If you’ve spent any time at all online, you know the popularity of livestreaming.
But did you know that Amazon provides a free livestreaming service to help brand owners just like you drive sales, build their online fan base and showcase their brands?
Using Amazon Live can be just as powerful as showcasing your products on QVC or your own infomercial — but without having to jump through all the hoops those platforms demand.
Using Amazon Live puts you in charge of your product selection, messaging and production. And if you do it right, you’ll see a dramatic boost in your sales, community engagement and brand awareness.
I’ve been an Amazon seller since 2013, and as an Amazon consultant, I help companies launch and grow their brands on Amazon. Follow these eight simple steps to start reaping the rewards of this amazingly valuable service.
1. Register your brand with Amazon.
Before you can take advantage of free streaming on Amazon Live, you’ll need to complete Amazon’s Brand Registry process to qualify.
2. Download and install the Amazon Live Creator mobile app.
To stream on Amazon Live, you’ll need the Amazon Live Creator app. Currently, this app is available for iPhone or iPad.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, you’ll log in using the credentials associated with your Amazon selling account.
3. Select your products.
From within the app, select the products you’ll be highlighting in your livestream. The carousel below your video will display all the products you select, positioning them perfectly front and center and making it easy for your customers to buy.
4. Film your livestream.
You can film your livestream with your iPhone or iPad camera. Or, if you like, you can connect an external camera if you have a video encoder.
You can choose either to go live and make your video immediately available or to record and schedule your broadcast for a future date and time.
5. Engage with viewers.
The iOS app features a chat window so you can interact in real time with your customers during your livestream. This feature is a powerful way to address customer questions and get feedback from real customers — immediately, in real time. Immediacy helps your customers get to know, like and trust you and helps you build your fan base.
6. Build Amazon followers.
Any Amazon customer can subscribe to or follow brands they like that use Amazon Live. Once a customer follows your brand, Amazon will notify them every time you go live.
This powerful incentive inspires you to create helpful, entertaining and high-quality livestream videos that people want to follow and share. Creating a fan base of engaged followers allows you to sell your products to people who are already interested in buying from you, rather than having to create leads from scratch.
7. Incorporate Amazon promos.
Use Amazon’s custom promotions to offer your viewers relevant discounts while they’re watching your livestream. That’s a great strategy that adds value to your livestreams and helps you gain followers.
Your viewers can click on your promo code from within their video player and add it immediately to their account.
8. Use your social media email lists.
Leverage your brand’s social media following and email lists to build awareness for your upcoming Amazon Live streams. Whenever you schedule a livestream, let your social media followers know so they can tune in and take advantage of any “viewers only” discounts.
Once viewers tune in, your livestream provides the perfect venue for you to make important brand announcements, launch a new product or simply stay connected with your current customers.
So there you have it: eight simple steps to help you combine one of the world’s most popular social media tools (livestreaming) with one of the world’s largest online marketplaces (Amazon). I believe that for a brand owner, Amazon Live offers you an advantage you simply can’t afford to ignore.
