How to Implement Livestreaming into Your Marketing Strategy
Livestreaming is a new video marketing technique that is growing in popularity across many industries. This is mainly because it helps you engage potential customers at a more personalized level. Marketing teams are always looking for new and improved ways of generating traffic and sales. Livestreaming is quickly becoming a popular option to do this. Two-thirds of marketers that target consumers use live streaming for marketing, proving that is an effective way to market your brand across many different platforms.
But how can we make the most out of our livestreams as a way of creating brand awareness? How can we utilize livestreams to boost our marketing efforts? It’s not as simple as just pressing “go live”. You need to make preparations and get familiar with the technicalities of livestreaming.
Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your livestreams:
1. Have The Right Gear
You are definitely going to need some equipment when livestreaming. But what exactly will you need before you go live? You do not need to spend a lot of money on this, especially if you are just starting out. Using just your smartphone, you can go live and reach your target audience quickly. For better audio quality, you can purchase a budget pair of headphones that have a good built-in microphone.
Audio is an important aspect of livestream videos, so looking into purchasing a good microphone is highly recommended. There are so many low-cost plug-and-play microphones that you can use for this task. Have a look at this list of awesome livestreaming microphones.
You can also improve the quality of your livestreams by investing in a camera and some good lighting. Potential customers are often drawn to quality. Quality videos give your brand a better chance of bringing in prospective clients and keeping your viewer’s retention rate higher. Don't forget to invest in a good internet connection. You don't want your sessions to go down because of a shotty connection.
Still wondering how to create a great livestreaming setup? Check out our article on the best livestream & video call setup.
2. Create Amazing Content
For successful marketing, the content of your videos has to be top-notch. Make sure the content you propagate through livestreams is relevant to your brand and has its own set of goals to achieve. Don’t livestream just for the sake of livestreaming. Create a set of goals and parameters surrounding your livestream, and have an actionable plan on how to get there.
Plan what you will say in your videos and how you will say it. You can even use a script to make sure you do not miss any important pieces of information.
If your livestream is meant to promote more than one product or service, integrate your content in such a way that it covers all of them sufficiently.
Once you have started livestreaming to promote your brand, it will be a marketing technique you will use over and over. This means that your content has to be consistent. Think of your livestreams as episodes, and schedule them in such a manner that your live events are well spaced out throughout the year. Additionally, run with a specific theme or topic building on it each time you have a livestream event.
If you need help coming up with some amazing ideas to create your content, you can always contact a professional video production company to help out with this.
3. Identity The Best Times to Go Live
What is the best time of day to target your demographic on social media? It’s extremely important to do your research and find out when the best time to go live is. Dive into your analytics and discover when your potential audience is using that platform the most.
Late evening is a good time to go live since most people have gotten home from work, and are relaxing going through their timelines seeing what they missed throughout the day. If you can interrupt their timelines with captivating and intriguing content, you can win big!
4. Decide How Your Content Will Be Distributed
Different social media platforms are composed of users from various demographic groups. Some platforms have more youthful users than they do older people and vice versa. Twitter, for example, comprises older users between 35 and 65 years of age. The number of users on these platforms is also different. Therefore, the viewership will vary from one platform to another.
Livestreaming platforms include YouTube, and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Choose the platform that best fits your goals and audience. You can also set up your stream to go live on multiple platforms. This can increase your reach but takes a bit more to set up and maintain.
5. Promote Your Livestream Event
Create multiple social media posts and some ads if your budget allows it that promote your livestream event. This will prepare your target audience to be ready once you go live. Do some cross-promotion to build awareness and prepare your audience across multiple platforms. This will allow your audience to set aside some time for your event and plan appropriately.
This goes without saying, but make sure your event stands out from the crowd. Create a captivating headline for your event and design some wicked imagery that draws in your potential viewers. Clearly indicate the time and date of the livestream, and make sure to set up some reminders if you are using an event to promote the stream.
6. Live Interviews
Conducting live interviews is a good way of generating more traffic to your livestream. Holding interviews with big names in your industry is a superb idea since you would be tapping into their audiences as well. This is a great way to build recognition for both of your brands.
As you look for who to interview, pick the right influencers in your niche that will live up to your expectations of them. Find the right people that believe in the same values that you and your company stand up for.
You can also conduct high-quality live remote interviews using web-based live streaming platforms. Simply send an interviewee a link and they can join in live and you can send your stream to your YouTube or Facebook communities simultaneously.
Final Thoughts
With these tips, you can start to brainstorm and come up with ideas on how to utilize livestreaming in your marketing strategies. Implementing these tactics into your overall strategy is not an easy task. It will take lots of preparation, research, and some testing to finally achieve what you are looking for.
Livestreaming has spurred the growth of several brands. The close interaction with potential customers and the immediate feedback obtained from the attendees of the livestream event works wonders. For maximum results, it is imperative that you plan appropriately and be articulate with your livestreaming. Have fun, be creative, and always learn something from each livestream on how to make it that much better for next time!