If you’re a startup with a content marketing strategy that doesn’t include video, you’ve lost. That’s not hyperbole, it’s a fact. Virtually nothing in marketing boosts conversion like video.

- Video boosts email clickthroughs 200%-300% and landing page conversions up to 80%.
- Social video is shared 1200% more than text and image content combined.
- 1 minute of video is worth 1.8 million words, according to Forrester Research.

That’s why 87% of internet marketers use video. It’s not the new frontier anymore, it’s the industry standard. If you aren’t using video, you’re not skipping out on the latest trend, you’re behind the curve.

There is, however, a new frontier of video content that very few companies are taking full advantage of.

Live Video Is The Single Greatest Content Opportunity You Have Right Now.

How Live Video Scales The Unscalable

One of the keys to video content’s success is that it takes face-to-face contact and scales it. 1,000,000 people can listen to you face-to-face without you needing to have 1,000,000 conversations.

There’s one problem with that—your audience can’t talk back.

Live video fixes this. It scales the one thing no one has previously been able to scale -- human interaction.

For example, Experian broadcasts on Periscope every day at 3 p.m. EST for their #CreditChat show, where they discuss a different personal finance topic each week. Thousands of people can stream the video and tweet questions or comments, which Experian’s hosts can respond to.

They aren’t just scaling thousands of face-to-face impressions, they’re scaling thousands of conversations.

And, it’s not just large-scale events that live video can replace. My company makes a product called the iOgrapher, a device that turns your iPhone/iPad into a professional quality camera. My first customers were my high school students, and as the iOGrapher spread through their social groups, I needed a customer service platform that they were familiar with.

That’s when I found Snapchat.

At any moment, someone could show me exactly what they were struggling with. I could snap them back a video explaining it. If 30 people had the same issue, I only had to snap one short video to personally interact with all of them.

Product launches, Q&As, any sort of event, even customer service can be handled using live video in a scalable, deeply personal way.

3 Lessons For Any Startup Thinking About Going Live

Most people are wary of dabbling in live video because they over-complicate the process. They think they need advanced analytics, a professional studio, a sales pitch, and a complicated strategy for every individual channel.

They’re wrong.

There Is Only One Thing Needed For Video -- Selflessly Provide Value

People don’t become raving fans of you because you have nice lighting or because you peppered them with sales pitches. They become advocates for your company because you give them something without asking for something in return.

Three Key Lessons Every Startup Needs To Know About Video

1. Never Be Closing

There is nothing worse than watching a video expecting to learn something, expecially if you need help quickly, and instead you have to suffer through a 10-minute sales pitch. Let me say this clearly. No matter how clever your marketing is, no matter how slick your sales pitch, everyone knows when they’re being sold to.

If you build a real relationship with live video, people will come to you to buy. You don’t have to manipulate them into paying you, don't do it, they’ll do it happily.

2. Fear No Channel

A lot of people were hesitant to jump on SnapChat because its format was slightly different because they weren’t sure what the best strategy for approaching it was.

The best strategy for any live video channel is to give your audience as much free value as possible. Let that be your guiding light, and the channel won’t matter.

If there are people using a channel, there are conversations for you to have and relationships for you to build. Get after it.

3. Never Stop Giving

I recently published a book called Life. Camera. Action.: How To Turn Your Mobile Device Into A Filmmaking Powerhouse.

The relationships I’ve built with people, either through my video content or my personal life, lead to many people buying a copy.

If You Apply A Marketer’s Mindset To This Process, You’ll See A Neat Little Funnel:

- People engage with my content
- People subscribe to my channels
- I announce my new book
- My audience buys it

That’s a great way to create customers, but a terrible way to create advocates.

I don’t want my customers to be satisfied, I want them to rave about how happy they are.

Instead of ending the relationship with the purchase, I started a Facebook group for everyone who read my book. For as long as there are people in that group, I’ll be in there once a week answering questions and helping them create their own videos, free of charge.

What’s the result? No one feels like they were sold to. We have a real relationship that transcends our transactions.

You Have No Excuse To Not Use Video

At this point in time, video is more accessible than it’s ever been. Periscope, Facebook Live, Instagram Live—these aren’t advanced enterprise software bundles, they’re free services provided by platforms you already use.

The camera itself is also no longer an obstacle. You can take an iPhone, and with an extremely low budget, you can buy the equipment to make it a professional camera.

The price is right, the opportunity is there, and you’re already using the software.

I'm glad you are starting into live video. You'll love it, and so will your friends, family -- and customers.