Did you know that social videos generate 1200% more shares than text and images combined? Also, people spend 3 times longer watching live video compared to one that’s pre-recorded (Source: Social Media Today). Social video tools like Facebook Live, Periscope, and Instagram Stories are making it easy for marketers to connect deeper with their followers, build relationships, increase online presence, and improve conversions in leads and sales.
Adding social, live-streaming videos to your marketing strategy can prove to be a winning move to boost engagement and enrich your content strategy. It’s another channel to deliver value to your market while interacting with your fans in real-time.
Therefore, we’ve compiled a list of five expert ways to integrating live-streaming videos to better your marketing strategy.
#1 Live Q&A Sessions
Use live streaming for immediate interaction with your customers, not solely to promote your message. Host Q&A sessions where potential customers, buyers and followers can ask anything related to your brand and receive genuine responses. People are craving for transparency …these platforms deliver because it allows people to experience the real you while getting the answers they need.
This key point is packed with power. First, broadcasts strictly for Q&A generates massive engagement with your audience…it gets your market talking to you, sharing their questions and concerns. Secondly, it keeps you current as to what your market needs, creating opportunities for your business to offer future solutions.
Finally, new questions gives you content to use for upcoming blog topics, videos, and social media posts. Just think if you were asked 10 questions that you never thought of? It’s an excellent method to gain fresh content marketing ideas relevant to your market!
#2 Announce New Products or App Releases
Launching a new product? Share the scoop on your next Periscope broadcasts to give your followers something to look forward to. Give a live product demo, share the features, benefits, and how-to…any details that builds excitement around your new thing.
Use live-streaming video as a channel to keep your audience in the know, on-the-go!
#3 Take Your Audience Behind the Scenes
With Periscope, Facebook Live, and Instagram Stories allowing you to “go-live” at any moment with your mobile device, followers now have the opportunity to experience your world, live and in living color!
Consider how you can take your viewers backstage showing how you do business. What are some upcoming events that you can invite your audience to? Events once closed-off to the public are now easily accessible via live-streaming. Sharing these intimate moments gives more authentic experiences with your brand, improving engagement and trust with followers!
#4 Grow your leads list
Building your email list is the lifeline to your business and every marketing opportunity should be positioned towards increasing subscribers. The beauty about live-streaming video is that it’s live, interactive commenting feature allows viewers to reply to questions or requests in real time.
Therefore, you could give exclusive offers to your audience in exchange for sharing their email address during the broadcast. Lead offers may include a free video series, checklist, downloadable PDF file, or special product discount. The key is to make sure it the offer resonates with your viewers.
Don’t forget to remind your viewers to opt-in when they receive your initial automated email message.
#5 Repurpose content to increase marketing reach
There are two ways that you can use Periscope as means to repurpose content:
1) Expand on existing content – take your old, yet popular blog content, craft a compelling broadcast title, and share key points in your blog using Periscope as a new channel to reach a different audience. You will never run out of topics sharing your evergreen content!
2) Convert those quality-rich content videos to your YouTube and other social media platforms to boost visibility. You can also embed it onto a new blog post, share it with your list, and even get it transcribed for a mini eBook. The point is that you can take this one piece of high valuable content and spread it all over the web to boost visibility.
Conclusion
Live-streaming is the future of social media (Source: Business.com). Integrating this tactic into your marketing strategy allows you to foster relationships with your existing customers (turning them into loyal fans of your brand) and build connections with new prospects and followers who are new to your brand. The key is to consistently implement 1-2 of these strategies, test what works best for your market, and ramp up from there.
Much success!
Check out these other marketing tips for small business owners to bolster your online strategy.
{{cta(‘6760fdfd-f622-4d1f-9004-b3aa7acfa355’)}}
