Will live streaming become a standard for brand marketing?

The start of 2020 may not be so good, especially for traditional offline enterprises. It is a disaster but also an opportunity.

According to Caijing.com, major brands are all using live streaming to sell goods. Liuliumei bucked the trend and grew 264% year-on-year through live streaming marketing. Mengjie Home Textiles' Tmall store sales increased 11% year-on-year. COFCO Fortune attracts 9,000 new customers every day through Taobao live streaming and other activities.

In fact, a large number of brands have achieved rapid growth during the epidemic through live streaming.

1. What exactly is live streaming marketing?

The so-called live marketing, as the name suggests, refers to the method of producing and broadcasting programs simultaneously with the occurrence and development of events on site. Live streaming marketing usually uses live streaming platforms as a carrier, which can help companies achieve brand enhancement or increase product sales.

Simply put, it is to use the new media live broadcast method, relying on the traffic of anchors and platforms to expose the brand to more people and sell it efficiently.

I also checked the live broadcast index through Baidu Index, and it has been soaring recently.

According to data from Baidu Index, the search index for the word "live streaming" increased significantly after mid-January, even exceeding the level during the "Double Eleven" period last year.

Baidu Index for the term “live broadcast”

2. Why is live streaming so popular?

Why are brands flocking to live streaming to sell goods? On the one hand, offline business development is hindered, so they can only transform online. Profiting through online sales is the closest thing to money for them. On the other hand, everyone is staying at home, so where has their time and attention gone? Wherever there is traffic, there are opportunities.

A major principle of brand marketing is that marketing should occur wherever the users are.

According to the data on the market, there were 504 million online live streaming users in my country in 2019, and an estimated 526 million in 2020, with sales of 916 billion yuan, accounting for 8.7% of my country's online retail sales. This means that live streaming sales has a trillion-yuan market.

On the other hand, last year’s live broadcast rooms of top V celebrities such as Li Jiaqi and Viya had sales of tens of millions, which were sold out in an instant. How can we not look forward to such a sales scene?

Live streaming sales has emerged as a new marketing channel, which is a powerful supplement and downgrade to the traditional marketing model.

In addition, the live broadcast platform and system architecture are improved, various live broadcast tools have emerged, and almost all major new media tools have opened live broadcast functions. In addition to the traditional Taobao Live, Douyin, and Kuaishou, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Bilibili have all opened live broadcast functions. Shopping guide communities such as Xiaohongshu and Mogujie have already made many attempts in the live broadcast field. Even music products such as QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music are also focusing on live broadcasts.

3. Will live streaming become a standard feature of new media marketing?

Recently, I have also been giving live lectures, mainly to friends in my paid community. My biggest feeling is that live streaming can indeed greatly enhance fans' sense of belonging. Through the live streaming platform, brands can communicate with fans better, more closely, more efficiently and directly. Fans can also have a sense of participation, which can greatly improve fan stickiness and enhance the emotional connection between fans and brands.

For new media marketers, being able to live broadcast, understanding live broadcast, planning live broadcast marketing, creating live broadcast rooms, operating live broadcast content, planning live broadcast events, etc. may become the basic skills that everyone must have in the future. Only by personally getting involved can you experience the mystery of it.

For corporate brands, Weibo, WeChat and Douyin + live streaming will become the standard for new media marketing. In the future brand new media communication and operation, there will not only be graphic information represented by the "two Weibo" and short video information represented by "Douyin and Kuaishou", but live streaming content operation will also become the standard for enterprises.

Live streaming marketing will also become standard for every product marketing. Live streaming, as an excellent means of communication, will gradually rise to a higher level of marketing.

The core value of live streaming lies in its ability to attract attention.

4. What are the problems facing corporate brand live streaming?

After watching a large number of corporate live broadcasts, I found that "there are no suitable anchors, awkward chats in the live broadcast room, no popularity, low conversion rate, inconsistent content, and low quality" are the biggest problems facing corporate live broadcasts. This is normal, because live broadcasting is still a new thing for many companies and there is a growth process.

At the current stage, live streaming e-commerce is indeed difficult to help brands achieve premium, and it is more about achieving efficient sales conversion.

To really do live broadcasting well, you need extremely high frequency and high-intensity investment. Experienced anchors are very scarce in the new media industry. Those who are good at it can make enough money by doing it themselves, while inexperienced newbies need systematic training.

Many companies doing live streaming need to understand an essential issue. I have bought a lot of things in the live broadcast rooms of Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi. There is a very core point here that motivates me to pay. It is not because I like these two anchors, but because I can see their dedication to their fans and the products they recommend are truly high quality and low priced.

Cheap, big brand, good quality, limited quantity, and often sold out.

5. What are the ways to use live streaming marketing for enterprises?

Recently, too many companies have consulted about cooperation in live streaming to sell goods. In fact, the service providers in this area are still immature and there are good and bad ones. We are also in the exploratory stage. Through a large amount of data analysis and information research, we have found that there are several ways to play live streaming marketing for companies.

"Live streaming + e-commerce": E-commerce platforms have a large number of users and concentrated traffic, and the guidance of KOLs can better influence consumer output, with significant results.

One thing that makes KOL live streaming different from most of the current live streaming by internet celebrities is that it is carefully planned and professional or authoritative people are invited to host the live streaming. Unlike internet celebrities, these KOL hosts have a certain industry background and professional knowledge, and can share the knowledge that the audience needs during the live streaming. Their fans are not a mob, but a circle gathered together based on a certain point. This ensures that the live streaming is more watchable and interactive.

"Live broadcast + press conference": The live broadcast platform has become an important outlet for brands to promote new products into the market; the press conference is combined with e-commerce and other sales platforms to directly convert live broadcast traffic into cash.

"Live broadcast + interactive marketing": combine live broadcast with social platforms to attract traffic from social platforms to participate in online live broadcast activities; you can try online and offline cooperation to recruit fans to participate in the live broadcast in person to satisfy the public's curiosity.

“Live broadcast + content marketing”: Novel and novel content is the key to standing out in live broadcast marketing events.

"Live broadcast + advertising placement": subverting the deliberate methods of traditional advertising, promoting products and brands naturally in an interesting live broadcast scene with the viewers' intuitive comments and feelings.

"Live broadcast + personal IP": The live broadcast platform has become a powerful outlet for the "Internet celebrity" economy, providing a broader fan platform for "individual" "online anchors".

Every change in media form has triggered an innovation in marketing methods.

At present, live streaming marketing is still in an early bonus stage. In the live streaming era, the screen is the channel, the content is the shopping guide, and sales is entertainment. If a brand occupies the screen and has sufficient exposure opportunities and attention, it means that the brand has the upper hand in the sales war.

Author: Xiaohan Tang

Source: Tang Xiaohan