5 Unexpected Ways to increase Live Video Sales

Disclaimer: I created this video and post ready to give you 5 unexpected ways to increase your live video sales, BUT I got so excited that it ended up being 7 ways! You're Welcome!

Making sales on Live Video used to be super easy simply because it was new and different. But some have noticed their numbers dropping or staying the same as it becomes more and more common. Well, not around here!

I've got lots of great tips below and I hope you are ready for those!

7 (not 5) Unexpected Ways to Increase Live Video Sales

Let’s Talk Bots for a Second

We ran into an issue with our bot recently, and I wanted to be transparent about it. I thought it would be a good idea to tell you all about it. We have a strict system where we get members of your community to confirm they want to be reminded of an upcoming event. We tend to push the limits, and I send two reminders. I may have taken it a little too far…

Every time we send out a message, something like “Want to see an increase in your sales with live video? We got you! RIGHT NOW!” When they click “Yes,” we have a template with a link to the video. We offer them the replay and the chance to click “No live reminders.” When we send the broadcast, it’s a non-promotional broadcast so we stay within Facebook’s compliance. What’s been happening is we’ve had some people in our community who don’t know how to read… 

So we got a warning from Facebook. Some people said they were receiving messages they didn’t ask for. We are super clear about the segmenting in our community even if we push the limit at times. As a result, we are pulling back on bot sending, and we are only sending reminders only if they asked for a specific reminder for a certain video. 40 people requested a specific reminder for today, so I am only sending the confirmed event reminder to those 40 people.

In the future, we will still be sending text messages, but we will make sure that every week, we get you to confirm that you want the reminder for that specific show that week so we stay in compliance. If you want to be reminded, just know that you want to pay attention to your emails from us.  

Tip #1-  Building Suspense 

In the video, I kept asking, “Do you want to know this first tip? Do you want to know? Let me know in the chat if you want to know. I won’t share this unless you want to know.” What I was doing was building suspense.

Essentially what I was doing was trying to emulate what I am going to share with you today. So while I presented opportunities to buy things, this wasn’t my main aim here. The main opportunity I discussed, as you can see throughout, is my upcoming content creation workshop which also offers awesome tips on increasing your live video sales.

Tell A Secret

Building suspense is all about the content, but it’s also about how you communicate. The first way to do this is to tell a secret. Sometimes we want to vary the way we speak on camera. If what you’re doing is always with the exact same level of energy, speed, and pace, it can get boring.

• • Here is an example: If I told you that there is a way you could sit down and create a full month’s worth of content, ready to go, in just two hours, would you want to do that? What if I was to tell you that this content is actually content you will be able to repurpose again and again for the whole year? What if I was to tell you that this is not just content that leads to a pretty Facebook page or Instagram account, but it brings in leads, brings in sales, and brings in power partner relationships – all of which can increase your live video sales as well as website conversion rate? Would you want that?

I told you a secret, see?

Now, what if I was to tell you this is only available for a limited time through my one-time workshop? The real benefit is through showing up in person. And now I have told you there is limited space, which is another tip to building suspense. If you emphasize that the opportunity to access something is limited, that helps build suspense. Besides, if we have too many people show up for this particular opportunity, then we can’t help everyone as best as we can. 

Acknowledge and Tap in

I know you can go get a template for different things for free from various sources. (Acknowledge) But here’s the thing. (Now I’m tapping into the problem) When you have all of these prompts that you have to create, they don’t work if you don’t put them into action. 

• • Recently, I was on TikTok and visited the Instagram account of a creator I saw on there. She was in a very similar space to me, and aside from her colors being different than my brand colors, her Instagram account looked so much like mine because we were using the same templates. I love templates, but you have to be sure that you mix it up when you’re using them so that your stuff still stands out as your own stuff. 
  • Here’s another problem. Sometimes people spend so much time creating content that doesn’t actually convert into leads or increase the live video sales. This is what we are helping people with specifically. 

“But…..”

Let’s squish some objections as well! If I want to have more people purchase from me, I need to be aware of my community’s problems and potential objections to purchasing from me so I can address them effectively and realistically. Some people will say, “I don’t have two hours to dedicate to this.” My response is, “Let’s say you spend 15 minutes a day on content. That’s 450 minutes during a month. Instead, ahead of time, you spent two hours, which is only 120 minutes. You will be saving 330 minutes at minimum by coming to this workshop.” Do you see how I am tapping into the problem AND squashing the objection? 

Hint at Value

The last tip is hinting at the value. Another way you can prove that your stuff is worth what it’s worth. 330 minutes is 5.5 hours. If I had earlier on asked you what you would charge hourly to get content created, let’s say $100. So you’re saving $550 a month by joining us in this workshop at minimum. That’s not even talking about what you will generate in sales.

If you can do this with your products and services, figuring out what the cost of not saying yes to you is, and present that in your live sales, how awesome is that? 

• Let’s talk about my earrings for a second. There is a deeper value in what they mean to me. When I buy earrings, I tell myself how many times I will wear this and what I would pay to rent them every time. I’d pay at least $1 every time I wear them on camera. We’ve been discussing them throughout this conversation, which means they are clearly driving engagement. Match the value to the person you’re selling them to. It’s all about building suspense and value before informing your audience they can purchase from you.

Tip #2: Shift the Belief

My coach Adam said something the other day that was so good! He said, “Rather than teaching people what you do or how to do it, teach them why they need to do it.” If we’re using this content workshop as an example, when we tap into the problems, I will tell you that you have two choices: content or no content. If you choose no content, there is a good chance no one will know who you are. 

• • I had an opportunity to listen to a National Geographic speaker at a social media conference a couple years ago, and they said their point is that you learn about these amazing things that exist on our planet. They spoke about bees, and they did a series about bees and what happens in the beehive and why bees are important. If people don’t know about and love the intricacies of bees, they won’t understand why it’s important to protect bees.
  • Same with you and your content. “You want to create content that causes people to literally fall in love with you.” If you can do that, it’s surely a win-win – you feel a sense of job fulfillment and achievement at having accomplished what you set out to do AND you increase your live video sales! People watching or reading your content understand the value and benefit of purchasing from you in addition to your personal values and integrity. People can’t fall in love with you if they don’t know who you are. When you show up and create content that shifts their belief around what you sell, you are more likely to make the actual sale – see and experience for yourself how it can help increase your live video sales.

If you choose content, you can decide if you are using basic templated content or if you will create strategic content that actually converts. By the time someone gets to your sales video, you have already helped them climb the tree of beliefs. They are recognizing you are the solution to their problem. But there are all of these things they need to believe in order to say yes.

• • If you are selling $50,000 earrings, there are a lot of beliefs you have to shift in someone in order to get them to understand why they should purchase these earrings.
  • If you are doing a webinar, then you need to be working to shift their beliefs there, but also in all of the promotional content leading up to the actual webinar.

What would you rather have: pretty content or content that is set up to bring in conversions in engagement, opt-ins, and an actual increase in live video sales, or even better, referral partners?

Tip #3: Make it Easy

When you are not making an actual sale, instead encouraging people to opt in for something, we use Bots. When someone opts in by commenting a key word in the chat, a message will be sent to you through Messenger to ask you if you want certain things. This creates engagement and organic reach, and it asks the viewer to make micro-commitments that bring them closer to saying yes when I am trying to make an actual sale.

• • But the process of opting into a bot is not that easy, which is why we only use the bot for opt-ins. When it comes time for me to tell you how to purchase something, I give you a link directly.

If you are trying to sell more than one thing at a time, you should use live shopping links that allow you to purchase straight from a live video. You can prepare them ahead of time and load them in as needed. This is something awesome that Be.Live offers. On QVC, you have to actually call. With Be.Live, you can click a button during your live stream, and the sales link goes directly into the chat. It can work for any link that you want. I offered a link for my content creation workshop, which is $197, and will be offered every other month, just so you know! So make it as easy as possible for your customers to purchase! – one thing I’ve learned in terms of increasing live video sales is that it’s not only important to create and post content but to also make it readily accessible and easy for customers to buy what you’re selling!

Tip #4: Show the Proof

You want to show actual proof of the fact that your solution works! There are two different ways to do this. One is you can bring up testimonial images or guests to testify for you, or you can share stories. You can even grab a YouTube link of a testimonial and bring it into the livestream through Be.Live. 

Tip #5: Follow Up!

I am going to show you something that allows you to pre-schedule things and create this entire live sales experience through Be.Live. You have to recognize this is all driving engagement, speaking to the tree of beliefs, shifting their beliefs, and more. Some people may stumble across your video without purchasing. You have the responsibility to follow up with them. 

What I see happen is people will do a video. They won’t actually share it or let their audience know it is happening. We have the APR Method: Announce, Pretend that people are there even if they aren’t, and Repurpose. However many businesses are not Announcing or Repurposing, not recognizing there is a way to follow up with people to help convert more folks or increase live video sales.

Next is something that I suggest you do after your live sale. If we have been speaking to suspense, what we want to do is, for example, I asked my live viewers to comment early on if they want content that converts. For everyone who commented that they do, and they don’t show up for the content creation workshop, I then have the responsibility to follow up with them because they told me they wanted content that converts.

Here are some more Facebook live sale tips: On my personal Facebook profile, I announced my content creation workshop. This is proof that I am showing you because 103 people commented, and we don’t have room for all those people. I asked for people to comment if they wanted access to this workshop. What I am going to do is click on this button I have that adds this little thing next to each comment. On the hero icon next to the comment, I will click it, and it says, “Not Tracked Here.” Then I am going to click “Add to Holding Tank,” which is my global CRM I have installed on Facebook. At this point, I can say, “Expressed Interest.” Then I can click, “View Notes and Info.” When I open this up, I can also see where else this person has been tagged within my system. Has this person requested or been sent anything else? This allows me to track my follow-up! 

I can now use the live shopping link to show you what this CRM tool is: GroupTrack. One of our GLAM members created this. There is a two-week free trial. IN order to use it on a platform like Facebook, it’s all on desktop. But there is a separate CRM that lives anywhere, including mobile. This allows you potentially to increase live video sales and your conversion rate, but really, it allows you to serve your community at a higher level because this allows you to track each individual’s needs and requests. So good! Mind blown!

Tip #6: Make it Fun

The last thing we need is dry, boring stuff right now. We need things that are more fun! In the digital age, where there’s a ton of individuals and businesses vying for audiences’ attention, stale, boring stuff can sound the death knell for your business!

And the best way to make it fun for your audiences is to have fun with it yourself! If you’re doing a sale or a webinar, you don’t have to be crazy in the way that I am, but you should have fun with it, whatever that means to you. “This is about figuring out who you are and who your community is so you can inspire that connection to you.” No matter how many people are watching you, you want to connect with each one of them. And what better way can there be to connect with your audience than by sharing fun, lively content?

Some ways to make it fun are adding gifs, sticky notes, and widgets on the screen (which we can do through Be.Live!). It shakes up the visuals. Even if your brand isn’t like mine, there are ways to do this that align with your brand. No matter what you do or sell, there’s always scope to add magical, interactive elements to your videos as well as website to not only attract crowds but also engage them – and the more engaged your audience is, the more they’re likely to buy from you – a sure-fire way to increase live video sales!

Something else that’s fun, because I answered a phone call from my brother briefly, is my brother started his live show yesterday! He sells wood slabs and other wood products; they have an urban lumber recycling showroom. He’s also a chainsaw carver. On his first announcement of his weekly Facebook Live show, he had 105 comments. He’s making it fun in his own way! The show is called “Stay Dusty.” So once again, you can make this happen in any niche.

Tip #7: Mumble, or the Mae West

I learned this strategy from Liz Medley. She does this thing called the Mumble. When someone says something like, “I love those earrings,” you can say, “I got them from *mumble mumble mumble*” When you’re not planning on selling something, but something happens that inspires you to sell something, you can implement this.

One time, we sold over $2,000 in one video where I was not planning on selling anything, which was crazy. It was because all I did was make a mumble because someone said in the chat, “I wish I could buy that.” I just plopped in a link in my PayPal account, and we made $2,000 worth of sales of a $27 product that I made up on the call by the end of the session. This is so possible for everyone to do.

I hope that you will find these tips helpful in making your live videos even more successful AND of course in increasing your live video sales! Now go do the work!

Additional Resources

• Be.Live (sponsor)
• Become a BeLive Partner here: www.Molly.live/belivepartner
• GroupTrack

“Stay Dusty” (my brother’s show!)