Ever watched a Facebook Live and wished you had the balls to do one yourself? Well I’m here to tell you that you have – you absolutely have!!

And here’s why…..

Because you’re a business owner, and a bloody good one at that!

So don’t hide behind your brand – be your brand. Showcase yourself, your products, or your services for all to see.

Here are a few reasons why braving a Facebook Live makes sense for your business.

Great for Building Trust

When you create a Facebook Live event your audience can see who you are. By using the right approach, your event will seem like it is a one to one session for all of your viewers. People want to see who you are and know what you stand for. This is essential for building trust.

You may have heard of the KLT principle before. This stands for Know, Like and Trust. When you achieve this with your audience they will be a lot more likely to make a purchase. Facebook Live provides you with a massive opportunity to develop your KLT factor.

Engage with your Audience

Not only does Facebook have the largest amount of potential customers for you through their billions of users, they also provide you with the opportunity to engage with your target audience.

Facebook users are three times more likely to watch a live event than they are to watch a pre-recorded video! Three times!

Millions watch pre-recorded videos on Facebook each day so imagine how many people you can get to watch your live event!

Facebook now prioritises live events in their algorithm, so you have a lot more chance of your event being visible in the news feeds of your audience.

With your Facebook Live event, you can respond to comments from your viewers as they arrive. You are saying to your audience that you are there for them right now in real-time.

Drive Traffic to your Funnel

You can use your Facebook Live events to drive traffic to your sales funnels. If you don’t have a sales funnel then you would need to set this up prior to your live event. A sales funnel starts with lead generation. You get people into the funnel by offering them an incentive such as something that they perceive as valuable for free.

You need to tell your viewers about the free gift that you have for them during your live event. Mention your funnel sign up link and explain how much benefit they will get by obtaining the free incentive. Facebook Live is a great tool for driving targeted leads to give you their email addresses.

Build your Email List

While I encourage you to try and obtain sales for your product or service during your Facebook Live event, not everyone is going to be ready to make a purchase at that time. So you need to ensure that you get as many people to join your email list as you can during and after your event.

Signing up for your email list must be the first step of your sales funnel. Once you have these people on your list you can send further emails to them encouraging them to go deeper into your sales funnel.

Teach with a ‘How to’ live

People will always be interested in learning new things that matter to them and a “how to” video using Facebook Live is a great way to deliver this. What you need to do here is to explain something that is closely related to your products or services and then show the manual or long way around to solving the problem.

You can then pitch your product or service as the quickest and easiest way to solve the problem. So if you are teaching people how to get more visitors to their website for example you can show them a number of ways to do this which involve a lot of time and effort. Then pitch your product as a way of saving a lot of time and money as it automates the process.

When you really know your audience you will be able to easily come up with topics for ‘how to’ videos that you can create as live events on Facebook. These events are very popular and you can use them to increase awareness of your brand and your products and services.

Increase exposure for a new product or service

If you have a new product or service launching soon then holding a Facebook Live event to tell your audience about it is a good way to increase exposure.

When you showcase a new product or service with a live event you can go into great detail about the benefits to the audience. You can answer questions that people have about your new launch which you can’t do with normal videos and posts.

You can really build anticipation for a new product or service with a Facebook Live event. Then you can hold a follow-up event when your new product or service has launched. Be sure to invite the viewers from the first event and you will have an audience that is revved up and ready to buy.

Use special offers to persuade

A great way to increase your sales is through making special offers. There are a number of ways that you can put these offers together and no matter how you create the special offer, a Facebook Live event is a brilliant way to spread the word about it.

With a live event, you can really spend time showing your audience why they need to take advantage of the special offer. Some viewers will have questions about the offer which you can answer in real-time during the event. So use Facebook Live to promote your special offers and make more sales.

“Ask me anything”

Holding an “ask me anything” Facebook Live event is a really effective way to promote your business. It is best to do this when you have established a number of followers on Facebook.

Although your viewers can literally ask you anything, I recommend that you have an agenda for the event otherwise it could get completely out of hand. You want to steer the questions that people ask you towards your business and the products and services that you offer.

People may ask you how you got started and what triggered you to start your business. These are great questions that you can answer in a way that will help to develop trust. These ask me anything events will help position you as an expert in your niche and the go to person for help and advice.

Engage using ‘real life’

Here you will show what goes on in your business behind the scenes. This can include a tour of your business premises and interviews with staff members that work for you. People are really interested in this kind of event.

Opening up your business and letting people in is a great way to develop your KLT. If people feel that they know, like and trust you then it will be a lot easier for you to generate more leads and make more sales. Not many businesses are prepared to do this, so give yourself an advantage over your competitors.

In all Facebook Live is a great tool for you to get your message across to your ideal customers. Live video events are a firm favourite with Facebook users and are definitely here to stay.

Give it a go! I’ll be tuning in!