Live Commerce in Marketing to Your eCommerce Store
Do you know that 1 in every 5 videos on Facebook is a live streaming ? Whether it’s a Facebook Live , a YouTube Live , Instagram live stories , or Periscope, live commerce can boost your eCommerce store sales tremendously, and here’s how.
Why Is Live Video Good for an eCommerce Store Marketing?
How to Use Live Streaming in eCommerce Marketing?
Tips for a Successful Live Streaming
What Is Live Commerce Video?
Live video streaming is a service that lets anyone record and broadcast a video from their mobile phone in real time to a base of audience, with the ability to comment, reply, and engage with the viewers in real time.
This live streaming service is available on many channels: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and others.
Facebook has launched Facebook Live back in 2016, and, since then, people have been engaging, watching, and sharing more than ever before.
For example, a survey in 2018 showed that 78% of online audiences are watching video on Facebook Live. That’s how important live commerce is!
Why Is Live Video Good for an eCommerce Store Marketing?
Marketers and eCommerce store owners instantly fell in love with the idea of broadcasting a live video from a social platform for many reasons (live commerce).
Videos are powerful means to communicate a brand’s story. There might be plenty of other eCommerce stores selling the exact same products, but what makes a difference and sets one online store from the other is showcasing the brand’s personality and establishing a personal connection with the target customers. As live videos are far more personal and intimate than scripted content, a real-time live video is great to build a relationship with fans and followers who could be loyal customers to your online store .
In addition, studies and surveys have proven that users interact with live commerce videos more than other forms of content. In fact, Facebook Live videos see three times the engagement of traditional videos shared on the platform. That might be because viewers are highly involved in this type of video streaming; they can invite friends to watch a live video with them, get notified when their favorite brand is going live, comment on the video and say their opinion out loud, and react to what’s happening in real time. Facebook Newsroom said, “We’ve seen that people comment more than 10 times more on Facebook Live videos than on regular videos.”
Also Read : Enormous Brand Chains Move to Online Business
How to Use Live Streaming in eCommerce Marketing?
There are some techniques done by famous brands using live videos to market for their eCommerce stores and selling to an interested audience. These techniques have proven successful and are driving much more traffic than other marketing techniques.
Why don’t you learn from the best, and then tailor such live video marketing techniques to fit your eCommerce business needs and personality!
1. Host a Live Series on a Regular Basis
One very useful marketing tip is to record a live video series talking about your product in a way or another.
Host a famous figure who uses your product to talk about it, interview some of the audience to know their feedback, give some tips and tricks from an expert, or show other usages of the product in hand.
Keep in mind two main things: go live on a regular basis (weekly or monthly on the same day at the same time) so that your audience get in the habit of watching your videos like they do with TV shows and always ask them about what would they like to watch you talking about.
ExpandCart hosts a live webinar on a weekly basis on the same day at the same time (every Monday at 10 pm) and it generates a huge traffic into the website of thousands of interested and engaged audience.
2. Host a Live Challenge
Brainstorm with your team some out-of-the-box ideas for challenges or contests to be shot live. People will tune in to your live streaming responding to the catchy title you’re going to choose for the live video. Viewers can then comment and participate in the contest, which will turn in more interested traffic.
Why don’t you give away gifts and vouchers for your followers and fans?
3. Interview Special Guests and Experts
Your customers are not necessarily knowledgeable about every thing in your business area or niche. Bringing in experts or professional guests into a live video to speak with your customers and answer their questions in real time can do wonders to your website traffic.
Here’s another example of a live stream on YouTube live by ExpandCar t, hosting Ibrahim Khalifa, an expert in payment gateways in the Middle East. Notice the number of questions on the video, which were all answered by the guest.
Tips for a Successful Live Streaming
There are a few tips you should notice to come up with the successful video you need to market for your eCommerce online store. These tips are divided into before shooting, while shooting, and after shooting the live video .
Before Going Live
1. Set Your Goals
Yes, we know that you’re going after the whole deal, increasing followers, building a relationship with the customer, and boosting your sales up. But it’s better to set only one goal for each video so that the live comes out cohesive and united.
When you set a definitive goal for your live video, you’ll be able to outline a plan for what you’re going to say or do in the video.
This way, you’ll be all set and ready, your viewers will come out from the video with a specific idea or concept, and they’ll likely take the desired action that you defined from the beginning as a goal for the video.
2. Build Anticipation
How can you expect a good number of people to watch your live video when they do not know any thing about it in advance?
Don’t expect that thousands will just tune in once you hit that play button on the small screen of your mobile phone; this is just not happening.
Promote for your live video before you go live, so that people are excited to come and watch once you start.
Build audience’s anticipation by a catchy title, a teaser, a question, or whatever relevant to the content you’ll be broadcasting.
And post about your live event everywhere, not just on the channel you’ll be using. So, if you’re going to use YouTube live , post a teaser or a banner on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and send an email if possible. Don’t forget to include date, time, and link of the video.
Be smart, and give people a good reason to take a few minutes out of their busy day to watch your live.
3. Get Ready
You definitely don’t want to face any technical problems while streaming, as this could cost you hundreds of viewers turning your video off.
That’s why you need to be ready with all the requirements:
- A business Facebook page (you probably have one already),
- A smartphone, a laptop, or a tablet (depending on the video content and your uses),
- A strong internet connection (you don’t want any buffering or hanging while broadcasting),
- A tripod or a selfie stick (if you need to shoot a wider angle or a steady scene, shaky videos give me a headache),
- A dedicated space for shooting with good lighting (depending on the content also and the message you want to deliver),
- A source of power that’s nearby (turning on the phone’s camera drains the battery really quick).
While Going Live
1. “Only Me” Test First
Before streaming live to a real audience, choose the “only me” privacy option from the options (as shown in the screenshot below).
You want to test how your camera looks, the strength of your Wi-Fi signal, the title and the description of the video, and everything else before sharing it with anyone else.
Tip ? Choose a catchy title that lures viewers into tuning in and watch your live.
2. Re-introduce Yourself
It’s not enough to introduce yourself at the beginning of your live streaming; you may not even have any followers that early.
Keep introducing yourself and why you are here today briefly every few minutes at the start of the video, and then on a longer time interval as you go on.
3. Be Real
This is not a TV show; so don’t be afraid to make mistakes, stutter, laugh, cough, or whatever during your live commerce video. Keep it real and authentic ?.
Like we agreed earlier, the reason people love live videos is that they are personal and show your brand’s personality.
Spontaneous moments add a funny and authentic flavor to the video; don’t be scared to go out of the script because it will turn out to be great.
4. Engage with Viewers
Reply to your viewers comments, interact with them, call them by name as their comments and emotions appear on your screen, people love to feel noticed.
Live videos are all about interaction between the video’s host/hosts and viewers; it’s not just broadcasting some pieces of information. This is not the 9.00 o’clock news for God sake!
Encourage your followers to invite their friends, comment, ask, and share; this is like the call to action button but in voice ?.
5. Say Goodbye
Streaming a live video resembles having people in for dinner; would you just leave without saying goodbye?
Of course not.
Greet your viewers, recap what has been said or done during the live, encourage people to take the desired action (that you set previously in your plan), thank them for watching and interacting, and say goodbye and see you later ?.
When people like you, they’ll definitely come again, don’t they?
After Going Live
1. Add a Link
After finishing the live broadcast, go back to the video and do some editing: tweak the title or description, change privacy, or add a link to your website or shop page or wherever you wish to direct future followers to.
2. Analyze Results
Just like any other marketing technique or tool for eCommerce sales , you need to analyze the videos results to optimize your next ones for better outcomes.
Most platforms will give you analytics and metrics about your live video, so that you can measure views, average watch time, number of likes and shares, and much more.
You can also get insights about the demographics of the people watched and interacted with the video while streaming live and afterwards as well (the video will be there on your page if you do not remove it).
Also Read : SaaS Based eCommerce
Now you should have a clear idea about what you want to do and how you are going to use live commerce to your eCommerce store’s favor.
You just need to decide on the platform that best fits your needs and goals and where your audience lives.
Here’s How to Use Facebook Live
Here’s How to Use Youtube Live
Here’s How to Go Live on Instagram
Here’s How to Go Live on Twitter
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