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Tracking Reader Trends with Live Blogs

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You’re probably familiar with traditional blogs, where content is posted and updated periodically. But have you ever considered the power of live blogs? They offer a dynamic way to engage your audience and get real-time data about how they are responding to your content.

Imagine covering a major event as it unfolds, providing your readers with immediate updates and interactive elements. This approach not only keeps your audience informed but also actively involved.

Let’s dive into what live blogs are and how they can transform your content strategy.

What are Live Blogs?

Live blogs are real-time content streams that provide up-to-the-minute coverage of events or topics. Unlike traditional blogs, which get updated periodically, live blogs offer continuous updates as events unfold. This format keeps readers engaged by offering the latest information without delay.

One of the key features of live blogs is their ability to engage readers with interactive elements. These can include polls, comments, and multimedia content like videos and images. By incorporating these elements, you create a more immersive experience for your audience.

Examples of live blogs include breaking news coverage, sports events, conferences, and product launches. During a sports event, a live blog can provide play-by-play updates, scores, and fan reactions. Similarly, during a product launch, you can offer real-time updates on new features, audience reactions, and expert opinions.

Live blogs not only keep your readers informed but also encourage them to participate, making the content more engaging and interactive. For more on how to use live blogs effectively, check out this live blogging strategy.

Benefits of Tracking Reader Trends with Live Blogs

You may wonder why tracking reader trends with live blogs is worth your time. Well, it can offer some game-changing benefits that you won’t want to miss.

Gain Real-Time Insights

Tracking reader trends with live blogs allows you to monitor reader engagement as it happens. Discover more about real-time audience interaction where real-time insights help you understand which parts of your content resonate most with your audience. You can see which updates get the most views, comments, and shares, giving you a clear picture of what interests your readers at any given moment. This immediate feedback loop is invaluable for making on-the-fly adjustments to your content, ensuring it remains relevant and engaging.

Adapt Content Strategy

Using data from live blogs, you can adapt your content strategy more effectively. When you know what your readers are engaging with, you can tailor future content to meet their interests and needs. This data-driven approach helps you focus on topics that are likely to perform well, optimizing your content calendar and resource allocation. Whether it’s shifting focus to a trending topic or experimenting with new content formats, adapting your strategy based on real-time data ensures you stay ahead of the curve. 

Improve Reader Retention

Identifying popular topics and formats through live blog data helps improve reader retention. When you know what keeps your audience coming back, you can create more of that content. This could mean more frequent updates on a particular subject, incorporating multimedia elements, or fostering interactive discussions. By consistently delivering content that your readers find valuable, you build a loyal audience that returns to your site regularly, boosting overall engagement and retention rates. Check out how real-time audience engagement can help improve reader retention.

Boost SEO Performance

Live blogs can significantly boost your SEO performance by capitalizing on trending keywords and topics. As you track reader trends, you can identify the keywords and phrases that are gaining traction. Incorporating these into your live blogs helps improve your search engine rankings, making your content more discoverable. Additionally, the frequent updates and fresh content typical of live blogs signal to search engines that your site is active and relevant, further enhancing your SEO efforts. This not only drives more traffic to your site but also ensures that your content reaches a broader audience. For more tips, explore this live blog SEO strategy. Use live blogs to capitalize on trending topics and keywords to boost your SEO performance.

How Does Tracking Reader Trends with Live Blogs Work?

We get it—knowing how tracking reader trends with live blogs can feel a bit overwhelming. But it’s pretty straightforward once you understand it.

Tracking reader trends with live blogs involves a few straightforward steps. First, you collect data on reader interactions. This includes tracking views, comments, and shares. Each interaction provides valuable information about how readers are engaging with your content. For instance, a spike in views during a specific update can indicate high interest in that particular topic or event.

Next, you analyze the collected data to identify patterns and trends. Look for recurring themes in the comments or frequent shares of certain types of updates. This analysis helps you understand what content resonates most with your audience. For example, if you notice that posts with multimedia elements receive more engagement, you can infer that your audience prefers visual content.

Finally, use these insights to optimize your content and engagement strategies. Adjust your future live blog updates based on what you’ve learned. If interactive elements like polls or Q&A sessions drive more comments, incorporate more of these features similarly, if certain topics attract more views and shares, focus on covering those areas more extensively.

By continuously monitoring and analyzing reader interactions, you can refine your content strategy to better meet your audience’s preferences. This ongoing process ensures that your live blogs remain engaging and relevant, ultimately enhancing reader satisfaction and retention. For practical examples, check out eCommerce live blogs. Use real-time data to adjust your content strategy and keep your live blogs engaging.

What Metrics Should You Track in Live Blogs?

You might be thinking, “Alright, but what exactly should I be tracking?” Let’s break it down.

Pageviews

Pageviews represent the total number of times your live blog is viewed. This metric gives you a sense of the overall interest in your content. High page views indicate that your live blog is attracting a lot of attention, which is a good sign of its relevance and appeal. Tracking pageviews helps you understand the reach of your live blog and gauge its popularity among your audience.

Unique Visitors

Unique visitors measure the number of individual readers who visit your live blog. Unlike pageviews, which count every visit, unique visitors count each reader only once, no matter how many times they return. This metric helps you understand the size of your audience. A high number of unique visitors suggests that your live blog is drawing in a diverse group of readers, which can be beneficial for expanding your reach and influence.

Average Time on Page

The average time on the page indicates how long readers spend engaging with your live blog. This metric helps you assess the quality of your content. If readers spend a significant amount of time on your page, it suggests they find your content valuable and engaging. Conversely, a low average time on a page might indicate that your content isn’t holding their attention. Understanding this metric allows you to make adjustments to improve reader engagement.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of readers who leave your live blog after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate can indicate that readers aren’t finding what they’re looking for or that the content isn’t engaging enough to keep them on your site. Monitoring your bounce rate helps you identify areas where your content might need improvement. Reducing your bounce rate can lead to better reader retention and overall engagement.

Social Shares

Social shares measure the number of times your live blog is shared on social media platforms. This metric indicates how compelling your content is to your readers. High social shares suggest that readers find your content valuable enough to share with their networks, which can help increase your reach and attract new readers. Tracking social shares helps you understand which content resonates most with your audience and has the potential to go viral.

Comments and Interactions

Comments and interactions include reader comments, questions, and reactions. This metric provides direct feedback from your audience and helps you gauge their engagement level. A high number of comments and interactions indicates that your readers are actively engaging with your content, which can lead to more meaningful conversations and a stronger sense of community. Monitoring these interactions helps you understand your audience’s preferences and interests, allowing you to tailor your content to better meet their needs. For more insights, explore these first-party data strategies. Track comments and interactions to gauge reader engagement and foster community.

How to Set Up Tracking for Your Live Blog

Setting up tracking might sound like a hassle, but it’s easier than you think.

Choose a Web Analytics Tool

To effectively track reader trends with live blogs, start by selecting a web analytics tool. Popular options include Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, and Parse.ly. Each tool offers unique features and capabilities, so choose one that aligns with your needs.

Google Analytics provides comprehensive tracking and reporting features. It’s widely used and integrates well with various platforms. Adobe Analytics offers advanced data analysis and visualization tools, ideal for larger organizations with complex data needs. Parse.ly focuses on content performance, making it a great choice for media companies and publishers.

Install Tracking Code

Once you’ve chosen your analytics tool, the next step is to install the tracking code. This involves adding a snippet of code to your live blog template. This code collects data on reader interactions, such as page views, unique visitors, and time spent on the page.

For Google Analytics, you’ll need to create a property in your account and generate a tracking ID. Add this ID to the tracking code snippet and place it in the header section of your live blog template. Adobe Analytics and Parse.ly have similar processes, with specific instructions available in their documentation.

Define Goals and KPIs

Defining your goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) is crucial for effective tracking. Determine what metrics matter most for your objectives. Common goals include increasing reader engagement, boosting pageviews, and improving reader retention.

KPIs might include metrics such as average time on page, bounce rate, and social shares. Clearly defined goals and KPIs help you focus on the most relevant data and measure your progress accurately.

Monitor and Analyze Data

After setting up tracking and defining your goals, regularly monitor and analyze the data. Review the collected data to identify trends and insights. Look for patterns in reader behavior, such as which topics generate the most engagement or what times of day see the highest traffic.

Use these insights to make informed decisions about your content strategy. Adjust your live blog updates based on what you learn to keep your audience engaged and improve overall performance. Regularly reviewing and analyzing data ensures that your live blog remains relevant and effective in meeting your objectives. For additional benefits, explore live blog monetization.

5 Strategies to Optimize Your Live Blog Based on Reader Trends

You’re probably eager to learn how to improve your live blog. Here are some strategies to consider.

Focus on Popular Topics

To keep your live blog engaging, prioritize content that resonates with your audience. Monitor which topics generate the most views, comments, and shares. Use this data to guide your content choices. If readers show a strong interest in a particular subject, cover it more extensively. This approach ensures your content remains relevant and appealing, keeping readers coming back for more.

Experiment with Different Formats

Testing various content types can help you understand what engages your readers best. Mix text with images, videos, and interactive elements like polls or quizzes. For example, during a sports event, combine live text updates with video highlights and fan polls. This variety caters to different preferences and keeps the content dynamic. Regularly review engagement metrics to see which formats perform well and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Encourage Reader Interaction

Prompting readers to comment, ask questions, and share their opinions boosts engagement. Use call-to-action prompts within your live blog to invite reader participation. For instance, ask questions related to the event you’re covering or encourage readers to share their thoughts on a specific topic. Highlighting reader comments or featuring user-generated content can also foster a sense of community and make readers feel valued. 

Collaborate with Influencers

Partnering with influencers can expand your reach and attract new readers. Identify influencers relevant to your live blog’s topic and collaborate with them to create content. For example, during a product launch, invite industry experts to share their insights or host a live Q&A session. Influencers bring their audience to your live blog, increasing visibility and credibility. This collaboration can also provide fresh perspectives and enhance the overall content quality.

Leverage Social Media

Promoting your live blog on social channels drives traffic and engagement. Share updates, highlights, and interactive elements from your live blog on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Use relevant hashtags to reach a broader audience and encourage social sharing. For instance, during a conference, tweet key takeaways and link back to your live blog for detailed coverage. Engaging with readers on social media also creates additional touchpoints, enhancing their overall experience and keeping them connected to your content. Use social media to promote your live blog and drive engagement.

Best Practices for Tracking Reader Trends in 2024

You might be wondering how to stay ahead of the curve by tracking reader trends. Here are some best practices to consider.

Prioritize data privacy and security. Ensuring that your readers’ data remains secure should be a top priority. Implement robust security measures like HTTPS encryption and regularly update your privacy policies to comply with current regulations. Inform your readers about how their data will be used and give them control over their privacy settings. This transparency builds trust and encourages more engagement.

Combine quantitative and qualitative data for a holistic view. While metrics like pageviews and unique visitors provide valuable insights, qualitative data like reader comments and feedback offer a deeper understanding. Use surveys, polls, and direct reader interactions to gather qualitative insights. Combining these data types helps you understand not just what your readers are doing, but why they are doing it. This comprehensive view allows for more informed content decisions.

Use AI-powered tools to automate data analysis. Leveraging AI can significantly streamline the process of tracking reader trends. AI tools can analyze large datasets quickly, identifying patterns and trends that might be missed manually. These tools can also provide predictive analytics, helping you anticipate future reader behavior. Automating data analysis frees up time for you to focus on creating engaging content and refining your strategy based on actionable insights.

Regularly review and adjust your tracking strategy. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and so should your tracking strategy. Regularly review your analytics to identify any shifts in reader behavior or emerging trends. Adjust your metrics and KPIs as needed to ensure they align with your current goals. Continuous monitoring and adjustment keep your strategy relevant and effective, ensuring that you are always meeting your readers’ needs and expectations.

Is Tracking Reader Trends with Live Blogs Worth It?

Tracking reader trends with live blogs offers valuable insights into audience preferences. You can see what content your readers engage with the most, which topics generate the most interest, and how different elements of your live blog perform. This information helps you understand your audience and tailor your content to meet their needs.

Data-driven decision-making is another significant benefit. When you have concrete data on reader behavior, you can make informed decisions about your content strategy. This reduces guesswork and increases the likelihood of success. Instead of relying on intuition, you can base your decisions on actual reader interactions and preferences.

Tracking trends directly enhances the overall reader experience. When you know what your readers enjoy, you can create a more engaging and interactive live blog. This leads to a better user experience, which can increase reader satisfaction and loyalty. Happy readers are more likely to return and recommend your live blog to others.

Driving long-term growth and success is the ultimate goal. By continuously tracking and analyzing reader trends, you can adapt your content strategy to meet evolving audience preferences. This keeps your live blog relevant and engaging, attracting new readers and retaining existing ones. Over time, this leads to sustained growth and success for your live blog. 

Use data-driven decision-making to enhance your reader experience and drive long-term growth.

Engage your audience like never before with Arena.im’s powerful real-time engagement tools. Sign up now to boost interaction, build community, and elevate your brand experience. Visit Arena.im to explore our pricing plans and get started today.

6 Strategies to Optimize Ad Viewability

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Ad viewability is an important trend in the advertising industry, often regarded as the primary metric for valuing display and video ads.

So, why is ad viewability so important?

Both publishers and advertisers are striving to boost their ad viewability rates. In this article, you will learn what ad viewability is, why it is crucial for publishers and discover practical tips to optimize it.

What Is Viewability?

Viewability is a term that describes an online advertising metric that seeks to exclusively track impressions that users can see. For example, let’s say you have an ad placed on the bottom of a webpage. If a user doesn’t scroll down enough to see it, that impression won’t be deemed viewable.

So What Does “Viewed” Really Mean?

The standard definition of the Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) and Media Rating Council’s (MRC) for viewability indicates that at least 50% of the ad must be in view for at least one second for display ads and two seconds for video ads.

Why Is Viewability Important?

As expected, advertisers want their ads seen by potential customers, but studies show that around 54% of ads aren’t viewed by users. In this sense, viewability is important for both advertisers and publishers, and it is designed to allow advertisers to pay only for the ads that users can see.

Just like other aspects of marketing, viewability is becoming more and more important as the industry is evolving. Viewability is a much more accurate metric to measure reach, avoiding any discrepancy in ads served versus ads viewed, giving publishers and advertisers more accurate insights and conclusions, and curating a more precise picture of how to drive better results.

In short, when ads are visible, advertisers get better returns on their investments, leading to:

– Building Trust: Advertisers trust publishers with high viewability rates.

– Higher Budgets: Advertisers are willing to increase budgets for viewable impressions.

– Long-Term Partnerships: Consistent viewability can lead to long-term relationships.

Factors Influencing Viewability Rates

Several factors can impact whether an ad is seen or not:

– Ad Placement: Ads placed “above the fold” (the visible part of the webpage without scrolling) have higher viewability rates.

– Page Load Speed: Faster-loading pages ensure that ads appear in time for users to see them.

– User Behavior: How users interact with your site (scroll speed, engagement levels) can affect whether they see the ads.

– Ad Size: Larger and vertical ad units tend to have higher viewability rates.

– Device Type: Mobile devices often have different viewability rates compared to desktops due to screen size and user behavior.

Now that you know what might be hurting your ad viewability score, let’s uncover some of the best practices to get the best results with your ad revenue strategy.

Enhancing Ad Viewability: 3 Key Elements to Watch

In this section, we will explore the key elements that influence ad viewability, why they are important, and how to optimize them for better performance and revenue.

Increasing Ad Inventory Value

Why is important?

  • High viewability boosts ad inventory value. More visible ads mean better performance metrics, such as click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates.

How to improve it?

  • Higher CPMs: Advertisers pay more for high-performing ads.
  • Increased Demand: More advertisers compete for high-viewability spots.
  • Optimized Revenue: Better-performing ads lead to increased overall revenue.

Improving User Experience

Why is important?

  • User experience (UX) directly affects viewability. Ads that load quickly and appear in non-intrusive locations keep users engaged without frustration. Poor UX can drive users away, reducing ad viewability and site visits.

How to improve it?

  • Page Load Speed: Faster pages improve UX and ad viewability.
  • Ad Placement: Strategically placed ads enhance the browsing experience.
  • Responsive Design: Ensures ads look good on all devices.

Meeting Industry Standards

Why is important?

  • Industry standards, like those set by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), define what makes an ad viewable. Meeting these standards is crucial for credibility and competitiveness.

How to improve it?

  • Compliance: Adhering to standards ensures your site meets advertiser expectations.
  • Competitive Edge: Sites that meet/exceed standards attract more business.

Understanding what constitutes a good viewability rate is essential for publishers aiming to optimize their ad performance. Generally, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Media Rating Council (MRC) set the standards for viewability.

IAB Guidelines set that at least 50% of an ad must be in view for one second for display ads, and two seconds for video ads. That said, aiming for a viewability rate of 70% or higher is considered excellent according to the industry standards.

Tips to Improve Ad Viewability

1. Ad Placement and Layout

Optimizing ad placement and layout is key to improving viewability for publishers. Proper ad placement ensures ads are seen without disrupting the user experience.

  • Above the Fold: Place ads just above the fold. This placement increases the likelihood of users seeing the ads without scrolling.
  • Vertical Formats: Use vertical ad units like 120×240, 240×400, and 160×600. These formats remain in view longer as users scroll down the page.
  • Inline with Content: Integrate ads within content areas. Ads placed next to engaging content are more likely to be seen.
  • Avoid Clutter: Limit the number of ads per page to avoid overwhelming users. A clutter-free page improves both user experience and ad viewability.

2. Mobile Optimization

With the growing number of users accessing content via mobile devices, optimizing ads for mobile is essential.

  • Mobile-Friendly Ads: Design ads specifically for mobile screens. Ads that fit well on mobile devices are more likely to be viewed.
  • Responsive Ad Units: Use responsive ad units that adjust to different screen sizes. This ensures ads look good and function well on any device.
  • Ideal Mobile Sizes: Preferred mobile ad sizes include 320×100 and 300×250, but should be adjusted accordingly to guarantee maximum readability.
  • Faster Load Times: Optimize ad load times on mobile. Faster-loading ads are more likely to be seen by users who may navigate away if a page takes too long to load.

3. A/B Testing

A/B testing helps identify the most effective ad layouts, providing data on the best-performing layouts, messaging and placements and increasing understanding of user behavior and preferences.

  • Split Testing: Show different versions of a page to different user groups. Compare results to identify the most effective layout.
  • Multivariate Testing: Test multiple variables (ad size, placement, design) simultaneously. This method provides detailed insights into what combination works best.
  • Iterate and Optimize: Continuously test and refine ad layouts based on performance data. Regular adjustments ensure that the ad strategy stays effective over time.

How to Best Load Ads and Content for Viewability

4. Improve Load Speed

One of the most critical factors that can negatively affect ad viewability is user behavior combined with ad load speed. Lazy loading means ads and content load only when they appear into the user’s viewport, preventing ads from being below the flow, where users may never scroll.

By not loading ads all at once, the initial page load is quicker, reducing unnecessary data usage by loading elements only when needed and increasing the chance they will be seen.

Here is how you can improve it:

  • Intersection Observer API: A JavaScript API that efficiently handles lazy loading. It detects when an element enters the viewport and triggers the load.
  • Scroll Event Listener: A simpler method that checks the user’s scroll position and loads ads accordingly. While less efficient than the Intersection Observer, it’s still effective for basic implementations.
  • Third-Party Libraries: Tools like LazyLoad.js provide out-of-the-box solutions for implementing lazy loading without extensive coding.

5. Minimizing Passbacks

Minimizing passbacks means reducing the number of ad calls made from one server to another, reducing page latency and improving ad viewability. Passbacks can slow down page load times, affecting the viewability of ads.

  • Single Request Architecture (SRA): Reduces the number of server calls.
  • Direct Deals: Engaging in direct deals with advertisers reduces the need for multiple server calls. This ensures ads load directly from the primary server.
  • Header Bidding: Implementing server-side header bidding over client-side can significantly reduce ad server calls, leading to faster load times.

6. Ad Refresh Strategies

Refreshing ads can improve viewability but must be done in line with industry standards.

  • Time-Based Refresh: Set ads to refresh after a specific period (e.g., every 30 seconds). Ensure that the ad has been in view for the required duration before refreshing.
  • User Engagement Triggers: Refresh ads based on user interactions, such as clicking or scrolling.
  • Viewability Thresholds: Refresh ads if they meet a certain viewability threshold, maximizing the chances of refreshed ads being seen.
  • Avoid Over-Refreshing: Maintain a balanced refresh strategy, as too many refreshes can upset users and reduce the effectiveness of ads.

 Examples of Successful Viewability Rates

To put these strategies into perspective, consider some real-world examples:

  • Publisher A: After placing ads above the fold and using lazy loading, they saw a viewability rate increase from 55% to 75%.
  • Publisher B: By switching to larger ad formats and improving page load speed, their viewability rate jumped from 60% to 80%.
  • Publisher C: Implementing sticky ads and optimizing for mobile devices led to a viewability rate rise from 50% to 70%.

These examples highlight how targeted strategies can lead to significant improvements in ad viewability, making your site more attractive to advertisers and increasing potential revenue.

How to Maintain High Viewability Rates

Ok, so you identified the key factors and elements to consider while optimizing your ad viewability strategy. What comes next?

It is not enough to increase your viewability rates, your team needs to work toward maintaining and continuously improving your score.

Continuous Monitoring and Optimization

1. Use Real-Time Analytics Tools: Platforms like Google Analytics or DoubleVerify can help you track viewability metrics in real time. This allows you to identify issues quickly and make adjustments accordingly.

2. Set Alerts: Configure alerts for when viewability drops below a certain threshold. This proactive approach ensures you can respond promptly to any problems.

3. Regularly Review Performance Metrics: Make it a habit to review your ad performance metrics weekly or monthly. Look for patterns or trends that could indicate areas for improvement.

Update Ad Placements regularly

  1. Rotate Ad Positions: Periodically change the location of ads on your site. This can prevent “ad fatigue” and ensure your ads remain visible to users.
  2. Test New Placements: Use A/B testing to experiment with new ad positions. Assess which placements yield the highest viewability and integrate those into your standard layout.
  3. Responsive Design: Ensure your ad placements adapt well to different screen sizes and devices. This flexibility can help maintain high viewability across all user experiences.

Leverage Data and Analytics

Data is your best friend when it comes to maintaining high viewability rates:

  1. Analyze User Behavior: Use heatmaps and scroll-tracking tools to understand how users interact with your site. Identify the zones where users spend the most time and place ads accordingly.
  2. Track Performance Metrics: Focus on key metrics such as viewable impressions, average viewability time, and engagement rates. Use this data to fine-tune your ad strategies.
  3. Segment Your Audience: Break your audience into segments based on behavior, device, or location. Tailor your ad placements to suit the preferences of each segment for better viewability.

Engage with Industry Trends and Standards

Staying updated with industry trends and standards is crucial for maintaining high viewability rates:

  1. Follow IAB Guidelines: Regularly check for updates from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on viewability standards. Adhering to these guidelines ensures your ads meet industry benchmarks.
  2. Attend Webinars and Conferences: Participate in industry events to learn about the latest trends and technologies in ad viewability. Networking with other publishers can also provide valuable insights and strategies.
  3. Read Industry Reports: Keep an eye on reports and studies from reputable sources like eMarketer and Adpushup. These can offer data-driven insights into what’s working well in the industry.
  4. Implement Best Practices: Adopt best practices shared by industry leaders. This might include using specific ad formats, optimizing for mobile, or employing new ad technologies.

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Effectively managing ad viewability is essential for maximizing monetization and creating a sustainable revenue stream. An ad manager within a publishing platform, such as Arena Community, can play a pivotal role in this process.

Arena Community offers robust features for monetization, including advanced analytics, real-time tracking, and optimization tools that help publishers enhance ad placement and user experience. By leveraging these features, publishers can ensure high viewability rates, attract premium advertisers, and ultimately boost their ad revenue.

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Increase Publishing Revenue with First-Party Data

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First-party data is the future for publishers because the most popular browsers – Google Chrome and Apple Safari – no longer support third-party cookies.

Wait, What Is First-Party Data?

Before you can boost revenue with first-party data, getting your team on the same page is important. First-party data is information that a publisher directly obtains from a reader, subscriber, or member of an audience. The following first-party data examples show what this includes:

  • Online Event Participation: If a publisher offers live digital events, you can gather first-party data from those events. For example, you can gather information about clicks and chat comments during a live event.
  • Customer Data: When a person buys a subscription to a publication, a publisher gains more data about them, including their location, news preferences, and media preferences. In most cases, data from paying subscribers is the most valuable variety of first-party data.
  • Email Marketing Analytics: Publishers that send out emails to their subscribers quietly gather data with every open and click. Since this data is connected to specific email users, email analytics data is a fantastic resource.
  • Website Analytics: Good news – you’re probably already using this form of first-party data. Many publishers are already collecting data points like clicks, page views, and time on site through their website analytics platform.

Want the full story on cookieless future? See our post: The Future of Cookies In Marketing Strategy.

What The End of Third-Party Cookies Means For Your Advertisers

To improve your alignment with advertisers, put yourself in their shoes. Advertisers have built successful business models based on third-party cookies for nearly two decades. Then, a series of data privacy scandals, new laws, and changes to popular web browsers brought about the end of third-party cookies.

The old way of delivering highly relevant personalized advertising based on third-party cookies no longer works. Yet, the need to deliver effective online advertising isn’t going away.

For publishers, the shift to first-party data is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Brands need a reliable way to reach their audiences while ensuring brand safety. Unlike social media platforms, which continue to struggle with toxic content of various kinds, publishers have an advantage thanks to their focus on high editorial standards.

First-party data is the future, and advertisers need data to reach their growth goals. Let’s find out how publishers can drive top-line revenue growth with first-party data.

Increase Publishing Revenue With These 5 First-Party Data Levers

First-party data drives revenue growth most effectively when you continuously gather data from your audience. That level of first-party data gathering is a team sport! Earn buy-in from management and colleagues by connecting the dots between improved first-party data and revenue growth.

Revenue Growth Lever 1: Increase Value for Advertisers

Winning advertiser dollars for your publication is easier when you have robust first-party data. You can offer advertisers a wider variety of segmentation options based on how the audience engages with your content.

For example, an advertiser might want to appeal to new parents. With first-party data, you can filter your audience for people interacting with content related to families, fertility, and related topics. That segment is far more likely to convert for the advertiser than a generic segment based on age and gender.

Revenue Growth Lever 2: Drive Digital Audience Growth

A publisher with a steadily growing, engaged online audience can thrive even when the online world shifts.

First-party data directly supports audience growth because you can make data-driven editorial decisions. For example, you’ll better understand which content and experiences your audience wants. Further, you can test and optimize word of mouth and sharing campaigns to grow your audience. In other words, your editorial strategy will hit more home runs over time by leveraging first-party data.

A growing digital audience means more website users and pageviews, which translates into more ad revenue!

Revenue Growth Lever 3: Get More Paying Subscribers

Many customers are willing to pay for access to premium digital content. Just look at the number of paying subscribers that streaming services have. Netflix had over 200 million paying subscribers as of 2023. It’s not just digital streamers that are succeeding. The New York Times has over 9 million paying digital subscribers as of 2023. There’s no doubt: customers are willing to pay for access to quality content

First-party data is your secret weapon in growing your number of paid digital subscribers. How? Analyze the first-party data generated by your paying subscribers. For example, analyze new customers’ behaviors in their first 30 days. A large percentage of your paying subscribers make a habit of reading their favorite columnists each week. In that case, emphasizing premium access to your columnists can be a winning angle to emphasize in your ads.‍

First-party data also helps you launch more targeted appeals to different audience segments based on their engagement with your publication. For example, you can create sports-oriented subscription ads for one audience segment and political news ads for a different segment.

Revenue Growth Lever 4: Boost Ecommerce Revenue

Selling subscriptions isn’t the only way for publishers to generate revenue. Media companies have offered merchandise (e.g., apparel, notebooks, books by your staff) for years. Digital products, like audio/video recordings and NFTs (non-fungible tokens), represent another opportunity to sell.

First-party data lifts ecommerce sales in several ways:

You can make better decisions about which products to create and promote by looking at audience behavior. For example, your super fans and heavy users are the most passionate about your publication. Promoting branded products like prints, posters, and apparel to your passionate audience segment is more likely to succeed than a general appeal.

Second, first-party data supports more effective segmentation and personalization when developing product ideas. Before committing to manufacturing products, you can gather first-party data about audience preferences. This can be as simple as emailing your subscribers to ask them to join a waitlist for a new product. If you see a significant amount of sign-ups for the waitlist, that first-party data suggests it is worth going ahead to create a product.

Revenue Growth Level 5: Increase Customer Loyalty

Subscriber churn is a problem for many problems. McKinsey research found that “nearly 40 percent of e-commerce subscribers have canceled their subscriptions.” This customer churn tendency will also apply to a publisher’s subscription!

When quitting a subscription feels like clicking a button on a website, it’s no wonder that people leave their subscriptions. There is another way!

When you offer community events and connections to your subscribers, canceling means saying goodbye to friends!

Community – the network of relationships formed around your content and events – is an essential intangible asset. When your audience sees your publication as a community hub, they’re less likely to switch to alternatives. Over time, such increased loyalty translates to higher renewal rates and fewer cancellations.

First Party Growth: A Quick Start Guide For Publishers

In three moves, you can organize first-party data and use it to fuel growth.

1. Get To Know Your First-Party Data

Most publishers already have some form of first-party data in their systems. The challenge is that this data is spread across multiple teams and apps. To assemble this data, look at website analytics, mobile device analytics (e.g., mobile web and mobile apps if applicable), and email marketing analytics. Ensure you check in with your peers in sales, marketing, analytics, and subscriptions to identify your first-party data.

Once you have identified your first-party data resources, you can build a “single source of truth” for subscribers. This means organizing your data to track a subscriber’s activities across multiple devices, channels, and experiences.

2. Assign Budget & Resources To First Party Campaigns & Testing

To gain the benefits of first-party data, committing to acting on it is essential. This could be as simple as setting a goal of creating at least two tests per month based on first-party data. Whether you start small or invest deeply in data,

3. Use Engagement Technology To Grow Website Engagement

Most publishers are already gathering website analytics and email data. While valuable, those sources of first-party data are more common. Therefore, building an advantage based on that data is more complicated.

Adding Arena Live Chat and Live Blog to your website gives your audience new ways to engage. Instead of looking at pageviews, you can look at chat interactions and logs. You’ll grow audience loyalty and get more data by offering more online community experiences that resonate with your audience.

How To Get More First-Party Data With Arena

The end of third-party cookies will change the world of online advertising and publishing. That change creates a new opportunity for publishers to grow their audiences and attract advertisers.

The essential ingredient is growing your online audience and continuously gathering first-party data. Learn more about Arena’s solutions for publishers.

The 11 Most Secure Chat Apps

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Finding a reliable, secure messaging live chat app has never been more critical. Whether for personal use or business communication, ensuring conversations are private and protected from malicious actors, who regularly attack internet services to obtain confidential information. Security features like self-destructing messages and various encryption methods have become more popular.

The Importance of Secure Live Chat for Building Community

Having a secure live chat on your website is essential for building an online community because it fosters trust and safety among users. Secure live chat ensures that all communications are protected from unauthorized access, maintaining the privacy and integrity of user interactions. This is crucial for creating an environment where users feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and engaging with others.

A secure platform not only protects sensitive information but also enhances the overall user experience by preventing spam, harassment, and other malicious activities. By prioritizing security, you demonstrate a commitment to user safety, encouraging more active participation and fostering a strong, loyal online community.

What Makes a Live Chat App Secure?

Security in chat apps is determined by various factors, including end-to-end encryption, data storage policies, and additional privacy features. Here’s what to look for:

End-to-End Encryption

End-to-end encryption ensures that only the sender and recipient can read the messages, with no possibility of interception by third parties.

Data Storage Policies

Secure chat apps should store minimal data on their servers, and any stored data should be encrypted.

Privacy Features

Look for features like self-destructing messages, password protection, and two-factor authentication.

Moderation Features

Make sure your chat app comes with moderation features. Ideally, you will be able to select users to act like moderators, block any misbehaving users and insert a profanity filter, that will allow you to block certain words from appearing in the chat. Learn more about moderation here. 

To understand which live chat platform works best for your needs, continue reading our analysis of the most secure chat protocols available.

Most Secure Chat Apps

1) Arena

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  • Platform: Web.
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, SSO, moderation features, spam and profanity filters.
  • Cost: Start with the free plan to see if Arena is suitable for you.

Do you need a secure live chat platform for a group of users? Whether is to enhance engagement during live events, transform e-learning classes or offer second screen experiences to viewers, Arena Live Chat is a great solution to bring live chat to your audience. Among other personalization features, you can restrict access to a chat event through registration so only approved participants can enter.

Arena is trusted by brands of all sizes, like Mary Fulton Fit, a small yoga studio in California, and Fox Sports Australia, part of a giant global-scale media company.

2) Signal

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  • Platforms: Mobile App and Desktop App (Windows, iOS, and Linux).
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, self-destructing messages, and screen security features.
  • Cost: free

Signal is often considered the top secure chat platform in the secure chat app category. For an extra layer of security, Signal minimizes the amount of data it collects from its users. This means less information is at risk in the event of a hack or other data disclosure. Other companies may have taken inspiration from the Signal messaging platform source code to improve their products.

There are some downsides to the product. Since the product is entirely free, the sustainability of this secure chat software is questionable. In addition, Signal makes it easy to send messages to people in your phone contact list. However, the full benefits of the Signal protocol are only available if both users use Signal. As a result, Signal is not a good fit if you need to accommodate non-mobile users.

3) WhatsApp

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  • Platforms: Desktop, web and mobile.
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, two-step verification, encrypted backups, single view photo/video/audio.
  • Cost: free.

WhatsApp is one of the most popular chat apps, with approximately 2.4 billion users as of mid-2023. The secure chat platform supports text, audio calls, and video calls. In addition, the app offers end-to-end encryption features, a key feature for privacy advocates. Also, WhatsApp supports group messaging for up to 1,024 participants.

There are some drawbacks to WhatsApp, including the fact it has been blocked in some countries like China, North Korea, and Syria. In addition, the app does not support self-destructing messages, so users will need to keep that limit in mind. Finally, the app requires a user to know another user’s phone number. As a result, it is more challenging to use WhatsApp for online events, especially for users who prefer to join via desktop.

Since WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, a social media giant with a poor online privacy record, there might be better choices for confidential chats.

4) Telegram

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  • Platforms: Desktop and mobile apps.
  • Security features: optional end-to-end encryption, self-destructing messages, two-factor authentication.
  • Cost: a free version and Telegram Premium (offers faster speeds, increased storage, and removes ads)

Telegram is an open-source, free-to-use mobile app with hundreds of millions of users. The app has received positive reviews as a secure chat app. In addition, Telegram supports larger groups and channels with up to 100,000 members. The messaging app also lets you share your live location, making it easier to meet up with friends in person.

That said, Telegram has some limitations. From a security standpoint, the chat app lacks end-to-end encryption in all of its messaging. End-to-end encryption is available for special secret chats on the secure chat software.

Unlike Signal, Telegram collects contact information from users. The chat app’s free tier includes ads. Consider carefully whether the app’s ads align with the chat experience you want to offer your audience.

5) Voxer

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  • Platforms: Web, iPhone, and Android.
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, private chats, secure data storage.
  • Cost: there are three user plans: personal ($0), Pro ($3.99 per user per month), and Business ($6 per user per month)

Voxer is a chat app that became popular for sending voice messages. In addition to recorded audio messages, Voxer also supports group chat functionality. Unlike most secure apps, Voxer provides additional functionality for paid accounts., such as Dropbox integration for pro accounts. The business plan suits teams of over 20+ users and organizations that need additional administrative controls.

There are some downsides to the app. Some user reviews have encountered privacy problems. Other users have commented on the significant amount of notifications generated by the app. The app also appears to request access to all contacts on a user’s device, a request that may cause security concerns.

6) Facebook Messenger

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  • Platforms: Desktop and Mobile.
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, single view messages, secure data storage, multi-factor authentication.
  • Cost: the app is supported by advertising.

Owned by Meta, Facebook Messenger supports text chat, calls, and file sharing. In addition, the secure chat app offers support for group chats, which has become popular over the past few years. By default, all Facebook users have access to Facebook Messenger, making it one of the most popular chat apps globally.

There are significant downsides to using Facebook Messenger. The app asks for access to personal information and is supported by advertising. For privacy-conscious users, there are better choices than Facebook Messenger. Business users, in particular, should look for other options that emphasize security and privacy to a more significant extent.

7) Pryvate Now

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  • Platforms: mobile app.
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, anonymous messaging, secure data storage, no data logging.
  • Cost: Pryvate Now is available in free and business versions.

Like Signal, Pryvate Now is a secure messaging chat focused on encryption. The app’s encryption features combine high-end AES 256-bit encryption and RSA 4096-bit protection. Also, secure chat software can protect the user’s IP address through masking. Like WhatsApp, Pryvate Now also offers voice calls and video calls. For security-conscious users, Pryvate Now offers compelling choices.

Compared to some of its more popular secure chat apps, Pryvate Now has a less polished user interface. That’s a major downside if you want to use the app to grow your audience. Pryvate calling is limited to other Pryvate users. In addition, the support options available to Pryvate users are relatively limited, even for the business plan. Pryvate is a good choice for individuals and companies that want to maximize privacy over everything else.

8) iMessage

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  • Platforms: Apple products like the iPhone, Mac, and iPad.
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, secure data storage, authentication, automatic encryption.
  • Cost: none – it is a built into multiple Apple products.

Apple’s iMessage service is sometimes viewed as Apple’s answer to SMS messages. In comparison to text messaging, iMessage has several notable advantages. Apple Messages gives users significant control over settings, including read receipts and message retention. Carefully configuring these settings can help to reduce your security risk. Further, it is easy to back up iMessage messages to iCloud. That’s a significant feature if you rely on iMessage to conduct business interactions.

There is an important security limitation to keep with Apple’s encryption. iMessage supports end-to-end encryption when messages are sent between iMessage users. However, the message is not encrypted if an iMessage user sends a message to a non-iMessage user, like a person with an Android phone. Less than half (48%) of Americans use an iPhone, so relying on Apple-exclusive security protections is a major limitation.

Curious to see how Apple handles requests from law enforcement? The Apple US law enforcement guidelines have some answers.

According to this document, “iMessage communications are end-to-end encrypted, and Apple cannot decrypt iMessage data when in transit between devices. Apple cannot intercept iMessage communications and does not have iMessage communication logs.” It is unclear if intelligence agencies have found encryption weaknesses or other methods to access the messages.

It’s unclear if Apple has the most secure messaging app, but the company is progressing in security. In June 2023, the company announced additional measures to improve Apple messaging security.

9) Threema

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  • Platforms: Web and mobile.
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, no personal data required, anonymous messaging.
  • Cost: prices depend on the current version.

Threema is part of a newer generation of secure chat apps. Launched in 2012, the secure chat platform provides end-to-end encryption to users.

The app’s focus on privacy includes minimizing the amount of user data it collects. Threema does not collect the user’s phone number. The app also has a reasonably robust web interface, making it a good alternative to mobile-only secure chat apps.

The chat app also supports chatbots that have marketing and customer service applications. These specialized versions are possible because the app charges user fees.

As of mid-2022, Threema has a relatively small user base (about 11 million users) compared to other services like Facebook and iMessage. Therefore, you can’t assume your friends, colleagues, and family have the app. The relatively low adoption rate means this secure chat software may be challenging for audience engagement.

10) Line

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  • Platforms: Mobile app
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, secure data storage, two-step verification.
  • Cost: the app is free.

Line has an unusual origin story. It was created in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami that caused havoc in Japan. The app has three capabilities: Life on LINE (a medical assistance service), a Messenger App, and Services. We’ll focus on the Messenger App here.

The messenger app supports chatting, voice calls, and video calls. The app also provides social functionality like stickers, emoji, and group chat (i.e. OpenChat).

There are some downsides to relying on Line. In contrast to most secure live chat apps, Line offers various non-chat services such as shopping, job postings, and payments. From one point of view, Line’s diversity of services makes it more appealing to users. The downside is that the company may not be as focused on developing its chat functionality as other chat-focused platforms.

11) Wire

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  • Platforms: Desktop, mobile apps, and browsers.
  • Security features: end-to-end encryption, secure file sharing, privacy-focused design.
  • Cost: free personal version and paid business plans.

Switzerland-based Wire is a secure chat app with end-to-end encryption enabled by default. The app supports written messages, images, and file transfers. Wire’s security technology is based on Signal’s messaging protocol. The app registers users by email address instead of phone number, which has some privacy advantages. By avoiding phone numbers, Wire is more accessible to desktop users.

There are some weaknesses in using Wire as your primary messaging service. Archiving chat content from Wire is relatively tricky. The service also limits the number of users who can participate in a meeting. This limitation makes Wire less suitable for engaging audiences in events. Wire may not be the right service if you want to run a chat experience for a significant online event.

Choosing The Right Live Chat For You

Are you wondering whether to use a popular messaging app or a private messaging app? With privacy in mind, use this guide to essential features to find the right app for you.

Do you want to know whether to use a popular or private messaging app? With privacy in mind, use this guide to essential features to find the right app.

1. How does the app support AI technology?

Generative AI technology and large language models like ChatGPT are here to stay. These tools have the power to make your staff more productive! Before adding a secure chat platform to your organization, check how it leverages AI.

Generative AI in a chat tool is quickly becoming a must-have capability. Without it, your staff must work much harder to engage their audiences.

2. What IT security safeguards are offered?

Whether you call it secure encryption, an encryption feature, encryption protection, or IT security, safeguards are critical to keeping messages safe.

Specifically, check if the app uses both transit encryption and rest encryption. In addition, look for user-facing features like two-factor authentication to protect your data.

Tip: Business users should check if the app has received positive reviews from cybersecurity experts before using the app.

3. What information is gathered from app users?

To maximize security protection, your preferred messaging app should minimize the information gathered from users. Some mobile platform apps collect a user’s phone number and other data from mobile devices.

If the secure chat app you choose collects significant information, give your users something substantial. Offering an engaging live experience is a must. Use these tips to increase livestream engagement.

4. What platforms does the app support?

Some secure chat apps work in popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. Other apps are designed to work with mobile devices only. If multi-platform support is important for your needs, ask questions before using the app!

To maximize event usage, it is best to use a chat app that works with popular browsers like Arena Live Chat.

5. Is the secure chat app backed by a sustainable business?

Some chat apps emphasize that they are free to users for marketing purposes. It is wise to ask questions about these apps. If they are genuinely free to users, then the app maker will have to generate revenue in other ways, such as advertising. Unfortunately, relying on online advertising to generate revenue for a secure chat app may negatively affect privacy.

6. Is the chat app suitable for large events?

This feature is most important for business users and publishers. If you want to use large numbers of people in a chat room to engage your audience, only some of the chat apps covered above will be a good fit. The reason is simple: most secure chat apps are focused on direct messages, messages to distribution lists, and other forms of closed communication.

Arena Live Chat is designed to bring large groups together to share their passion for the news, community, and other events.

Start Your First Live Chat For Free

Starting your first live chat session for your audience is straightforward. You can then add Arena to your website quickly (it usually takes minutes) and launch your first live chat session. Learn everything Group Chat can do for you.

Ultimate Guide To Grow An Engaged Audience

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Live content is booming in popularity. Video-sharing services, generative AI, and high-speed networks make it easier than ever to share live content.

Also known as live streaming, live content is a powerful way to increase engagement and achieve your revenue goals. 

This guide covers everything you need about live content, including best practices to get up and running fast.

Live Content By The Numbers

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The following stats should exactly how popular live content and online video are booming in popularity.

  • Nearly half (44%) of live-streaming video viewers watch less live TV as a result (source)
  • The top 3 most popular types of live content are: live news, live content on social media, and live awards shows (source)
  • More than 75% of US households subscribe to a streaming service (source)
  • There are over 25,000 full-time YouTube content creators active today (source)
  • Twitch, a streaming content platform focused on gaming, has more than two million regular viewers (source)

Live content is much more than entertainment, by the way. A growing number of companies are leveraging live streaming to sell products. Known as live commerce or live shopping, this type of business video is a powerful way to present products and generate leads at scale.

What is Live Content?

Live content means sharing a live video broadcast to your followers online. Content creators and companies often share videos on social platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. After the video broadcast, the video content may be available online in some cases. 

Three Reasons Audiences Love Live Content

Participating in a live content experience appeals to people for a few reasons. 

Live content is a powerful way to deepen your brand’s connection with your audience. For example, a publisher can offer participants to interact with their best-known personalities and columnists. 

Interacting with a celebrity is fun, but that’s just part of the value of live content. Your audience also has the chance to meet other people who share their interests.

A live content experience is a one-time experience. You can leverage FOMO (“fear of missing out”) when promoting your live content. For example, you might feature a special VIP guest to make your event stand out.

Attending a live content event from your mobile device or computer is easy. There’s no travel time to worry about. Even if you charge admission, the ability to participate in a live content experience from anywhere makes it easier to maximize 

Interacting directly with your favorite influencers and companies isn’t the only reason people love live content. Joining a live content experience also means connecting with people who share your interests. Sending chat messages to new friends is one of the biggest attractions to live content.

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Live Content Process With AI

Live content marketing is easier to create with generative AI tools like chatGPT. The Arena approach to AI and live content is based on three principles: human collaboration, brand alignment, and speed. Let’s unpack each of those principles so that you can create a modern live content process.

Human Collaboration

When you first saw the potential of generative AI technology, you might have wondered what this technology meant for journalists, marketers, and other content creators. Fundamentally, generative AI enables and accelerates human creativity. This generation of AI tools will make staff more productive.

Brand Alignment

Left unguided, generative AI is unlikely to create relevant, engaging live content for your goals. That’s why it is vital to align your use of your AI to your brand’s style and voice. Implementing this principle requires both technical and management direction. 

Speed

In live content, it’s crucial to keep providing new insights and perspectives to keep your audience engaged. Fortunately, AI is one of the best ways to improve the speed of your live content marketing campaigns and editorial content. You can use generative AI to generate outlines, draft simpler coverage, and more. 

To use generative AI best, include all these principles in your live content. For more ideas on implementing AI in your business, see our post: 5 Use Cases for Generative AI in Publishing Right Now.

Live Content Success Story: Critical Role

Another approach to live content is to stream a performance. This approach is trendy in online communities dedicated to gaming. For example, the Dungeons & Dragons online show “Critical Role” was performed live for several hours. 

Critical Rolel is notable because each live stream episode typically lasts several hours. Critical Role has developed a passionate fanbase that regularly submits its fan art. In addition, and provided over $11 million to support the team’s TV show launch via Kickstarter. The group’s success – including product sales – can be traced back to live content.

Live Content Success Story: Author Brandon Sanderson

There are multiple ways to create a live content experience for your audience. Some content creators use a simple question-and-answer format to engage with their audience. For example, best-selling author Brandon Sanderson has run multiple popular Q&A sessions with his fans.  Sanderson’s commitment to live content is one reason his company launched the most successful publishing Kickstarter ever, generating $41 million in revenue.

The Evolution of Live Content

The current boom in live content builds on past technologies and experiences. Understanding the history of live content is helpful because it illustrates what audiences value. Before the digital era, broadcasters on TV and radio brought together audiences to share important news. In 1969, it was estimated that more than 600 million people watched the Apollo 11 Moon Landing. That shared experience helped to set the stage for today’s live content experiences.

Fast forward to the digital era. Almost anybody can create a live content experience and find a new audience online with a mobile app and a good idea. High-speed Internet connections and content distribution platforms like YouTube make sharing live stream video content easier. The boom in streaming services like YouTube, Ustream, and other platforms makes it even easier to distribute your content to your audience.

Streaming video services achieved a significant milestone in the summer of 2022. Nielsen reported that streaming services are now more popular than cable TV in the US for the first time. By May 2023, streaming accounted for 36% of all TV viewing compared to 31% for cable, according to Nielsen. While major platforms like Netflix and Disney+ have the greatest market share, the ongoing growth of accessible services like YouTube shows that other brands can still grow.

As traditional TV declines in popularity, why should brands invest more time and resources into producing live content? There are several reasons why live content deserves a prominent place in your content strategy.

The Top Benefits of Live Content For Brands and Publishers

Investing resources into live content is worthwhile because it can give an exceptional return.

  • 69% of viewers are likely to buy a ticket even after watching a live event.
  • 54% of people want to see more videos from their favorite brands.
  • Consumers view live video 10 times longer than non-live video.
  • 63% of Millennials watch live streaming content regularly.

Appealing to Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) is a critically important demographic for many brands. Millennials comprise 21.75% of the US population (roughly on par with Baby Boomers) and have an average household income of $71,000. For organizations keen to appeal to Millennials and Gen-Z audiences, live streaming and video needs to become a key priority.

Video on its own is not enough, however. It’s also vital to offer dynamic content, including audience chats where people can easily ask real-time questions. Keep reading to discover your options to bring live content to life and grow your audience faster.

What Type of Live Content Is Right For You?

Instead of starting with specific consumer platforms for streaming, it’s better to look at the landscape from a strategic standpoint. This section introduces the different categories, including each option’s pros and cons, so you can decide which option is best suited for your needs.

1. Self-Streaming

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Some entrepreneurs, gamers, and celebrities love turning on their cameras and streaming their thoughts. Whether you use a smartphone or a laptop webcam, consumer hardware is all you need to get started with streaming. 

Earlier, we shared a few examples of live streaming, like author Brandon Sanderson and the Critical Roll web series. Entertainment in various formats continues to be the most popular type of self-streaming. The popularity of services like YouTube, Facebook Live, and Twitch makes this streaming approach easier.

Pros and Cons of Self-Streaming

Pros

Standard webcams and microphones available on most computers and smartphones are all you need to start. Spending more on lights, audio equipment, or a green screen can help you stand out. Aside from a laptop, you can start this live content process for less than $100.  

  • Low-Cost Content Distribution

Consumer platforms like YouTube are low-cost and have a large user base. Some of these platforms also include support for online chats. 

Cons

Traditionally, self-streaming live content focuses on one or a few performers. You must find someone in your company capable of performing this role to use this option.

  • Pulls Users From Your Website

Self-streaming video content relies on third-party platforms, especially if seeking to minimize costs. If your live streaming goal is to generate leads, sell products, or grow your audience, having viewers on your website is preferable. 

Unfortunately, self-streaming viewers do not always convert to website visitors. The most popular self-streaming platforms, like YouTube, are focused on keeping users on their websites rather than sending them to your website.

  • High Competition For Attention

Online distractions are omnipresent with the traditional approach to self-streaming. Video sharing platforms will constantly suggest other videos, channels, and notifications for your audience to pay attention to. As a result, it may take more work to reach your goals.

Who Should Consider Self-Streaming?

Using self-streaming video is valuable in a few circumstances. First, the low cost of this option makes it attractive when you are first getting started in video streaming. Second, your brand may already have many followers on Facebook or YouTube. In that case, it makes sense to stream directly to those followers.

2. Social Media Live Stream

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Leveraging a social media platform to grow your business is an established strategy. In the past few years, these platforms have introduced more video options and engagement options, such as a chat window, the ability to accept donations, and more. In particular, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter have made live video content more popular.

Pros and Cons of Social Media Live Stream 

Pros
  • Large Audiences Available

The leading social media platforms have hundreds of millions of users. According to eMarketer, the top three most popular social platforms in the US in 2023 are Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Participating on these platforms means you have access to a ready-made audience.

The main social media platforms have strong advertising capabilities, making getting more viewers easier. AdRoll says the average cost per click on Facebook is approximately $0.44 (or $14.40 per thousand views). 

  • Viral Organic Growth Potential

While organic reach has been declining for years on social media, it is still possible for your content to go viral. The most reliable way to attain organic growth is to produce exceptional content. In addition, encouraging your audience to actively engage with your content (e.g., “like this video” or “comment below with your thoughts about what our next video should be about”) can help as well.

Cons
  • Platform Specific Requirements

Live content performance varies depending on the platform. What works on Facebook Live will sometimes work on YouTube and vice versa. Therefore, there is a learning curve associated with each platform you use.

  • Pulls Users From Your Website

If your goal is to grow traffic on your website, giving users a clear reason to regularly visit your website (e.g., time-limited sales or special content) is critical, rather than simply sitting back and watching the live content.  

  • Your Content Is Competing With Friends and Family 

Reflect on how you use social media for a moment. You have connections with plenty of friends and family. Seeing updates from someone you know will be more interesting than a live stream. This is the competitive reality of growing a following in social media. Your live stream content is competing against not only other companies but against updates from the end user’s family and friends!

Who Should Consider Social Media Streaming?

Given the scale of social media platforms, including these platforms in your strategy makes sense. For companies with a significant social media presence, using these platforms for live streaming makes a lot of sense. 

Remember that social media companies are focused on maximizing user engagement on their platform. At the same time, your goals may differ (e.g., growing the audience on your website)—experiment with streaming video through social media and other platforms to see which approach yields the best results.

3. Direct Live Content Experience

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The direct live content experience is the high effort, high reward approach to live content. Instead of relying on third-party platforms filled with distractions, the live content is on your website. To maximize your live content experience, include online chats in your strategy so your audience can easily interact with you.

Pros and Cons of Direct Live Content Experience 

Pros
  • Significantly Reduce Digital Distractions

A University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor found that 19% of class time was spent using a digital device for non-class purposes in 2019. It’s not just students either – one recent estimate found that adults pick up their phones over 50 times per day! In this context, it is important to help your audience to stay focused on your content.

There are no distracting notifications or messages when your live content is only offered through your website. Fewer distractions mean a greater chance of staying engaged with your content, connecting, and experiencing enjoyable moments with your brand.

  • Increased Conversion Opportunities

Running a live content experience directly on your website means you control the environment. You can decide to offer time-limited promotions, incentives to contact sales, and more.

  • Increased Audience Loyalty

Achieving success online isn’t just about the number of followers you have. Engagement and loyalty are also critically important. When your audience starts viewing your website as an interesting destination online, they are more likely to return.

Cons

Adding live video experiences to your website will take some work. Yet, many companies and organizations have made it happen using technology like Vimeo. Recently, we highlighted 10 Vimeo-powered live streaming websites. In the guide, you’ll see fitness companies, museums, classic TV, and religious organizations use live videos directly on their websites.

  • Creating Compelling Content Takes Work

Coming up with content streaming ideas takes some work. You need to come up with the idea, and you may also want to script and rehearse the event. 

The work effort needed to create engaging content is also an advantage. Companies need to be more motivated to create virtual events and content experiences. Therefore, you will have an advantage over other companies if you invest in growing your audience more quickly.

To save time developing content ideas and planning live content, see the following resource: Highly Engaging Scripts for Live Coverage and Virtual Events.

Who Should Consider Direct Live Content Experiences?

While running a direct live content experience from your website is open to many organizations, it is a great fit for a few organizations. 

Media companies like broadcasters and news sites are an obvious fit – their goal is to keep their audience engaged directly on their website. In addition, educational institutions are in the business of transferring knowledge to students, and live content can support that goal. Finally, entertainment and eCommerce companies benefit from live content experiences.

Six Best Practices To Improve Your Live Content Results

Achieving excellence with live content takes time and practice. That said, there are some best practices you can use to speed up your results.

1. Start With Your Live Content Strategy 

Choosing the right concept for your live event makes a big difference. Your greatest asset is your knowledge of what your audience has responded to in the past. 

Review your analytics data, webinars, and social media accounts to determine the type of content your audience engages with the most. For additional insight, consider surveying your audience to ask them more about their interests.

2. Promote Your Live Content Experience Like A Product

You might want to run a live content experience to pursue your marketing goals. To achieve your end goal – more leads, more sales, or a larger audience – allocate the necessary to dedicate resources to promote the live content experience. 

For example, you might offer exclusive benefits (e.g., discount codes or the opportunity to ask questions to a VIP in your industry) to people who join your event.

3. Run Your Live Content On Your Website 

While running a live stream experience on a social media platform may appear easier, disadvantages exist. You need more of your ideal audience to visit your website to achieve your goals. Therefore, it is best to stream your live content directly on your website and make it interactive by including Arena Live Chat.

4. Prepare Your Team For Live Content

A successful live content experience is similar to putting on a conference event. You need talented people on stage and support staff working behind the scenes. At a minimum, a live stream event should only be run with two people: an “on-air” event host who will appear on camera and a support person keeping an eye on the live chat and other logistical details.

What if your team is brand new to running a live stream? In that case, running a practice event and only events with other employees is helpful. A practice event is a great opportunity to identify technical problems, get used to reading and responding to user content (e.g., likes and comments about your remarks), and overall improve your confidence.

5. Measure Your Live Content Results

Producing a compelling live content experience takes significant time and resources. It is a best practice to review the live stream metrics each time. Start with simple metrics like the number of attendees. Next, measure the effectiveness of your calls to action – this is where using special discount codes created for the live stream makes a big difference. 

Try to improve your attendance and engagement metrics each time you run a live stream event. Use the next best practice to ensure your live stream performance keeps improving.

6. Test And Learn From Each Event Experience

It’s essential to go into running live content experiences with reasonable expectations. Your first event may have low attendance, low engagement, or both. Don’t let those results discourage you from offering live content, though! Instead, meet with your event team after the event and think through specific ways you can make your next event more successful.

For example, poor audio quality turns off many people. If this problem impacts your live content, buying a better-quality headset or microphone could immediately improve your events.

The One App Every Live Content Experience Needs

The whole point of running a live content experience is to engage your audience. That means you need to give your audience a way to interact with you. That’s where a live chat solution comes in. Learn more about Arena Live Chat.

Get More Customers With A Retarget Customer Data Platform

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A customer data platform needs the right fuel to achieve growth—data from sales systems, customer loyalty data, insights from programmatic advertising, and advanced analytics all help. Ultimately, the way to lift conversion rates requires significant first-party data. 

Why First Party Data Should Be The Core Of Your Marketing Strategy

If you ask most marketing teams, they’ll say they are drowning in data from analytics tools. The burden gets even more significant when you factor in customer insights from third-party data. That’s why your customer data platforms need to emphasize direct interactions with customers (i.e., first-party data).

To make the most out of your marketing activities and get better retargeting results, you need the proper foundation in place first. With the right marketing technology, it is far easier to focus your advertising campaigns to achieve better click-through rates and increase conversion rates.

Gathering Your First-Party Data For Retargeting

Fulfilling your business strategy is easier when you can make Facebook ads, email marketing, and overall digital marketing deliver more results. Effectively gathering first-party data into a centralized database makes it easier to provide personalized experiences.

To build accurate customer profiles, look at the data you already have, like purchase history, insights from your legacy systems, and other data points available in your marketing automation platform. These data points are vital to building a company’s first-party data foundation. However, there is much more high-quality customer data you can gather.

4 Marketing Opportunities To Gather And Use First Party Data 

Online events and community experiences give you an unusual way to transform anonymous visitors into potential customers. To achieve this feat, your tech stack needs to be equipped with marketing automation tools like Arena Personas and live chat. Once your email systems and preferred marketing solution are ready, it’s time to engage your target audiences. 

1) Offer Online Experiences To Potential Customers

Using marketing campaigns to gather today from various customer segments is easier when there is a value exchange. Every single customer should get something out of interacting with your company like a community experience, pricing (e.g. discounts), early access to products or useful insights.

For example, you can use Arena live chat to deepen your customer relationships by running engaging online events. As you add more engaging experiences, customer acquisition cost may go up for a period of time. In the long term, providing customers live event experiences can raise customer retention.

Instead of attempting to understand the desires of anonymous segments, tracking user engagement in different types of online activity (e.g. chat and website use) leads to more actionable insights. Let’s break down how gathering first-party data with an online experience can help.

E-Commerce Business Use Case

For example, B2C customers may react with excitement in a chat session during a livestream event. To see how this information could be used, consider e-commerce brands. They may be considering launching 10 products over the next quarter but  can use this insight to improve the results of product launches. By observing the chat and related behavior patterns like website clicks, you can estimate demand for products (e.g. “Hey, we noticed over a hundred people wanted the new blue shirt!”). 

With this insight in mind, there are at least two ways you can get more business. First, you can run a targeted campaign to your current customers and reference your chat experience (e.g. “We saw that many of you are excited about our new linen blue shirts! Order by Friday and you’ll get 10% off!”). Second, you can then make changes on your advertising platform to emphasize the new shirt. 

2) Create Campaigns For Your Current Customers 

Marketing campaigns often focus on bringing in net new customers and prospects. In addition to that objective, it’s important to engage your current customers. In many respects, it’s easier to  execute data-driven personalization is to focus on customers. Unlike anonymous website visitors, customers have signaled what they value with their buying behavior including offline purchases. Let’s illustrate this use case for enterprise-level companies in the software industry. 

B2B Enterprise Use Case

Selling complex business software often feels like a Herculean task. Achieving business success often requires a full team of sales professionals like account executives, sales development representatives and others. Further, the marketing team is constantly working hard to collect customer stories, optimizing online advertising campaigns and more.

In this context, it’s vital to make the most of your customer base. For example, you might have a significant percentage of customers on a mid tier plan while your goal is to emphasize the top tier enterprise plan. In that case, you might offer online experiences showcasing the success of users in the top tier plan and encourage them to share their success stories. For instance, enterprises users might rave about the analytics capabilities and native integrations available in your top tier plan. Running a live event where customers have the opportunity to share their experiences with each other is powerful!

There are some downsides to this type of campaign. It requires significant insight into customer behavior. It’s vital to know your customer satisfaction levels so that you shine a spotlight on your most delighted customers. This type of campaign also requires significant collaboration between sales and marketing. Fortunately, solutions like Arena Personas make such marketing efforts easier to arrange. 

3) Get Better Lookalike Audiences

In Facebook advertising, it has been a common practice to create a lookalike audience by uploading your customer list. Facebook then uses its customer match capabilities to find more people who are similar to your current customers. This approach to Facebook advertising isn’t your only option. What if your target audience isn’t on Facebook or Facebook campaigns aren’t producing satisfactory results? The first party data you gather can help you to market more effectively.

The downside to relying entirely on an advertising platform for lookalike audiences is that you are dependent on their database. If some or many of your customers are not active users on Facebook, retargeting via the Facebook pixel may not work well.

The alternative is to build your own lookalike audiences. With a large enough audience, you may be able to pursue granular segmentation in a custom audience as shown in the following example.

Individual Audience Factors

Every purchase is ultimately made by an individual, whether they are buying as a consumer or at a company. Therefore, it is usually wise to start with these factors.

  • Age: understanding the typical age profile of your ideal audience helps you to decide which channels, creative and offers to use.
  • Gender: it is helpful to know if gender differences are relevant to your market.
  • Geography: contrast the geography of your website visitors to your ideal customer profile.
  • Interests: find out the topics, publications and media your audience likes. If you offer online event experiences like virtual conferences, look at registration records to see 

B2B Audience Factors

If you are focused on appealing to B2B audiences, the following customer attributes are important. 

  • Industry: to minimize confusion, use a standard industry classification like the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
  • Company Size: use number of employees or revenue as a filter. 
  • Technology Stack: If you offer technology products or services, knowing the customer’s tech stack is helpful. For example, does it matter if the customer uses Salesforce?

Is Your Audience Segment Too Large?

Audience segmentation can become less useful when the audience becomes too large. IF you end up with an audience segment with millions of individual customers, it may need to be narrowed down. Leverage feedback from the sales team and customer service to narrow the list. They may be able to help you identify the customer attributes associated with the most valuable customers (e.g. people who tend to move through the customer journey quickly).

4) Lapsed Customer Engagement

When a customer cancels their account or stops buying for a long period of time, all hope is not lost. In many cases, you have a good chance to reengaging lapsed customers with a retargeting campaign. To build this type of audience segment, it’s important to choose who to include and who to exclude.

Start by defining a lapsed customer. For simplicity, let’s define a lapsed customer as a prior customer whose last purchase was six to twelve months ago. Once you have that list, it’s vital to filter it further using your customer relationship management data. Specifically, you want to exclude customers who complained or experienced significant problems. Reengaging such former customers is much more challenging and may require more guidance from the sales team.

Now that you have your audience segment prepared, prepare a custom advertising campaign. B2C companies often find that a simple “we’ve missed you!” style message with an incentive (e.g. 10% off coupon) is an effective way to bring back customers. For B2B campaigns, communicating new features or capabilities can help. Even better, reengage lapsed customers by inviting them to an online event.

The Final Ingredient To Successful Retargeting: Leverage Market Awareness

Once you choose one of the ideas from above to execute, there is one more critical point to consider: market awareness. The three part market funnel – top of funnel, middle of the funnel and bottom of funnel – gives us a good framework. Let’s pair the market funnel concept with the audience segmentation we covered earlier.

1) Top of Funnel

In the top of the marketing funnel, most prospects have little to no understanding of your product and how it might help them. This is the marketing equivalent of cold calling. The advantage of top funnel marketing is that you have the greatest opportunity because this segment is always the biggest. The disadvantage is that you usually need to be more patient.

With a top of funnel focus, leveraging the “Offer Online Experiences To Potential Customers” strategy makes sense. In this case, your primary marketing campaign would focus on inviting prospects to an online event. After the event, you would follow up with retargeting campaigns to offer an event recording or other assets to give people a reason to opt in to your marketing.

If you use events, use our how to promote your virtual event guide to get more attendees.

2) Middle of Funnel

Also known as the evaluation stage, the middle of the funnel is an intermediate step in the customer journey. In this stage, the potential customer has some awareness of what you offer. It’s now up to you to nurture the prospect further. In contrast to top of funnel, you likely already have some prospect or customer data in place so you can start off with a retargeting campaign.

Consider adapting the “Create Campaigns For Your Current Customers” concept to middle of the funnel campaigns. Highlighting your current customers via an event, case study or interview is a powerful way to prove your credibility. Using your customer data platform, identify prospects who have interacted with your brand in the past 3 months (e.g. attended a webinar, participated in a live chat etc). Once you have identified this audience segment, create a marketing campaign to emphasize your case studies.

3) Bottom of Funnel

Converting leads at the bottom of the marketing funnel depends on your business model. If customers make an online purchase, a campaign offering a deadline and incentive is often a good bet. For B2B or enterprise sales, running marketing campaigns may not be your best best. Instead, it may be more effective to collaborate with the sales team to find out what type of campaigns they want. For example, highly customized and targeted direct mail campaigns may be the best way forward.

Use Arena Personas To Get More of The Right Data

Data driven personalization campaigns and advanced audience segmentation all depend on having high quality data. To help companies get more of the data they need to grow, use Arena Personas. It’s the fastest way to collect and import first-party data into your customer data platform. Then you’ll find it far easier to run retargeting campaigns across the marketing funnel.

Virtual Conference: Top 10 Platforms (Ranked)

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There are several virtual conference platforms you can use to host your online event. The best conference platforms let organizers host live stream events, accommodate large audiences, market their events, collect insightful data, broadcast on multiple platforms and devices, and encourage attendee engagement. 

To select a virtual event platform for your online conferences and virtual meetings, use the insights provided in this guide to make an informed decision. While our focus is on the best virtual conference platforms for large events, these tools can often be used to run a smaller online meetings as well. 

This guide reveals the top 10 virtual conference platforms, including features and pricing information for each so you can make a good decision as the event organizer.

Top 10 Virtual Conference Platforms

We have selected some of the best virtual conference platforms, according to user rankings on Capterra. Please note that these rankings change over time as more users review the apps and other solutions.

1. Grip (Capterra Average Rating: 5 stars out of 5)

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Grip offers virtual conference tools suitable for virtual and hybrid event experiences. As the event host, you can stream your online experience to other major streaming solutions like Zoom, YouTube, and Twitch. The software enhances networking, a key part of the attendee experience, through its AI-powered event matchmaking tool. Organizers can add a live stream to Grip’s main stage, and it automatically shows content on the users’ feeds. 

The platform’s Event Matchmaking tool creates a networking experience through speed networking, roundtables, instant video calls, multi-person meetings, and hosted buyer meetings. This matchmaking capability makes this platform stand out compared to other virtual meeting platforms. 

In addition to major streaming solutions, Grip also integrates with Arena to enhance audience engagement. Arena Live Chat is a live chat tool that improves engagement through instant messaging, Q&As, polls, surveys, group chat, and more. 

Arena Live Blog is another effective tool for digital agencies and companies looking to share quick updates as their conference unfolds. To capitalize on data collected from customers, companies also use Arena Personas plugged into their Customer Data Platform (CDP) to build customer profiles and better understand their preferences and interests.

2. Demio (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)

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Demio is one of our top virtual conference platforms because of its simple event registration capabilities, engagement benefits, and analytics tools. 

Demio offers real-time HD streaming, simulated events, and pre-recorded presentations. Organizers can add their own logo and branding, and attendees can join virtual conferences with just one click. 

Notable, the Demio platform integrates with over 50 third-party software apps like HubSpot, Drip, ConvertKit, and MailChimp. Organizers can view attendees, collect contact details, manage their registration, and export contacts to a CSV file. 

Demio offers a 14-day free trial, so you can evaluate if it is right for your needs. The company offers three paid plans: Starter ($34 per month with 50 attendees), growth ($69 per month with 150 attendees), and premium (request quote for pricing and support for more than 500 attendees).

3. Livestorm (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)

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Livestorm is a browser-based platform that offers powerful live streaming features, where events can be hosted on desktop and mobile devices. The webinar software can be used for pre-recorded online events, live events, or on-demand events. 

Organizers can track engagement, answer questions, add polls, chat with attendees, send emails, and use these insights to improve the experience for attendees.

Companies can promote their events through branded registration pages, built-in social sharing, company pages, automated emails, and more. Livestorm has solid features to enable an engaging interactive experience like Q&As for event guests, call-to-actions, live answer notifications, live attendees lists, and screen sharing. 

Like several of the other online community platforms profiled here, Livestorm offers several plans. To take the platform for a test drive and see how it performs with interactive webinars, try the free plan which has a maximum event duration of 20 minutes. To accommodate more event participants, top-tier support, and other features, sign up for the Pro, Business, or Enterprise plan. 

4. Communique Conferencing (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)

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Communique Conferencing has effective solutions for audio conferencing, web conferencing, and virtual community events. Its webcasting software lets organizers broadcast video and audio to over 30,000 attendees. This large virtual venue capacity means the platform pairs well with even the largest events.

Its virtual conferencing platform creates an online environment that includes features for networking, keynote presentations, booths, exhibit halls, and conferences. It also has a custom solution for hosting virtual career fairs and hybrid events. To find out more about the platform’s pricing, contact the company.

5. Zoom (Capterra Average Rating: 4.6 stars out of 5)

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Zoom offers several different products for video webinars, meetings, phone systems, events, chat, and more. Zoom Meetings can host up to 1,000 participants with audience chats, and Zoom’s webinar platform can broadcast to 50,000 attendees. Virtual conference hosts can stream HD video, cancel background noise, and add virtual backgrounds with Zoom’s software. 

Zoom’s key features include the capability to create their own post-conference landing page and set up reminder emails. To encourage audience participation, Zoom also offers Q&A sessions and attendee networking via breakout rooms.

Zoom’s Webinars starts at $690 per year (up to 500 attendees) and Zoom Webinar is priced at $890 per year (up to 500 attendees). At higher price points, the virtual event platform can serve over 10,000 live attendees.

6. Cisco Webex (Capterra Average Rating: 4.6 stars out of 5)

Cisco Webex is a virtual event platform that supports up to 10,000 attendees. To keep your attendees engaged, the platform offers breakout rooms (i.e. a virtual networking lounge), polls, chats, and Q&As. 

The platform’s webinars come with post-event reporting, moderator controls, custom presentation options, and personalized registration pages.  Cisco Webex offers several different pricing plans depending on each organizer’s needs.

The free basic plan is limited to 50-minute meetings and 100 attendees. The Business plan is $25 per month with support for 200 attendees. The enterprise plan provides support for up to 1000 attendees (contact sales for pricing).

7. Airmeet (Capterra Average Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5)

Airmeet is a platform that lets organizers host up to 100,000 participants for a hybrid or physical event. Organizers can connect attendees through mobile devices, live stream events on Facebook and YouTube, and use integrations to exchange event data. 

With this hosting platform, organizers can add real-time polling, collect event insights, sell tickets with different tiers, and easily register attendees with registration forms.

The virtual event software has several plans, including social webinars and events. Both plans include interactive features such as the ability to gather audience questions.

Its plans include Social Webinars for results-driven webinars and Events for large-scale conferences. AirMeet has three plans: free, standard and pro. The free plan is limited to 100 attendees per event, while the standard plan (starts at $2400 per year) supports more users. To access all of the platform’s robust features (e.g. virtual booths, email marketing support, and networking features), see the pro plan which starts at $7500 per year.

8. GoToWebinar (Capterra Average Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5)

GoToWebinar is another virtual events platform that checks all the boxes of a top virtual events software. The video conferencing platform comes with powerful integrations, helpful analytics, engagement features, and flexible webinar modes. GoToWebinar comes with advanced security features and can quickly process credit card payments through Stripe. 

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GoToWebinar’s Webcast solution can host 3,000 to 100,000 attendees and its webinars can be pre-recorded which makes it a great pick for virtual community events. Content can be delivered through pre-recorded webinars, webcasting, and interactive live recording. 

The platform has four plans: lite, standard, pro and enterprise. The lite plan starts at $49 per organizer per month and includes support for up to 250 participants. GoToWebinars also offers automated emails in each plan to support your email marketing campaigns

Its four pricing plans categorized by number of participants range from $49 per organizer per month to $399 per organizer per month. 

9. Eventzilla (Capterra Average Rating: 4.4 stars out of 5)

Eventzilla is an all-in-one virtual conference software that also offers event registration for hybrid, virtual, and in-person events. 

Event organizers can use this platform to build event agendas, run marketing campaigns, create mobile-friendly pages, and manage multiple events simultaneously. 

Users can try Eventzilla for free. The Basic plan starts at $1.50 per event attendee up to a maximum of 100 attendees. For additional users, see the company’s higher-tier plans.

10. ClickMeeting (Capterra Average Rating: 4.2 stars out of 5)

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ClickMeeting is a virtual conference platform for hosting product demos, online business meetings, online training courses, and huge online events. Its huge virtual events product lets users host up to 10,000 attendees. Users can stream events live on YouTube or Facebook and add call-to-action buttons to generate conversions. The ability to connect to a wider audience on social media platforms when video streaming makes ClickMeeting appealing.

Some of ClickMeeting’s powerful features include paid webinars, live webinars, on-demand webinars, screen sharing, and webinar recording (i.e., support for event recording). The product comes with a 30-day free trial and three paid subscription plans. 

ClickMeeting if one of the most affordable virtual conference platforms, with plans starting at $25 per month and pricing changing based on the number of attendees, integrations and other features.

How to Choose the Right Virtual Conference Platform

Assess Your Needs

Begin by identifying the specific needs of your event. Consider factors like the expected number of attendees, the type of interactions you want to facilitate (e.g., breakout rooms, Q&A sessions, networking features), and the level of technical support required. Understanding your goals will help you prioritize which features are essential for your virtual meeting platform.

Compare Features and Pricing

Once you have a clear understanding of your needs, compare the features and pricing of different platforms. Look for tools that offer the functionalities you need, such as live streaming, real-time chat, and analytics. Ensure the pricing aligns with your budget, and consider whether the platform offers scalable options to accommodate future growth.

Read User Reviews

User reviews can provide valuable insights into the reliability and user-friendliness of a platform. Look for reviews on trusted sites like Capterra and G2, paying attention to both positive and negative feedback. Reviews can reveal common issues and highlight features that users find particularly beneficial, helping you make an informed decision.

Conclusion

Whether you’re hosting a webinar, conference, or virtual training, consider using one of the top virtual conference platforms mentioned. One of the reasons that Grip is a fantastic option is because it integrates Arena Live Chat in its live event platform. To find out which product is best for you, sign up for a free trial and take each Arena product for a test drive yourself. 

A common theme among many of these tools is the importance of attendee engagement. With software tools provided by Arena, you can enhance user engagement, collect customer data, and build relationships with your audience during video conferences.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFy4Ho4jPnM

To select a virtual event platform for your online conferences and virtual meetings, use this guide fully updated in 2022. While our focus is on larger virtual meetings, these platforms can often be used to run a smaller online meetings as well. 

This guide reveals the top 10 virtual conference platforms, including features and pricing information for each so you can make a good decision as the event organizer.

Best Virtual Conference Platforms

Our rankings are informed by the Capterra average star rating provided to each platform as of August 2022. These rankings change over time as more users review the app.

1. Grip (Capterra Average Rating: 5 stars out of 5)

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Grip offers virtual conference software suitable for virtual and hybrid event experiences. As the event host, you can stream your online experience to other major streaming solutions like Zoom, YouTube, and Twitch. The software enhances networking, a key part of the attendee experience, through its AI-powered event matchmaking tool. Organizers can add a live stream to Grip’s main stage, and it automatically shows content on the users’ feeds. 

The platform’s Event Matchmaking tool creates a networking experience through speed networking, roundtables, instant video calls, multi-person meetings, and hosted buyer meetings.  This matchmaking capability makes this platform stand out compared to other virtual meeting platforms. 

In addition to major streaming solutions, Grip also integrates with Arena to enhance audience engagement. Arena Live Chat is a live chat tool that improves engagement through instant messaging, Q&As, polls, surveys, group chat, and more. 

Arena Live Blog is another effective tool for digital agencies and companies looking to share quick updates as their conference unfolds. To capitalize on data collected from customers, companies also use Arena Personas plugged to their Customer Data Platform (CDP) to build customer profiles and better understand their preferences and interests.

2. Demio (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)

‍

Demio is one of our top virtual conference platforms because of its simple event registration capabilities, engagement benefits, and analytics tools. 

Demio offers real-time HD streaming, simulated events, and pre-recorded presentations. Organizers can add their own logo and branding, and attendees can join virtual conferences with just one click. 

Notable, the Demio platform integrates with over 50 third-party software apps like HubSpot, Drip, ConvertKit, and MailChimp. Organizers can view attendees, collect contact details, manage their registration, and export contacts to a CSV file. 

Demio offers a 14-day free trial, so you can evaluate if it is right for your needs. The company offers three paid plans: Starter ($34 per month with 50 attendees), growth ($69 per month with 150 attendees), and premium (request quote for pricing and support for more than 500 attendees).

3. Livestorm (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)

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Livestorm is a browser-based platform that offers powerful live streaming features. Events can be hosted on desktop and mobile devices. The webinar software can be used for pre-recorded online events, live events, or on-demand events. 

Organizers can track engagement, answer questions, add polls, chat with attendees, send emails, and use these insights to improve the experience for attendees.

Companies can promote their events through branded registration pages, built-in social sharing, company pages, automated emails, and more. Livestorm has solid features to enable an engaging interactive experience like Q&As for event guests, call-to-actions, live answer notifications, live attendees lists, and screen sharing. 

Like several of the other video conferencing tools profiled here, Livestorm offers several plans. To take the platform for a test drive and see how it performs with interactive webinars, try the free plan which has a maximum event duration of 20 minutes. To accommodate more event participants, top-tier support, and other features, sign up for the Pro, Business, or Enterprise plan. 

4. Communique Conferencing (Capterra Average Rating: 4.7 stars out of 5)

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Communique Conferencing has effective solutions for audio conferencing, web conferencing, and virtual events. Its webcasting software lets organizers broadcast video and audio to over 30,000 attendees. This large virtual venue capacity means the platform pairs well with even the largest events.

Its virtual conferencing platform creates an online environment that includes features for networking, keynote presentations, booths, exhibit halls, and conferences. It also has a custom solution for hosting virtual career fairs and hybrid events. To find out more about the platform’s pricing, contact the company.

5. Zoom (Capterra Average Rating: 4.6 stars out of 5)

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Zoom offers several different products for video webinars, meetings, phone systems, events, chat, and more. Zoom Meetings can host up to 1,000 participants with audience chats, and Zoom’s webinar platform can broadcast to 50,000 attendees. Virtual conference hosts can stream HD video, cancel background noise, and add virtual backgrounds with Zoom’s software. 

Zoom’s key features include the capability to create their own post-conference landing page and set up reminder emails. To encourage audience participation, Zoom also offers Q&A sessions and attendee networking via breakout rooms.

Zoom’s Webinars starts at $690 per year (up to 500 attendees) and Zoom Webinar is priced at $890 per year (up to 500 attendees). At higher price points, the virtual event platform can serve over 10,000 live attendees.

6. Cisco Webex (Capterra Average Rating: 4.6 stars out of 5)

Cisco Webex is a virtual event platform that supports up to 10,000 attendees. To keep your attendees engaged, the platform offers breakout rooms (i.e. a virtual networking lounge), polls, chats, and Q&As. 

The platform’s webinars come with post-event reporting, moderator controls, custom presentation options, and personalized registration pages.  Cisco Webex offers several different pricing plans depending on each organizer’s needs.

The free basic plan is limited to 50-minute meetings and 100 attendees. The Business plan is $25 per month with support for 200 attendees. The enterprise plan provides support for up to 1000 attendees (contact sales for pricing).

7. Airmeet (Capterra Average Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5)

Airmeet is a platform that lets organizers host up to 100,000 participants for a hybrid or physical event. Organizers can connect attendees through mobile devices, live stream events on Facebook and YouTube, and use integrations to exchange event data. 

With this hosting platform, organizers can add real-time polling, collect event insights, sell tickets with different tiers, and easily register attendees with registration forms.

The virtual meeting software platform has several plans, including social webinars and events. Both plans include interactive features such as the ability to gather audience questions.

Its plans include Social Webinars for results-driven webinars and Events for large-scale conferences. AirMeet has three plans: free, standard and pro. The free plan is limited to 100 attendees per event, while the standard plan (starts at $2400 per ear) supports more users. To access all of the platform’s robust features (e.g. virtual booths, email marketing support, and networking features), see the pro plan which starts at $7500 per year.

8. GoToWebinar (Capterra Average Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5)

GoToWebinar is another virtual events platform that checks all the boxes of a top virtual events software. The video conferencing platform comes with powerful integrations, helpful analytics, engagement features, and flexible webinar modes. GoToWebinar comes with advanced security features and can quickly process credit card payments through Stripe. 

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GoToWebinar’s Webcast solution can host 3,000 to 100,000 attendees and its webinars can be pre-recorded which makes it a great pick for digital events. Content can be delivered through pre-recorded webinars, webcasting, and interactive live recording. 

The platform has four plans: lite, standard, pro and enterprise. The lite plan starts at $49 per organizer per month and includes support for up to 250 participants. GoToWebinars also offers automated emails in each plan to support your email marketing campaigns

Its four pricing plans categorized by number of participants range from $49 per organizer per month to $399 per organizer per month. 

9. Eventzilla (Capterra Average Rating: 4.4 stars out of 5)

Eventzilla is an all-in-one virtual conference software that also offers event registration for hybrid, virtual, and in-person events. 

Event organizers can use this platform to build event agendas, run marketing campaigns, create mobile-friendly pages, and manage multiple events simultaneously. 

Users can try Eventzilla for free. The Basic plan starts at $1.50 per event attendee up to a maximum of 100 attendees. For additional users, see the company’s higher-tier plans.

10. ClickMeeting (Capterra Average Rating: 4.2 stars out of 5)

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ClickMeeting is a virtual conference platform for hosting product demos, online business meetings, online training courses, and huge online events. Its huge virtual events product lets users host up to 10,000 attendees. Users can stream events live on YouTube or Facebook and add call-to-action buttons to generate conversions. The ability to connect to a wider audience on social media platforms when video streaming makes ClickMeeting appealing.

Some of ClickMeeting’s powerful features include paid webinars, live webinars, on-demand webinars, screen sharing, and webinar recording (i.e., support for event recording). The product comes with a 30-day free trial and three paid subscription plans. 

ClickMeeting plans start at $25 per month and pricing changes based on the number of attendees, integrations and other features.

Conclusion

Whether you’re hosting a webinar, conference, or virtual training, consider using one of the top virtual conference platforms mentioned. One of the reasons that Grip is a fantastic option is because it integrates  Arena Live Chat in its live event platform. To find out which product is best for you, sign up for a free trial and take each Arena product for a test drive yourself. 

A common theme among many of these tools is the importance of attendee engagement. With software tools provided by Arena, you can enhance user engagement, collect customer data, and build relationships with your audience during video conferences.

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Future of Cookies In Marketing: Strategies That Work

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Prepare for the cookieless future. User privacy concerns have prompted the advertising industry, Apple, and Google to develop new marketing strategies. New privacy laws make the conventional approach to personalized advertising no longer work. 

To succeed, advertisers need to meet new consumer expectations and regulatory restrictions by creating direct connections with their audiences. Success in a world without third-party cookies starts with understanding how the world has changed.

New Opportunities In The Digital Landscape Changed

The future of cookies will take two primary forms: cohort-based marketing and first-party relationships. These opportunities deserve a prominent place in any effective marketing strategy today.

The Rise of Cohort Based Marketing: Not Ready For Prime Time 

Rather than tracking each user’s online behaviors, the new approach pioneered by Google and adtech companies is cohort-based advertising. This means aiming your advertising at a group of people with similar interests instead of a single user. One example of this trend is the federated learning of cohorts (FLoC) that Google has pioneered. This concept is exciting because it will leverage machine learning to enhance digital advertising.

The FLoC concept was initially developed in 2021 in a privacy sandbox created by Google. This particular technology came to an end in January 2022. There are some ongoing consumer privacy concerns with the approach taken at Google. As a result, the company is moving in a new direction called “Google Topics” (or Topics API). 

It’s not just privacy concerns that cause difficulties for cohort-based marketing. Fundamentally, tracking a large group of people may not be a good match for the customer journey you have developed.   

First-Party Relationship: The New Way To Understand Consumer Behavior

Also known as a first-person cookie, this marketing approach is exciting. A first-party cookie is direct rather than relying on third-party cookie data from others in the marketing industry. For example, a potential customer lands on your website and accepts browser notifications or signs up for your email list. 

Companies can target relevant advertising directly to their potential customers with this direct connection. Using your Customer Data Platform and Google Analytics, you might notice that one user is regularly visiting your “on-sale” pages. Based on that information, you can tailor marketing to that individual user. For example, send them more emails or notifications emphasizing your seasonal sales. In essence, establishing a robust first-party relationship means personalized messaging becomes much more manageable. A deep understanding of what your customers want means you can improve your emails, Google Ads, and other marketing campaigns much faster.

How To Succeed With First Party Cookies

Thriving in a 1st party relationship world requires solving two problems: the need for more website traffic and user consent.

1) Increase Website Traffic

First, this strategy requires potential customers to come to your website. That is getting harder today because many popular websites and tech companies operate as walled gardens. These walled gardens maximize user time on their website rather than sending people elsewhere. 

2) Renewed Focus on Earning Consumer Consent

The second challenge is that privacy standards require you to seek consent to establish a direct relationship with a user. The adtech industry has previously played fast and loose with the privacy rules. Also, privacy regulations like GDPR have pushed companies to change their advertising strategies. It’s not just regulations either – companies like Apple have pushed back hard against invasive tracking methods. As a result, third-party data like traditional cookies are largely becoming obsolete.

Gaining consumer consent in this brave new world requires offering something attractive to users. There are different approaches to gaining consumer consent to individual user tracking. Common solutions include promising users a personalized experience, offering a discount (i.e. a discount code) or a free resource like an exclusive webinar or report.

Audience Engagement: A New Hope For Marketing

The future of cookies is fundamentally focused on creating and deepening direct relationships. Your online presence has to become more exciting and appealing to your potential customers. Your online content, events, and experiences have to be so appealing that your audience happily agrees to receive marketing messages from you.

Three Strategies To Grow And Deepen First Party Relationships

Use the following strategies to keep users returning to your website week after week, even as the digital landscape changes. By the way, offering engaging content and experiences has a secondary marketing benefit. You’re giving your users more chances to share your content with other people. 

1. Boost Investment In Content Marketing and Online Events

To keep people coming back to your website repeatedly, appealing products and services are not enough. Your marketing itself needs to add value like original data, a community of like minded people and exciting content.

So, what exactly does a boosted effort in content marketing look like? According to the Content Marketing Institute, more than half of B2B marketers have increased their spending on video, events (including digital and hybrid), owned media assets (i.e., content you own and control), and paid media.

As third party cookies decline, it’s wise to take inspiration from a variety of brands who are achieving wins in content marketing. 

  • Salesforce offers a wide range of content marketing initiatives like podcasts (e.g. the Marketing Cloudcast and the Marketing Trends podcast), events (i.e. the Dreamforce conference has attracted tens of thousands of attendees) and much more.
  • Dropbox shows that interactive approaches to content marketing can become wildly successful. A few years ago, Dropbox created a “What kind of marketer are you?” quiz to create awareness – a campaign that attracted significant leads.
  • PayPal, the well known financial technology firm, shows a simple way to create content marketing: work with your users. PayPal Stories have recently featured a variety of successful small business owners and entrepreneurs. This PayPal approach to content marketing shows that you can make customers the star of your content marketing. 

Investing more deeply in content marketing matters because it gives your customers a reason to keep coming back to your website.  When customers are motivated to visit your site regularly, you have more opportunities to ask for their consent to market to them through their browser, email, and other means.

2. Grow Your Social Media Audiences

The best way to be ready for the end of cookies is to drive the audience to your own website. This way, you can generate proprietary, first-party data about your audience. Attracting your audience from social media is worthwhile because these audiences have already shown interest in your brand.

Since there are many social media platforms, there are two simple techniques to decide which platform to focus on. Start with your customers – what social media platforms do they like the most? Running a survey of your customers to ask them about their favorite social media sites can help to guide you.

Further, you also want to think about which platforms have sufficient reach and advertising opportunities. For example, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have a significant market share and interesting significant advertising features. Building a following on those platforms is another way to grow despite the uncertain future of cookies.

3. Build Your Customer Data Platform

Simply increasing the number of website visitors and subscribers is not enough to succeed in a cookie-less future. It’s vital to deepen your understanding of consumer behavior.

Implementing a Customer Data Platform is a significant next step. A CDP connects to your existing apps and platforms like your email marketing software, Google Analytics, and CRM. Drawing together multiple sources, it can help you understand the content and experiences that your customers engage in before buying. 

Once you have a CDP in place, use to understand the customer journey in detail. Look at how many touchpoints a potential customer has with your brand before they buy. For example, you might see that high value buyers attend events like live shopping and download a few specific types of content.

As a result, you can quickly refresh your advertising strategies monthly based on the specific patterns your users are engaged in.

What To Do This Month To Thrive Without Traditional Cookies 

Choosing the right marketing strategy matters, but your team also needs to know what exactly to do this week and this month to succeed. Use these tactics to win in today’s marketing game without focusing on third-party cookies. 

1. Integrated Email Marketing Analytics

The emergence of new marketing opportunities like the metaverse is exciting. Positioning your brand to win in these emerging areas can pay off long-term. However, you also need to keep your eye on this quarter’s results. 

Optimizing your email marketing effectiveness remains one of the best ways to drive higher returns. For example, check if your email marketing software supports A/B testing on subject lines, links and other elements. This approach lets you achieve individual user tracking through email.

Logging into your email platform and reviewing its trends on open rates, clicks and replies only give you part of the picture. It is also vital to know whether a subscriber has attended an online event or engaged with your sales team. Arena’s CDP platform makes it easy to connect the dots between email marketing data and other customer interactions.

2. Boost Push Notification Marketing

While email marketing has exceptional ROI, it is not the only opt-in digital marketing option. With push notifications, you ask the customer for permission to send messages to them directly through the browser or mobile apps.

According to Airship research, opt-in rates for mobile app push notifications range from 29% to more than 70%! To earn high opt-in rates from your prospects, keep investing in engaging content and virtual events. When prospects enjoy your content and experiences, they will happily opt in to receive more information from you.

3. Review Your Privacy Policy

Customer expectations for privacy and data protection are increasing every year. As marketers pivot away from cookies, your privacy policy needs to keep up. There are several layers to updating your privacy policy for the post cookie era.

Start by reviewing your privacy policy to see if it reflects the customer data you are currently collecting. If your privacy policy was last updated over a year ago, it might be out of date. For example, adopting a customer data platform to build a comprehensive customer profile may require an update to your privacy policy because you are changing how you use data.

Next, take a hard look at your security safeguards. You probably have robust systems to protect highly sensitive data like payment data. However, your marketing databases also contain personal information, ensuring that data is protected.

The New Way To Achieve Personalized Marketing 

Cookies were powerful because they unlocked personalization for digital marketers. As we say goodbye to cookies as a central strategy, how can you keep data-driven personalization?

The answer lies in setting up a customer data platform for your brand. It’s more than data dashboards and exciting reports. A customer data platform is one of the best ways to identify advocates and passionate fans in your audience. With a CDP, your marketing team can also learn which marketing assets are driving your results.

Discover how a customer data platform can solve today’s most pressing problems in marketing. Download Arena’s CDP Ebook: The Future of Marketing and Sales. Your marketing personas will be grounded in factual data with a CDP in place.

Top 40 Live Chat Benefits You Need to Know

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Arena Live Chat is one of the most powerful live chat platforms on the market. If you’re undecided on whether to try it, you might not know about the benefits.

Top 40 Live Chat Benefits

1) Increase sales

There’s a saying in sales: the confused mind does not buy. When customers have questions or doubts, they are less likely to buy.  With Arena Live Chat on your website, you can make it easy for customers to get answers about potential purchases. By providing quick answers to interested customers, you can earn more sales.

2) Build a community of fans on your website

Customers are probably talking about your brand and products, but those conversations are not happening on your website. Instead, those conversations are probably already happening on social media sites like your company’s Facebook page. When people talk about your brand away from your website, it is tough for you to provide answers and drive conversions.

By adding Arena Live Chat to your website, you can build a thriving community of users in two ways. First, your customers can make friends with each other during group chat sessions. Second, you can provide a welcoming virtual place for customers to come together as a community. If you want to see some solid events, check out how Nubank leveraged Anita’s community engagement for its IPO live event, or how Vans uses Arena Live Chat to aid live DJ music sets in its website.

3) Keep people on your website longer

According to Crazy Egg, the average person only spends 15 seconds on a website before leaving. Yikes! That’s not much time to make a good impression, let alone earn a sale or generate a lead. What if you could encourage users to spend 10 minutes or even an hour on your website happily?

That’s possible when you organize a virtual event with Arena Live Chat. For example, you could invite a social media influencer to present a live stream video session for an hour. During that session, attendees can ask questions through Arena Live Chat. In addition, you will have the opportunity to drive conversions by using the conversion card feature in Arena.

4) Qualify leads for the sales team

Is your sales team too busy with prospects who are not a fit for your products? That’s a problem you can solve by using Arena Live Chat. Invite customers to answer a few simple questions through chat before booking a call with sales.

For example, consider a B2B company that mainly sells to large companies with more than $100 million in revenue. In that case, the sales team shouldn’t spend their time talking to small businesses. You can use Arena Live Chat to qualify leads before they are sent to the sales team.

5) Reduce customer service delays

Forcing customers to wait in long phone queues to get customer service is no longer good enough. In 2020, more than 10% of customers abandoned their calls before being connected to an agent. When a customer gives up on their call, that disappointment hurts your company in two ways. First, you have lost a potential sale today. Second, the frustrated customer may complain to their friends and family.

Offering customer service through Arena Live Chat can help you to minimize customer service delays. For the best results, equip your customer service agents with a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document and other training to help them answer common questions quickly.

6) Create more engaging live events

Offering a live virtual event to your customers is a great way to build loyalty and drive sales. When planning an event, use the virtual events checklist to plan your event properly. At the same time, you also want to allow for some flexibility to adjust your topics based on what your customers are most interested in.

With Arena Live Chat, you can ask poll questions during an event to gather quick feedback. At the end of the event, you could ask attendees to vote on what your next live event should focus on. Acting on this feedback means you can avoid the frustration of offering live events that nobody is interested in attending. Swoogo has already found out that offering Live Chat is a home-run in live events.

7) Boost conversions in live shopping events

Live shopping events are an exciting way to drive increased sales. According to McKinsey, live shopping events may generate between 10-20% of all ecommerce sales by 2026.

During these events, customers are likely to have questions about product size, color, shipping, and much more. To make the most of your live shopping events, provide fast answers through Arena Live Chat.

8) Gain feedback on new product ideas

Are you debating what product to launch next? You could use market research surveys to gather insight on what people might want. That kind of research will yield some valuable insights. However, there is an even better way – get insight directly from customers using Arena Live Chat.

For instance, let’s say that you run a clothing brand and consider offering a line of blankets for winter. Before investing time in manufacturing and marketing, ask your next 100 live chat users if they are interested in a blanket. If the customers are interested, take note of their contact details and follow up with them later if you launch the product.  

9) Improve your chatbots

Adding a chatbot to your website is an excellent way to provide even faster customer service. However, chatbots are only as good as their input. One of the best ways to make your chatbots more effective is to look through your Arena Live Chat transcripts. You’re bound to find new ideas to make your chatbots more effective.

10) Enable flexible remote work

Survey after survey has shown that flexible remote work is popular with employees. According to Forbes, 74% of professional workers expect remote work to become standard in the coming years.

Give your employees the option to provide customer service, event support, and sales through live chat sessions. Giving your employees flexibility about when and where they work can drive productivity and help you retain more trained workers.

11) Add value to your product’s customization options

Many companies offer many different features, options, and customization choices. For example, think of an online jewelry store that lets customers choose different types of metal or engraving. Many customers like the idea of additional choices, but there is a downside. Your customers might get confused about how to use the options.

Use Arena Live Chat as a solution to this problem – let customers ask questions about custom options. With practice, you may even be able to increase the average order value by selling more upgrades.

12) Provide the most up to date information

Supply chain problems, new product launches, and staff turnover are just some of the changes your company might be managing today. With all of these changes, the information on your website might be out of date. For example, you might only be able to offer a few of your products in the extra-large size category.

With Arena Live Chat, you can invite customers to confirm the details of their order before they buy. This is a great way to prevent buyer’s remorse and disappointment.

13) Offer personalized service

Think about the last time you went to an excellent restaurant or hotel. The way staff greeted you and addressed your concerns was probably a big part of the experience. For example, you might have been asked if you were celebrating an occasion. Taking the time to ask a few good questions makes it much easier to offer a memorable customer service experience.

By engaging each customer through Arena Live Chat, you have the opportunity to build a relationship with the customer. Taking the time to listen to their comments and questions means customers are more likely to come back to your company.

14) Improve the quality of your sales training

Hiring and training a new salesperson is one of the best ways to grow a business. Unfortunately, it often takes a lot of trial and error for a junior salesperson to become effective. With the right approach, it’s possible to get sale people working productively quickly. How? Harness the power of live chat.

To improve the quality of your sale training, keep a log of the most common questions that customers ask during your Arena Live Chat sessions. By developing accurate and persuasive answers to those questions, your salespeople can be prepared to answer common concerns and close more sales. 

15) Enhance the post-sales experience

Making a sale today matters, but the long term is even more critical. If you engage customers thoroughly and pay attention to the details, they are more likely to keep buying from you in the future. 

You can enhance the post-sales customer experience with Arena Live Chat. For example, send customers a message inviting them to ask questions when their new product arrives. Nobody likes to look uninformed but accepting an invitation to a live chat session is different.

16) Grow customer service agent productivity

More sales mean more customer service employees, right? Not necessarily! It all depends on how you plan out your customer service program. For example, a company that only offers telephone customer service might hire more staff to keep up with demand.

By offering Arena Live Chat, you can grow customer service productivity without skyrocketing your costs. Why? A customer service person can easily maintain a few chat sessions at the same time. 

17) Encourage employee service specialization

Specialized employees are often able to provide better customer service and close more sales. Yet, encouraging generalist employees to develop a specialty can be difficult. One way to overcome this reluctance is to start small: encourage specialization through chat.

With Arena Live Chat, employees work with different kinds of customers and sales conversations. After a few weeks, they may better understand what kinds of customers and products they find most interesting. In this manner, live chat helps your employees quickly discover their strengths and build expertise.

18) Enhance the quality of your sales coaching

Sales managers have an essential role to play in helping their employees to improve their sales skills. Unfortunately, it is relatively complex for a sales manager to observe their sales reps in action and provide timely feedback. Asking managers to review live chat sessions can help.

When your sales representatives finish a sales chat session, encourage them to send the transcript to their manager for review. By asking an experienced person to review the interaction, it should be easy to find a few ways to improve. For example, the sales manager might encourage their staff to ask more questions early in the chat session to understand customer needs better.

19) Reduce painful interruptions for customers

In today’s digital world, it is difficult to get focused. Once you get down to work, the last thing you want is an unwanted sales call. At the same time, managers know it is essential to make it easy for customers to reach out. 

Adding Arena Live Chat to your website makes it easy for customers to reach out when they have questions. By focusing your effort on people interested in what you have to offer, you can avoid wasting time on disinterested people. 

20) Never lose another sales lead

In benefit 4, you learned that live chat could be an excellent way to qualify sales leads. That is helpful if your business is overwhelmed with prospects. Your situation might be quite different. If you are struggling to meet your revenue goals, you can use live chat to maximize leads instead.

Use Arena Live Chat to engage every website visitor and ask them questions about their needs. In this way, you can make a personalized pitch to every person who comes through your website.

21) Make your website more inviting to customers

Put yourself in the shoes of a prospect visiting a traditional website. It is a passive window shopping experience. You can look at product photos, view videos, and look up order status information. The lack of interaction means customers may become disengaged before finding the right product.

Adding Arena Live Chat to your website makes your website more like a store where employees greet customers as they come in. By making your website more inviting, customers may be more comfortable asking questions. 

22) Discover your customer’s pain points and solve them

Right now, your potential customers have questions, concerns, and worries about doing business with you. They might be worried that your shipping service or return policy isn’t going to work for them. Every business has different customer concerns to face. Ultimately, you can only solve these problems and get more sales if you know those concerns.

You can discover the worries that hold people back from buying by encouraging customers to ask more questions through Arena Live Chat. Once you have those insights, you can update your website to answer those concerns.   

23) Cross-sell related products and accessories

Cross-selling is one of the best ways to increase revenue. Fast food restaurants mastered this technique years ago by offering customers fries, drinks, and other items when they ordered. You can make similar offers to customers once you start a conversation.

For example, let’s say you have an online sports apparel store. A customer might start by asking about running shoes. By offering an Arena Live Chat session on your product page, you can answer questions about shoes and suggest related products (e.g., running shorts and shirts). 

24) Meet customer expectations for interaction

Keeping up with changing customer expectations is essential. For example, most businesses know that they need a modern website and a social media presence today. Today, many customers expect a live chat experience. More than 40% of customers expect live chat on the websites they use, and that number is likely to rise.

To stay competitive with customer demand, install Arena Live Chat on your website. You can get started for free. 

25) Track customer service performance

Do you know if your customer service is performing well? Traditional ways of measuring performance – like measuring how long it takes to answer a phone call – are limited. It is far better to look at the quality of live chat interactions.

Arena Live Chat includes analytics so that you can better understand how well you are answering customer questions over time.

26) Serve international customers

Did you know that more than one-quarter of revenue earned by S&P 500 companies came from outside the US? Your company might have customers around the world! Serving customers in different time zones and languages doesn’t have to be complicated.

Arena Live Chat can run around the clock on your website. For example, you can staff your live chat function with staff in the US and UK to provide customer service in the US and Europe.

27) Reduce product returns

When unhappy customers return products, your profitability is likely to suffer. Unfortunately, product returns are a significant problem for online companies. CNBC reports the returns cost the retail industry over $1 trillion annually. 

To reduce your product return expenses, engage customers in more conversations before they buy. Taking 5 minutes to answer questions before a customer buys pays off right away in higher satisfaction, lower complaints, and fewer returns.

28) Engage B2B or B2C leads

Consumers and corporate customers have different needs. A corporate employee buying laptops might have questions about contracts, support services, and discounts if they order 500 computers. In contrast, a consumer may ask questions like which computer is best for gaming.

If your company sells to multiple markets, use Arena Live Chat to start the conversation. If a customer says they are buying on behalf of a company, you can route the inquiry to the B2B team to address right away.

29) Troubleshoot live shopping

Live shopping events are taking off in popularity for many ecommerce companies. These events blend entertainment and retail into an appealing package. However, many consumers are still learning how to use this technology. When technical problems occur during these events, providing fast support is critical.

In your next live shopping event, use Arena Live Chat as your support platform. If you fail to offer easy-to-access support, customers experiencing technical problems might give up and leave your event.

30) Build trust in your company

Building trust with customers in the online world can be challenging. Customers may be worried about their privacy and security. Others may wonder if your company can deliver. Facing these concerns directly through a conversation is one of the best approaches.

You can use Arena Live Chat to build trust with your potential customers through multiple interactions. Taking the time to answer questions today through live chat means you can make a positive impression.

31) Improve webinars and virtual classes with feedback

Delivering a webinar or virtual class is a powerful way to equip people with new knowledge. Yet, there are downsides to virtual education and training. It is difficult for the teacher to connect with their audience. Without that connection, students may become disengaged.

With the polls feature of Arena Live Chat, you can make your online learning more engaging. For instance, you can follow up on an assignment with a poll and determine which topics students want to cover in a review. In this way, a teacher can quickly adapt a virtual class to suit student needs.

32) Make asking questions embarrassment free

Asking questions is the key to unlocking sales and connecting with customers. However, some people are reluctant to raise their hands and ask a question. Why? Nobody enjoys looking uninformed, especially in front of an audience, like a live virtual event.

Using the direct message (DM) feature of Arena Live Chat solves this problem. Event attendees can ask questions privately without fear of embarrassment by sending a DM to the event host. 

33) Run engaging family-friendly virtual events

Offering a virtual event suitable for the whole family is challenging. For example, a sports broadcaster might want to encourage a broad audience to view online coverage and participate in online coverage. A public virtual event carries a risk – some people might attempt to disrupt the event with profanity or spam comments. Failing to address this kind of disruption quickly can make the event hosts look incompetent.

Arena Live Chat comes with moderation tools that make it simple to stop profanity automatically. In addition, you can quietly remove disruptive users from the live chat event. These features make it much easier to keep your virtual events engaging and family-friendly.

34) Support advanced marketing campaigns

The changing landscape of digital marketing means companies have to change how they engage with customers. Recent changes by Apple and Google are making traditional digital marketing methods less effective.

One solution to these challenges lies in leveraging the Arena customer data platform and live chat together. For instance, you can identify patterns between customer interests (e.g., sports, business, lifestyle) as expressed in website activity and purchases. Understanding these links can help you to create more relevant marketing campaigns.

35) Quickly improve website engagement

In the online world, high engagement is crucial. Low engagement can cause your conversions to fall. There are also signs that Google and other search engines consider user engagement from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective. Unfortunately, some ways to increase engagement are brutal, like redesigning an entire website! 

On the other hand, you can install Arena Live Chat on your website in less than 10 minutes. It is one of the fastest ways to make your website more engaging.

36) Improve question & answer (Q&A) sessions

In live shopping events, webinars, and other live events, you might decide to offer a dedicated Q&A session at the end of the event. In larger events with dozens or hundreds of participants, keeping up with the questions is tricky, especially if questions are mixed with other comments in the chat window.

Arena Live Chat makes Q&A sessions easy to manage by organizing all live chat questions in a dedicated Q&A area. Event moderators can then decide which questions to answer.

37) Boost engagement with chat channels

In a conference, participants can go to panels and sessions that specifically relate to their interests. With virtual live events, it can be more challenging to engage each niche interest. Using custom chat channels is one way to solve this engagement challenge.

Arena Live Chat offers dedicated channels for your live chat sessions. For example, you could have one channel for customers, one for technical support, and one for future event suggestions.

38) Keep users engaged with social profiles

Nobody likes to feel like a number in the online world. Unfortunately, some chat tools give users generic usernames and numbers. It doesn’t have to be that way.

When users sign up on Arena Live Chat, they can create custom user profiles with avatars to make them more personal.

39) Avoid live chat reply confusion

With dozens, hundreds, or thousands of live chat participants, it is easy to get confused. One friend might send a question in the chat room to somebody else only to obscure that question by the flood of chat comments.

Arena Live Chat offers reply features so that user replies are kept together with the main message. That’s valuable because user conversations are never lost in the noise as a result.

40) Drive conversions with conversion cards

Organizing a virtual event takes significant time and effort. You might spend hours writing a virtual event script, inviting guest speakers, and promoting the event. Offering interesting content matters, but you also have to watch business results like conversions and purchases. 

Arena Live Chat helps you achieve goals like lead generation and purchases through conversion cards. You can use these cards at several points during your live chat session to draw attention to your offers. By using a few conversion cards at every event, you’ll never have to struggle to prove the ROI of your live chat events.

Get Started Today For Free

Arena Live Chat is simple to install – most customers install it on their websites in less than 10 minutes. Not sure if it is suitable for your company? You can try Arena Live Chat for free.

Reasons you should work with a CDP (Customer Data Platform)

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Why should you invest in a Customer Data Platform? They are revolutionizing the business market, and there’s a reason for it. This system gathers all customer data into a singular font and creates a supreme tool to gain a competitive edge by providing unique and excellent CX.

The future of marketing is working primarily with customer data. This is already happening and has been occurring for a few years now. Data can talk about identity, contact, and even demographic information. But most importantly, online behavioral data is the factor that really makes a difference in understanding how to converse with the audience.

On top of that, data also generates knowledge about the market. So, more than getting to know the consumer, you understand better how to position the brand to attract the public’s attention. Working around the consumer requires a means to control all the information received. As consequence, the Customer Data Platform software was developed.

The CDP system gathers data from all available sources and organizes it in a database. Then, marketing and sales professionals can easily access that information and work on content creation. Besides, it provides insights for campaigns and new products (or modernization of existing products).

Read on to learn more about the importance of having a Customer Data Platform and how it helps businesses grow.

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Why is the Customer Data Platform so important?

A Customer Data Platform is a software designed to collect online and offline data. It deals with three main objectives: collect, analyze, and execute data. Though it was specially developed for marketing teams, it can still be used for other sectors inside a company.

With the organization of all available data, a marketing team’s work will be a lot simpler. By the way, the information contained inside a CDP comes from various sources: website, in-apps, social media, etc. One of the reasons the Customer Data Platform was created was to have all of the data generated from multiple sources gathered into one singular system.

The aim of putting together all information available about customers is to understand them better. The importance of knowing your consumer is undeniable, and the CDP can create an ideal consumer profile from the data collected. 

This means marketing teams have a goldmine in their hands. From the information found within this software, these professionals will know exactly who to talk to, how to speak, and even the best time.

Also, Customer Data Platforms work with real-time data collection. In other words, it gathers data from the first interaction of a user with the brand — whether that’s a visit on the website or an engagement on social media. And it’s not only about the information they share with the brand, like names and emails. So, even if that user doesn’t share anything at the start, their online behavior is already being stored.

It’s worth mentioning that everything is automated in the CDP, from the collection to analysis and database storage. Therefore, marketing professionals have to access the system and start creating content and campaigns.

Why work with customer data?

The reason to acquire a Customer Data Platform for your company is to work with customer data. In this scenario, you can pretty much ask yourself, “why to work with data collection at all?”. The answer to that question could not be more clear: to provide a better customer experience.

Have you heard about the customer-centric strategy? That’s a method of putting the customer in the center of every decision which most companies use nowadays. The reason for that is simple: customers are more demanding than ever before. 

Because the internet has so much information available, it’s harder to create a product or service that will make a person become a customer. Or, even more, make a customer loyal to the brand.

The only way to get to know the consumer and succeed in giving them the best experience is customer data. That is, all the information a company receives from the interaction with a client. Since these are known facts, working with them avoids speculations that could be way off the real deal.

Additionally, some benefits of managing customer data include better segmentation, personalized communication, broader audience understanding, an increase in revenue, and humanization of the brand. 

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That last item is related to what a customer expects from brands. They want the brand to connect and engage with them — just as much as the company wants their audience to interact and communicate too. Customers value their overall experience. It’s much more than only the purchase of a product.

To have a more appropriate data organization, companies invest in platforms that assist in analysis and make their daily work easier. These can include CDMs, CRMs, and CDPs.

What are the types of data?

Of course, to comprehend the best solution for your purpose, you might need a little more information on the types of data that can be collected. Because of that, here’s an explanation about what cookies are and also first-, second-, and third-party data.

Cookies

Cookies are probably the most famous type of data. It’s actually a package of data the computer receives when you first access an online page. After the cookie is on the PC, it will continuously send information to the company every time you access their pages.

More than tracking activities inside their website, cookies also have the function to store information that makes navigation more practical. For example, login and passwords — also called authentication cookies. 

Session cookies and tracking cookies are also varieties of cookies that gather when visitors are active, and the number of visits made to the same page, respectively. In addition, they have an important role in saving information for eCommerce. To clarify, if there were no cookies, shopping carts would be reset every time someone left the page to look for more items.

Even though they are so useful, their minute in the spotlight is coming to an end. Mainly because of privacy issues, cookies have become a concern for the audience. For that reason, browsers have decided to end the support of using cookies. Since cookies’ future is basically non-existing, companies are already looking for new ways to gather and access customer data.

First-party

This is the data collected straight from the relationship between customer and brand. Every piece of information gathered by the company itself can be classified as first-party data. It can be generated from monitoring the website, marketing campaigns, social media, etc. But also from website analytics platforms, CRM systems, and business analytics tools. 

This is the best type of data to work with. It’s the most trustworthy and reliable data. More than that, it’s also confidential data — since you are collecting it directly from your consumer, no other company will have that same information.

Of course, if there is no customer-brand interaction, no data about that person will be collected. That’s not exactly a downside, but it’s important to mention. That way, if your goal is to expand your audience, first-party data isn’t so recommended.

Second-party

Despite not being so talked about, second-party data is real. It’s essentially first-party data from another company. The idea is that you create a communication with a brand that has the same niche, but different products. Seeing that you’re not competitors, you can share each other’s first-party data and expand the brand’s audience.

This agreement between two companies can be an excellent means to improve your audience targeting as well. Further to this, you might create a bond with a powerful ally in the market.

Third-party

Third-party data can be used for the same purpose as second-party; however, it comes from a different source. That is: the information is bought from an external data provider.

Usually, companies that work with an incredible amount of data can decide to sell this information for other companies. Like most things in life, there are ups and downs. The positive point about buying customer data is that you’ll have a lot to work with, grow your audience, and practice better targeting. Moreover, purchased information is wide-ranging and can be used for several purposes.

On the other hand, this information is not exclusive. There are high chances of your competitor ending up with the same data package as you. This data isn’t so reliable since you don’t know where it came from and from who it is — the information is anonymous. Lastly, there’s also the chance of violating data privacy regulation.

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How to use data-driven marketing with a Customer Data Platform?

The primary intention of using customer data is to manage marketing strategies. This has become so huge these days. We even have a new expression in the business world: data-driven marketing. This is about creating a better experience and communication for the customer through data collected. Sound familiar?

A Customer Data Platform brings some benefits to the company that wants to practice data-driven marketing. For starters, the capacity of originating their own database. This gives the brand more control of sources and customer privacy. Easy access to information and anticipation of customers’ needs also get on the list.

The software will also have processes automated, meaning it’s easier to understand what data is essential and what can be left aside for the moment. As previously mentioned, each type of data is good for a specific strategy. Do you want more audience engagement? Get some first-party data. Do you want to expand your audience? Then work with third-party data.

Nonetheless, if you want to stand out in the market, use a combination of both types of data. That’s the most powerful tool you’ll have in your hands. And you know how it’s called? It’s the Customer Data Platform.

Why should you work with a Customer Data Platform?

There’s a whole list of reasons any company praises growth and customer satisfaction should acquire a Customer Data Platform. Some of those include:

  • knowing the consumer
  • improving relationship and engagement
  • creating tailor-made content
  • avoiding data silos
  • improving ROI
  • boosting predictive marketing

Coming from a wide variety of sources, the compilation of first-, second-, and third-party data into a singular system allows the Customer Data Platform to create the ideal customer profile and also unified customer profiles. Both of which will assist in a brand’s communication strategy.

More than that, the CDP works with real-time updates and connects online and offline data. Can you think of a complete database than this? Acquiring this solution will guarantee you better results in marketing campaigns.

Of course, a Customer Data Platform can be used as more than a marketing tool. It can help sales teams, product development, customer support, and pretty much all company sectors. Arena offers a CDP solution so you can work towards all your goals.

That being said, we want you to thoroughly understand what we do and how to use a CDP to your advantage. Because of that, we’ve created an ebook to explain more about it! 

Download it for free now: Customer Data Platform 2020: the future of marketing and sales.