this strategy such a winner. 

Live Video Events Options and Why They Matter

We recently worked with vcita, a small business management app that just released their new functionality to create, host, and market live events. This platform has created two different functionalities to give hosts options for how they want to hold their events.

The first option is through a Zoom integration. Hosts can create their event in vcita, copy and paste the Zoom link into the invitation, and send out invites. See below:

The second option that hosts have is holding their event on a third-party social media platform. Again, hosts can create the event in vcita, add the link from whichever platform they are choosing to use, and then once again, send out invites. Different options with this functionality include hosting Facebook Lives, Instagram Lives, YouTube Lives, and Twitter Live events. 

Going live on social media apps is a great option, as customers will likely navigate to your business profiles before, during, or after the event to learn more. 

You can also use the analytics features on these social media platforms to see how your event performs and how users are engaging with your social media page. 

Facebook, for example, will even let you set up a custom audience of people who watched a certain percentage of a given broadcast, which you can then use to serve up highly targeted ads. But the advantage of having accepted registrations ahead of time with vcita is, these people are now in your CRM as well.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Live Events with Vcita

The event management module on vcita gives hosts the ability to customize and automate every step leading up to, during, and following the live event in five easy steps.

1. Create the Event. Set the date, time, price (if you choose to collect a fee), and the online location of the event. Then hosts can add the event to the calendar and invite guests to join. As the host, you can also set a limit on how many guests are allowed to register for the event. Depending on how interactive you want the event to be, you can keep it to a small list, or to get more exposure, allow hundreds of guests. Additionally, you can create your event to be invitation-only. If you have a list of guests that you would like to attend, you can keep the event exclusive by only allowing those who were sent the link to register.
2. Promote. Once you have created the event, vcita will generate a landing page. You can promote a link to this page to your email lists, post it online to your social media channels, on your website, and more to help drum up interest and excitement. Users can click on the promotion that will take them automatically to the sign-up page to register for the event.
3. Registration. Once a guest chooses to register for the event, they will be given a form to fill out with their information including their email and their phone number. You can then use this information for vcita to send automated messages to the user. If you require a fee for the event, you can connect to any credit card processing platform of your choice to collect payment. During the registration process, you also have bonus features available:

• You can customize different questions to ask when users are filling out the form. For example, if you run a parenting blog, you can ask users how many children they have when they are registering for your event to get a better grasp on the demographics of your event’s audience.
• After a user registers, you can customize a confirmation message to be sent to their email or phone number. In addition, you can send custom reminder messages when the date of the event is close so users know exactly when and where to go.

1. Event Management. After a user has registered, you have access to contact them within the vcita platform. If you need to send out a document or a presentation prior to the event, you can do it through the platform. You can also send messages to all users who have registered, begin the event, and engage with attendees. 
2. Follow Up: Once your event has ended, you have a few different ways to reconnect with your audience. 

• Duplicate the same event to host it at a different date to build up a bigger audience base. 
• If you want to see who did not show up to your event who registered, or if you still need to collect payment from guests, you have access to all this information on the attendee list. 
• Send out documents to all your previous attendees to provide them with more information about your business, send them exclusive deals, or any other CTAs that are relevant to your marketing funnel. 

By hosting live video events, you are better able to connect with your audience, because you have that face-to-face connection as well as real-time benefits like answering questions right on the spot. If you are hosting an event with multiple members, you can also use this as a way to further grow your company by offering one-on-one services to members who are interested in your business following the event. Finally, live video events can act as another revenue stream if you collect a fee for the event. 

By continuously hosting video events, your loyal customers can share the meetings with their network and you can begin to grow your community. Using vcita’s live video event management platform will take the burden off of you by organizing, promoting, and managing the live event so all you have to do is connect with your audience. 

After reviewing the tool, I highly recommend getting started with a free trial to not only understand how to setup a live video event, but see the successes that come with it.

Author: Amanda DiSilvestro

Amanda DiSilvestro is the Editor in chief for Plan, Write, GO. She has been writing about all things digital marketing, both as a ghostwriter, guest writer, and blog manager, for over 10 years. Check out her blogging services to learn more!