Remember those telesales channels that promote handy products? If you grabbed the phone immediately, you’d get a bonus product or a discount. Live selling has been around for a long time. If you thought they were losing their charm, you’d be wildly mistaken. Live selling is now a billion-dollar industry that’s rapidly growing in the United States. #TwitterSmarter’s own Jim Fuhs has been live selling on Amazon for years. We couldn’t have found a better person to ask about this exact topic. Here’s a summary of our chat.
Guest: Jim Fuhs
Topic: Live selling on Amazon
Format: Eight questions directed at the guest. Everyone’s welcome to share.
More like live solving, according to Jim. You can talk about things that help solve specific problems and help others find the same solutions to similar problems. It’s a good way to build your brand and credibility.
A1. The benefits of live selling
First, we like to call it live solving
You are able to talk about things that help people solve their problems and help them finalize the purchase decision
Great way to build trust in an engaging way#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
One of the biggest benefits of live selling is that you can bring a whole bunch of people together in one place at any given time. They can engage with you, with each other, and make a purchase–all on the same platform. Live selling isn’t novel, but as Jim said, it’s only just getting started in the United States.
A1b. With live selling you can multi stream and bring people over to the platform where they can make the purchase.
In China this is a multi billion dollar industry. We are just scratching the surface here.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
As you build your live selling profile, brands will start noticing you. As our guest pointed out, it’s a great opportunity to build relationships and even business partnerships with these brands.
A1c. As a live seller, you start to catch brands attention and you have an opportunity to make connections with them. We have connected with several tech companies that make some of our favorite tech items.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
Jim, along with his co-host, Chris Stone, started off by joining Amazon’s Influencer Program. Once you’re approved, you can go live on Amazon anytime you want. To learn more about Amazon’s Influencer Program, have a look at this #TwitterSmarter chat summary from when Jim was a guest a couple of years ago.
A2. We got started with @DealcastersLive by applying to the #Amazon Influencer program. Once approved you can go live on https://t.co/H4ZkQZfJca whenever you would like and create a show where people can buy the things you highlight.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
Live selling is also growing as a sales strategy. For example, as our guest explained, brands like Walmart and Target are exploring the opportunities of live selling. Even Shopify now allows you to go live and sell products from your website.
A2b. Live selling is growing. Other brands, like Target, Walmart are looking at this and Shopify allows you to use an app on your website that will let you go live and sell from your website.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
As our friends from VirtuDesk pointed out, before you dive headfirst into live selling, it’s important to do some research and run tests. Identify what times work best for your live show. It’ll differ based on your audience and their geographical spread.
A2: Before going live, you have to identify the best time to go live by researching when your audience is most active. You would also need to consider what platform you will use for your live sell. Then, promote it and offer special discounts to those attending. #TwitterSmarter
— VirtuDesk (@virtudeskcom) February 2, 2023
Finding a time that works best for your audience is crucial, but if your audience is all over the world, then it might be prudent to consider converting it onto a podcast, as Jim explained. Or as video snippets. If you find that most of your audience isn’t on Amazon, you can do what Jim does: Multistream to other platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Yes, we actually turned Dealcastsers into a podcast. @jeffsieh also does it with @SMNewsLive on Fridays. The brands will start to reach out to you once they see your content. We also multistream to LinkedIn and YouTube.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
If you’re on Amazon, you can use third-party live-streaming tools like StreamYard and Ecamm Live. The latter has also recently launched a feature that allows you to highlight certain comments on your screen during the live show. Amazon also has a live chat functionality through which you can chat with your audience in real-time.
A3. The Amazon Live program allows you to use 3rd party software like @streamyardapp and @ecammtweets plus they have a chat built into the Amazon platform where people can ask questions in real time. Ecamm just added the ability to share the comment to screen.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
As Thiam suggested, you can also do Q&A sessions to boost engagement and interact with your audience during the live show.
A3
Go beyond direct selling by host a Q&A to discuss some of your consumers' most significant pain points.#TwitterSmarter— THIAM MÉKÀ de GOGUENHEIM (@ThiamMeka2Gogue) February 5, 2023
Promoting it across social media helps a lot, as Jim said. If you use Amazon, it’ll also show your live show on the pages of the products you’re highlighting on your show. That also brings in a lot of traffic for your live show. Jim’s show consistently gets over 1000 visits, and this compounds on big shopping days like Black Friday.
A4. Social media definitely helps. Amazon helps as well by showing your live video on the product pages of the items you are highlighting and that brings in traffic. Most shows we do get at least 1,000 views and we have had upwards of 10,000 on Black Friday.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
Scheduling your promotions well in advance and multi-streaming are good ways to drive traffic to your live event.
A4b. You can also promote in advance and schedule your show and we also multistream to all the platforms to grow our audience.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
Jim also told us about Descript and Lately, two tools that he uses to embellish the video after the live stream ends. This is an extra effort to polish your content, but in the long run, it helps drive traffic and establish your brand.
We can setup the show in about 30 minutes. Chris has a template for the show. Post production I would say that @DescriptApp and @LatelyAI make it take a few hours to create the content.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
Amazon gives you a lot of good stats including views, unmuted viewers and how long they watched your livestream, and how many people clicked on products you highlighted. 24 hours after the end of your livestream, you’ll also get revenue reports from your event.
A5. Amazon gives us some data. We know how many viewers, how many watched unmuted and for how long, how many clicked on products, and after 24 hours we will actually get revenue reports from the show.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
It’s only natural. As Jim said, a lot of people tuning into the live show are lurkers. So if you have technical issues, you can stop and restart the show. Just make sure you make short clips of your live event and share them across social media so that people can watch it whenever they can. This helps you convert sales well after your live event ends.
A6. Technical difficulties do happen. You can always stop the show and come back on fairly quickly. We don’t worry about the engagement so much as there are lurkers.
We repurpose the video into short clips and put it all over social media.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
Thiam also shared some excellent ideas. If you’re having trouble during a live event, communicate that with your live audience via chat or other messaging platforms. If you’re collecting data from your audience such as contact details, make sure your digital platforms are GDPR compliant for your audience in Europe.
A6
Send out instant messages when issues arise and also, invest in #CyberSecurity by making sure that you're GDPR-compliant if you’re processing data in Europe and that any digital venue provider you are using has #CyberSecurity protocols put in place#TwitterSmarter— THIAM MÉKÀ de GOGUENHEIM (@ThiamMeka2Gogue) February 5, 2023
Jim vouches for Amazon because it’s already a trusted platform for shopping. It monitors live chats for trolls, and you can also block and mute certain users you don’t want getting involved in your live selling event.
A7. The good thing about #Amazon compared to other platforms is that people trust shopping there. They also monitor the chat for trolls and you can block and mute people as well. I think that is a great benefit of Amazon over other live shopping platforms.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
As Jim added, Amazon will possibly expand its live selling platform to different markets. As a global vendor, you can be assured that Amazon has the necessary data security systems in place to comply with data protection laws in every country it expands to.
Yes. Walmart and Target have started programs, but I have not seen much with this yet. I do expect the live shopping on Amazon to expand to other countries as well as they have the Influencer program available in UK, Canada, and even India.#TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
To sell on Amazon, you’ll need a phone or a tablet, and the Amazon Live app to create and display products you want to sell. For your live streams, you’ll need a computer, camera, good audio equipment, and a streaming app like StreamYard or Ecamm Live. These are the absolute basics for live selling. You can, of course, go a bit upmarket and get a whole bunch of fancy equipment to make your live event more attractive.
A8. To live sell on Amazon you have to have an iPhone or iPad to use the Amazon Live app where you create your show and add products.
live streaming gear, i.e. computer, camera, good audio and 3rd party streaming tools like @streamyardapp or @ecammtweets #TwitterSmarter
— Jim Fuhs #DealcastersLive #PodFest23 (@FuhsionMktg) February 2, 2023
Here’s an article on how to live stream on Amazon using StreamYard and here’s how to do so using Ecamm Live.
Well folks, that’s all from me this week. Thanks for reading through and for more great insights from our chat with Jim, have a look at this Twitter thread. If you like this summary, you’ll love the real-time chat. Join us next Thursday at 1 pm ET for #TwitterSmarter. We also have an after-chat on Twitter Spaces at 5 pm ET. See you there!
About me, Narmadhaa:
I write all the things—marketing stuff to pay the bills; haiku and short stories so I feel wholesome. A social media enthusiast, I hang out with the #TwitterSmarter chat crew, and am always happy to take on writing gigs.
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