December 16th, 2019 | Updated on June 15th, 2023
Live streaming is a vastly underutilized marketing tool that should be in every business’s arsenal.
It has been around for a few years, but many businesses still stick to the tried and tested methods to grow their business. But you are missing out on a huge stream of leads when you neglect live streaming services.
Today almost anyone can use their smartphones and stream to connect with millions of people across the Internet.
Brands like Target and Dunkin Donut are beginning to leverage the benefits offered by live streaming to deliver fresh content to their existing audience and potential customers across the world.
No matter what industry your business operates in, the statistics show that live video can boost your business growth significantly.
It boosts user engagement, has a broader customer reach, works as an efficient communication tool, and helps you convert. If you are learning how to start a live streaming business, it is worth to understand live streaming tactics as well.
However, there is a lot more to creating engagement than what happens during the live broadcast. There is a lot you can do before, during, and after your live session to bring in more value out of every live session.
Live Streaming Tactics To Grow Your Business
Here are some of the most efficient live streaming tactics you can follow to grow your business.
1. Create A Script
Although live videos happen in real and unscripted most of the time, it doesn’t mean that you cannot do some planning beforehand. This holds true for live streaming for business purposes.
Unless you are a true expert who can come with interesting content in real-time, you must do a certain level of preparation before you go live.
You can use this opportunity to reach out for help if you aren’t certain about how to approach your audience. Do your research, talk with your team, and come up with a script for your live videos.
2. Keep Up The User Engagement
As you start with live streaming, the most important aspect of growing your business is to keep your viewers interested and engaged. You can improvise your live streams to match the interests of your audience so that they will feel connected with your brand.
Engaging with viewers and answering their questions, make them believe in your brand, thereby resulting in brand loyalty and increased willingness to buy from you. As you broadcast several live sessions, you will eventually come to know what your viewers like to see.
If you have a large following for pre-recorded videos, there is a high chance of your live videos going viral if you show the processes in real-time. For instance, take the example of Tastemade who achieved over 3.8 million views with their Tiny kitchen live session.
You can show behind the scenes, bloopers, making the process for viewers to watch now and share later. If you already know what your popular video style is, following it in live streaming is a great way to expand your reach effortlessly.
3. Use Teasers
You want more people to tune in to your live sessions, right? As you are preparing for live broadcasts, make it a practice to announce it earlier so that your viewers know when to tune in.
This gives you more exposure and ensures you don’t miss out on your target audience. To do this in a creative way, create short and interesting teasers that give your viewers a heads up for the upcoming real-time broadcast.
4. Show Off Your Brand Personality
The best thing about live streaming is that it gives you a great opportunity to display your brand personality to your audience.
You can cover a particular type of event to offer a casual glimpse into your business. It can be a celebration, farewell party, birthday celebrations or anything that shows off your company culture.
For example, Buzz feed broadcasted a live dance party that bagged in a good amount of viewers and engagement.
5. Test Different Content Strategies
Yes, it is evident that you are using live streaming to advertise your products and services and sell to your potential customers. However, to truly utilize the benefits of live streaming, you should experiment with different video content strategies. To understand this in a better way, let’s look at an example.
A perfect example is Audi. It was the first automobile manufacturer who used live streaming for a product launch and allowed customers to order their new model cars while watching their live launch event.
Similarly, you can also leverage the growing popularity of live streaming to sell your products and services to your potential customers.
Most live-streaming platforms offer features that allow brands to schedule a live video ahead of time and notify your audience about the same. For instance, look at the example below to see how “schedule live” works on Facebook live.
To gain more exposure for product launches or any event, this is a useful feature. If you are looking to find out how to create a live streaming website, ensure that you incorporate this feature to schedule your live sessions beforehand.
6. Host Q&A sessions
Hosting Q&A sessions is your ticket to increasing engagement with your audience, offer an in-depth look at your brand, gain more reach, and brand awareness.
It doesn’t have to be in a traditional way, you can extend the basic Q&A sessions to something more exciting, elaborate, and engaging.
This builds trust and a sense of authenticity among viewers. For example, Vogue released a live Q&A session on the making of Met Gala which was a raving success.
7. Promote Your Products And Services Through Demos
Demonstrating the usage of a product or service through live streaming is one of the coolest ways to make your customers aware of its usage. This helps with brand expansion by attracting potential customers with its buzz.
If cleverly executed, product demos can help build a newer user base, making your business grow. Martha Stewart used the same technology to demonstrate Christmas decorating ideas.
However, instead of teaching how to decorate, she explained with the pieces that were already set up in the studio. This is a simple way to get started with live streaming to promote your products through demos.
8. Create Regular Shows
If you want to offer massive value to your most loyal viewers on a frequent basis, create recurring shows to engage with your fans.
To make this work, schedule your show at a specific time every day or in a week so that you can prepare to answer the questions your viewers have for you.
This can be a fun way to explore new things and to show your audience what’s happening in your niche, especially if it changes often. A great example is a daily show done by Guy Kawasaki, an American marketing specialist.
As the digital marketing environment changes rapidly, he utilizes this daily Facebook live show to offer expert analysis to his followers and answer their questions in real-time.
Conclusion
Like branding and marketing strategies, live streaming must be all about creating an emotional bond with your customers.
Deploying informative, relatable, and entertaining live videos is a great way to do exactly that. The better your strategy is tailored according to your customer’s needs, the better the response will be.
As the popularity of live streaming is rising with each passing day, an active presence in live streaming platforms will help in growing your business while engaging a broader user base.
If you have not yet started using live streaming, now is the time to get started with it to engage billions of active users across the world.
