Live Video: One of the Fastest Rising Stars in Digital Marketing

Live Video streaming has evolved from being a fad amongst digital natives, into an innovative marketing channel that smart marketers are using to boost their results.  The rise in popularity of live streaming on popular social media platforms has given brands the chance to demonstrate their values and interact with their customers in a new and exciting way.

Live video is more appealing to brand audiences. 80% would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% prefer live video from a brand to social posts.

Marketers using Live Video in their campaigns are ahead of the competition in delivering content that customers want to engage with.  If you do it right, Live Video marketing will enhance your company’s bottom line.

Still unsure whether Live Video is going to take off in 2019? All you have to do is look at the major social media players. From Instagram stories to Facebook Live and LinkedIn Native, all the big social media channels are finding new ways to incorporate video into their platform.

Now is the time to implement video in your online marketing campaigns; and Live Video is the best way to do that in order to create an authentic, human connection between your audience and brand.  The following are some tips for businesses considering how to make best use of Live Video marketing.

Choose the Right Platform the Right Platform

You don’t want to start doing live video, only to find no one it watching it.  As such, the first step in creating a campaign is to choose a platform to host your videos.  The most relevant platform for you will be one that your audience is active on.  Looking at your current social media marketing efforts can help you choose the platform with the highest engagement.  However, as a general guide, consider the following.

• LinkedIn Native:May be most relevant for businesses selling to other businesses, or companies with a focus on hiring or business networking. Chances are this type of business will already have a good presence on LinkedIn, so this can be a good starting point.
• Facebook Live: Facebook Live is an excellent all-rounder as it has a huge audience and excellent reporting analytics. It is also easier to generate an audience on Facebook Live than it is on some other platforms, as it sends a notification to followers when you go live. This platform will be particularly effective if you already have a decent sized audience on Facebook.
• Instagram Stories: Instagram Stories is similar to Facebook Live in what it has to offer, and it also notifies your followers when you begin a Live Video. Choosing between the two will come down to where your audience is most active.
• YouTube Live: A site that was custom made for video marketing, YouTube is an excellent platform to start on for most businesses. It has an SEO friendly design, and is it the second biggest search engine in the world, is ideal for driving traffic to your site.

Plan Your Tactics and Content Before Going Live

The most effective thing about live streaming is that it is authentic and spontaneous, so you don’t want your videos to seem overly scripted.  However, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan.  Like any other marketing campaign, it’s important to know what you want to achieve.  Do you want to use your video to sell products, provide more information to your audience, raise awareness of your brand or communicate your brand values? Once you know what you want to achieve, you can create a topic plan for your videos to follow.

Promote Your Live Video Before Broadcasting

If no one knows about your Live Video stream, they’re not going to tune in, so promoting your live streams is vital for getting an audience.  If you use Facebook Live, you can schedule an event on the platform that will keep followers informed.  You can also build awareness and anticipation of your live video on all of your other marketing channels by posting about it and encouraging discussion on the topic in the days leading up to the event.

Be Consistent Across Your Channels

Live Videos should not be done in isolation, but rather fit into the brand’s wider marketing strategy. A broadcasting schedule can help you coordinate this and build your audience.  For example, if you do a Live Video about Accounting Tips for SMEs, follow up with an email on the same topic, or post a more in-depth blog on the same topic later in the week.  Use all of your channels to distribute different types of content around the same topics to really engage your audience.

Structure Your Live Video

An enticing title and topic will get the attention of your audience.  In order to keep them engaged, you need an interesting structure.  As previously mentioned, Live Video needs a human touch, so it’s important not to script the full piece, however you can structure it to ensure it flows.  The beginning of the live video should be a quick introduction explaining what you’re going to talk about.  The middle should address relevant points and answer the viewers’ questions as they come up.  In order to keep their attention until the end of the video, you can drop hints about a discount, offer or highly anticipated answer, which will be revealed after everything else is finished. Finishing by giving viewers the chance to ask questions is a great way to end the Live Video.

Include Your Audience

Throughout your Live Video, it’s important to remind your audience that they can respond in the chat if they have any questions or are interested in a product. Other clever ways to engage your audience include asking them for ideas on topics to discuss in your videos before going live, asking them their thoughts on topics presented throughout the video, and encouraging them to ask questions, which you will respond to throughout the video stream.

Digital Squad is a digital marketing agency Auckland. The experts at Digital Squad can help you with SEO Auckland, Facebook Marketing NZ, and AdWords advertising Auckland.