Why do today's manufacturers need to know how to do livestream?

Livestream is one of the latest go-to methods for manufacturers to advertise their products. Whether for creating a tutorial or hosting a live event, video creation¹ is a perfect option for businesses. Live video, in short, is an inviting method of broadcast that attracts the audience's attention.

Moreover, video creation does not only help improve your sales, but also helps build your business brand. Companies can present meaningful, attention-grabbing content to consumers and make a stable brand connection with less time and cost by using a live video.

In other words, social media serves as a medium to directly send the content of the video to the viewers' screens, thereby bringing about the rise of live stream marketing.

A livestream might first look like it is more beneficial for journalists compared to manufacturers. However, several aspects match a digital marketing strategy.

How live streaming works

Live streaming is simply a method used to broadcast your activities to an online audience. It is a digital marketing strategy similar to selling tickets to an in-person occasion that allows you to interact with viewers far and wide using live video.

Manufacturers use live streaming for various reasons. Yet, based on Brandline survey², 74% of the manufacturers use it as a means of interacting with their consumer base. Therefore, rather than being behind the scene, you are allowing viewers to put a face(s) to your company's name in real-time.

Likewise, live streaming is suitable for several other types of events. For instance, the White House has live videos of runway shows, cooking demos, and economy briefings from fashion houses to chefs.

5 reasons you should livestream

You may be wondering, why would my business need to go live? After all, live video is at times complicated and risky. So it is understandable if there is a doubt. A business livestream may not seem like a reliable option, but it is beneficial.

In other words, live streaming is an essential method of marketing that interacts with viewers all over the world. And not based on your company's size, live streaming provides numerous benefits for your businesses.

Here are five reasons for live streaming:

1. Live video helps create real engagement

The content created through live streaming is often relatively different. Every minute of the live video is current, unusual, and outstanding. Furthermore, live streams' uncertain and unexpected nature attracts more attention and entices viewers to react to the content, be it a share, line, or comment. As a result, the world of livestream begins to trend, and new viewers join in to make your business grow.

Also, live video permits real time interaction, which generates a chance for you and your viewers to communicate instantly with each other. This interaction assists in creating an excellent relationship between your company and the client base. For instance, Alibaba reported 37% growth in quarterly earning, attributing the success to livestreaming with cloud computing offering.³

In addition, the audience retention rate of live video content is much higher than video-on-demand (VOD) content. On most occasions, people view live streams ten times longer compared to VOD content. In this day of continuous competition for customer attention, a significant rise in the time spent interacting with your content is relatively substantial.

2. Live streaming helps you interact with your viewers

Live streaming is an excellent testing ground for marketing strategies. Meaning you can evaluate an idea based on feedback, viewership, and engagement. Besides, there is not much effort or time required to make perfect live video content.

Live streaming can similarly assist you in accumulating excellent ideas from your viewers. Therefore, this explains the concept of feedback that comes with live streaming.

During a live video, you can receive accurate evaluations about your services and products and requests for coming items. Some of them may not be successful, but a few may be worth it.

3. A live stream can help you create trust toward your brand

Creating refined, highly edited live video is very complicated. But viewers are aware of this aspect. In fact, for several consumers, this uncertain, endless, unedited process of video brings a specific attraction as it genuinely shows real time talent. This genuineness has a positive effect on the level of trust toward the business brand.

Furthermore, with more increase in trust, your business gains more reputation in your industry. Therefore, if you share your skill live constantly, you can expect customers to return for more information.

4. A live stream can increase brand awareness and change your employees into stars.

Similar to how you project content, the company messages are also disseminated through live streams. Why live video differs from other kinds of content is that it is a very successful platform. The higher viewers’ retention rates and engagement with live streaming create more options for different video formats. There are other video formats, whether longer shows, short announcements, or something in the middle. Releasing more videos means attracting more attention to your brand.

It is essential to know that what viewers want to see is the real you during a livestream. Hiring external help is always an excellent idea for great live video content; using internal service seems good for live business streaming. Furthermore, as the audience likes seeing familiar hosts, these hosts turn into something similar to an idol.

Sure enough, via this method of creating on-screen personalities, the company also becomes more consumer-friendly. Viewers can put a face to a business, thereby personalizing it. A brand with a constant live stream is not just a giant firm, but a group of individuals you interact with. This similarly helps create a better connection with the viewers and improves brand loyalty.

5. Live video content is easier to create compared to polished VOD

Setting up, creating, and enduring a whole live streaming session may look discouraging. Nevertheless, it can be risky as several people are watching, and many things could go wrong. But, with time, creating live videos gets much more straightforward.

After knowing the fundamentals of live streaming, the method becomes more familiar. Having a stable studio arrangement makes everything much more accessible. After some time, the most challenging part becomes thinking up new ideas for the next episodes.

Lastly, an additional benefit of live streaming is that it doesn't need much capital after production. This reduces both the cost of production and time. In most cases, after finishing the live stream, it becomes video-on-demand content that you can re-edit and use.

5 tips for a great live stream

1. Choose your live stream platform carefully

There are more live streaming platforms available to broadcast live. The critical aspect is to agree on the target audience of your live stream.

If your goal is to reach a much broader audience, consider YouTube or Facebook. Is the content shared limited to paying consumers? There are chances to make the streaming platform more restricted by limiting permissions on the live video. You might as well choose a Zoom account, for instance, for password and access management.

In addition, you need to keep music copyright permissions in mind if you are using music in your video because copyrighted music gets flagged on streaming platforms, such as Facebook. In short, copyright is one of the major factors to consider.

The central aspect is to examine the characteristics of each streaming platform you choose and pick the perfect one. It might seem like a better idea to select several platforms simultaneously to get more viewers, but mastering a single platform before expanding is an ideal choice.

2. Choose your live stream format carefully.

There is an option between filming vertically or horizontally during a live event. Vertical camera angles allow the viewers to be up close and personal. In contrast, horizontal camera angles provide more space for interviews and show the surroundings in the video.

Moreover, there is a place and time for both. However, to look more professional, it is advisable to stick to one angle after deciding on the one you want. In addition, you can set up uniform guidelines on if / when to change the camera angles⁴.

3. Promote your live stream in advance

Ensure you promote your live stream some days in advance to your previous followers through social media and email. Because you won't have viewers if nobody is aware of your live video, so don't leave it up to opportunity.

Get ready for your promotion by compiling the preliminary information needed by your viewers in promoting your livestream:

• The time and day your live stream starts.
• They can access your Livestream - Provide a link to the streaming platform your live event will take place. For example, sharing the link to your profile is enough for Periscope (through Twitter), Twitch, or Instagram. People who visit at the stated time will see you live and can join in. If you use YouTube or Facebook, you can share the link to your live video in advance.
• They should expect from your live stream to provide the topics you will talk about and the visitors joining your video. Also, let viewers be aware that you will answer any questions asked by the audience.

4. Build a plan for engagement

Live streaming is successful because viewers want the chance to communicate with people behind the brand. They are excited about an opportunity to interact with you, and they will ask many questions. So, do your best to provide answers to the ones you can handle.

Organize yourself by expecting a few questions your viewers might ask in advance. Also, prepare a detailed answer to those questions and get ready to respond to new questions on the go. You can't often predict everything your viewers will wish to know.

Apart from answering questions, you can welcome your audience by saying their name as they join your live stream. Inquire about the location of the audience from the comments, and tell the place aloud. Talking about the area of your viewers and greeting them is an excellent way to start your broadcast.

5. Include a call-to-action (CTA)

What do you wish people who tune into your live video to do? Why are you doing your live event? Have a particular goal in mind, whether it is about interacting with you one-on-one, making a purchase, or investing in your cause. In short, this is your CTA, and you should refer to it often throughout your livestream.

Moreover, if you don't have a specific action in mind for your future live event, inform the audience about other ways to connect with you by subscribing to your newsletter or following you on social media⁵. Give them some helpful content by:

• Adding a link in your profile to a free download;
• A link to your email sign up page; or
• An informational video

Sell on Alibaba.com

Alibaba.com is a business-to-business eCommerce platform where manufacturers and suppliers come to make wholesale transactions. Furthermore, Alibaba.com releases a cloud-based lives treaming product made for internet shopping⁶. It permits the sellers to start a livestream shopping feature on their apps or websites hosted on Alibaba.com.

This method appears as Alibaba.com seeks to improve its cloud computing contribution, further seen as a significant profit driver.

Live stream shopping typically involves the host talking about goods or services consumers can directly buy through the live broadcast. It has gradually become extremely famous in China and is developing in other parts of the world.

In conclusion, you can visit the seller's platform to know more about how livestreaming can increase your sales.