3 Tips In Starting Your First Facebook Live Sale

Facebook Live videos get six times more engagement than any other type of content. Initially, businesses use Facebook Live to connect and interact with their customers online. However, it has evolved as the main sales tool, especially in the retail industry. If you’re looking to boost your online sales, here are three tips for starting your first Facebook Live sales.

Be Prepared

Although Facebook live sales look easy and effortless, the truth is there’s a lot of planning needed behind the scenes to get everything going smoothly. While some people have the talent and skill to wing it, for the most part, you’ll want to prepare ahead of time. It’s still a lot easier than producing professional video content, and if you pay attention to these things you can work smart with less effort.

Decide on a Time and Date

Setting the time and date is important. Set it up as a Facebook event, so it shows up on the calendar.

You can also schedule your live stream ahead of time and broadcast it on your channel or page. A consistent weekly live broadcast will help you become more memorable to your potential clients.

Write a Compelling Description

Your event will show up in news feeds on Facebook. Use attention-grabbing copy that lets them know what your live will be about. It should be direct, actionable, informative, and just a little mysterious to pique their interest Emphasize value. Use these words:

• Affordable
• Elegant
• Limited Stock
• Free Shipping

Here’s a great example from Lularoe Links. It describes exactly what is happening, a brief call to action, and a value statement letting you know your business will help a charitable cause.

“Spring Cleaning Sale 🌸🌺🌷You Don’t Want to miss out on this!!! A Portion of the proceeds from this weekends sale will go to Autism Speaks.

Promote the Scheduled Live Sales

The worst thing that can happen is you talking to yourself without any viewers. Plan ahead and promote the live to your followers and get the word out on social media to maximize your viewership.

Set the Stage

Get a clean place where you can do your broadcast. Don’t stand against a window and blind your audience, face the window and let the light come in, or make sure your light source isn’t in the way.

Here are some practical lighting tips from BeLive’s own Olena Kovalova:

If you are doing the live at home, a little personal touch is okay but you’ll want to keep it presentable to a global audience and limit distractions both for yourself and for the audience.

Prepare Notes or an Outline

Have an outline with notes on what you are selling ready. You can have a cue board by the camera, or you can keep notes by you, whatever works to keep the show going smoothly. When you use BeLive, you can easily prepare your talking points ahead of time.

Have a Sign with Ordering Instructions

Prepare this to make it as easy as possible for customers to place orders. You’ll want order information in the event listing description, but having it written and ready in the video is even better.

With BeLive, you can upload a customized frame or overlay to include your branding as well as purchasing details. You won’t have to keep on repeating instructions because your audience will already see them on your screen.

Plan Giveaways

Set aside some free gift or giveaway to keep people excited. This also helps ensure people stay tuned for the entire event.

If you have a lot of people watching your Facebook live sale, try using bots to help you sort through the comments and make the giveaway easier for you!

Engage Your Audience

Live shopping lives and breathes on keeping the audience engaged. There is nothing more important for your brand and the longevity of your marketing campaign.

If you can keep viewers engaged, excited, and happy during your lives, they’ll be more likely to come back for your next event. Some may even recommend their friends to join in. Here are the things you need to keep in mind to be live sales rockstar:

Make It Personal

The key to this generation of viewers isn’t fancy video editing and design. It’s being authentic. Talk to people, show them the true you, and have two-way conversations.

Greet People Who Are Joining

Never underestimate the value of greeting people and talking to them as they join in. You don’t have to do it for everyone, especially if you have hundreds of viewers. But do your best to make them feel welcome to your live.

Respond to Your Audience in Real-Time

pay attention to things people are asking you on your feed. Try to respond to as many questions as you can, especially regarding the products you have.

You may even highlight some people’s comments during your live. This will encourage more viewers to engage more with you during the broadcast! Here’s a tutorial on how to display comments on-screen during your live show.

Ask Questions

You can also ask your viewers questions when they talk to you. This helps you build rapport, and it also gives you an idea of what your viewers want, which can help you plan future events.

The crawler and other on-screen updates in the BeLive studio helps encourage viewers to type in their questions during the live without you having to say it constantly. Here’s how to use the lower thirds effectively.

Give Context Regularly

Your live may last for a while, and it’s important to give context to people who might just be joining in. Things like, “We’re halfway through our summer clothing sale, our next item is…” help people who just joined get involved without feeling lost.

Remind Shoppers How to Buy

This is where the sign your prepared comes in handy. Flash it when it’s time to take orders and walk your viewers through it as well.

You can upload a photo or short video into your stream with the instructions written on it. People tend to respond better to visuals.

Always Have the Product or Products in Hand

This is a key point. You have to always keep the audience’s attention on whatever you’re promoting. The more they see it live in the feed, the more they’ll be interested in it and want to place an order. Show your product off in all its glory and discuss all the good points and value it offers.

Give Things Away

Periodically remind everyone that you’ll have giveaways at certain points; you can drive this through milestones or other behavior.

“The 20th order will get a free gift” or “The 100th comment in the feed will get a surprise from me!” are great ways to keep people engaged throughout the video.

Begin with the End in Mind

When the show is over, you’re not quite done. Remember that everything you did earlier is just in preparation for this. Your live should mainly be about two things:

• Getting people to buy your products.
•  Strengthening your brand by getting your message out.

Afterwards, you’ll want to finish up the orders and send out the items, but it’s also important to let your followers know what’s coming next.

There are a lot of things you need to finish up. The difference between a successful live seller and a not-so-successful one is in the follow-through after the live.

End with a Call to Action

What was it you wanted people to do? End your live with a call to action that connects with your brand. Whether that’s ordering things from your shop or tuning in to your next event, end with a call that lets you stay relevant to viewers after the live has ended.

Ask Customers to Share Your Content

This is a call to action you can do. Ask customers to post pictures of themselves with your products, and share your event for the next live.

However, don’t forget to repurpose your live stream on other platforms. If a few of your products don’t sell during your Facebook live sale, then cut the sections of those products and upload them on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media websites.

Setup a Bot for the Feed

To help you sort out the feed quickly, you can set up bots that pick up the orders in your feed and automate a lot of the work. Facebook has guides on how to do this in their documentation.

Collect Payment and Send out the Orders Once Received

You must ship out the item 3 days after payment is received, and the item has to reach the customer within 7 days.

Follow Up with Any Shoppers

If you had to park any questions from viewers or had some people request custom items be sure to follow up with them. This keeps your brand strong and your customers engaged.

Post Really Good Lives on Your Page

If the live didn’t go well, you can delete it, but if you had a good live be sure to pin it. It’ll help new followers get to know what you’re about, and shows the best side of your brand.

As with all things in life, you get better with practice. Things may or may not go well at first, but with practice, you’re sure to see success with your Facebook live sales. Keep at it, don’t be discouraged, and you will unlock the tremendous power of the platform for your brand.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on August 10, 2019, and has been reposted for updates.