Entrepreneurs promote their brands in different forms on the various social media platforms. These platforms have evolved and brought forth other features that lend themselves well to brand marketing.
Facebook, in particular, has created a live video streaming feature to encourage engagement on its platform. Businesses haven’t been caught napping. Several marketing teams have taken advantage of this feature, catapulting their brands into successful territory.
In this article, we’ll take you through the different ways you can use Facebook’s live video to grow your dropshipping business.
What kind of content can you include on your Facebook Live?
To get viewers to interact with you and your brand, it’s simply not enough to offer generic, bland content. You need to come up with engaging content that will keep your viewers coming back for more.
In other words, your content needs to be something your viewers are excited about. It needs to compel your audience to pencil you in their schedule.
Here are a few ideas you can use to create in-demand content that can boost growth using Facebook Live on your brand’s channel.
Create a weekly show
Remember back in the day when you used to tune in for your favourite show on TV. Remember how excited you were, how you had been anticipating this new episode.
You can stir up that same excitement in your viewers with a weekly or biweekly live stream.
You can go the motivational route or use humour in a one-person show.
Let’s take the motivational route. Many people come to social media, looking for motivation. Yours can be the brand that instils strength and resilience. In other words, you can motivate and encourage your viewers.
This is particularly effective if you’re dropshipping sports gear and equipment. The people that buy your products might need the motivation to go to the gym and work out.
Have a guest on your Facebook live stream
This is another excellent way to market your dropshipping business as your viewers can see your products in a guest’s hands.
For example, if you have a makeup line, you can do a live demonstration. You can show the different tips and tricks viewers can use to get the most out of their makeup.
If you sell workout gear, you can do weekly live workout sessions with guest fitness experts using your equipment.
It’s important to remember that your content at this stage has to provide value. The only way to boost your dropshipping business is to show your viewers how valuable the products you sell are.
You have to give a little free value, in the form of tutorials and free workouts, to market your dropshipping business.
Run a contest
In your live stream, you can make it a competition, and the people that win get some of your products for free, or even cash.
You can also have a challenge where different viewers have to participate.
Going back to fitness, you can have your viewers post before and after photos showing their progress with their fitness goals.
Announcements
Facebook Live is a great way to provide brand news to your audience. The live aspect makes it seem genuine; like your followers are getting the information in real-time.
For instance, if you’re partnering up with another brand, you can run a live video showing the moment when this partnership comes to fruition. Your audience will be thrilled for being let in on the moment.
Behind the scenes
Audiences love having a peek behind the curtain. You can have spontaneous live videos where you show your team day-to-day activities.
For instance, you can show how the product journey from the warehouse, being packaged and being shipped off.
These little moments foster a closer relationship between the audience and the brand.
How to get the most out of your live video
Now that you know some of the kinds of content to run on your Facebook Live, you need to make sure that your brand benefits from them.
Here are some tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your Facebook live stream video.
1. Make sure to test your video
Nothing screams unprofessional like a live video that’s all over the place. We’re not saying that it should be fully scripted and rigid, but there should be some structure to your live video.
Therefore, you need to test your live video capability before actually rolling out in front of your virtual audience.
You can do a trial run of the live stream to ensure that when you do the real thing, it’ll go smoothly. Use the “only me” setting of your live stream.
This will show you how you look from different angles. It’ll also show if your internet connection returns a clear enough video quality for your audience.
Generally, you can’t go wrong with testing. You’ll always find something you can alter to make your live video session better for your audience.
2. Make sure to introduce yourself during the live stream
Individuals will log on at different times while you’re doing the live stream. A good portion of these people might be new and unfamiliar with who you are and what you do.
Therefore, you should periodically introduce yourself and what your brand is about. Additionally, you should always highlight the video’s purpose so that the entire audience is on the same page.
This shows your audience that you care about all of them, and are not just out there to bang out a quick video for live video’s sake.
3. Be on the live stream for at least ten minutes
Once you go live, you’ll start to show up in other people’s feeds; you need to give people a bit of time to join in. Otherwise, you’ll get to the meat of your presentation before you have a significant audience to receive the message.
So, you can be on for ten minutes greeting people while they join, before jumping into it.
4. Engage with comments
It would help if you interacted with the people in the live stream. When someone comments, call them out and say their name.
Give shoutouts to people who are regulars on your live stream. Also, give random shoutouts to people who have just joined.
Beforehand, when promoting the live stream, you can call upon viewers to ask you questions during the session.
This promotes engagement. Additionally, it gives you the chance to strut your stuff; to show your audience that you know what you’re talking about.
5. Be visually engaging
A Facebook Live video doesn’t have to emulate a newscast. You should infuse some character into it by visually stimulating your audience. In other words, get them interested in what you’re offering.
Try moving around, don’t just stand in one spot. This shows spontaneity, dispelling the notion that you might have scripted the entire video.
For instance, if you’re doing a live stream workout, try an outdoor staging. This provides a more appealing backdrop to your video, a welcome change from the mundane in-gym setting.
Additionally, make sure to move the camera around so that the background is not static. The more visually engaging your live stream is, the more likely people are to stick around.
6. Be spontaneous
Even though you may have planned your content before the live stream, there might be some unplanned moments.
Let’s stick with our workout example. You might be working out, and your dog decides to make an appearance.
You need to embrace these unexpected moments as these moments allow your viewers to connect with you.
These moments of spontaneity expose the personality behind the brand.
7. Grow your following
Like we mentioned earlier, a significant section of your audience are newcomers to your brand channel. At various points during the broadcast, ask your new viewers to follow you so they can receive notifications for future live videos.
Furthermore, ask your viewers to like and share. This increases brand awareness, bringing in a larger audience for subsequent live sessions.
Moving forward
Facebook Live is an excellent tool for you to market and boost your dropshipping business. When done right, your content can attract a ton of new customers.
Get creative with the content type you offer. This will keep potential customers coming back for more, bringing along new prospects.
Mark B. Mugaanyi has spent the last 10 years crafting content on a variety of topics including eCommerce, health, auto, technology and startups. Away from pounding on the QWERTY, he enjoys getting engrossed in a thick tome or getting first downs on Madden. To learn more about Mark’s freelance writing services, reach out here.
