Follow us on LinkedInGone are the days when marketers relied on boring descriptions and static images to communicate with their prospective customers. Product videos, too, have become commonplace.
In order to stay relevant in this highly competitive product marketing landscape, you need to look beyond pre-recorded videos to engage the audience.
Product marketers have a new ace up their sleeve that can help attract attention and effectively engage their audience – Live streaming.
Live streaming is not new; 41% of internet users have watched live videos, and real-time content accounts for nearly 25% of the total view time.
But, product marketers can use live streaming to differentiate themselves from competitors, create more engagement, generate more leads, and achieve more sales.
So, should you use live streaming to market your product? Yes, you should. In this article, we’ll discuss how to use real-time videos to your advantage.
The many ways live streaming can aid your product marketing
Live streaming is a versatile marketing strategy. It surpasses pre-recorded videos in many aspects. Real-time video content offers marketers diverse and dynamic ways to engage their target audience.
Here are five simple ways to leverage live streams for promoting your products:
Product launches
With heavy investment in R&D, products are developed and launched every few weeks. Moving swiftly to capture the audience’s attention and pitch your product is crucial. Live streaming your product launch is an excellent strategy to generate buzz and anticipation. Unlike physical events, live streaming allows a wider audience to experience the excitement surrounding new offerings.
Product demonstrations
Despite the reduction in video production and video editing cost, live-streams’ simplicity and versatility have a greater impact. Live product demos provide an unedited, immersive, and firsthand look at the product and its features.Live product demos enhance understanding and build a stronger connection and trust between the brand and viewers. Plus, adding a compelling story to live streaming can successfully promote even hard-to-sell technical products.
Live Q&A sessions
In this digital age, people miss the convenience and experience of physical shopping. Live Q&A sessions partially recreate that environment, allowing viewers to clarify doubts about your product.
The interaction is honest, immediate, and transparent, fostering trust and credibility. Furthermore, you can edit a video, and repurpose the content to create short, relevant videos for your product FAQ page.
James Shaw
Live chats for product recommendations
Live chat features elevate the customer experience by removing guesswork and tailoring responses based on individual needs and preferences. Personalized product recommendations through live chats boost conversion chances. The customer-centric approach fosters increased brand trust and loyalty.
Post-sale customer service
Integrating live streaming into post-sale customer service significantly impacts feedback and retention. Live installations or tutorials ensure a hassle-free initial product experience.
Moreover, don’t wait for customers to approach. Take a proactive step, after the sale, use email marketing or send an SMS link to invite customers for live installation or tutorial sessions. Furthermore, use this opportunity to upsell and cross-sell your products.
Satisfied customers are more likely to make repeat purchases, provide positive feedback, and refer your product to others.
One of the biggest advantages of live streaming is its ability to repurpose content. Live streams are a treasure trove of valuable information that can be transformed into shorter videos for landing pages, FAQ pages, brand YouTube channels, etc. These videos seamlessly integrate with any marketing tool, including ClickFunnels or any alternative to ClickFunnels.
Tips to master the art of live streaming
Using live streaming to promote and sell products is a proven marketing strategy. Last year, during the holiday season, thousands of influencers and content creators used Amazon Live Events to sell a wide range of products. You too can successfully use live streaming to market and sell products.
Here are a few tips to help you succeed:
Generate buzz before and after live-stream event
Want people to attend live-streaming sessions? Let them know. In addition to promoting the upcoming live event on the channel, advertise on other platforms to draw in viewers. Create a teaser and post it along with the date, time (and time zone), and live streaming channel on your product landing page.
Some in your target audience may not find time to attend the live event. However, they might still be interested in video content. For them, post the video on the channel or website and spread the word about where to find the content.
Pick products carefully
Study the target audience deeply to understand their pain points and price range that attract their attention. The outcome of your research will help shortlist products for your live videos.
Creating videos with niche products will help create suitable promotional strategies and advertising campaigns.
For example, if the majority of the target audience is passionate about the environment or a vegan lifestyle, choose products that are environmentally friendly or plant-based.
Make the first few minutes count
It doesn’t matter how many people are present at the start of the live stream; grab their attention with an impressive opening.
Begin by introducing yourself, providing an overview of the content you plan to discuss in the video, or even better, discussing the pain points of the audience and ways your product can fulfill their needs.
There is a good chance many others will join the live-stream later. Hence, you might have to prepare a suitable ‘welcome speech’ that can be used many times during the video.
Embrace a charismatic and lively approach
Throughout the live video, maintain a casual and friendly approach. The tone, style, words, colors, and props used in the video must reflect your brand. As a product marketer, if you’re not sure what to share and how to share it, the best place to look is the business proposal.
Engage the audience by discussing their problems and listing the ways your product can solve them. You can also keep the audience interested in the video by answering the questions shared before or during the live-streaming session.
Always have the product with you. It would be easier for the audience to understand the features and functions if the product is shown often during the live video.
Make the live-stream visually appealing
This is an extension of the previous point. In live streams, you can’t often edit the video to change the background, add text or picture graphics, or include animation.
Instead of a false background, use a natural setting with vibrant colors. For example, if you’re selling products used outdoors, such as a lawnmower, camping tent, etc., then it makes sense to live stream from an outdoor open space. Regardless of the location, ensure there is sufficient lighting and the audio quality is top-notch.
Meghan Pfeifer Corsello
Rehearse for success
Videos that are live and more authentic generate more engagement and create deeper bonds with the audience. That said, the video should not be unrehearsed.
In fact, unrehearsed and untested live events face a higher risk of failing. A lot can go wrong during live streaming. You could face technical difficulties. Your script may have factual errors, or it may not be tight enough or impactful.
Rehearsing and testing the broadcast allows you to rectify faults and make improvements to the script or message delivery.
Final thoughts
It is predicted that by 2026, live-stream selling alone will generate $68 billion in the United States. Not only for selling—live streaming can be used in every stage of the sales funnel.
Live streaming to market products is gaining popularity. Before it becomes a norm, use the ideas and tips in this article to gain an edge over your competition.
