Let's face it – livestreaming is the future. Audiences love the authenticity and fun that comes with businesses going live, especially in the digital age.
In today's world, the online audience spends triple the time watching live streams compared to pre-recorded videos. Live video holds a variety of benefits, such as boosting engagements and growing your audience.
Nowadays, pre-recorded videos are no longer the hype. To keep up with the ever-changing digital trends, you need something more. You need...live streaming!
For businesses, creating a real connection with your audiences is key. Live streaming provides you with this golden opportunity to build relationships with your consumers – all in real-time!
Switchboard's Strategy
When developing an effective livestreaming plan, Switchboard recommends our acronym EASE to lead your business in the right direction:
• Evaluate Your Audience
• Attain A Plan
• Sell Your Brand
• Encourage Users To Participate
That said, let us go more in depth about how you can leverage livestreaming to boost sales and grow your business.
Evaluate Your Audience
Prior to livestreaming, you should have a clear picture of your target audience. This requires one thing...RESEARCH!
By investigating your target audience and reviewing their demographics, you can optimize the power of storytelling to pass on your brand message.
Once you've completed your research, the next step is evaluating audience specifics.
Audience specifics play a key role when live streaming, especially when developing new and fun content. You must know who you're talking to, their preferences, the platforms they use to watch live streams, their motivations and so on.
If you miss the mark when defining your target audience, you'll have a hard time reaching them via your livestreams.
Attain A Plan
The best things in life are free, right? Not exactly – the best things in life are PLANNED!
Many beginners tend to organize impromptu livestreams, and while this is one of the top fun things to do on a live stream, it is vital to plan your livestream in advance.
Before going live, you should always expect the unexpected. Planning is important, and Switchboard recommends developing a basic outline to prevent problems from interrupting your livestream.
Your outline should contact the following:
- Your Livestreaming Destinations
- Topics For Discussion
- Questions You Will Ask Your Audience
- Potential Props You Will Need
- Customer Support Information For Your Platform
An overlooked nuisance of livestreaming is chat functions. YouTube's notorious Super Chat feature is a great communication tool, but other streamers have complained that excessive use can be distracting.
Having a script is a great way to prevent clutter, because it keeps you from veering off the main topic of discussion. Your viewers can still participate and chip in, but developing a script should help you stay on track when going live.
Sell Your Brand
Across digital platforms, no other medium offers you the chance to connect with your audience on a more intimate level than live streaming. It provides businesses with the chance to portray their authentic and real selves, which is something consumers like to see.
Ultimately, blogs, pre-recorded videos and social media posts, among other channels, can't compete with live streaming.
Live streams are all about creating a community, so Switchboard recommends that streamers should not overly promote their businesses. Your livestreams shouldn't come across as advertisements, but rather live stream like a real human!
Be authentic and true to your brand. Create meaningful discussions and build valuable relationships with your viewers.
Encourage Users to Participate
Rule one: Don't be a passive live streamer. This won't get you anywhere.
On Facebook Live, I have seen gamers engage with our audiences and participate with them via chat. Streamers will actively encourage their viewers to participate in live streams with them, and the results are astounding. Since the audiences can engage and communicate with others, they love tuning into these livestreams.
By prodding your viewers to participate, you can generate mere viewers into loyal brand ambassadors. Depending on the platform you're using to livestream, participation from users can be in the form of comments, shares, likes, and subscriptions, among other things.
Along with viewer engagement, who doesn't love free stuff? To encourage viewer participation, you should optimize giveaways!
Giveaways should be considered magic, because they attract new viewers and engagement. Try to start out small, like randomly giving away free samples and products.
In the future, you could spice up your giveaways by collaborating with other streamers. Combined giveaways are very popular, with businesses teaming up to generate increased audiences and attention.
Don't Forget! Create Enticing Headlines & Intro Descriptions
Regarding headlines, curiosity is everything. Viewers will only click on content that they find eye catching, so it is essential that your headline sticks out.
The element of surprise is crucial, but only when executed properly. Your headline should create a description that tells the audience more about the livestream – but not too much! Make it enticing and fun, but don't reveal too much.
For Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, you should use descriptive headlines to highlight your main keywords.
However, don't over optimize by stuffing keywords. For best results, Switchboard recommends using three to four keywords in your headline.
Finally, don't hesitate to add links in your headline. Viewers love to check out new content, so feel free to add your social media tags or product pages!
Conclusion
To grow your audience, drive traffic, and boost sales – consider going live.
Grab your smartphone or laptop and watch your community GROW!
