Video live streaming offers small businesses a powerful marketing tool.
- Livestreaming allows users to broadcast live footage over the internet to a target audience.
- Social media platforms have made livestreaming cheaper and simpler than ever for small businesses to use.
- Livestream video is an effective digital marketing tool that can help you reach your audience, expand your brand and drive more sales.
- This article is for small business owners and marketers looking to create livestream video content to engage and build their audiences.
Whether hosting a live event or creating a tutorial, video content has become the go-to option for small businesses. As video and livestreaming become more widely used on social media apps, companies can now deliver compelling, emotionally engaging content to a wider audience and forge a strong brand connection.
Live video content has a way of demystifying the humanlike relationship between brand and customer, creating a more familiar feeling that is often the first step to brand loyalty. But just how effective is livestream marketing, and what benefits can you expect from a successful campaign? Here’s how to create and use livestream video content as part of your digital marketing strategy to keep your audience engaged and help build your powerful brand.
What is livestreaming?
Video livestreaming is, quite simply, the act of transmitting live footage over the internet to an active target audience. In the past, livestreaming was typically done on a dedicated streaming platform. Today, social media has expanded the reach of livestreaming, making live broadcasts a key component of social media marketing and streaming features available on multiple platforms.
For the first time, small businesses can really experiment with video as a means of communication. Livestreaming is not a new app; there’s nothing new they need to learn because it’s built into social media. I think what’s happening now will help empower them in new ways.
While streaming platforms like StreamYard have long been hosting live videos, social media’s step into livestreaming territory represents a real opportunity for startups and small businesses to quickly get their messages out at little cost.
Livestream video is a versatile tool that offers audiences a clearer window into your business. You can use live video content to give sneak peeks at upcoming products, do demonstrations, broadcast an event or even collaborate with influencers to amplify your message. Another popular use of livestreaming is to host a webinar where the audience can interact with the presenter, ask questions and dive deep into a specific topic.
We’ve detailed the livestreaming capabilities from some of the most popular social media platforms.
On Instagram Live, you can collaborate with guests and other accounts, ask viewers featured questions to foster engagement, and add filters to a livestream. Once your live feed is over, you can add the video to your business’s stories or share it to IGTV, where it can live longer than 24 hours.
Facebook Live allows you to see the names, comments and number of viewers in real time, which means you can modify your livestream content in the moment to best engage with whoever is watching. The video then automatically saves to your business page once the live feed is over.
Because Facebook owns Instagram, it’s possible to livestream simultaneously on the two platforms as long as your business accounts for each platform are linked.
Because Twitter primarily features an endless scroll of tweets, a livestream is a great way to stand out. Once your livestream is done, you can post the full video to your timeline.
LinkedIn is a bit more complicated than the other social networks when it comes to starting a live video, but it’s becoming more popular on the site. You must first create an event on your business page and see if your account meets the criteria for LinkedIn Live streaming. If you’re eligible, there will be a LinkedIn Live drop-down option for the event format.
TikTok
TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media networks around and is known for short, engaging videos. While there is a popular livestreaming capability, your account must be eligible to have that option. Among the eligibility requirements are having more than 1,000 followers and adhering to community guidelines.
Which platform is best for your business?
The number of social media platforms that can feature livestreaming content can be overwhelming. Above all, it’s important to understand your target customers and which social media platform they primarily use. For example, ages 30 to 49 use Facebook, while ages 18 to 29 mostly use Instagram, according to Pew Research Center. Researching your target audience will allow you to meet your audience where they already are and get your content in front of the people likely to engage with your business.
What are the benefits of livestream marketing?
With a host of other digital marketing tools at your disposal, you might be wondering whether producing live broadcasts is worthwhile. After all, what is live video content going to do that a traditional marketing campaign cannot? Well, the statistics on livestreaming marketing strategies speak for themselves: Live video is simply more engaging for the audience.
- Audiences prefer live video. Research from Livestream.com and New York Magazine shows that 80% of audiences prefer live video to written blog content, while 82% prefer live video to traditional social posts.
- Live video works. Video content is engaging and helps spur your target audience to action. According to Livestream’s research, nearly 40% of executives place a call to a vendor after watching a video. What’s more, livestream marketing is inexpensive, making it easy to secure a return on investment (ROI). About 73% of B2B businesses using live video to reach their target audience report positive results on their ROI.
- Livestream marketing increases conversions. The end goal of any digital marketing tactic is to drive sales and increase conversions. Livestream marketing can boost sales intent among your target audience by 97% and solidify brand association by 139%, Livestream found in its study. Those are some serious benefits right off the bat.
- A livestream video has short- and long-term use. In addition to the immediate benefits of broadcasting live, there are uses for your video even after the stream is over. The recording can be repurposed as fresh video content for your business’s website. Video content strategically placed on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more, while 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online after watching a video.
Livestream video is an effective tool in your digital marketing arsenal that can help you reach your audience, expand your brand and ultimately drive more sales. So how do you go about creating live video content for the first time? There are a few rules to follow for success.
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We cover connecting destinations, scheduling, inviting guests, simulcasting/multi-streaming, setting up your branding, and much more.
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