Creating video content and generating an email list are two of the most effective ways to promote your business. While most marketers already use these two methods, not everyone knows how to utilize these two tools together as one strong strategy.
One of the most popular and proven forms of video content is live streaming, an audio or video broadcast released in real-time. A study published by Grand View Research projects that the video streaming market will hit 184.3 billion by 2027.
Live streaming helps give your brand a human face and gives your audience a look into who they’re going to transact with. Here’s how you can use live streaming to grow your email list:
Identify your target audience
Before hitting “Go Live”, it’s important to ask yourself: Who am I streaming for?
A successful marketing campaign begins with a clear vision of your ideal customer or what marketers call an audience persona. You can get that data from your CRM software, or by analyzing lists of previous users.
When you’re creating an audience persona, you’ll need to consider this information:
- Demographics (age, gender, location, etc.)
- Financial capacity
- Personality/preferences
- Reason for needing your product/service & pain points
- What they can gain from their purchase
The bulk of your marketing strategy, from word choices to colors and visuals, should all be influenced by your audience persona. Customers should be able to trust both you and your product during your live stream.
The first step to building this trust is by relating to them and showing them that you understand their needs and speak their language.
Create a lead magnet
A lead magnet is an item or service that you give away in exchange for a person’s email address or contact details. Most people would rather keep their contact details private, but once you give them something of value, you might just convince them to give you their email address.
You can promote that lead magnet during your live videos. Infusionsoft, for example, did just that during a live Q&A on marketing by promoting their free guides for small businesses.
They also posted links to the lead magnets in the comments section. Those links led to landing pages where viewers submitted their email addresses to access the resources.
Source: Keap
You don’t have to always give free ebooks and guides. Other great lead magnet ideas are free trial subscriptions, discount vouchers, rewards, free consultations, or a free copy of a newsletter, depending on your business.
This approach is so effective that you’ll need an email finder to verify all the email addresses you get. Most email finder tools allow you to do bulk verification, which saves you a lot of time and effort.
Offer Quality Content
Your competitors are probably thinking of live streaming, if they’re not already live. What will set your live streams apart? You don’t want to be known for grainy video and choppy audio.
High-definition visuals are crucial to live streams. A report by web development company Go-Globe found that 67% of viewers prioritize quality when watching a live stream.
Content quality doesn’t just refer to the technical aspect of the video. It refers to the video content as well. It has to be engaging and compelling for it to bring value to your campaign.
(Source: Hootsuite Official LinkedIn Page)
A great example of good quality live stream content is Hootsuite’s LinkedIn Live with Google My Business. The video features the head of Google My Business Strategic Partnerships, Meagan Tanner. Megan answers questions about the many ways brands can optimize their Google My Business listings.
The live stream was a great way to entertain and educate and sell to potential users of the listing service.
The aim of live streams is not just to add to your email list, but also to position yourself as a credible source of information. If your content is consistently informative and high-quality, people will look forward to your live streams and will be more willing to give you their email addresses in exchange for more quality insight from your business.
Use a strong CTA
To get your live stream viewers to give you their email addresses, you don’t just need a good lead magnet. You need a strong call-to-action (CTA), too.
That CTA should be aligned with what you’re offering to your audience. For example, if you’re offering an ebook, a good CTA could be “Get our ebook for free”. If you’re offering a free email marketing template, a good CTA could be “Download our free email marketing template”.
The most effective CTAs create a sense of urgency and inspire your audience to do your desired action. At the same time, it should also be easy to understand and follow. Here are a few common yet effective CTAs you can use in your lead magnet:
- Watch for free
- Subscribe for more videos
- Don’t miss out on our latest videos
- Watch more awesome content
You’d have to strategically mention your CTA in both the live stream and in the video description once your live stream is on. You can also post your CTA in the live chat if that functionality is available in your streaming platform.
Promote your live stream
Strategic planning and quality content will get you nowhere if your target market doesn’t know about your live stream. Promoting your live stream will make your potential audience aware that something big is coming soon. This will help create anticipation and increase awareness of your brand.
(Source: Microsoft Official Facebook Page)
If you plan to do go live on Facebook, you can easily promote it on your Facebook page. However, you need to promote it more than once to maximize your audience’s awareness. The length and frequency of your promotional campaign will depend on the type of product you’re promoting through your stream.
A good plan is to always schedule your live broadcasts at least 7 days out so that you have a specific “get a reminder” link that you can share across social media and via your email list.
The idea is to build anticipation for your live broadcast. So, when that day comes, you can be assured of many viewers.
Repurpose live stream highlights
The promotional process does not only happen before and during the broadcast. You can continue promoting your live stream after it’s been broadcasted. Why would you want to do that? To get more emails, of course.
Here are a few ways you can repurpose your live stream:
- Download the video of your live stream and offer it as an online course. You may also re-post it on other platforms
- Create Instagram and Facebook stories that feature highlights from your live stream
- Identify quotable quotes from your live stream and post them as tweets or graphic content
- Create a mash-up of your live stream highlights and repost them as a new video
- Release audio from your live streams as podcasts
A lot of production and marketing efforts go into one live stream, so you should get the most out of the material. That will help you continue generating leads even after the broadcast.
In closing
Live streaming doesn’t just help you promote your brand. It helps you grow your email list, too. An email list is critical to your marketing efforts, and therefore, to your business’ success.
In this article, I shared with you the steps you need to follow to grow your email list through live streaming. For your live stream campaign to be effective, you need to have a clear understanding of your audience. You also need to give them the most value. Use a strong CTA, then promote your live stream. Don’t forget to repurpose your live stream highlights either.
If done right, you can get those quality email addresses that can potentially convert into sales. Your business will then be on its way to success.
This article was written and contributed by Owen Baker.
Owen Baker is a content marketer for Voila Norbert, an online email verification tool. He has spent most of the last decade working online for a range of marketing companies. When he’s not busy writing, you can find him in the kitchen mastering new dishes.
