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How To Use Facebook Live To Boost Website Conversions

Facebook’s live streaming service has reached 3.5 billion broadcasts and […]

facebook live guide

Facebook’s live streaming service has reached 3.5 billion broadcasts and has turned into a tool for marketers and business owners to grow their brands. 

Facebook boasts more than 1.5 billion daily users, and 74 percent of them log in daily. It’s a highly active channel you can use to drive traffic to your website and grow your business. Brands already have Facebook pages and groups that help them connect and interact with their following. Now, Facebook Live helps them further their social media marketing efforts and reach new heights.

Why use Facebook Live?

Facebook Live is profitable for several reasons. For one, it encourages engagement from users and makes it easy for them to interact with your brand. Live video increases interactions six times over regular video. Email marketing is the standard way to get in touch with brands. But when you see someone in front of you engaging with your questions and comments, it switches up the experience, making it fun and exciting for your followers.

Because live streams can’t go through editing, its raw footage makes the experience feel unique and personal. The pre-recorded video takes time to rehearse and create, but live video takes that pressure off. As a result, you provide a more honest look into your business and the processes behind it.

Facebook Live videos are cost-effective and don’t require a ton of funding to broadcast. You need the basic tools to shoot, but other than the equipment, you don’t need much. It saves your business from having to shell out a ton of cash to create video content that converts.

Along with encouraging engagement, Facebook Live is a goldmine for driving traffic wherever you want it to go. In this case, it’s your website. If you produce live streams that interest your target market, they’ll be back for more. It makes viewers want to check out your Facebook page where they’ll likely navigate to your website. During live streams, you can also link to your site to encourage traffic from viewers.

Now that we’ve gone over why you should use Facebook Live, let’s dive into the different ways you can use it to drive traffic to your website.

1. Promote your live stream

How is anyone supposed to attend your livestream if they don’t hear about it? People lead busy lives and need to know ahead of time what their plans are. So, it’s crucial to promote your live stream beforehand and do so through various channels.

To state the obvious, you need to promote your Facebook Live campaign on the platform itself, since this is where you’re hosting the live stream. Create reminder posts about your event and add visual content, such as images and videos, to boost engagement.  A hefty 51 percent of B2B marketers say they prioritize visual assets in their content marketing strategies because of its effectiveness, so don’t ignore this element.

If you have followers on your Facebook page, then they’re already invested in your brand and its content. Therefore, it should be easy for them to join your livestream once you promote it.

Create an email campaign for your live stream and outline the benefits of attending. Spread the message on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media your brand actively uses. Whatever outlets your audience is on, promote your live stream there.

2. Capture leads

There’s no point in hosting a live stream if you aren’t going to leverage the people watching you. For your website’s conversions to grow, you need to proactively collect user information to contact them later. So, it’s important to capture leads before, during, and even after your live stream.

If it’s difficult or irritating for users to hand over their information, you won’t collect as many leads. Make sure to use a responsive contact form that’s easy for users to fill out and doesn’t ask for more than their email address. As they move down the sales funnel, you can collect more information. Right now, it’s not necessary and could cause form abandonment by as much as 81 percent.

3. Host a webinar

If you teach your followers something new or give them valuable insight, that’s good enough reason to use Facebook Live. Webinars are online seminars similar to workshops, lectures, and presentations. They give viewers inside scoop, pointers, and tips on a specific subject.

When you use webinars as lead magnets, they aren’t streamed in real-time. You can spice things up and make the experience more interesting by hosting a webinar on Facebook Live. It’s a fun way to host a class, teach your audience about something they’re genuinely interested in, and gain feedback. If people enjoy it, they’ll revisit your website to engage with more of your content.

Make sure there are enough people to attend your webinar so you don’t end up with only two audience members and no engagement. It’s crucial to ensure you have a healthy number of attendees so you don’t put all your efforts into a couple of viewers. Save yourself a headache and have attendees fill out a user registration form beforehand. That way, you have a ballpark figure of how many people will show up and, therefore, how many conversions you can expect.

4. Run a Q&A

Livestreaming offers a more intimate, personal setting between brands and their audiences because it feels like a one-on-one conversation. Research shows that 84 percent of customers consider being treated like a person, rather than a number, is vital to winning their business. It’s one of many ways live streams bring businesses and consumers closer together.

You can leverage this closeness by running a question-and-answer session on Facebook Live. Users submit questions beforehand and you answer them during the live stream. Like the webinar, you can have users submit their information before attending so you know what volume of viewers to expect. During the live stream, link to your website to drive traffic and engagement there.

Sephora ran a live Q&A on Facebook Live to answer customers’ questions and promote their products:

For the live stream to run smoothly, review and organize the questions beforehand to avoid awkward pauses. This makes your brand look messy and unprofessional.

You don’t want your Q&A to sound rehearsed, but you don’t want it to flop either. Your best bet is to have a few practice rounds and pretend you’re speaking to your audience. If there are areas you fumble at, or questions you don’t know how to answer, now is the perfect time to prepare. 

5. Offer customer support

How customers feel about your business says everything about its performance and if it’ll succeed, which is why it’s essential to offer stellar customer support. Businesses normally use email, live chat, and phone services to tend to customer needs, but what if you could do so using live streaming? 

Facebook Live is an opportunity to connect with customers and soothe their pain points in real-time. There’s nothing more frustrating as a paying customer than to need support and not receive it. Perhaps that’s why 89 percent of consumers switch to a competitor after receiving poor customer service.

Target used Facebook Live to answer customers’ questions and lead them to relevant content:

Being there for your audience through a livestream is effective because it provides immediate support that feels more personal. 

To make the most of customer support through Facebook Live:

  • Respond to questions quickly
  • Stay calm, focused, and sincere
  • Speak with a smile and positive energy
  • Acknowledge brand errors and apologize sincerely
  • Offer tangible solutions  

6. Run a contest

Use the opportunity of being live in front of your audience to promote a contest your business is hosting. Everyone loves to win, especially when they know they’re receiving content or products they’re interested in. You can leverage that excitement to drive visitors to your website if they want to enter your contest.

It’s easier to build buzz when your audience can see your facial expressions and hear the excitement in your voice. Be clear and concise when discussing the rules. Post a link to your contest’s landing page in your Facebook Live description as well as in the comments. That way, traffic goes to your website while you collect entries and build brand awareness. 

Over to you

If your brand is considering using Facebook Live to increase its conversions and website traffic, it should start today. There are so many benefits that come with a Live campaign, including improved engagement and personalized interactions. As long as you know how to use it, you’ll see a spike in your website traffic in no time. How will you leverage Facebook Live to grow your brand?