By now, most businesses have tapped into Instagram’s potential as a powerful marketing tool. Approximately 71% of American businesses use Instagram in some capacity. However, very few are taking advantage of the Instagram Live feature.

Instagram Live is a feature that allows you to broadcast live videos to your followers and interact with them. For businesses, this can be a great chance to connect with your audience and engage with them in a more meaningful way. As you develop strong relationships with your followers, you increase the chances of converting them into paying consumers.

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The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Marketing for Small Business

Why should your business use Instagram Live?

Instagram Live is a powerful tool that offers businesses a myriad of benefits. Here are a few of Instagram Live’s biggest advantages for businesses.

Engagement

Instagram Live can be an amazing way to grow your business by strengthening your relationship with your target audience. Since you stream in real-time, your audience gets the chance to see an unscripted and more authentic representation of your brand. While this can be intimidating at first, broadcasting live can foster a deeper connection with your target audience. Since users can comment and react in real-time, businesses have the opportunity to directly interact with their followers. This form of high engagement can build trust and strengthen your relationships with potential consumers.

Visibility  

Live video is highly visible on people’s feeds. Unless they specifically turn off this notification, users are notified when an account they follow is live. If you are going live with another user, such as an influencer, their followers will receive the live notification as well. This enables businesses to reach a wider audience and possibly gain a larger following through their live stream.

“Doing an Instagram Live with an influencer whose content and values align with your brand’s is a strategically brilliant move as a business,” explains Jeff Perry, a business writer at Essay Roo and Academ advisor. “It exposes a substantial portion of their followers to your brand thanks to the Instagram Live notification and newsfeed priority.”

How to use Instagram Live for business

As a business, launching your first Instagram Live can be an overwhelming experience. While the live video will stream in real-time, there are plenty of steps you can take to ensure you are prepared beforehand. Here are a few tips to help your business start leveraging this powerful marketing tool.

Before the stream, ensure to check your Internet connection. The better your connection, the higher your stream quality will be. “A good tip before you go Instagram Live is to create another Instagram account,” advises Mary Rayner, a tech blogger at Ukwritings and Writing populist. “This could help ease any nerves and allows you to familiarize yourself with the set-up and various functions.”

Fortunately, Instagram is very user-friendly so going on Instagram Live is relatively simple. Simply swipe right after opening the app to arrive at the Stories interface. Next, select the Live option at the bottom of the screen, and tap it whenever you’re ready.

After the stream, share it to IGTV and post a preview of it to your feed. This saves your Instagram Live to your account which allows any followers who missed it to tune in at a later time.

5 Tips to engage your audience during an Instagram Live

As a consumer engagement tool, there are endless ways for your business to leverage Instagram Live. Here are five ways to use this awesome feature to connect with potential consumers and grow your business.

#1. Collaborate with an influencer

Since followers are notified of any live streams and Instagram prioritizes live stories on their feed, collaborating with an influencer on Instagram Live is one of the fastest ways to gain new followers as a business.

This strategy is especially effective if the influencer’s persona and values align with your brand’s image. Their followers are more likely to be interested in the product or service offered by your business. A survey found that 80% of people use Instagram to decide whether to buy a product or service. 61% of consumers trust brand, product, or service recommendations from influencers.

An Instagram Live session with an influencer could convert many of their followers into followers of your business and paying customers.

#2. Host a Q&A

Hosting a live Q&A is a great way to build trust with your followers. As a business, it’s a highly effective tool for addressing any queries or concerns regarding your product or service. It’s also an awesome way for your target audience to get to know your brand better.

Instagram Live provides an amazing way to directly communicate with potential customers. You could also use a Q&A session to gain valuable insight from your target audience about your brand, products or services, and their preferences.

#3. Interview someone

Many businesses use Instagram Live to interview influencers with a large following. This is a great way to capture the interest of their followers and introduce them to your brand.

Another strategy is to interview a member of your team. If you’re the founder of the business, ask someone from marketing to interview you. This allows your target audience to gain a deeper insight into your brand’s history and values. 

#4. Do a live tutorial

Tutorials are another fantastic way to engage with your followers on Instagram Live. Many influencers and beauty brands will leverage this feature to host a live makeup or skincare tutorial.

Image Source: Instagram

#5. Promote a launch

One of the most straightforward methods for growing your business using Instagram Live is to promote a new launch. If there is an event, you can stream it live to provide your followers with exclusive access. Another strategy is to provide glimpses of your product using Instagram Live before the official launch date.

Wrapping up

Instagram Live is a valuable marketing tool for you to engage with potential customers and grow your audience. 83% of Instagram users discover new products or services on the platform. With the help of Instagram Live, they could discover yours.

Guest author: Christina Lee is a marketing manager at Top Canadian Writers and Research paper writing service. She writes about social media content strategy and consumer engagement tips for such services, as Top essay writing services, and others.