Over the last few years, technological advancement has changed how business owners market their products and services. The popularity of strategies such as digital marketing has expanded exponentially over the last few years. It involves the utilization of several social platforms such as Instagram to connect with your target audience easily. People have been using Instagram for many years to share and connect with family and friends through pictures, videos, and direct messages. But after some time, businesses owners started to leverage this social media platform to connect with the target audience worldwide, increasing their customer base.
With over two billion users, Instagram (IG) creates an ideal platform for connecting and interacting with your customers through Instagram live and stories. Just like any other digital marketing strategy, you must equip yourself with the necessary know-how before implementing IG marketing in your business operations. This will guarantee you get the most from this social platform, improving your competitive advantage. To start with, this article will outline things you need to know about Instagram live sessions and how they can promote your brand, improving your profit margin. Read on.
What Is An Instagram Live?
As mentioned above, individuals previously used Instagram to connect with family and friends through pictures, videos, and direct messages. The major change was experienced when Instagram introduced a new feature, IG stories. This feature allows you to share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. Thus, you could update your followers about your daily activities, which you didn’t want to display on your profile.
Back in 2016, the company introduced another new feature, Instagram Live. This feature allows you to broadcast live videos to your audience. It allows anyone watching to comment and participate in real-time, displaying the face and personality behind the curation.
The feature was well-received by many users worldwide who started using it in several ways. Most of them utilized the feature to share travel videos, live experiences, and vlogs. Business owners were not left behind either. They learned how to leverage this feature to their advantage, improving their access to the target market. This is because millions of Instagram users watch live feeds every day; thus, utilizing this feature to grab the target audience’s attention will help gain traction for your business.
How Does Instagram Live Work?
Before discussing how Instagram live works, here’s a quick intro to features you can utilize to ensure you get the most from this functionality. They include:
Scheduling
This is one of the Instagram live features you can leverage to ensure the success of your broadcast. It allows you to schedule live broadcasts up to 90 days in advance. It also has reminders that alert your followers when you start your Instagram live.
Question Stickers
The feature allows you to gather questions from your followers on what they want to know in your upcoming Instagram Live. This will give you ample time to research the questions, meeting the users’ needs and expectations.
Add Guests
Do you want to conduct interviews or any other group session? Instagram Live allows you to add another guest into your broadcast, saving you from calling each guest individually. It allows you to add and feature up to three guests at a time, improving your efficiency.
Share Media Tool
This is another feature to improve customer experience during live broadcasts. The tool allows you to quickly share pictures and videos from your phone storage during Instagram Live. To avoid confusion, ensure all the product-related media are stored under one folder in your phone.
Comment Pinning
As a business owner, it’s your duty to ensure you make all the customers feel appreciated. With this feature, you can add and pin a comment to introduce yourself and your business. Thus, any new viewers joining your live broadcasts will not feel out of place, improving their experience with your brand.
Going live can be a simple task if you have been using Instagram. On the other hand, starting your first Instagram live can be challenging if you have never used this social media platform. However, your first step should be to create an Instagram account. While you can gain followers from scratch, you can also purchase an account from related brands or reputable sellers. The following is a step-by-step guide of how you can set up your Instagram Live.
Click the Plus Icon on the Top Right
After opening your profile or feed, tap the plus icon on the top right of your screen. This action will take you to a screen, where you can choose the type of content you want. The options may include:
- Post. This option allows you to share regular photos or videos. The media will appear on your profile, and anyone following (unless you have restricted your account) can view the post.
- Story. As mentioned above, this option allows you to share pictures and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
- Reels. This recording format allows you to create and share short and engaging videos with your target audience. Reels shared on the Instagram profile will not disappear after 24 hours.
- Live. This content format has already been discussed above. Choose this ‘Live’ option to start your live broadcasts.
Customize Your Instagram Live Setting
Before you start your live video, it’s crucial to go through your Instagram Live setting. Open the gear icon at the top left of your screen. Here you can choose to share your live videos only with a specific group of people. You can also choose whether you want to receive messages from everyone or only from your followers.
Go Live
Once you’re done customizing your setting, click ‘done.’ Next, choose ‘Start Live Video.’ The app will then test your internet connection and start a three-second countdown before starting your live broadcast. It’s important to understand that your live broadcast is limited to one hour, just like other social media live sessions.
End The Broadcast
Once you’re done interacting with your customers, tap the end button on the top-right section of your screen. After ending your live broadcast, you can access information such as how many people viewed your video. This will help you make important decisions, such as when to buy Instagram live video views to boost your profile. It’s important to purchase live viewers from reputable vendors to ensure you eliminate a growth period that can be a barrier to entry for many users.
Apart from accessing insights about your live video, Instagram also allows you to share the live broadcasts via IG stories. Thus, those who didn’t attend your live session can view the video for 24 hours.
What Tips Can You Use To Have A Successful Instagram Live?
The following are tips you can use to ensure you have a successful Instagram live. They include:
Promote Your Instagram Live
After scheduling your live broadcast, it’s crucial to promote it to reach a wider target audience. You can use several ways to promote your live broadcast, including IG stories. You can also post the same on other social media platforms to get the word out, increasing attendance.
Have A Purpose
Before starting your IG live, it’s crucial to set aims and purpose. Jumping into a live stream with no plan or objectives may increase your chances of failure, which might affect your brand’s reputation. To avoid this, ensure you set realistic, relevant, and specific goals. Conduct extensive research to identify the ideal goals for your next live broadcast to promote your business.
Engage Your Customers
Instagram live allows you to have a real-time engagement with your customers. Through this, you can develop a deeper understanding of your customers, ensuring you develop goods and services that meet their needs and expectations. Engaging also helps in developing brand trust as customers feel that your business cares about them. Avoid a one-way conversation with your customers. Instead, allow them to ask questions about your brand and answer accordingly.
How Can Instagram Live Promote Your Business?
Using Instagram live can improve your upper hand in this competitive marketplace. Here are some of the ways IG live may improve your competitive advantage:
It Increases Your Brand’s Visibility
People have been using the Instagram app to promote their products and services. Although you can use pictures and videos to promote your brand, it might not effectively market your business. This is because the post can get lost with all the other accounts your customers are following, affecting the efficiency of your marketing strategy.
Instagram live may help combat this issue by ensuring the customers can access your content. When you start your live broadcast, it’s placed at the front of your followers’ highlight reels. This means that when your customers open their profile, they can easily access your content, increasing visibility.
Another way IG live may improve your visibility is that it’s push-notification enabled. Thus, you can alert your target audience when you start your live broadcast. This will effectively catch customers’ attention, improving your cost per action (CPA), leading to higher revenue.
Instagram Live Improves Your Brand’s Authenticity
This is another way Instagram live might promote your business. It allows real-time communication and interaction of customers and brands. IG live provides an authentic communication channel with customers, unlike in-post feeds and stories.
Through live product demonstrations and reviews, you can easily connect with customers personally. This feature will allow you to present your products and ideas honestly as you can’t edit or pause a live stream. For example, if you’re dealing with makeup products, the customers can see the difference before and after using your makeup product. Thus, the customers will have enough background checks about your brand before making a purchase decision. Brand transparency will improve your reputation, leading to increased sales.
It Humanizes Your Brand
Thanks to the emergency of the eCommerce industry, most people are now conducting shopping from the comfort of their homes. While this has made it easier for businesses to access a wide customer base, human interaction has greatly reduced. Thus, the brands can utilize Instagram live to show off their human side.
There are several ways you can use IG live to humanize your brand. They include
- Conducting Q/A sessions – one of the features of Instagram live is questions stickers. With this feature, you can conduct question-and-answer sessions with your customers. Through this, you can answer any question your customers might have about your brand in real-time. Also, you can ask questions, for instance, about previous experience with your products, improving customer satisfaction.
- Stream a live tutorial – this is another way to humanize your brand, improving customer satisfaction. A live tutorial makes it easier for you to demonstrate the real-life application of your product or service. This will ensure the customers know how to use your products to meet their needs and expectations. Ensure you inform your clients that you’ll be hosting a live tutorial beforehand.
Better Customer Service
The primary goal of existing businesses is to provide quality services to their customers. You can easily learn more about your target audience through real-time communication and interaction. Accessing this crucial information will help you develop goods and services that meet customer needs and experience.
Thus, providing an effective communication channel will help in improving the customer experience. Lack of proper communication may force your customers to visit your rivals, reducing customer flow. With IG live, you can easily answer their questions about your brand or products, ensuring optimum customer experience.
Instagram Live Empowers Your Brand To Stand Out From Competition
More and more businesses have been using digital marketing to promote their products or services in recent years. Thus, it’ll help to take an extra step in your marketing strategy. You connect with customers personally with live streaming, improving your competitive advantage.
Also, incorporating new ideas such as interactive Q/A sessions will play a huge role in improving your upper hand. This will increase your brand reputation, leading to increased engagement.
It Creates A Sense Of Urgency
Notification can easily grab customers’ attention, even the small ones. IG live is push notification enabled; thus, your customers are notified as soon as you go live. Apart from creating a sense of urgency, this will ensure your target audience doesn’t miss out on your content.
Instagram Live for Brand Promotion – Bottom Line
As mentioned above, Instagram live has made it easier for businesses to connect with their target audience. Before starting your live session, ensure you prepare adequately, increasing the chances of a successful broadcast. Test your internet connection and streaming equipment to guarantee a seamless guest experience.