How using a script will improve the quality of your streams
In terms of engagement, revenue, and growing popularity, live streaming is ahead of the curve. By 2027, the video streaming market is predicted to grow into a $184.2 billion industry. To stake your claim in this lucrative business, you need solid creative strategies in order to stand out from the crowd.
It sounds like an oxymoron for your live stream to be scripted, but organizing an outline and identifying your key talking points is critical to taking your stream from mediocre to professional. It’s easy to get lost and ramble if you don’t have an outline. Whether you’re brand new to live streaming, or looking to improve the quality of your streams, here are some helpful tips for writing an engaging video script.
Before you write
First thing’s first: narrow down your personal or business objectives for the live stream. Are you building awareness, or driving sales? Are you doing a one-time live stream, or are you hoping to bring repeat viewers for a series? Defining your personal goals before you write is crucial in staying on track and getting results.
Introduction
Right off the bat, it's important to address your audience directly and introduce yourself and your topic. Acknowledge your crowd - whether it’s ten people, or a thousand - and thank them for tuning in. This is a great opportunity to connect with your viewers. Ask your audience to leave a comment, such as where they're from or what they had for breakfast. Showcase your personality and engage with your crowd. That’s what makes live streams stand out from recorded videos, right?
Pro-Tip #1: Don’t wait for people to get on the stream when you have an audience ready to listen.
After a couple of opening lines, give them a brief overview of your content and remind your audience why they chose your live stream. What’s in it for them? How will it help them? What are the results of them following your advice or instructions? Keep it simple. You need to get to your content quickly. Give them a hook to keep them until the end. Incentivize them by saving a big nugget of information or prize for the last few minutes of your stream.
Body
Now it’s time to give your audience what they came for! The body of your script should take up the majority of your live stream. Break down the information into a few key points, which you should try to keep under ten, depending on the length of your stream. You don’t want to overwhelm your viewers - people learn better in smaller bites of information. You can keep things interesting by changing the view from yourself to another angle, or by sharing your screen.
Scripts aren’t just for spoken lines. If you plan to visually engage with your audience (and you should!) you should include visual cues under your lines. Rehearse the cues either alone or with your crew (if you have one) to make sure everything will flow smoothly.
Pro-tip #2: Keep your tone conversational by writing how you speak.
Engagement
Ideally, you want to keep your stream fresh, engaging, and offer your audience something they couldn’t get from a regular video. Another great opportunity to connect and engage with your audience is in between the body and conclusion of your live stream. This is an ideal section for an AMA, Q&A, an interview with an expert, a behind-the-scenes look at your business, etc.
With this in mind, you'll want to make sure that the live streaming software you’re using has a way for you to communicate with your viewers. PromoTix, an all-in-one ticketing and live streaming platform, has a "live chat" feature within the platform.
Pro tip #3: When answering AMA’s or Q&A’s, answer to the viewers by name.
Wrapping it up
To conclude your live stream, start with a short summarization of the content you’ve shared. Reiterate what you showed them, why it’s relevant, and how they can benefit from the information. Express gratitude to everyone for their time and attention, and then give your call to action (CTA).
Your call to action should relate to your personal objectives for the live stream. Here you might ask your viewers to follow you, try out your product, or tune in to your next stream. You can also ask a trivia question, give away a prize, or offer up a special discount code to those who made it to the end of your stream.
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