3 Ways to use livestreams for your brand or business

Above: Click the video to watch the strategy that Starbucks & Porsche are using to build audiences, increase ROI and prepare for the 4Q season.

Can you feel it?...Change is in the air. 

September has officially arrived, and with it, there's no denying that the eCommerce industry is perched precariously on the tip of 4Q.

The ride to the 2019 finish line is in sight...But a question remains: How can you capitalize on strategies right now to build towards your quarterly and annual revenue goals? 

We're helping our clients get their businesses in optimum shape for BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday) by overhauling their Facebook & Instagram Ads, email sequences and landing pages so that they get a massive return on investment this holiday.  

On August 27, Starbucks announced its fall line of drinks - Today, we break down how you can apply a similar strategy to stand out from the competition, create new audiences online, and turn these audiences into customers and repeat buyers in 3Q, 4Q, 2020 and beyond... 

Watch the video and read this post to find: 

• 3 reasons why you should implement this strategy now
• 2 examples of eCom brands (with or without brick and mortars)
• Several guidelines to make livestreams work for your business or brand

This will also help you prepare for BFCM by creating warm audiences prior to the sale season. Don't wait until the last minute: Most brands are developing their creative content now so that they can launch campaigns as early as October 15. 

Three reasons why you should use livestreams in your strategy: 

1. Branding

As social media continues to develop and channels proliferate, livestreams engage audiences in a way that regular direct marketing does not. It has the potential to connect you to the overall lifestyle of your end user and separate you from the competition. Right now, there are more than 60 million active business pages on Facebook, but only about 50% of businesses produced a livestream last year. 


2: Targeting & retargeting audiences 

Brands are developing strategy earlier and earlier before 4Q. Video views are some of the most cost efficient campaigns that you can run at the top of your ads funnel. 

Some of the best performing audiences are hyper-targeted retargeting audiences from video views and livestreams. 

3: Engagement 

Facebook as a system is built on depth of engagement. They want people engaged on the platform - this benefits you now by capturing new audiences and by creating better results for you in the long run. 

• The daily watch time for Facebook Live broadcasts quadrupled in a single year.
• Facebook Live videos produce 6 times as many interactions as traditional videos.
• Facebook Live videos get 10 times more comments than regular videos.
• Facebook Live’s search popularity increased by 330% in just one year.

What a lot of brands don't know is that comments that users leave in your livestream will benefit you and create a higher quality of engagement. Businesses and brands that have a higher quality of engagement on their pages, videos, and ads will find that they rank  higher when it comes to bidding - and get better results and costs from advertising (eCPM). 

A guideline for developing your livestreams:

1. Commit to the lifestyle of your end user.

Make your consumer the hero. Solve their problems. Add value to their life and create content that aligns with your USP/Unique Value Proposition and lifestyle. Here are several examples: 

• Food & beverage with online store:
  • Livestream the announcement of the new season's menu.
  • Announce a new recipe.
  • Show a "making of" video in preparing the food (think reality TV cooking show).
  • Celebrate a holiday by showing different blends of recipes or menus. 
  • Tell stories of the reason why this brand exists from the perspective of the brand / company owner. 
    
    
• Sporting or performance brand:
  • Livestream an interview or podcast from the X games.
  • A 20 minute coaching session with a top-of-industry athlete.
  • Host an interview with someone is an example of the everyday customer talking about how your gear or products helped them do their best.
  • Demonstrate the product at work.  
    
    
• A makeup brand:
  • Livestream with a beauty blogger.
  • Dissect a look or color palette with a model or influencer at a fashion event.
  • Livestream the announcement of a new collection. 
  • Create a how-to with your product. 
  • Interview a panel of customers who felt and experienced beauty through your products. 
    
    
• Fashion or luxury:
  • Livestream from an industry show.
  • Show behind-the-scenes VIP areas of fashion shoots. 
  • Announce a new collection. 
  • Interview the designers of the collection. 
  • Announce a sale. 
    
    
• Problem/solution brands: 
  • Tell stories of the everyday people that you help.  
  • Demonstrate the product at work. 
  • Interview the founder of the brand. 
  • Attend an event where the product is in use. 
    
    
• Attitude/lifestyle - Ex: Faith-based fashion: 
  • Livestream at events that are relevant to the attitude / lifestyle (ex: Clothing is usually about an expression and extension of self. What music and cultural places are associated with this lifestyle?) 
  • Livestream at cultural places associated with this lifestyle. 
  • Create events that demonstrate why this lifestyle is unique. 

2. Offer an incentive: 

A limited-time-only call to action at the end of the livestream.  A promo code, contest, sale, or gift with purchase. This will create customers immediately and you will be able to track sales as a direct result of your efforts for further optimization down the road. 

3. Drive people to an opt-in offer via email:

Offer a gift or guide that is redeemed only on a landing page in exchange for their name and email. 

Email sequences can contribute 30-50% of your revenue. Remember: This isn't just about one-time customers - you want lifelong relationships, and email addresses are crucial to repeat relationships.  

4. Promote this livestream in advance.

Send a schedule announcement to your email list, post to your social media profiles, run ads announcing the stream, and create an event on your website and social profiles. This will help generate an interested audience prior to your livestream. 

5. Use the livestream for interaction - not just broadcasting.

Create a way for your viewers to interact with you: The opportunity to answer fan questions, voting by reaction or comment for a particular outcome (for the subjects in the video to do). 

6. Make your livestreams between 15 - 20 minutes long.

BuzzSumo analyzed 100 million videos and found this was the ideal time for an engaged audience. 

7. Repurpose clips and snippets of your recorded livestream.

Take snippets of your recorded livestream (1-3 minutes), edit them, repost them on different social outlets, and use them to continue to promote your offer and add value to your audience.

This will create customers from viewers who may watch the livestream after it is recorded and will continue to create engagement on your social profiles. 

8. Create these retargeting audiences from this video.

Use them for your middle of funnel and bottom of funnel retargeting sequences: 

• 3 seconds video view
• 10 seconds video view  
• 25% video view
• 50% video view
• 75% video view 
• 95% video view 

9. Run Black Friday Cyber Monday offers to your retargeting offers. 

Don't wait until November 1 or 15 to start running ads. Start generating audiences now so that when you are ready to advertise, you are poised to make a max return on your spends. 


Want to scale your revenue this holiday? 

We regularly help eCommerce clients go to the next level through our Facebook / Instagram Ads, email sequences, and landing page optimization. 

Request a free strategy session here: www.simplyheavendesign.com/ecommerce