Looking to increase sales for your eCommerce business?
You're not alone. It's the conversation I have most with product-based business owners.
The fastest way to grow sales in your product-based eCommerce business is by utilizing live video. It allows you to quickly build trust with your customers and show them how your product can fit into their life.
Hosting live videos for your eCommerce business can be intimidating and sometimes you don't know where to start. But don't worry, we've got you.
Today we're going to be talking about the types of content that work well for product-based businesses on live video, why you shouldn't be worried about messing up and how to get over your fear of live video, and sharing a tech tool that automates 99% of the process for you while creating a really special experience for your attendees.
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Why is Live Video Important for eCommerce Business Owners?
The reason why a live video is so powerful is because it's the fastest way online to build trust with your customer. Yeah, that's the bottom line.
As you see on the home shopping networks on tv, this is what they do. They, they're trying to build trust for the audience. They have their own personalities. Each host has their own little quirks. They take in phone calls and they make a few jokes.
They do this because they're trying to build a relationship with you, the viewer, so that you can feel a level of trust so that you could feel like, okay, these people are legit. I'm gonna buy this product or service even though I can't feel and touch it in real life like I would in a physical store.
It's more powerful than doing it via email or doing it via standalone video where they watch a video on your website because there's interaction. And in order for you to build trust with anybody, you have to have a conversation. You have to have a back-and-forth.
Imagine you went on a first date and the person just talked to your ear off and you never said anything. There's no trust, there's no relationship built.
When you are using live video to market your eCommerce business it's important that you make them as interactive as possible.
Why eCommerce Business Owners Should Host Webinars Instead of Going Live on Social Media
Hosting webinars instead of going live on social media gives you the opportunity to require signups from customers and capture their email. Not only does it grow your email list but it allows you to follow up with them later on.
If they missed the live event you can email them the replay afterward. Even if they don't buy from that first webinar, now you can email them to invite them to the next one. It gives you the power to nurture that relationship over time.
When they're on social media, they can just scroll through the feed and you never see them again.
Webinars also make it really easy for you to answer frequently asked questions and overcome any objections the consumer might be having about buying from you. Most of the time we assume that our customers fully read our product descriptions or the FAQs on our websites… but they don't.
How Are eCommerce Businesses Using Webinars in Their Business?
There are a few different angles you can take with your webinars depending on your business and the product you sell. Here are a few great examples of eCommerce businesses that are successful with webinars.
Sell a Food Product With Recipes
A great example of a product-based business that is successfully using webinars to sell its products is a honey farmer in Australia. She was struggling to make sales and was confused. She always got really great feedback about the taste of her honey but found that people weren't buying.
After some research and getting some support, she realized that consumers were wondering what they were going to do with it; how much could they possibly use?
So she created a webinar event sharing three recipes people can create with honey. Creating this type of event changed the mindset of the consumer from I want this honey to I need this honey because I want to create these recipes.
Now it's no longer about the honey. It's about them being the talk of the town or getting complimented on their cooking or baking when they make these delicious recipes. And they need the honey to get that social status they're craving.
Then she created a bundle of her honey with a digital recipe book so it was super easy for attendees to use up all their honey.
Now she runs weekly webinars each focused on a different product in her assortment.
Sell a Clothing Product with Styling Advice
There are two brands, one a custom-tailored clothing company and another a fashion designer.
They both host webinars to give styling advice to help the customers understand when and how to use their products. For example, dressing for special occasions, how to create outfits, etc. The custom-tailored clothing company also shared details about its services, etc.
Especially with something like clothing, unless the consumer is a shop-a-holic, they're not really going to buy if they don't have a reason. Creating an event like this creates value for the product and a reason for the customer to buy.
Other Live Video Webinar Ideas for eCommerce
- Present holiday gift guides
- Host an AMA with the founder
- Share your most recent product launch
The Best Tool for eCommerce Business Owners to Run Webinars
Using a tool like Webinar Ninja makes it super simple to host and market your webinar. Along with built-in landing pages for users to sign up, the tool also has built-in email reminders that allow you to remind your signups to attend the webinar and send them the replay after the event.
Webinar Ninja also has features that make it super easy to keep your audience engaged during the event, and you can even make offers that link directly to your product.
Pro Tip: Create a link that pre-fills the cart so all the customer has to do is checkout.
All the live videos you create with Webinar Ninja are easily downloadable so you can repurpose that content on other platforms like your website and social media too.
Webinar Ninja makes it super simple to start implementing webinars in your eCommerce business and you can get started for free.
Final Thoughts
We are in a person-to-person economy and people buy from people. CEOs of some of the biggest companies have a personal brand. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Gary Vee, Warren Buffet… to name a few.
It's the reason why huge corporations invest in well-known personalities and celebrities. They want their customers to have a human to connect to and relate to their brand.
If you're a CEO who doesn't want to be the face of your brand, that's okay too. You can always have someone within your organization be the one to host these webinars as well.
At the end of the day the combination of live video and a human for your audience to connect to, you'll be in a good place.
Meet Omar
Omar Zenhom is co-founder and CEO of WebinarNinja, and host of the popular podcast The $100 MBA Show.
An educator at the secondary and university level for over a dozen years, Omar decided to apply his natural passion for teaching and learning to the business world.
Now, through The $100 MBA Show and WebinarNinja, Omar has made it his business to help others learn, teach, and grow as entrepreneurs.
Listen to the Episode
Episodes Mentioned
How I Got Over My Fear of Live Video
Creating a Digital Product for Your eCommerce Store
Links Mentioned
Storyteller Tactics Deck of Cards
How to create a Shopify link that pre-fills the cart
