How to Monetize Event Recordings & Instantly Increase Your Profit!
As an event producer, you can bring extra value to your clients by showing them how to monetize their event recordings. Your livelihood hinges on your ability to deliver value to your clients. And if you are good at your job, you will meet expectations by filling every seat in the room and receiving five-star reviews from attendees.
If you are part of the OSE community, I'm sure your goal is not just to meet, but exceed your clients' expectations! You can easily do this by creating an additional event revenue stream from repurposing their event recordings.
Not sure where to start? Don't worry April Iannazzone & Miroslav Beck are going to walk you through every step!
In this episode of the Only Successful Events Show April Iannazzone interviews Mira Beck from Beck Audio Visual Services. Mira & April discuss:
Today's best event producers exceed client's expectations by introducing additional revenue streams. In addition to simply filling seats and producing a spectacular event, they are continually looking for ways to maximize profits before, during, and after live events. By showing your clients how to monetize their event recordings they will no longer see you as just an event planner. You will become their trusted business partner!
Below is a deep dive into how you can skillfully monetize your live event recordings.
What types of events can be monetized?
Really, with a little creativity and out of the box thinking almost any type of event can make a ton of $$ with the event recordings! April and Miroslav discuss cover many event types on the podcast.
The most common events that can easily generate revenue from the event recordings are:
There are many creative ways to take a single live event and turn it into a fountain of cash that continues to flow long after your attendees have departed. Mira Beck of Beck Audio outlines a variety of simple ways to monetize your event recordings and exceed your anticipated profit margin.
Here's a few creative ways to generate additional revenue from your in-person event recordings:
Okay, so know that you know how to monetize event recordings...
I bet you're probably wondering how to get people to pay for them!
How to actually get your attendees to pull out their card and pay for your event recordings:
1. Include your recordings as a part of your VIP Up-Sell Bundle.
The path to monetizing your events begins long before your first seat is filled. You can get the ball rolling by advertising inclusion of your recording with an attractive VIP upgrade package that includes meals, special gifts, and other perks. This will encourage attendees to spend a little more well in advance of your event.
2. Educate your attendees about the value of a recording
Beck notes that it can be easy to miss key pieces of information during a live event. It is also easy to get so caught up in the excitement of an event. Sometimes you forget some of the most important points covered by speakers and experts.
Offering the option to purchase an event recording is a great way to safeguard against this pitfall. Your attendees will have the opportunity to fully absorb content by listening to the recording a second time.
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE:
Here's a couple great examples of how to monetize event recordings.
Grant Cardone, producer of the 10X Growth Con.
3. Arrange for a salesperson to be at your registration desk
The value of having a friendly face highlighting the benefits of a recording cannot be overstated. For the best results, make sure your sales representative understands the many benefits of event recordings. Usually a helpful, educational approach is better than using hard sale tactics.
4. Provide attendees with an enthusiastic reminder from the stage
Even with a stellar salesperson at your registration desk, you will not be able to communicate the benefits of a recording to every attendee. To ensure that you reach as many attendees as possible, plan to include a brief friendly reminder when you take the stage.
Be sure to make your pitch fast and friendly. And most of all, make it easy for interested attendees to purchase your event recording.
5. Emphasize how a recording can help attendees maximize their ROI
Event producers are not the only people in the room concerned about maximizing their ROI. Your attendees have invested their time and money in your event. They truly want to get the most out of your offerings. Unfortunately, if you host a multi-room event that features different speakers at the same time, your attendees will not be able to see every speaker on hand - UNLESS they invest in a recording.
6. Entice people with giveaways of your event recording
Anyone who has attended or produced an event know how much people love giveaways and freebies. Here are a few ways to peak interest in your event recordings through creative giveaways:
7. Consider live-streaming your event
This strategy can be a bit unnerving for some event producers. However, if properly executed with an onsite coach and support staff who can handle glitches, you can boost your revenue and expand your audience. Beck emphasizes the importance of timing with live-streaming, noting that advertising a live-streaming option too early may cannibalize your live event.
Ideally, plan to wait until two or three days before your event to mention a live-streaming option. Even better, wait until your event is sold out to promote a live-streaming option. When offering this option to prospective attendees, gently remind them that they will miss out on the great networking opportunities your live event offers so they will be incentivized to attend next year.
8. Craft an enticing post-event email campaign
Few things cap off a great live event better than a well-crafted email that summarizes the most exciting moments of your event. This is also the perfect time to remind attendees of the benefits of purchasing a recording or registering for next year's event. Additionally, you can entice people who were unable to attend to invest in your recording.
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE:
How to use a quick video at the end of your live event to monetize event recordings. This is a great way to leverage your community that could not attend.
Apri Iannazzone, The Growth & Profitability Strategist
Here's the video April referred to in the podcast. Yes, she is quite sweaty and make up is coming off... but this is after a FULL 3 day conference.
Notice how April is using this video by capturing the moment at the end of the event and giving those that could not attend fear of missing out.
What is the single best path to a more profitable event?
As outlined above, there are many measures you can take to learn how to monetize events. However, the single best way to produce an extremely profitable event is to register for Only Successful Events FREE Masterclass.
You can click here to register for the class, which is designed to help you turn a profit before your event is live.
Whether you host workshops, facilitate trade shows, or specialize in retreats, this Masterclass will help you maximize your revenue streams for your next event. The Only Successful Events team looks forward to helping you make your next event a spectacular one!
AI: (00:18)
Hi guys and welcome back to the only successful events podcast. Today I'm joined by one of my good friends and also one of my vendors, Mira Beck. Mira is with Beck AV, and they have done over 500 events in the last 14 years. Not to mention that mine were in there as well.
So that's how I know Mira, he was referred to me by one of my good friends and also one of my mentors. I hired him for an event and his team did an amazing job that we actually hired him for a couple more events. So welcome Mira.
MB: (01:15)
Hi, April I thank you for the introduction and I really appreciate you having me here. I would love to share how to monetize event recordings with your audience. We definitely had fun at the events we did for you and all the other ones. So I'm excited to share some knowledge with your listeners, so thanks for having me.
AI: (01:27)
My pleasure. So tell us or tell the listeners what you do because
you're more than just the AV company that we would normally hire from the hotel or from an event directory.
MB: (01:40)
Yeah, totally. I started in this industry over 14 years ago and I quickly got plugged into a lot of the Glazer Kennedy style marketing. And a lot of direct response marketing at the seminars that I was doing. So I was listening in and I was building my company based on a lot of this training. I ended up joining some masterminds and really invested a lot of money through my own education for marketing.
So when the time came to start really advising clients on how to really monetize the event recordings or how to make the rooms more profitable. All of that stuff kind of came in together because now I'm not just the technical guy, the AV guy that’s responsible for running the cameras.
I've been pretty instrumental with showing our clients how to monetize event recordings. And turning the AV from an expense to a profit center at their event.
so I think that’s what sets us apart a little bit from the other in house AV companies and other companies that are out there.
AI: (02:42)
Without a doubt, that's definitely the majority of it. But there are so many other pieces. I'm going to go off on a little tangent here and I'm going to share some of my past experiences with the different AV companies only because I didn't know any better.
Now the first, I would say eight years of really producing events, I hired an AV company that was great. You know, they were really good. They did what I hired them to do. They did the announcing, they did all the setup, the slides came up on the screen at the right time and the camera recorded the screen.
Now throughout the years there was really never any usable piece of that other than me just standing on a stage.
If I was walking around or if my guests were walking around or the speakers, the camera wasn't following them. Half the time they were cut off.
AI: (03:33)
We were able to take off some of the audio, but it was definitely not something that I was proud of that we can use again or even entice people to come to the event again. With those videos, I just had it recorded and the audio sounded good. And nobody in the back of the room was having a hard time hearing. That part was great.
Now when I found you, it kind of opened my eyes completely. I feel like it was more of a partnership. You didn't just come out to work our event, but you also really helped us with the timing of the event. If I forgot to do something, you would remind me of something that's coming up. You would work with the coordinator really well and you added to the business rather than just was there to produce the AV.
We have great videos from all of the events that you did that we monetize. And that's what we're really gonna talk about today. So, awesome.
Let's talk about how to monetize event recordings in general.
MB: (04:46)
For sure. You mentioned the wrong way to do it, but I can also describe what everybody should be looking at when they are recording their events. We don't really do corporate type events. All of our clients are people that are putting live events on with the purpose of recording it and turning it into a product. So that's when I really feel like that's our nature. It's our expertise.
That's the only thing we really do. But like you mentioned the recording of the screen, that always drives me crazy when people do it with the camera because the technology is there. We can scan everything in high definition and put the oldest slides into the video in high definition.
MB: (05:29)
And then, of course,
There should be at least the camera guy behind the main camera that's following you
we have it set up where we have a second person behind the camera crane or we have at least a couple of cameras on the remote control plan, unfilled hats and it's more robotic. So one person could run multiple cameras.
I always love having one on the audience or shooting backward. When people come up to the microphone, they can actually be seen from the front. And then having one from the back, maybe put a wide shot and more creative shots. We do everything. Obviously, live switching, because I've heard some horror stories from clients where they would get everything recorded and then get a giant hard drive with multiple cameras delivered to them. And then they have to piece it together themselves.
MB: (06:14)
It's another $10,000. So sometimes you think you’re saving money on the front end, but then if you don't have clear communication and full disclosure, you may end up paying way more on the back end if you're not careful. So that's probably one quick tip.
we do all the production live switching so there’s no post-production except for maybe some cleanup. This is great when your trying to get videos together to learn how to monetize event recordings
I would also recommend for people who are looking for AV to ask for that because that can add an additional cost. But doing it live and doing all this switching and cutting into slides, it just makes the production much better. There's the pattern interrupt a lot of times. So it's not just one angle and there's just a lot of other benefits to it. I think that should be the industry standard in my opinion.
AI: (06:58)
Perfect! And for those that are kind of not up to AV terminology, it kind of is at this point, basic event terminology. If you're new to the arena, it might not be. So I'm going to kind of explain a little bit what you mean about the live switching because that definitely made a huge difference in my event recordings.
So instead of just having that one camera piecing the different parts together after. I'm sorry, not one camera, but instead of having a camera and then your slides and your audience and then piecing it together
You and your team are doing it behind the scenes and switching the cameras as you're recording it.
MB: (07:41)
That's exactly right. And then when we are watching it. I always start to watch it if I was the viewer that's going to be watching the recordings. So if somebody clicks the slide advancer and changes the slide. If you go to the slide I'm not going to leave the slide till I'm finished reading it and then I'm going to switch back to the video.
It's not going to be just two seconds quickly, just to upset somebody instead of adding to the production. So it's important that people that are seen from that perspective as well. It's not just random switching and cutting the cameras with no purpose.
AI: (08:15)
Perfect! So we're going to talk about ways that you can monetize the event recordings.
I want to just talk about what type of events should be monetized and pretty much to me, any event could be really monetized. How to monetize event recordings is up to you. There are so many options
Any kind of seminar. Even if you're not doing it to the general public, you're doing something for your team or for your clients. This can be turned into something really great. That could be a revenue stream for years to come.
MB: (08:43)
Absolutely! We can probably just drop a little nugget over here because even if you don't think that you need to record the event for any other reason,
Have one camera the back of the room on the wide shot.
Because we've had in the past, where the client would sell something or they would say something from the stage and then somebody would ask for a refund or would be complaining afterwards.
So just recording it to cover your own back is the lease that everybody should be doing. But regardless of using it in the future for anything. So just a quick thing because a lot of people don't.
AI: (09:20)
I didn't even think of that reason.
MB: (09:22)
Yeah. It can save your back for sure.
AI: (09:26)
Yeah. So if you're promising the world from stage and then you don't deliver it, it's there. But also if you are definitely giving those, this isn't an everyday type of situation we're not guaranteeing the results. You have that on record as well.
MB: (09:43)
Of course! Because the clients the people that will give you money, they hear something and then a few weeks later if they want to get a refund they will manufacture anything under the sun.
So having this recording, it's kind of black and white. You can go back to the tape like they always say in sports review the tape and then you know for sure. Anyway, that was just a side note.
AI: (10:06)
Perfect. How can people monetize event recordings?
MB: (10:10)
I mean there's definitely a lot of different ways. This is not going to be in any specific order, but, one of the easiest ways to monetize your event recordings is to include the recordings with your VIP upsell. So if you trying to build the value for your VIP you can add meals or VIP lunches. or extra session in the morning or something like that.
Typically if you add the recordings and you price the VIP at the same level as just the recordings That makes everything else basically free.
And it's a no brainer for people to upgrade even last minute at the registration desk.
So that's one of the super easy ones. You know it's always important to pre-frame some of these things too.
MB: (10:57)
So if you just say, Hey, buy the recordings, that's one way to do it. Then you can also say, Hey, we're going to show a lot of slides, a lot of information. You can either invest in the recordings and then focus on the presenters, take the important notes, kind of the aha moments. Or you can just scribble every single slide and go crazy for the next three days. So I position it that way.
Then the second way to position it is people make investments in money to come, to buy the ticket. They make an investment in time, travel, lodging. All of that stuff is really a big investment on their end. And if you don't buy the recordings, then really you're not protecting the investments you've made.
MB: (11:43)
Because I mean, you can pull some statistics about how quickly people forget things by the time they leave the event. I can tell you from firsthand. April you have probably experienced it. How many times have you listened to the same recording of Ziglar or somebody. And then you listened to it for a second time. You hear things that you would have swore you never heard the first time. Right? Same thing with the third and fourth time.
When you spend two or three minutes and tell a story about how important it is for them to invest into it you can make the sales much higher.
You can really sell way more than you would just by saying well, we have some VHS tapes you can buy, it's like VHS tapes? We haven't done those for years! You know, you cant sell it like that. Nobody's gonna buy it. Nobody, you know?
AI: (12:33)
No, I definitely love that option. And I do it in my VIP upsell page. So as soon as they buy the ticket, they're going to the next page and you're telling them why they should be upgrading to VIP. And by the way, when you upgrade to VIP, you get the recordings of this event because you're going to forget. You would position it where they're going to forget stuff.
They're going to want to revisit because the content is so great and valuable.
When you go home to implement, you want to be able to go back and review it.
Also, if you have a multi-room event where you have breakout sessions or different speakers going on at the same time, you want to make sure that they have the opportunity to get all of it. Even the ones that they miss or the rooms that they weren't a part of if there are different event paths for each person.
MB: (13:25)
Yeah, absolutely! We just did one a couple of months ago. It was exactly like that two break out rooms, one main room so people had to choose At the end of the day we had hundreds of sessions that were recorded that everybody got that paid for it. There's one more thing on this one. You’re obviously going to sell it the way you just mentioned, ahead of time. I think that having a salesperson quote-unquote or someone who is capable of upselling at the registration desk, would it be another point.
And typically none of the VIP benefits are delivered until lunchtime of the first day if they have VIP lunches. So do another kind of welcome.
Make the offer again from the stage before lunch and give them the last chance to upgrade
You will sell a few more every time and you can really make sure that you hit everybody you can.
MB: (14:21)
Well, the second thing I would say is the same as recordings could be done, if you do multiple events. You can use it as bonus material for the next event. So now instead of just selling tickets, you can sell a bundle that includes tickets plus the recordings. You can either sell the entire event or include the entire event. I've seen it before when you have some high powered speaker or celebrity speaker or some teaching presentation that's really powerful. Then maybe you can just al a carte these presentations and do a best of. So you don't have to give them the whole recording of the entire multiple days.
When you pull it all out, you can actually put a different value on it. So if you have some celebrity speaker, you can put a much higher value on each of those. And when you add it all up, when you're building your sales webpage and you have your deck with all of the things that I included, it looks much better and you can put much higher value. And, of course, make the event look much less expensive than it would be if it was just one bill together.
AI: (15:25)
I love that. That is perfect.
MB: (15:28)
Going with the theme of how to monetize the event recordings.
You can turn that into a product whether that means the whole thing or if you throw away a few things that don't apply to the recording that only apply to the event. when you have a video crew that's doing this editing, don't let them include all the MC stuff and music before you even start. It should start the second you start talking on stage. It should end with an applause after each session.
If there's anything like speed networking or things like that, that don't have any value in the finished product because nobody's going to watch it. You can cut those out from the finished product.
People’s attention span is short so make everything as clean and concise as possible. It's just kind of good business. You're gonna record it, you're going to have your product created and then you want to sell the product and monetize on it.
AI: (16:35)
I'm gonna share something that you had me do at our first event that I would've never thought to have done. The event was wrapping up and I'm all sweaty, it's the end of the event and everybody's walking in the background. You grabbed me and said April, can you record this quick video? Pretty much he handed me the microphone, we were standing in front of the step and repeat from the event. You said, we've just wrapped up the self-made success live and there's so much going on and I forgot what I said.
And actually if you guys are listening to this, make sure you go to the blog post where we're going to post this as well. I'll put that little clip and again, it was impromptu, so don't judge me on it.
A great way to get a quick video of the action going and then send that to my email list.
send that to everybody. Hey, you just missed out on this great event, but you could buy the recordings and all of this great stuff for just a small amount of money.
MB: (17:36)
Yeah, definitely. And I mean there's a simple template to it because we do it with almost everybody, you introduce yourself, tell them you just wrapped it up and you've covered a lot of good information and pick three quick little things you can say that was covered. Then tell them that they can pick up the recordings at a special price before the editing is done and this goes live as a, as a course. So really what your selling is the unedited version, even though it's going to be edited and all that. But it's more raw than the finished product and it's part of a marketing strategy obviously.
But you have probably three to four weeks to use this strategy before you're allowed the actual recordings or the course that you're going to create out of it. So yeah, it's phenomenal everybody should definitely do it. And I love when it's done and you see the backdrop of your branding or you know, people are just packing up and it's really raw and in the moment, it's not something that's been stationed in front of a blank wall.
AI: (18:35)
People are kissing you as they're walking out and you're trying to record, you know, all of that stuff.
So that brings us to the biggest way that people monetize the event recordings.
MB: (18:39)
That would be the actual selling of a product and the event recordings. There's a strategy to it. Basically, you don't have to wait till after the event to sell it. So I would always say prep your emails and your marketing strategies ahead of time.
And I think that's really important too, because if you're gonna think that you're gonna write an email in the middle of your event and send it out to your list, it's never going to happen. But if you write it a couple of weeks ahead and preschedule it, then you actually have a chance to make it work.
A good rule of thumb is to put a pre-sell of the recordings a few days before the event.
If you have a sold-out event or anything that you can use in your marketing as kind of, Hey this event is sold out, but I decided to last minute, hire a video crew to record it and you can get access to the recordings. At a lower price if you're not doing live streaming because that's the same strategy would apply to live streaming as well.
Make the deadline the end of the event. Which typically would be the best one. It's the most plausible one. It doesn't sound like gimmicks. Send out an email every day during the event. One in the morning, one in the afternoon, and just talk about what's been said on the stage. If there's a speaker, Hey John DOE is on the stage talking about whatever. If you want to catch the whole event click the link to get the recordings or live stream. Do it every day, twice a day, all the way to the end. Then final call. Maybe the Monday after or the day after you can do one more. Sometimes things do happen, sometimes they don't happen.
In marketing people say something went down or server crashed, just something that makes sense and that you're comfortable with and do one more push for the sale. After that, just cut it off. Then we would release the actual product. Typically you would want to give it a special price if you're going to do a special offer. We had literally clients last year that did over $45,000 of recording sale before the event ended.
MB: (20:56)
So that's three, four times more than he paid us to actually do it. It's doable. It's not a fire in the sky.
There are people making some serious money just from the recordings if it's done well.
But on the other side, I'm going to say that most of the clients that use us, I shared these strategies with them. It sounds great during the conversation. And then before the event, everything happens.
You know how crazy it is as an event planner and an event producer, there are hundreds and hundreds of moving parts. So if this thing doesn't get done in time, it doesn't get done and then you're leaving money on the table and then you're looking at AV as an expense instead of investment. Then the whole thing was just a good idea that never got done.
AI: (21:41)
I love to monetize event recordings and turn them into an actual product or membership site after.
So can we talk a little bit about that?
MB: (21:55)
Back in the day, years ago the standard was a big box of DVDs and CDs and transcripts and over years people got away from that for multiple reasons. Mainly nobody's using physical media anymore, even though I still love to have a CD in my car, if I have to listen to something,
AI: (22:15)
I don't even know if my car has a CD player anymore.
MB: (22:18)
My last one didn’t but the one I have now had it again. So I'm like, okay, I'll use it again. But I think it's all digital now and all virtual.
The membership site would be the preferred platform.
because you can upload things and you can update everything live. The problem with DVD and CDs is once they're printed and shipped, you cant update them. You would have to send some extra materials to update and stuff.
But today if you want to remove a module, add a module, put a PDF document, recording of a Q&A call, whatever, you can add it all in pretty much in real-time and keep your product fresh and up to date at all times and just then continue to sell it. And I really don't feel that just from my own perspective when I'm buying courses, if somebody charges me $2,000 and they deliver me a username and password, I'm okay with it nowadays. Back then I would expect a box of things.
AI: (23:15)
I don't think anybody expects a box anymore.
MB: (23:19)
I would really say go with one of the membership site platforms, there's dozen of those and upload all your content and segment it so it's nice and clean and easy to navigate and then add any downloadable documents. If there is a course workbook or some sort of handouts at the event itself, make those all digital and add them to the course as well. That adds more value.
One option of how to monetize event recordings is turning into a course. If you’re going to turn your recordings it into a course, there's a lot of strategies if you want to add value to it.
If you want to add a couple of consultation certificates, you can. You can beef it up as much as you want. A lot of times it's nice to have private Facebook group that's attached to that.
So people that are joining your course have a place to go and chat and that you can chime into it. Obviously don't overdo it with the one on one time because you know, you don’t want to create a job for yourself. Use the technology and automation as much as you can.
AI: (24:17)
And I want to add, for those of you that are listening that really haven't done this before, I don't want you to think that you have to make your event into a course.
You could make the materials and the recordings of what you shared in your event into a course.
So, for instance, we've done conferences where there was a very specific goal of the conference, but certain people on stage were teaching certain things.
For instance, the self-made success live, there was a couple, I would say maybe three sessions where we talked about client enrollment and how to get people on the phone, how to close the sale, how to really make sure that you're getting in front of the right people and then you're making an offer and they're buying it. So we created the client enrollment system.
It's three of the sessions. They don't know that the bigger conference was going on. It's just those sessions. And then we made worksheets to go along with it and then we upsell them into other packages there. So for those of you that are new, I don't want you to think that you have to turn the whole thing into a course, which might make sense to turn the whole thing in a course. But you can take out real specific areas too.
MB: (25:32)
Yeah, I totally agree with you on this one because sometimes we've done conferences where the third day somebody is teaching whatever they know from A to Z and in that case pretty much the whole thing can be turned into a course. But then you have conferences just like you described where there are some segments that are usable as a course and teaching moments. There are guest speakers, there are sponsors, things that really you don't want to end up in your final course. So it can go both ways for sure.
And you know, you've got to decide specifically based on the type of conference you're doing. Whether it makes sense or not.
When using live recordings as a course people don't have the same tendency to watch it as if it was recorded in a studio environment.
MB: (26:17)
So the way to fix that would be to shoot a short video to pre-frame the presentation then tell them now we are going to roll the tape on the presentation from the event and then come back and maybe do some takeaways and close the presentation and then pre-framed the next one.
So then it's kind of a hybrid between a course done from your office or a studio, and it'd be recycling some of the content from the live event. Then people have no problem watching it. It's weird. It just like, they just want to watch some old recordings of something versus, you know, actual course, but for whatever it's worth the, it works really well.
AI: (27:02)
Perfect. So I know you travel all over the place, but if people want to hire you to come out, where do you like to stay?
MB: (27:12)
Well, I’m based out of Tampa, Florida. We do have a whole set of equipment in San Diego, California. And then we have another big van loaded up with all of it to cover everything in between.
Right now I’m going to LA, San Diego, back to Dallas, Phoenix, Houston then up North to Chicago. So yeah, can't tell you how many miles we do over a year. But we do have a East coast West coast operation just so it's easy to just fly in and out. But our home base is in Tampa.
AI: (27:43)
If people want to reach out to you, where can they find you?
MB: (27:48)
The easiest way to find me would be just to get my contact info from the website, which is beckav.com. I think my cell phone is right on the page or you can post my cell phone or my email address under the video. I'm happy to not only connect with anybody that needs my help for an event they are planning. But if it's even just a conversation when somebody wants to get more specific advice on their event, I mean I've built my entire business on recommendation and word of mouth.
And my best thing is I give people time, I help them and you know, nine out of 10 times they ended up hiring me anyway. So I'll be super happy to do it for any of your listeners to extend this invitation and do a 30 or 60 minute strategy call where I can just give them a bunch of help and information and then if it makes sense, we can decide to work together if not, no harm done because that's my best marketing strategy the whole time.
AI: (28:56)
And it's perfect! It's all about building the relationships and I really do think that, like I mentioned at the very beginning, I consider you a partner to my business because you really provided a lot of great feedback and you worked with me throughout the event beforehand, during and after.
I really love that you're coming with a giving hand at the beginning and you know that if it's the right fit, you guys will end up working together anyway.
So is there anything that I didn't ask you about how to monetize event recordings that you feel you want to leave the audience with?
MB: (29:31)
Yeah, we should probably touch on the live stream because it's a big part of it and there's still a lot of confusion and a lot of things that people may assume that they should be doing and they maybe shouldn't.
AI: (29:46)
I'm afraid of live stream guys. I'm just putting it out there. I keep saying I'm going to do it, but I'm so afraid of it.
MB: (29:52)
There’s a place for it. And you know, technically the live stream is going to be the same feed that's getting recorded. So the live steamers can see all the multiple cameras and the slides and all of that stuff. It really ties into the actual recording of the event. But at the same time, you know, it's a strategy. So if somebody has a big list or a list of people from around the globe that are not going to come to the event, it may make sense.
Now in the past, we felt that live stream, one day will replace the live experience and that never happened and I really don't think it's will ever happen. You know, just thinking that you're going to send out an email to you know, 200 people and you're going to get a hundred live streamers, it's probably not going to happen. So it's a great monetization strategy if you have a big enough list or if you have big enough audience spread out around the globe.
MB: (30:35)
One thing you do not want to do is promote that live stream too early.
Wait maybe two or three days before the event starts and then if the event is sold out, that's awesome. Make an offer where you just say the event is sold out so you secure 200 live stream licenses and now people can buy it real quick last minute.
If it's free live stream or a lead generation type thing or if it's for your staff or whatever close circuit, cause some events are customer appreciation events. So it's really your vendors, dealers, whatever it may. Just figured out if a live stream could benefit. Then if you're selling at the event make sure that you have a coach or salesperson that's capable of doing the same job as the people onsite.
Because I've seen numerous times that somebody bought 12, 15, $25,000 package over live stream by talking to a coach over the phone just like they would do at the actual event.
You can easily monetize event recordings with the live stream experience for sure.
AI: (31:49)
I never thought of that. That's very interesting.
MB: (31:53)
I had one time, they literally had eight people in live stream. Only one actually bought the big package and it made it all worth it. So you don't have to have hundreds of people. Having a good strategy and having a team support where somebody is chatting with people and somebody is actually making themselves available to talk to them is very important.
I would also always bundle the actual recordings with the live streams. So if there are any technical difficulties, you don't have people complaining. They are getting the complete recording afterward either way. You don't have to deal with technical stuff and customer service stuff during the process. Because it's not worth it to have the distraction during the event. And then, shut the live stream down at the end.
MB: (32:37)
If you feel like you want to give them a couple of weeks of access, you can or just give them the recordings when they're ready. A live stream can be great. Just don't do it too early because you're going to cannibalize your attendance if you do it too soon. That would be kind of like the biggest mistake that maybe people make. They start offering it simultaneously and then they have a bunch of people saying, well, I don't need to travel If I can just watch it.
If you're selling live stream or if you’re pre-framing it, always make sure that you do the apples to oranges comparison.
The experience live, the networking and access to you is not in the same category as sitting at home and watching the recording from the stage and not be able to network with anyone and all that. You don't want to make it the same or even price it the same thing. The live event should be a little bit more expensive.
AI: (33:28)
Oh, without a doubt! Well really quick before I let you go, as we're on live stream, I kinda got a twinge in my stomach that people that are watching this want to try live stream but are possibly using AV company that has never done it before. So that's why I want to ask you, is it something that an AV company can just pick up right away and learn how to do the live stream and the switching and put the right stuff up or
Should they be looking for someone that is very experienced in live streams and how to monetize event recordings?
MB: (34:03)
Yeah, that's a good question. And I would say ask that question in advance, make sure the company is able to do it. There are a lot of different platforms and some are more expensive, some are less expensive. And at the end of the day, the only thing for the live stream that you need is feed out of the quarter or the switcher for the main feed. You need some sort of conversion box to do all the encoding and crunching the numbers.
Then you need a laptop or a self-sufficient live stream box that connects to the actual cloud to the platform. In our case we used to use livestream.com that's no longer working. So now it's Vimeo premium. So Vimeo premium owns live streams so that's my GoTo platform because all of our equipment is approved by them and certified by them so we know it's working.
MB: (34:53)
But there are a lot of other ways to do it. You just want to make sure if you're going to have somebody else do it, make sure they've done it before so there are no surprises.
Make sure they're not trying to take you to the cleaners by charging you a ton of money because it's not that much.
I can charge maybe an extra thousand dollars for all the equipment and even let people use our Vimeo account if they want to.
Then worst-case scenario, one walk around is for the live stream alone. You can position it as a fly on the wall. So you could do it yourself, use your own laptop and run a little camera in the back. The live stream is the actual fly on the wall of the room. Then upsell them the recordings of the actual close up cameras and the slides.
MB: (35:39)
So maybe make live stream free, but then make the purpose of the live stream to sell the recordings. The call to action with a live stream is it’s free but here's the link If you want to buy the recordings. Also a lot of people use live streams sporadically so they only stay in a couple of hours each day and when it's important.
Then again, the call to action is you want the full event click here to buy the recordings or if you were to have dates for the next event. You miss this one, obviously. Here are a few pieces of content, but then click here to register for the next event.
Intermingled the whole thing together and monetize it in multiple ways.
AI: (36:19)
Amazing! Thank you for sharing so much incredible knowledge. I'm sure people's minds were starting to spin about what they should be doing. If you're watching or listening and you are an event producer producing this for your clients and putting all these pieces together, this is a great way that you could add value by bringing this to their attention. Letting them know and getting them on the phone or maybe a conference call with Mira, you and them to really strategize the best plan for them. So thank you for joining me today and sharing so much great information.
MB: (36:54)
Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for having me. It was fun.
Guest Expert on How To Monetize Event Recordings - Learn more about Miroslav Beck
As a founder of Beck Audio Visual Services, Mira brings in a rare combination of business experience, marketing and video production, but above all, he is also an Information Marketer so he understands what you really need.