Broadcasting is a complex activity for any organization. When you have a deeper goal and purpose at the heart of your company, it’s even more important to reflect that part of your mission-driven business with each online event and live broadcast you create.
For the record, mission-driven brands don’t have to be a church, a food pantry, or the Red Cross. OysterHR simply defines a mission-driven company as one that exists beyond the purpose of earning profits.
If you seek to change the world for the better, not just individually but as an enterprise, you’re mission-driven, and you want your broadcasting to reflect that. Each time you set up a live stream or put on a hybrid event, you want the quality and messaging of your content to carry your organization’s core message effectively to your audience.
What does that look like? Well, that’s why we’re here, right?
At Sardius Media, we have spent years helping mission-minded professionals streamline their broadcast workflows and take their online content to the next level. In that time, we’ve discovered a few tips, techniques, and tools to help you stay effective without getting overwhelmed with the broadcaster side of your business.
Benefits of Broadcasting for Mission-Driven Companies
Before you get into the nitty-gritty aspects of mission-driven broadcasting, it’s important to remember why investing your company’s time, effort, and resources into this area makes a difference. Sometimes, broadcasting can feel like a frill or something you have to do because everyone else is doing it.
The reality is that broadcasting has some major benefits for your brand. Here are just a few of them:
Broadcasting Builds Brand Awareness
Public broadcasting is a powerful way to push your company’s message out to a larger audience. For a traditional business, this means they can reach more potential customers.
This also applies to a mission-driven business, but the impact is even bigger. The ability to reach new individuals who didn’t previously know about your brand can help you spread awareness of your mission and why it matters.
Broadcasting Expands Reach
When you broadcast your activities, you open up the doors for more people to participate in an event when it may not have been feasible for them to attend an in-person version. This makes hybrid events particularly important, as it allows you to maintain in-person synergy while expanding your reach to a regional, national, and even global audience.
Broadcasting Improves Engagement
As we’ll see in a minute, broadcasting doesn’t have to feel like a static television show or even a traditional live newscast broadcast a hundred miles away. It can be an interactive and multi-dimensional activity, which makes it great for interacting and building trust with your target audience.
Broadcasting Is Affordable
Broadcasters have minimal expenses compared to full-on live events. Sure, you’re going to have some costs associated with the hardware and software elements of your studio. (We’ll touch on some of the pieces required for a killer broadcast in a bit). But in reality, these are minor compared to the cost of hosting an event in a venue. Even in a hybrid scenario, you can exponentially increase an in-person event without breaking the bank on a larger facility.
Increasing Impact: Broadcasting Tips for Mission-Driven Companies
It’s easy to see the value of broadcasting. But how can you actually, well, put on a quality broadcast yourself? Sure, anyone can flip open their phone and start a live stream. But how can you create a broadcast at scale that actually looks great and sounds superb?
Here are seven tips to help you keep your mission-driven broadcasts on the straight and narrow.
1. Clarify Your Mission
Your mission is your organization’s identity. It provides the standards you operate under and gives you the energy and clarity to go in a specific direction.
If you already have an audience big enough to want to broadcast content to them, we’re guessing that you have a clear mission statement to guide your organization — which is great!
Here’s a question, though. Is that mission and its values clearly communicated through your broadcasts? If you can’t get your message across effectively, the best setup in the world will be to no avail. When you fire up a live feed or add content to a video-on-demand library, is this clearly communicating your mission?
Thrive Summit is a good example of a purpose-driven organization that understands its mission. The group’s goal is to equip church leaders with the tools to cultivate thriving churches and make a major impact on their communities.
During the pandemic, we helped them shift online without losing these intimate and impactful elements of their summit. They recruited insightful speakers, and we collaborated to create a custom-designed watch experience, watch party functions, breakout rooms, and even games and emoji options. This extra effort kept the remote event engaging and focused on Thrive’s core mission, even if the audience members were tuning in from their couches instead of in person.
Another aspect of missional clarity is understanding your audience. This is an area that can easily become outdated over time. In other words, just because you did your market research five years ago doesn’t mean your audience is the same.
If you want your broadcasts to resonate, start by identifying (or re-identifying) your target demographics. Figure out the characteristics and interests of your mission-driven consumers through things like surveys, feedback, and social media engagement. Then, use that information to inform your decision-making when it comes to all of the broadcasting decisions that follow.
2. Hone Your Storytelling
Solidifying your understanding of your mission on an internal level is a good first step. Figuring out how to communicate that to others is the next one. You can make your mission-driven purpose clear throughout your broadcast by aligning your message with your mission.
This starts with maintaining an authentic and transparent approach. As an organization with a greater purpose, you need to cultivate confidence with your audience that you can be trusted to work toward and invest in clear goals and objectives. Don’t hide these behind obscure wording or unclear statements.
It’s also wise to develop a compelling narrative to communicate your mission. There are many storytelling techniques you can use as a brand.
For instance, make sure you structure each story with a clear problem, solution, and result format. Integrate different kinds of content, too, such as a professionally developed mini-feature in the middle of a live stream. If you’re a non-profit, focus on the people or groups you impact rather than your organization.
Make sure that everything, from your authenticity to your storytelling, remains consistent across all of the platforms you use, too (more on specific communication channels in Tip 4).
3. Build a Solid Broadcasting Setup
Once you have your mission and message in place, it’s time to make sure you have the equipment to broadcast that to your audience. You can find a comprehensive outline of the hardware and software required for a top-shelf event in our comprehensive Guide for Broadcasters. For now, and for our current purposes, here are a few of the major takeaways.
Get Everything in Place First
There are many different parts to a broadcast, especially if it is on a larger scale. From cameras, microphones, and mixers to a quality encoder, solid streaming software, and a good internet connection, you want to have everything in place to ensure you can deliver a quality experience for your audience.
Consider Unique Elements of Your Broadcast
That said, remember that each event is unique. When Joyce Meyers asked Sardius Media to help orchestrate one of her massive events, for instance, we collaborated to create a truly one-of-a-kind experience. This included interactive watch pages during the live event, multilingual options, and dynamic archives — including immediate clipping of video highlights for social media.
Test First
Always make sure to test your setup. It’s better to discover inconsistencies and issues before you’re live than during the event itself.
Build a Good Team
As a final note here, make sure you have a strong team in place, as well. You want to have people you can trust with the knowledge to execute a broadcast at a high level. This starts with internal team members. It also extends to partners like Sardius, who can bring experienced and skilled team members to the table with the capabilities to set things up properly and adapt to any issues as you go along.
4. Create a Broadcasting Plan
So far, we’ve talked about the elements that enable you to build a broadcast infrastructure for your mission-driven organization. Now, let’s look at some tips for how to plan out each individual broadcast.
Set Goals
The first thing you want to do with each individual event is establish a goal. Are you fundraising? Spreading awareness? Building your reputation as a thought leader? Trying to generate revenue? Understanding your goals will help you craft effective calls to action (CTAs) when the time comes.
Metrics
Goals also help you address another key aspect of a broadcast: data. What are the metrics that define success for each broadcast? Is it a certain number of attendees? A specific kind of action or engagement? Total funds donated? The average amount donated per attendee?
You can also establish metrics for the broadcast itself, such as the quality of your video feed or the number of times you have hiccups or downtime during an event.
You want to have clear parameters in place. That way, you can gauge the degree of success with each broadcast and use it to improve and maintain standards moving forward.
Pick Your Format
Your goal will influence your format, too. Are you broadcasting a practiced presentation to a public audience? Is this a private broadcasting event, like a webinar? Is it a pre-recorded interview? A live performance?
Each format will dictate the kind of setup you need to prepare and how audiences can engage. It can also open the doors to creative interactive content, such as fielding live questions for a Q&A or offering a free download in connection with a guest speaker.
Licensing and Permissions
Depending on your broadcast, you may need to get permission to use certain logos, music, wording, images, etc. Always get going on this as early as possible.
Choosing Your Platforms
Where will your broadcast live? Where will your audience access it? Will everything be on your website? Will you push it out to YouTube, Facebook, and similar third-party sites? If you’re unsure what will work best, start by considering where your audience is the most active.
Schedule Early
Finally, make sure to lock in a clear schedule as early as you can. This gives you plenty of runway to plan your event, coordinate with everyone involved, and make sure everything is in place before you unmute those mics and the cameras start to roll.
5. Market Your Broadcast
As you plan, schedule, and set up your broadcast, you need to let the world know about it. If you already have a clear idea of your audience, consider what segments of that group (or all of it) you’re targeting for your event.
From there, look at the different ways you can get the word out in the lead-up to your event. There are many ways you can do this, including:
- Promoting early bird specials: Offer discounts or priority perks for individuals who sign up early.
- Using your email lists: Let your opt-in email list know about your event so they can mark their calendars.
- Encouraging friend invites: Encourage loyal clients and customers to invite others (possibly for a discount).
- Offering group deals: This is a great way to get bulk sign-ups for an event.
- Sharing on social media: This has a better chance of being reshared, especially if you ask people to help you get the word out!
- Partnering with others: Look for like-minded influencers and organizations that agree with your mission and are willing to help you spread the word.
There are plenty of ways to get people to sign up for your event. The key is having a plan in place early (again, make sure to commit to that schedule). From there, start marketing as soon as you can.
6. Be Creative With Your Broadcast
Another step to take before launching your broadcast is taking some time to consider any creative additions you can include. It’s tempting to cover all the basics of a good broadcast and stop. However, we’ve found that many of the most successful events our partners put on feature innovative and unique elements that make them more interactive and memorable.
One example is the Global Leadership Summit. For years, GLS created an impeccable legacy broadcast, but the group recently decided to take a more updated, 21st-century approach to its production. The Sardius team helped them upgrade their payment process, improve their customer service, and create unique host site experiences for anyone streaming the event outside of the primary facility in Chicago.
The previously mentioned Joyce Meyers event was similarly unique, integrating a variety of features and engaging elements that were specifically created for that event. When you have this degree of technology at your fingertips, the sky is the limit. Take advantage of that new reality and consider how you can tailor your event to your mission-driven organizational goals.
7. Support Your Broadcast
Your work doesn’t stop when your broadcast goes live. Once you’re up and running, you want to do everything you can to build on that early momentum. Maximizing your efforts and optimizing your impact are significant reasons successful broadcasters continue to return to this medium to reach their clients.
One option is to repurpose content immediately. We have worked with clients to create instant transcripts of events, live translations, video-on-demand (VOD) archives, and clipped social media snippets. These are just a handful of the ways you can amplify the impact of a live broadcast.
Also, remember to track your data and measure the results against your pre-determined KPIs (key performance metrics). Are enough people engaging with your content? Are they leaving early? Is their feedback positive or negative? As you see the ups and downs of your data, make notes to reinforce your strategies where they’re working and adapt them where they aren’t.
Optimizing Your Broadcasting Impact as a Mission-Driven Company
Mission-driven organizations have more reason than most companies to reach their audience and promote their message. Broadcasting offers a uniquely accessible way to do this, but you need to do things right if you want your audience to resonate with your message and invest in your brand.
Use the tips above to perfect your broadcasting setup. From clarity in purpose and goals to strong storytelling, a quality broadcasting setup, good marketing, and solid support, invest in the right areas, and the results will speak for themselves.
If you’re committed to creating quality broadcasts for your organization but lack the resources, knowledge, or experience, we would love to help. Let’s talk through your situation. With a little clarity, the right tools, and the proper vision, our team of mission-driven broadcasting experts can help you put on an online event that will have people talking about your company for years to come.