How to use Live Streaming to promote your e-commerce business

Brian Mechem, COO & Co-Founder, Grin, Inc shares a detailed strategy of using Live Streaming Marketing for e-commerce businesses.

The ecommerce industry is booming. In 2017, global ecommerce sales amounted to $2.3 trillion. But even though it sounds like a profitable sector, there’s huge competition in this industry.

The good news is that there are many ways you can promote your ecommerce business to gain more exposure. And one of those is live streaming.

Live videos were launched on YouTube in 2008, then on Facebook in 2016, and later on Instagram. Even Twitter plans to introduce a feature that leverages live videos soon.

You may be wondering why live streaming is so popular. It’s because videos are able to convey information like no other form of media. And live videos give viewers an opportunity to interact with the video while it streams. This makes viewers feel more involved.

A study by Brandlive found that 95% of marketers plan to incorporate live videos into their marketing strategies in 2018.

Here are a few ways you can use live streaming to your advantage to promote your ecommerce business.

1. Introduce New Products

You can use live streaming to launch and introduce new products. In fact, many brands are already using this strategy to launch their products. You could use Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram to do this.

The videos don’t necessarily need to be long. You can create short videos of a few minutes in duration and show off your products to your audience. The best part about live streaming is that it gives a more personal touch to your message. This makes it more likely for your audience to remember your product and brand.

Brands like OnePlus have used live streaming to launch their products with great success.

Image via Facebook

2. Create How-To Videos

A great way to promote an ecommerce businesses through live streaming is to create how-to videos. While tutorials are a great form of content marketing, live how-to videos are even better.

Image via Facebook

Martha Stewart uses live videos to showcase tutorials and how-to videos. In the above video, she demonstrates how to prepare outdoor decorations for the holidays. While doing so, she showcases some of the products from her Holiday Collections.

With live videos, you can address any questions that people may have in real-time and resolve them while you teach. Additionally, the video remains online even after the live streaming is over. This gives other viewers a chance to see the video later along with the answers to some common questions.

3. Demonstrate Your Products

Another cool way to promote your ecommerce business is to demonstrate your products using live videos. This is something you should be doing anyway so that your audience gets better acquainted with your product.

Image via Facebook

Tastemade used Facebook Live for a live demo of their products. If you demonstrate your products in a live video, your audience is likely to be more excited and engaged. Additionally, your viewers can ask their questions and learn about your products easily.

4. Arrange Q&A Sessions

Q&A sessions give consumers the opportunity to directly interact with your brand. This gives your brand a more human touch. This also proves to be one of the easiest ways to answer questions.

Image via Facebook

Sephora had Jen Atkin and Christophe Robin Paris talk about beauty products in a live video for half an hour. Viewers could ask questions throughout the video.

The best part about Q&A sessions is that you don’t need to spend a lot of time on them. While it may be time-consuming to reply to emails with questions, the process is much faster with live streaming.

Not only will you be able to address consumer questions, but you will also be able to build stronger relationships with them.

5. Build Your Brand

As live streaming is a more direct form of communication with your audience, you can use it for brand building. You could give people a sneak-peek behind the curtains and introduce your team to them.

You could even show them how hard your team works to make sure that customers get great products. Not only does this build your brand’s image but also creates a lasting bond.

You could even attract new customers using this strategy. They will get to learn a lot more about your business through these short live-streamed videos.

6. Leverage Influencer Marketing

You could combine the power of live videos with that of influencer marketing to promote your ecommerce business. For this, you can collaborate with influencers who have a loyal fan-following on the internet.

A study by Google found that 70% of teen viewers on YouTube are more influenced by influencers rather than celebrities.

Image via Google

You could ask influencers to create live videos that feature your brand and products. The videos could be about reviews of your products or even a product demo. This can catch the attention of their followers. Also, when people notice that an influencer uses your products, they will trust your brand even more.

You can also share live videos from influencers on your social media accounts. This will help to garner the attention of both your audience and the influencer’s audience.

It’s not easy to find relevant and reliable influencers. But you can use influencer marketing platforms like Grin to make your life easier. It has a huge database of influencers across various locations, platforms, and niches.

You can easily get verified contact information of these influencers and get in touch with them. Through the platform, you can track their content, calculate your ROI, and even ship them your products.

7. Create Webinars

Even if you have a B2B ecommerce business, you can still use live streaming to your advantage. You could use live streaming to set up online webinars or courses with educational content.

Live streaming gives you a great opportunity to create an online classroom environment. Your audience can easily connect with you and ask their questions in real-time. You can even reach a wider audience if you use social media for this.

Conclusion

Promoting an ecommerce business may seem like a difficult task, but live streaming can make it easier. With three major social media networks - Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, you can promote your brand easily.

Have you tried any of the methods mentioned above to promote your ecommerce business? If so, let us know about your experience. If you have any questions, let us know and we’ll do our best to resolve them.

Brian Mechem, COO & Co-Founder, Grin, Inc, an influencer marketing software based out of Sacramento, California shares his two bits on leveraging Live Streaming Marketing for e commerce businesses.