Around 39% of the world’s population is currently using social media. The most popular social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, with 2.4 billion, 1 billion, and 300 million active monthly users respectively. Creating a presence on these social media platforms is a big win for businesses. They are able to reach bigger audiences, increase brand awareness, and increase conversion rates, it also allows the consumer to have a direct connection to the company. When you think of social media you don’t always think about live video, but you should.
Social media platforms have evolved and added features such as live video to create better engagement with consumers. People spend three times longer watching live videos than pre-recorded ones. Live streaming can be a very useful tool for lead generation. Here are some ways you can effectively use Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn videos to increase your leads.
1. Explain the Benefits of Your Product Through Live Video
The best time to pitch your product is when you have the full attention of your audience. Live videos are the perfect time to do this, especially as they create fantastic engagement with your audience. During a product launch or demonstration, you can let the customers know about the benefits of your products. Businesses are encouraged to be informative during presentations rather than pushy. A brief explanation of the benefits of your product will make your audience more interested in it. By using live video, you also give your audience a chance to ask questions and get a prompt response during the pitch.
2. Have a Q&A session
Q&A (question and answer) sessions are popular among live videos across all social media platforms. Questions from your audience are helpful as they boost direct interaction with your audience. Having this exchange with your audience helps to build trust, loyalty, and a sense of community. During the interaction, you can also get suggestions to help you grow your audience and customer base by asking your current audience what they want. Engaging Q&A videos can also help to expand your reach, as you can ask your audience to share your live stream. An engaged audience is compelled to share, helping you to generate more leads in no time.
Q&A sessions can be combined with giveaways to make audiences more interested and engaged. You can also incorporate Q&A sessions during a product demo with a call-to-action to push your goal. Q&A sessions allow customers to understand your product and your brand all while having a better experience with it.
3. Partner with Influencers
49% of consumers depend on influencers for recommendations before they make a purchase. You can piggyback on influencers through live videos. Live streaming and making your content stand out can be challenging if you work alone, so strongly consider approaching influencers in your industry. Influencers on Facebook and Instagram will have a massive following and a strong online presence. Their engagement level is also high as they connect with consumers on a personal level. They are role models to their audience, and people trust their recommendations.
Collaborate with social media influencers in your niche, and they will be able to give you insights on specific topics and connect you with their audience giving you more viewers. Experienced influencers will create engaging content for your current and potential audience. As you work with influencers, remember to give them the freedom to be creative, they know what their audience is looking for.
4. Broadcast a Live Event
Using Facebook Live or Instagram Live to share events with your audience while you are there contributes significantly to brand building. Consumers are always on the lookout for shareable, valuable and relevant information. Posting real-time content on events that your company participates in is a great idea. Sharing your business’ experiences through live videos ensures your customers are invested in your story and your brand. The more invested they are, the more likely they are to push your content to bigger audiences.
Live events create a perception of relevance in the industry. Customers prefer engaging with successful brands. Sharing live events also humanizes your brand and helps to build authenticity, allowing your customers to see the faces behind the brand.
5. Do Product Demonstrations
Product demonstrations are a very useful sales tool. It spikes up customers’ interest in your solution to their problem. Live product demonstrations on Facebook gives your audience a visual experience of the value and potential of your product. The ability to see is much more appealing to consumers than just listening or reading about your product. Live demos and tests also provide proof that the product can do what the brand says it can.
Tests give you a perfect opportunity to address product-related concerns. That is; any doubts and misinformation about the product. Launching your product and a live demonstration at the same time has a more significant impact on building trust with your customer base.
6. Share the Launch of a New Product Using Live Video
Launching a new product using live videos is the perfect way to create the popularity buzz of a new product. Live streaming can also help to boost sales the moment the product is released to the market. Additionally, to help build trust, you can seize the opportunity to educate and test the product on the live broadcast.
Working with influencers and celebrities before and during a product launch will create awareness across vast audiences. Be sure to utilize your influencers in the lead up to your live launch. Your product can stand out, boosting sales and brand awareness.
7. Use Gated Content for Lead Generation
By asking viewers to fill a form before they can access your live videos, you trade your valuable content for their contact information. You can leverage the data for lead generation. This strategy ensures that interested parties get to view your videos and give you a clear direction to take when doing follow-ups and nurturing leads. Gated content also helps in understanding your audience better. That way, you can educate them by sharing emails and converting them to become loyal customers.
8. Hold Contests
Everyone loves to participate in a contest and win a prize afterward. Holding live contests on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram will motivate people to engage with your brand. Live contests only last a few hours; creating urgency, and people will take advantage of the chance to win prizes. The prizes have to be valuable enough for consumers to make them want to enter the contest. To encourage more people to participate in the competition, allow people to enter by liking, following, or sharing social media profiles.
Even though some of the participants will not win prizes, they will then be familiar with your brand. You can then pursue them using tactics like email marketing.
9. Hold Interviews
Interviews allow you to educate viewers via Live Video. You need to host guests to reach a broader audience, and one option is to use your influencers as they can help you to reach a bigger audience. By hosting guests, you will reach twice the audience as they will then share the live link to their audience as well. Allow the participation of the audience to create an interactive experience. Viewers of live video love to be involved, so be sure to include a portion of time where the audience can ask questions, or vote on a topic of discussion. Live interviews give the viewers insights on your product, business, and life in general.
10. Behind the Scenes Content
Posting behind the scenes content through Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook Live gives your audience a small peek of what your organization is all about. It creates a deep and personal connection with your audience as it makes them feel special. Behind the scenes content allows you to show a different side of your business and settle any doubts that the customers might have about your processes and authenticity.
Humanizing the company by letting your audience see who drives the company allows you to connect with your audience better. A faceless company may find it hard to create that kind of rapport with the audience. The type of behind the scenes content you should be sharing could include; team building events, updates on projects, fun facts, a professional at work, and workshops.
Live videos on social media platforms are a highly effective way to reach out to consumers, to connect, and to engage them. The benefits of live videos in lead generation are immense. This includes having a broader audience potential, better engagement, and access to quality leads. Through Q&A sessions, pitching, product demos, interviews, partnering with influencers, and sharing live events with your audience, you get to create a strong relationship with your brand’s consumers. Combine these with a Call to Action that drives traffic to a landing page or a product and you can increase leads through the personalization and trust built with the Live Video.
By employing these strategies in live videos on social media you can increase your leads and boost sales for your company.
Leads are the lifeblood of business and social media is a powerhouse opportunity that’s here to stay and one that businesses must learn. In my book, Game Plan for Social Media Lead Generation I’ll help you develop a plan for your business!
For more information on the do’s and don’ts of Live Video Marketing, check out this cool infographic from Epiphan.
@mike_gingerich
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