It’s important to establish a real connection with your prospects and clients before they even consider working with you. Livestreaming takes this connection to a new level! But in order to overcome the initial resistance with showing up on live video and developing your unique livestreaming strategy that is simple to implement and delivers results, here are some ideas you can consider and start taking action today.
1. Prepare topic around your offer
Often my clients share that the biggest obstacle they have with consistent livestreaming is that they do not know what to talk about. In my experience, this reflects a lack of strategic thinking and forgetting to look at the bigger picture.
All our marketing content should serve the purpose of moving members of our audience from having no idea about what we offer in our business to a decision to work with us.
Therefore creating a bank of topics around the pillars of your signature method, framework or your program is key to creating clarity and evoking more interest, enquiries and help conversions. Using a platform like Trello can help you organise your topics into general lists and specific ideas, questions and tips you can share around each of them.
2. Create a mixture of various livestreams
Sometimes it is more convenient to create a special space where you feel good livestreaming. It could be your office where nobody can disturb you and you have everything set up for seamless livestreaming whenever you need to. While it is great to have a signature look on your videos, I strongly advise mixing it up with some videos you make on the go, outside or in a different part of your office.
It breaks the monotony of looking at the same arrangement all the time and the human brain loves and needs variety. Plus different livestreams will have a different feel. One that you do in your office will feel like an expert talk, while a quick one on your phone is like making a private call to a good client. This gives your audience a chance to experience you in various roles and develop more trust and connection to you as a person.
3. Say “Hi” to your live viewers
When you are livestreaming using your phone, you can often see the names of people who joined your livestream. It is a good idea to say hello and mention their name as you continue speaking on the topic you set off to deliver.
There is something special about hearing our names, even when we had no intention to engage. When you say hi, your viewers tend to comment more (especially if you ask them to let you know where they are watching from, for example).
But do not pause to wait for their answer – your goal is to create a flow in your video that will be just as engaging for replay viewers, so carry on talking, and say hi to those whose names you can see popping onto your screen
4. Questions & Comments
While the idea of going live is real-time interaction, often it is difficult to implement seamlessly into our broadcast as some platforms, for example, Facebook, have a slight delay between you saying something and your viewers seeing it. You must keep that in mind and consider that if you stop and wait for a response to a question you ask, it creates an awkward pause and definitely interrupts the flow.
So if you want to ask a question, continue talking about your topic for about half a minute and then take a deliberate pause to check the comments and reply. That will feel much better to watch on a replay because, by the time you start checking the comments, you are likely to have some to respond to.
I personally try not to expect comments if there is only a small number of live viewers, and they do not seem to engage with me already. I can still ask a question, but then I proceed with my topic and I reply to the comments after the video is over, in writing. If you do get some comments, make sure you read each out loud before responding to it, as the replay viewers may not understand what you are replying to.
Just always think about the flow of the video and the replay experience you are creating. Every live video will have an exponentially larger number of replay viewers than it has live ones.
5. Keep the conversation flowing after your lives
Understanding the laws of engagement is key to successfully use your livestreams for more visibility. One trick is to give some time before replying to comments on your livestream after the livestream is finished. Even if you replied to comments while livestreaming, always follow up and make a written reply to that comment afterwards.
But try and spread your replies, because every time you add a comment to a post, it helps bump the post higher in the Newsfeed and this means more people in your audience will see it. So instead of feeling the need to respond to everyone as soon as possible, savour it and reply sparingly with an hour or two break between replies.
This will ensure your video is floating around in the Newsfeed for longer. A pro tip is to inspire further discussions in your comments. The more replies a comment gets the better signals you are sending to the platform, indicating that you are creating very engaging content. Trust me, you will be rewarded for producing engaging content by getting even more visibility and reaching more members of your audience.
This is why focusing on keeping the conversation going for longer, with a delayed response, is key to increased visibility of your livestreams.
When you create a consistent connection to your audience, those who have a problem that you help solve and are seeking for someone like you to solve it will raise their hands faster will be less confused about what exactly you are offering, and come to you already pre-sold on working with you – which means fewer objections and much more conversions in your business!
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