Using Live Video to Promote Your Business

Using Live Video to Promote Your Business is a great advertising tool. Get ahead of the curve and learn about it in this blog!

When Apple launched their very first video iPod (before even iPhone came into existence), video podcasts and live streaming were rare. Things have dramatically changed since then. In 2022, there are billions of videos raking in billions of hours of views.

Live video has become so popular that it stands to bring in 17% of all internet traffic in 2022. Moreover, people prefer spending more time watching live videos than recorded videos. 

Although individuals and celebrities began live video streaming as a way to promote their personality many years ago, many businesses have now taken on live streaming to promote their business. 

Live video is a fantastic way to reach your target audience while providing a great opportunity to personalise your brand. What’s more, it’s an inexpensive way to engage with your audience. 

  • 80% of people prefer watching live videos from a business rather than reading content marketing posts. 
  • Users spend 3x time watching live video compared to pre-recorded videos.
  • Humans process images and videos quicker than textual content. 
  • 67% of people who watched a live video bought a ticket to a similar event.
  • Brands that use live video see their revenue growing 49% faster than non-video brands.

Here are some tips for using live video to promote your business. 

Establish Your Goals

Goal-setting should be your biggest priority! 

If you are not sure what you’d like to achieve with your live video streaming strategy, you’d have a hard time creating effective content. 

Why do you want to live stream? What do you hope to achieve? What sort of conversions do you expect? What sort of content do you want to associate with your brand? 

Find Your Niche

Identifying your niche will help you come up with content ideas. This will also help you come up with a narrative. Your live videos should tell your brand’s story to ensure your target audience can engage with you.

Identify Your Target Audience

Once you’ve pinned down your niche, it’s time to identify your target audience. 

When it comes to finding the target audience, the first thing to do is to understand who to target. However, who you target depends on the video platform you will use. 

To that end, Facebook is an excellent option. Not only is it an excellent platform to stream video, but it gives you ready access to a huge audience. In addition, Facebook offers a range of features compared to other platforms. 

If you have a business page on Facebook and have a decent following, all your followers will by default become your target audience. 

So long as you are creating useful content that adds value to your audience, viewers will keep rolling in.

Plan Your Content

Before you go live, you will need a plan for your live content. Although live streams typically do not involve multiple takes, editing or any other enhancements that are involved with on-demand video, it calls for some forethought. Choose the topics for your live videos well in advance and create a short outline for each video before you begin. 

Here are some ways to use live video:

  • Educational videos
  • Live webinar
  • Live product launch
  • Contest video
  • Product demos
  • Company announcements
  • Content promotion
  • Company events
  • Interviews with customers, employees or vendors
  • Customer reviews or testimonials
  • Behind-the-scenes videos of your processes or office

Promote Your Live Video Stream

It’s important to ensure that your audience knows about your live video event. Promote your live video event by email, social media, online ads, writing a blog post, making an announcement on your site or even launching a press release. 

Whichever social channels you have a presence on, be it Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or any other, use them to promote your live event. 

If you have a weekly live stream, you will announce that you are having a weekly show, asking them to join you on a specific date and time. 

Send an initial invitation at least one week before the live stream. Send a reminder note on the day of the event. You could create a poster as part of the marketing. Better yet, you could do a short video to tease the live video.

Do not forget to include an engaging description of your video to grab your audience’s attention. Tell them how they can benefit by watching your video. 

Production Values

  1. Selfie Stream. This is where you go live from your phone, handled. 
  2. Advanced Selfie Stream. Add some gear to improve the production values of the video such as a microphone, lighting, video stabiliser, etc. However, you still can stay mobile.
  3. Desktop Computer. Here, you go live using software such as Zoom or Wirecast. This allows you to add graphics, do interviews, play pre-recorded videos, etc. This is a little more advanced than the previous two levels. For best results, you will need a powerful computer. And if it’s the same computer you use for doing other things be careful you don’t overload the PC’s CPU power, by trying to do too many things at once (e.g. streaming, taking video and maybe running a PowerPoint presentation).  
  4. Professional. It’s more expensive than the previous options. However, the video quality and production values are better. Here you have dedicated equipment including a camera, computer, and everything else.

Parting Thoughts

We hope these tips give you the confidence to begin live streaming for your brand. Should you need help planning your business live streaming options or building a professional website to complement your digital strategy and promotions, then get in touch with the Insight Web Design Team today. 

Credit: Emily Murphy (Insight Team)