Founder and CEO at EK Creative, the #1 Ad Agency for Live Selling.
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As e-commerce stocks seem to be falling, live selling or live shopping has consistently seen more investment pouring in. We know that investment does not equal profit, and no business survives without profit. So for all the capital flying into the space, it’s interesting to see how many people are still testing. No one seems to know what to do, but everyone seems to believe something will work.
That’s why I wanted to show you precisely what’s been working for us at EK Creative, where we specialize in working with the most successful live shopping brands in the U.S.
Let’s dive in! Here are some key ingredients to maximizing the profits on your live sales from a team that has managed over $300 million in revenue for live sellers.
Growing Audience Sizes
You’ll never be able to grow your live sales if you don’t have an existing audience of decent size or a growing audience (ideally, it’s both). That’s because the total viewers on your live will directly correlate to the total revenue of your live sale. The cost of doing a live will typically not increase as you have more viewers, so you’ll see revenue increase if you can grow your total viewers. People usually don’t buy into the live of someone they are just meeting. You have to build trust. Alternatively, if you have a good size to start but are not funneling in new users to watch your lives, your sales will eventually plateau.
Additionally, not everyone will buy something on every single live you do. If you have more viewers constantly coming in, it will help you avoid “burnout” on your live sales.
Authentic Engagement
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If you do it wrong, live shopping can cost you more money than it makes you in the long run. That’s because no one wants to watch someone on a live video that is awkward, uncomfortable and unengaged. Live selling is hard, especially at the start, and not everyone can do it. That’s why those who can are so valuable. What it boils down to is being authentic and engaging.
Which salesperson do you prefer: The one who is going to be telling jokes, having fun and feels like they are just being themselves and sharing their knowledge? Or would you rather buy from someone with no personality who is just literally going to read you the product description?
Exactly.
That’s why making sure you have an authentic and engaging host or talent is crucial to profitable live sales. Think about the example above where you feel like you didn’t even spend money because the experience was so great. It makes you want to share it with your family and friends. The same thing happens on social media and with live shopping. You start telling people about it.
When you have authentic and engaging lives, the viewers on the other end will engage, share and grow your page for/with you.
Pro-tip: Practice your lives first! You can test it right on the platforms, too, so you can get a feel for the tech and how to showcase your products.
Consistency
Live shopping is just as new to your users as it is to you. New things take time to get used to. I promise you’ll be more comfortable going live after you’ve done it a few times. The same thing happens to your customers. They honestly probably won’t buy anything on your first live. That’s okay! Not many of us pick up on things the first time. They need to be trained mentally to shop your lives but also literally. On the live, you need to tell them exactly how to buy over and over again.
Over time, as you go live more and more consistently, it will become natural for your users to shop those sales. As you do more “new drops” via a big live sale, they will start to get trained to watch your lives. As you do more exclusive deals on your live sales, they learn that is where they can get the best deal. Soon, they will be purchasing all the time, and you’ll love going live, but to get to that point, you have to be consistent.
Promoting Strategically
Okay, so your audience sizes are in a good place, you’ve practiced, your lives are authentic and engaging, and you feel ready to go! You’re missing one key ingredient. You need to make sure people know about it and show up. Nothing can provide the results like a little paid-to-spend, email, SMS and in-app notifications. One of our favorites is running ads that say, “We’re live now!” scheduled during the actual live sale.
A few others include:
• Pushing event campaigns and RSVPs in advance.
• Running sponsored messages.
• Boosting your lives while they are live.
I also love to work in email/text sequences that promote the sale before and after. These can show users sneak peeks of what you’re going to feature, educate them around the time of the event or your next sale, and show them exactly how to buy (training) them to shop. All of these and more are proven methods of strategically promoting your live.
Not sure how much to budget? I suggest starting with how much in inventory you want to sell on a sale. Set a realistic goal and take a percentage of that total dollar value you wish to sell and use it to promote that individual sale before and after. You’ll never have a 100K live if you only put $100 in spend toward that live. I recommend this spend-per-sale method paired with a consistent ad budget that ensures those growing audiences.
From a brand with a seven-figure ad budget to someone just starting their store, follow these tips to make your live sales become as profitable as possible.
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Author: Ethan Kramer, Forbes Councils Member
