Live video is one of the most effective tools that marketers can use to reach and engage audiences. It allows businesses to address large numbers of customers at the same time. You are able to demonstrate products, and to make offers, but also to answer questions and quash objections. Here are some of the biggest mistakes made by live broadcasters.
Whether the broadcast is made on Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other platform, it’s a hugely valuable and unique way to turn leads into customers. Your listens and customers become your loyal fans. Because live video is new, it’s also easy to get wrong.
Here are four mistakes that live broadcasters often make and how to correct them.
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Not Broadcasting at a Regular Time
Live videos are a lot like television shows, and like television shows, they need to go out when people expect them. When you broadcast at the same time each week, your audience knows when to find you and when they can ask you questions. Watching the broadcasts becomes a part of their routine that they don’t want to break.
Change the hour, or broadcast only when you feel like it, and they’ll miss those videos—and missing videos will become part of their routine. Use your stats to identify the time when the most significant numbers of your users are online. Trail the broadcast in the days and hours leading up to the video. Talk about it in your newsletters and content to encourage people to see the next one. And make regular broadcasts part of your routine.
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Not Preparing Content in Advance
Live videos allow for audience participation. Viewers can ask questions in the comments, and the broadcaster can answer them in real-time. That can turn live videos into live AMAs, which are fun and valuable. But you can’t depend on people asking good questions that interest other viewers. If you don’t receive any questions at all or if the only questions you receive are about specific orders instead of general product benefits you won’t be providing good content.
Instead of handing control of the content to your viewers, prepare content in advance. Show how to use your product. Talk through changes you’re making to the next model. Discuss a feature that people often overlook. And as you’re talking, take questions. That will keep the audience participation but still ensure that you’re giving valuable content.
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Failing to Greet or Interact with Viewers
If one mistake is depending entirely on audience interaction, another mistake is to ignore audience interaction. The audience’s ability to contact a broadcaster is too vast a benefit to ignore. No other service—even live television—has anything like this.
Even call-in radio depends on a producer who chooses which questions to put through. During a live broadcast, audiences can talk to the broadcaster and each other. Tools like Be.live make it easy to bring viewers into the conversation. It’s a unique advantage, and it’s a mistake not to make the most of it.
Greet audience members by name as you see them log in. Encourage them to ask questions. And as you see the same names returning time after time, bring them into the conversation. They’re your most loyal fans, and they’ll bring others with them.
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Not Ending with a Call to Action
A live video is usually about branding, audience engagement, or content management, so live broadcasters often ignore the call to action. They’re happy enough to pull their audience closer and building a connection. But your audience should know where to go and what to do next.
Always leave your audience with something to do when the broadcast ends. That doesn’t have to be placing an order—although it could be this action. You could ask your audience to please copy what you did in your product demonstration.
You could ask the listeners to send in their own pictures. Or request your followers tune in next week at the same time. Stay in your audience’s minds even when you’re not broadcasting.
