How to Use Live Video Streaming for Online Marketing

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Live Video streaming became ridiculously popular in 2020, and that trend will continue throughout 2021 and beyond. It might seem a little scary to start with, but it is worth exploring for the potential benefits of increased reach and authenticity.

Online Marketing:

Today, online marketing is taking over the digital business world. There are so many concepts and trends constantly evolving around digital marketing that it takes a lot of planning from the marketer to implement just the right strategies.

A home store selling titan 440 repacking kits might use entirely different marketing strategies than a store selling iPhone and Samsung tech products. No matter your marketing budget, two different companies can spend it in entirely different ways and wholly diverse strategies.

As a customer surfing the web, you might have noticed a significant rise in video content marketing all around you. Why is that? It’s because the generations today of Millennial and Gen z are more attracted towards video, and engage with it a lot more than any other content. Some might argue that it’s because younger generations have a shorter attention span. Others would say it’s because video content and live video streaming are more direct and authentic.

Video Content Marketing:

In 2016 live video streaming became another of those techniques that became insanely popular and took over the social media platforms. Still, video marketing was all the rage in the year 2020 and is continuing to be so in the year 2021. You might see many video ads and campaigns going on. 

Have you seen the number of blogs, tutorials, and various other marketing clips on YouTube increasing day by day? How many YouTube channels gained so much popularity by just doing food or destination reviews?

Live video content has appeal and attracts a lot of customers. Why? Because of its LIVE. Live video streaming makes many customers believe that it is authentic and exciting.

This article will further tell you how crucial live streaming videos are, some examples of live videos, and last, a few tips and tricks for successful live video streaming.

The Importance of Live Streaming Videos:

Let us be real; today, people are more likely to watch a video than read a 1000-word blog or article. Year after year, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of video content data consumed and viewed by customers has increased twofold.

Covid-19 Pandemic and Videos

How did the live streaming of videos become so important all of a sudden? The first reason is self-explanatory, the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic made everyone sit at home and maintain social distancing. The closing down of restaurants and social hangout places was just the right push for people to become glued to their phones. The only form of contact people had was through their phones and the internet. This is why the amount of video content increased. Sitting at home, people started their food blogs, tutorial videos, and whatnot, etc. It became an entertainment source to make videos and enjoyable to watch them as well—a win-win for the digital content industry.

Accessibility and Brand Image

Why else did live streaming become so popular and influential in recent years? Other than the pandemic playing a significant role, of course. Another fundamental reason is accessibility. Today customers like to know, every little detail about your product, and not just your product but also about your company and you as well.

This generation is very big on doing its due diligence of research and gathering data. Given that a lot of information is available online anyway, it’s not that hard for your customers to find about you and your company as well. The live streaming videos thereby help the interested customers satisfy their thirst for knowledge before spending money on your product. 

A few other factors that have played a considerable role in the demand for live streaming videos are as follows.

Other Factors that made video content all the rage:

• Smartphones and Tablets: Smartphones have made surfing and viewing live videos easy. Many of us are guilty of being on our smartphones in our free times. For example, on our commute to and from work, we are usually killing time by surfing on the phone and possibly watching live videos. Maybe we are at a boring party and scrolling through our smartphones, going through all the content or during our lunch breaks at work.
• Audience reach is huge: Live streaming tends to attract the customers that we couldn’t otherwise engage. It works out as effortless marketing compared to gathering your potential customer’s list and sending them emails.
• Live streaming videos work out for many industries: You might think, the video probably won’t work for you, but you might be surprised that it does a lot of marketing for your business without you even knowing it.

Benefits of Live Streaming Videos:

Now that you know the importance of live streaming videos, you can now probably make sense of all the benefits these videos can provide for you. These benefits will work out for increasing the productivity of your business.

Go through our list of benefits of live video streaming videos below:

• It strengthens your company’s relationship with customers. And everyone knows customer satisfaction is the key to success. These video marketing campaigns help the customers see the faces behind a particular brand. And If your customers are aware of the faces behind the brand, this builds trust in them and encourages loyalty.
• What you can do is show your personas and personalities through live video streaming, which will encourage your customers to reach out to you to answer their questions and solve their queries.
• Live videos ensure a better return on investment compared to traditional videos. Traditional videos require a lot of work, including editing, compiling, putting in effects, trimming, etc. However, live videos are easy to make and are available on all platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc.
• One significant benefit of live videos is that they are interactive and all you have to do is press the live button, and that is it. Many brands do live question and answer sessions or bring on their customer’s favorite celebrity to talk to them on a live session. Therefore, live videos offer a comparatively better return on investment.
• Live streaming videos make your brand more trustworthy and credible. Given that customers can see you, talk and interact with you on live videos, it all increases your brand’s credibility in the eyes of your customers. Moreover, they are more likely to stay loyal and recommend your brand to their friends and families.
• Live streaming videos has enabled brands to get influencers to talk about your brand on at length on live video rather than just shouting out. Influencer marketing has become an essential element of live video marketing. 

Examples of a few Live Streaming Videos

• Have Announcement Videos
• Conduct online live interview sessions. It is probably a good idea to get influencers and celebrities for this.
• If your brand or company is attending an event, it’s best to go on a live video about it and tell your audience about it.
• Behind the scenes is another kind of video content that shows your viewers the people working behind the brand and increases their trust level.
• You can also hold a live session with your customers, talk about their issues with the products etc.

Conclusion

Lives Streaming videos can do wonders for your business. The key is to do it as effectively as you can. Find an employee who is good with such sessions. Video content has become an entire industry, and you can hire professionals to take care of everything for you.

Be it Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or any other social media channel; live video streaming is available on all the major platforms. So make the most of it, if you have not done it already! This article is all you need to make your first live video, so you are all set.

Tips and Tricks for Live Streaming Videos:

• Don’t over-plan your live sessions. It is okay to have a flow of content figured out for the live session, but it’s unnecessary to plan every second out.
• Sometimes, viewers and your customers can set your video content’s conversation flow. So be flexible. For example, you might be talking about 440 repacking kits for sprayers, and someone might ask you a question about a paint sprayer. So you might want to prepare for topics that you didn’t think you might have to address.
• Involve your clients, influencers, customers, stakeholders, etc. involved in your live streaming content.
• Make your session engaging and encourage questions and feedback from your viewers.
• Finally, have a fun vibe going on. If you have fun and show passion while talking about your product, your viewers will feel it too.

Guest Author Bio: Sheikh Adil

Sheikh Adil is a keynote speaker on social media strategy, LinkedIn marketing & social media marketing trainer. Sheikh Adil is MediaHicon digital marketing author and SEO consultant for global organizations.