How Live Streaming has helped small businesses to grow?
Live streaming has become one of the most influential online marketing strategies and will check how it has helped small business to grow.
The numbers don't lie; live streaming has become one of the most influential online marketing strategies. Viewers engage 10 times better with live videos than a normal video content, and it should not come as a surprise that live streaming is poised to become a $70.5 billion industry by 2021.
Ever since the launch of Facebook Live, businesses have been using live videos to connect with their audience, which actually has turned out as a more unique and personalized medium.
Surprisingly, despite this utmost popularity, live streaming is also one of the most underutilized marketing tools. Many businesses, particularly the small businesses, seem to be quite uncertain about the impacts of live streaming in their existing marketing funnels.
Are you a small business looking to grow and generate interest among the target audience? Do you wonder if live videos can help?
The future of live streaming video is bright and you can definitely use it for your business growth. We are going to talk about the same in this article. Read on to know how live streaming can work in favour of your businesses. Why live streaming is so effective?
Live streaming is an efficient way to personalize your content for the audience. With a little effort and doing it the right way, you can easily stand out from all other posts or tweets, inviting audience attention and making a greater overall impression.
You can start streaming live from the social media platforms. You get live streaming features on all popular social media platforms; all of them offer valuable prospects for businesses of any scale. Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Instagram Live, or Twitter's Periscope, businesses have thrived in the recent years by streaming live on these platforms.
Moreover, if you seek a better quality and even better values to your customers, you can opt for a customized solution and stream live right from your website as well. Here are some obvious reasons why live streaming is so effective for small businesses.It is easy to get started
Unlike all other marketing tools, live streaming is inexpensive and easier to get started. All you need is a social media account and a camera or a smartphone with good camera. Streaming on social media platforms is as easy and most importantly, it's free. Every platform offers this easy to use interface and detailed instructions on how to start a live broadcast. All it takes is a tap of button to go live and reach your audience.
Take Facebook Live for Instance. Facebook Live lets you create a live broadcast of maximum 4 hours of mobile and 8 hours on computer in one go. For going live on Facebook via mobile app, all it's required are the following steps:
Facilitates real-time communication
While you are live broadcasting an event or offering a product demo, you can interact with your audience in real-time through live comments. You can also collaborate with your partners during the live stream to make sure all the comments are read and answered. For starters, you can address your viewers with their user names while replying to their comments. It will let them feel connected to your brand.Can integrate promotions and call to actions
At the end of your live stream, you can guide your audience towards some valuable actions. For example, you can add a link to your sign up page and direct your viewers to sign up or add an exclusive discount code to their first purchase. This way, you can encourage your viewers to use your services.
You can further explore live streaming on social media by embedding your streams on your website, which will direct social media traffic to your website. All social media platforms allow code embedding through iframes and others. You just have to simply copy and paste a small code snippet in your web page to embed your YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter live stream to your website. 
Another way, as mentioned earlier, is using an enterprise live streaming service provider's service to embed a custom-made broadcast solution to your website. They come handy when you want to broadcast with advanced features and controls. No geographical challenges
No matter what marketing tools you use, it's hard to reach a wide audience. This is where live streaming comes as a boon. It gives you the same engagement as a face-to-face meeting with your audience without any geographical limitations. With live videos, you can reach out to a broader range of audience in real-time regardless of their location. Having this ability comes handy for all kinds of small businesses selling products and services online. What should you stream live?
The first thing to acquire here is a powerful strategy with brilliant ideas for broadcasting live. You must learn how to broadcast from an engagement viewpoint. While there are several ways to encourage interactions, you must focus on the ways to boost business level engagements. Here are some of the tips to form a live video marketing plan to engage your customers.Show how your business functions
One great idea is to show how your business functions. If you are into selling products, show how you make these products, more like the process behind it. This way, you can invite people all over the world into your behind-the-scenes let them see the way it actually works. Doing this would create a personal connection and humanize your business. Giving an exclusive insight to your audience will evoke special connections and encourage them to choose you in the future. Q & A sessions
Another strategy is to live stream Q & A sessions with experts or your own employees. The live video format is perfect for interactive sessions. Especially, spreading brand and product awareness by interacting with your audience through questions and answers. The real-time connection with Q & A sessions allow your viewers to get expert opinions on their doubts. Eventually, it drives trust factor in your business among the audience. Product launch events
Videos are a great way to announce new products. Live videos are even better. They can ace up your sleeve and let you conduct a grand launch of your new product and services. Only Tip here is keeping the broadcast valuable, rather than just a promotional event. Offer value to your audience and share your expert opinions, this could be your secret sauce to building a powerful audience base online. Conclusion
The effectiveness of your live stream is completely dependent on how engaging is your broadcast. Before including live stream in your marketing strategy, make a study of other live streams from the same niche. Learn what they do well, and what is it that you miss. Analyse their strengths and weaknesses, and use the research as a base to begin your own live streaming plans.
In doing right, live streaming has the potential to become the most effective way to make your business distinctive. Play around with unique ideas and focus on making your live streams as engaging as possible to reap its full potential.
