Livestreaming ideas you can easily implement today.
The more viewers watching your livestream could equal more customers. But making memorable content in a world brimming with digital noise is not always easy. It is, however, possible.
This first step is realising that getting viewers to watch your livestream is only the beginning. Once they’ve logged on to view, it’s important to foster these relationships with our customers by interacting with them in a real and personable way.
How can we successfully interact with our customers and keep them engaged during our livestream? Read on for handy tips and inspired ideas that will help make your livestream more celebration than snooze fest!
In this regard, the connection is two-fold.
Firstly, always make sure you speak from a place of personal experience so that you connect with your customers, human-to-human. Data can be super functional and even impactful, but telling a story that connects with people on an emotional level is far more impactful. This is why so much advertising is based on our emotions. Always have this top of mind when livestreaming. It can be easy to get bogged down by technical details and countless stats, but the truth of the matter is that your audience will appreciate you showing up for them in an organic and natural way. Connection is king!
The other side of the connection coin has more to do with your tech setup: test your internet connection and upload speed to make sure it’s strong and stable for your livestream. A good internet connection is paramount when livestreaming – people won’t hang around if your connection is patchy or downright faulty!
Top Tip: Make sure your upload speed is good before attempting to go live. Anything between 672 Kbps and 61.5 Mbps is ideal.
Knowing your audience is a cornerstone of marketing. Knowing this info for your livestream is just as important. To create engaging and memorable livestream content, we need to know who we’re making it for.
Knowing your audience like the back of your hand will help you on multiple steps along your livestreaming journey. From deciphering what you’ll talk about to promoting your event on specific platforms, keeping your audience front and centre in this regard will make a huge difference.
Top Tip: Use Google Analytics to track the demographics of people who visit your website most often. Making use of this important info could help you make certain decisions regarding your livestream like what points to talk about, what time you should schedule your event, and so on.
We’ve spoken about the importance of planning before a livestream event at length on our blogs! Having an idea of what you want to cover in your session (even if they are just bullet points) is super important.
First and foremost, get all of these ideas down on paper (or on your notes app!) Getting it all out of your head and onto the page (electronic or otherwise) is vital. Once you have this outline down, begin organising it into different headings and subheadings.
The aim is to arrange all of this info into bite-sized titbits that can be easily communicated to your audience. You want everyone tuning into your livestream to walk away from the event having fully grasped everything you’ve shared. Delivering your livestream in a logical manner will keep your viewers from becoming confused and frustrated. Above all else, it will keep them engaged throughout (winning!).
Top Tip: Do a ‘dress rehearsal’. If you’ll be conducting your livestream with other guests, do a run-through with them before the big day. Run through the entire programme of your livestream to make sure everything is flowing smoothly and at a natural pace.
Livestreams are a great way to connect with your audience, in real-time. It’s also a great way for those tuning in to interact with one another. It may seem like it would pose a distraction, but by enabling your chat function you are inviting your audience to participate in networking with other like-minded individuals. Humans are innately community-driven so this kind of invitation will always be well-received.
Similarly, having the option of viewers being able to ask you questions in real-time does wonders at instilling brand trust. People who trust you and your brand are in turn far more likely to buy from you so it’s a win-win all around.
Top Tip: It can be tricky to focus on hosting a livestream and a frenzied chat! We totally get that. Try creating time during your livestream that lets you take a pause for a moment from your ‘script’. Use these beats to engage with the chat feature – even if you just read a few out loud and ‘like’ them. This little bit of engagement on your part will make your viewers feel seen and therefore more likely to continue paying attention.
Polling is a great function that ensures your viewers are kept engaged during your livestream. Other than that, it’s also a super handy tool for collecting data that could in turn help you make decisions with regard to your business moving forward. The basis of polling is asking a question and receiving an answer from your audience. A Q&A session works on a similar premise, but turns this around: it allows your audience, or customers, to ask you the questions.
Think about hosting a Q&A session during your livestream event where you invite your viewers to be a part of the conversation too. Hearing what your customers ask will give you some interesting insights that can be very helpful in informing your overall brand strategy. Opening up the floor to your customers will give you an idea of what their pain points are, and can in turn show you the areas you can improve on in your business to make their experience that much better.
Top Tip: Hold shorter Q&A sessions throughout your event. Think about having small five-minute Q&A sessions at the end of each section of your livestream to sustain interest and keep your audience engaged. Rather than crafting your livestream like one long monologue (with a Q&A session right at the end), involve your audience throughout, and structure it more as an unfolding dialogue between you and your customers.
Hosting live giveaways on your livestream is not only a smart way to create hype before an event, it can also really help to keep viewers engaged during the livestream.
The easiest way to do so is to make use of a raffle system. Assign a code to each person who says they will be attending your livestream and announce a handful of these codes at regular intervals during your livestream to keep people absorbed. You’ll need to decide what your giveaway prizes are, whether it be a product you offer or perhaps a gift voucher. Randomly drawing these codes throughout your livestream will entice people to keep watching and listening.
Top Tip: You could also advertise your livestream and tell potential viewers that you’ll be giving something away at the end of it. In order to be eligible for the prize, you’ll need to tune in to the livestream. Doing so will guarantee eyeballs on your livestream as well as sustained interest throughout until the mystery is unveiled at the very end. A special discount code could be a nice way to reward those who took the time to watch your livestream (it will also help you get more traffic onto your online store – woohoo!).
These are just six of the ways to interact with your customers (and keep them engaged) during your livestream. Keep an eye on the blog in the coming weeks and months for more of our top tips and tricks to get you selling and livestreaming like a pro.
Do you have an online store that you’re passionate about and would love to tell people more about? Why not give FLICK Live a try today?
