10 Ways to Win Customers And Increase Sales Through TikTok Live
Tiktok has become a world in itself. From entertaining celebrity feuds to viral hacks that have helped society to improve considerably, Tik Tok has it all.
How often have you procrastinated at work or put off going to sleep to watch one more TikTok?
Can’t count?
We understand, because well, same.
TikTok is a creative video-making and sharing platform.
The primary theme of TikTok has been trends and challenges. No other platform has been as successful at creating trends as TikTok. Now and then, you will hear (and see people doing) a new TikTok Challenge. Fake Window Challenge, Towel Challenge, and Love Story Remix Dance challenge are a few that were immensely popular over the previous year.
Who’s on TikTok?
TikTok is used by brands, celebrities, content creators, and businesses to promote their products, work, and projects.
Let’s look at some numbers, shall we?
Owned by the Chinese Company called ByteDance, TikTok has a whopping 1.39 billion users, 1 billion of whom are active monthly users.
On average, a TikTok user opens the app about 19 times daily.
TikTok has appealed to different generations; the primary viewership pool lies between 10 and 49 years of age, which is very wide. A majority of the users (61%) are women.
Since it has a broad and diverse range of users, it is easier to reach your target audience on TikTok.
What is TikTok Live?
In 2019, TikTok launched a new feature called “TikTok Live.”
As the name suggests, it is a feature that allows TikTok users or content creators to connect with their followers in real time. They can live to stream their videos and have their followers interact with them through comments. It works pretty much the same way Facebook and Instagram live work.
However, a unique characteristic of TikTok live is the sending of gifts. Users over 18 can send and receive gifts through TikTok lives.
How does this work?
Well, it is pretty simple.
During a TikTok live, you can tap on the Gift icon that is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
The value of the gift in coins will be deducted from your account and sent to the content creator. You can purchase these coins through Google Play, the App Store, and the TikTok website. These coins can then be converted into cash by the receiver.
Restrictions of TikTok Live
The TikTok live has two restrictions:
- a) You need to be at least 16 years old to be able to go live.
- b) You need to have 1000 followers to unlock this feature. There is a way to get around this restriction (more on this later).
Popularity of Live-Streaming has surged
The popularity of live streaming has grown over time.
In fact, since 2020, it has had a 99% year-over-year growth of hours watched. It is estimated that 80% of users would rather watch a live stream than read a blog.
Where younger people use live stream platforms for gaming purposes, older ones use them as an avenue for entertainment.
Live streams have become a valuable tool for brands and content creators to connect with their followers. TikTok lives, on the other hand, have proved to be substantially handier. A study found that:
- TikTok live viewership has strengthened brands’ relationships with their users. It is not just content creators that users like to watch. They are also interested in their favourite brands’ live videos.
- 62% of TikTok users watch live streams every day.
- One-fifth of live stream viewers watch and are invested in TikTok lives.
- TikTok lives have proved to be very successful tools for creating brand awareness.
- Last, and perhaps most importantly, TikTok lives drive sales. Half of TikTok users have bought something after watching a TikTok live. That is how strong the Tok influence is; go figure!
After relaying the above stats, it is no surprise that most brands are switching to TikTok live to connect with their audiences and promote their products.
Every third TikTok user has named the platform their primary means of interacting with brands. Users on this social media app are easy to reach through the app designs and the fun and creative trends that keep the users entertained and engaged.
How to go Live on TikTok?
It is super easy to go Live on TikTok. Here is how you can do it:
- On the home screen of TikTok, you must see a “+” icon. That is the “create” icon. Tap on this icon.
- You will now see a menu of sorts. Keep swiping to your left until you see the “Live” option, then tap it.
- Next, pick an image for the cover of your TikTok live.
- Also, write down an appropriate title for your Live.
- When you are all set, tap on Go Live. TikTok gives you three seconds before it goes live with your stream, so prepare yourself!
If you don’t see the red colored Go Live button, go back to ensure you match all the requirements for the live.
Sometimes, when too many lives are happening all at once, TikTok does not allow more people to go live. If you suspect this is the case, try again in a few minutes.
How to Go Live When You Don’t Have 1000 Followers?
You may have joined TikTok recently, or you might have been an old TikToker and still have not managed to gain 1000 followers.
That’s okay, we’ve all been there.
According to TikTok policies, you are not eligible for a TikTok live. Although people have figured out a way around this block, we do not take responsibility for this hack or even guarantee any results. Most importantly, we do not approve of going against the app’s policies.
But, if you are desperate for a TikTok live, you can give it a go.
So, here’s how you can go live on TikTok even if you do not have 1000 followers yet:
- On your profile page, look towards the top right corner. You must see a hamburger menu icon. Tap on it.
- You will see a few options now; go to Settings and Privacy.
- In the support section, you will see the option to “Report a problem.” Tap on it.
- Under the option of “popular,” click on “I can’t start a live.”
- If you see an option asking if your problem is resolved, tap on no.
- Next, fill out a report. It would help if you wrote about how you could do a TikTok live previously but cannot do it anymore.
- Once submitted, you should get the option to go live within two days.
If this hack does not work for you, it is better to work hard and let your follower count go up organically. If people like what you are putting out there, you’ll get to 1000+ followers someday.
Use the trial-and-error method. Employ different strategies to keep your followers engaged, collect feedback, see what works and what does not, and most importantly, keep trying!
How to Go Live With Someone on TikTok?
It has become common for brands and content creators to go live with someone else. It is a win-win situation for both parties involved.
How does it help brands?
- It helps drive traffic to your and their accounts,
- establishes an interesting dialogue,
- broadens your influence span,
- and helps gain new followers.
To go Live with someone else on TikTok, this is what you need to do:
You and your co-host need to be live first.
On the bottom left-hand corner, you will see an icon.
Tap on it and invite your friend to join your live.
And, you’re both on. That’s it. Super easy, right?
You could be sitting in opposite corners of the world and still be able to do a TikTok live together! Amazing, is it not?
2 tried and tested tips to boost your collaborative Live session
When going live, add a cover photo that is attractive and relevant to your topic. You do not want people leaving because you advertise one thing and are talking or doing the other.
And your title should be catchy, easy to remember, and easy-to-read. Everyone’s on TikTok to watch short, fun videos. People quickly skip what doesn’t make sense to them or doesn’t appeal to them. Suppose your title is too difficult to understand, users may not be interested in your Live even if you have good content planned.
3 Brands Winning at TikTok Live
There is only so much you can learn by reading online or trying things yourself. Sometimes, the best way to get on the top is to study someone already there.
What are their strategies, the steps they take, and what do they avoid?
We have picked out three brands that are killing TikTok lives. They seem to know the game pretty well, so let’s see who they are.
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Chipotle
Although new to TikTok, Chipotle has been performing exceptionally well. It has gained 1.7 million followers and over 3 million likes. As we talked about before, TikTok mainly has challenges and trends.
On entering the platform, Chipotle used these challenges to its advantage. It launched the #ChipotleLidFlipChallenge, which quickly grew very popular, and had 100,000 people participating. It wasn’t a one-time thing either.
<blockquote class=”tiktok-embed” cite=”https://www.tiktok.com/@chipotle/video/6674971012397796614″ data-video-id=”6674971012397796614″ style=”max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;” > <section> <a target=”_blank” title=”@chipotle” href=”https://www.tiktok.com/@chipotle?refer=embed”>@chipotle</a> <a title=”lidflip” target=”_blank” href=”https://www.tiktok.com/tag/lidflip?refer=embed”>#lidflip</a> <a target=”_blank” title=”♬ original sound – Chipotle” href=”https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-6674880555537943302?refer=embed”>♬ original sound – Chipotle</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src=”https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js”></script>
Next, they went on to launch the #GuacDance challenge that had massive submissions, up to 250,000!
This challenge significantly benefited their sales, for the Mexican chain reported 800k guacamole sales. They also have one of the best bios; which reads: “Less Tok, More Guac.”
The secret to Chipotle’s success on TikTok is that they keep their videos short, funny, and creative and engage their audience through challenges.
And of course, consistency.
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Spikeball
If you aren’t already aware, Spikeball is an extraordinarily fun game. It is played between two teams of two players, and the players line up around a trampoline-like net.
Spikeball has 1.3 million followers and 25.2 million likes on their TikTok account.
Spikeball has been able to garner so many followers through careful strategizing.
They cash in on trends and create content suited explicitly for TikTok. Luckily, their target audience and TikTok’s demographic overlap, so it is easy for them to create content that appeals to most TikTok users and their aimed clientele.
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Elf Cosmetics
Elf Cosmetics has done outstandingly well on TikTok and has outshone its competitors.
The makeup and skincare company has 576.2K followers and 11.7 million likes on the social media platform.
How are they doing it?
For starters, they knew they had a lot of competition, and to stand out, they had to do something different.
Then came the brilliant idea of commissioning a song! Yes, the brand commissioned a piece (also the first original song created for a TikTok campaign) called “Eyes, Lips, Face,” after the brand’s acronym. It was inspired by the 2018 Kash Doll hit, Ice Me Out, and it managed to hold out just as well on its own. The brand then launched a #EyesLipsFace dance challenge where the partakers showed their eyes, lips, face and then danced to the tune. The song was catchy, and the challenge had 9.6 billion views- massive!
Another brilliant strategy by e.l.f cosmetics was to collaborate with a company that is not directly a part of its industry, i.e., Dunkin Donuts. E.l.f partnered with Dunkin to produce a new line of products inspired by donuts and coffees. The partnership helped it gain traffic from the Dunkin following too. Clever.
10 Tips to Win Customers and Increase Sales through TikTok Live
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Nail the Live quality
To attract sales and win customers through your Live, you must ensure superb quality.
I enjoy watching shaky and blurry videos where the person fades out of view often- said no one ever.
Embed: – https://giphy.com/gifs/blur-childrens-video-tiny-auteur-giWSCQM0ysBmBGNz15
Your Live needs to be enjoyable for both you and the viewer. You can achieve this by using the right equipment.
A stable and high-speed internet connection is essential for a smooth live stream, so make sure your internet connection is up for a live stream.
Then, a smartphone with a good quality camera is a fundamental prerequisite for an excellent live session. iPhone 11, 12, and 13 are good options, as are Google Pixel 6, Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, and OnePlus 9 Pro.
Once you have secured a good camera, your next mission should be to get the perfect lighting. A very easy-to-install and easy-to-use lighting option is the ring light that is readily available in stores and online platforms like Amazon, like this one.
They are affordable as well, so they can be good for beginners. If you are looking for something more elegant and professional, the Elgato Key light may be a good option.
Lastly, focus on your audio equipment.
You do not want your viewers to leave because they could not hear you. You could use the microphone that is built into your phone. Still, we recommend using medium to high-quality microphones such as USB microphones and 3.5 mm microphones. An XLR microphone will be the optimum choice if you want professional quality audio.
These things will ensure the quality of TikTok Live lives up to the standards and will be worthwhile for the attendees.
2. Post at the right time
We cannot emphasize how significant the timing is. You could have the best equipment, the perfect content planned out, have exciting collaborators on board- but all of it will be in vain if there is no one around to watch it.
For this reason, it is crucial to determine when your followers are most active. You can do this by going on your follower tab of your TikTok Analytics and going down to the “Follower activity” section. You will be able to find information about the times your content is consumed the most, during the day and also during the week.
Once you have this data, you can plan your posts and live sessions accordingly.
If you have accounts on other social media platforms, it is likely for the optimum time to be the same for each app. However, this is not always the case, so it is better to do individual analyses for each social media site.
3. Collaborate with other brands and influencers
We discussed above E.l.f’s strategy to collaborate with Dunkin Donuts and how it worked well to their advantage. You, too, can ask other brands and influencers to co-host a Live with you. It will assist you in reaching a new target audience, generating sales leads, creating awareness of your brand, and bringing an overall excitement to your live streams.
Like e.l.f and Dunkin Donuts, we have examples of more successful collaborations, such as that between Supergoop and TikTok creator Abena Kusi or Mejuri and Paul Kunwoo Lee.
In the latter’s case, Mejuri, the jewelry brand, got splendid results (that are on-going) by collaborating with micro-influencers like Paul Lee.
An affiliate program keeps the partnership running, where the creator makes content that drives sales for the brand and, in turn, gets a commission through them.
However, you don’t always need to bring influencers or reps from other brands into your live stream. You can ask your team members to join and explain their specific tasks in getting the product or service to the users- this will help build connection and familiarity with your clientele.
If you sell something tech-related, you can have your engineers come in and answer any questions about the product. You can also ask the brand owner to come in and share their story about where it all started; this helps the audience to know and feel at home with the brand.
4. Spread the word about your Live on different social platforms
To attend your TikTok live, people first need to know about it.
Create as much awareness of your live stream as possible on different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. You can create an event on Facebook and invite all of your friends. It will be instrumental because Facebook gives periodic reminders to the users of events.
On Instagram, you can post a countdown that will remind the users of the upcoming live stream. You can strategize similarly on Twitter and any other media platform you use.
5. Plan ahead
You need to plan ahead; don’t try to wing it. Often, that won’t work, and you do not want to lose all the following that is pretty difficult to get in the first place.
Try to pick a relevant topic and one that is of interest to your viewers. It is best to ask their opinion on it, see what they would like you to talk about and then go ahead.
You can conduct informal surveys on different social media groups and get an idea of what the people want to hear. It is also an excellent option to observe what your competitors are doing. Don’t copy them entirely; use their content as inspiration, and then make your content that is unique and true to your brand.
Planning also involves ensuring that your live streaming spot is set up perfectly. The lighting, the audio, and seating arrangement should be in place before the live stream begins. It is a good idea to do light and audio checks multiple times to run smoothly at the time of streaming.
6. Add a CTA to the Live session.
At the end of your live stream, don’t forget to give a call to action.
Remind the viewers why you started the live stream, and right before you end the stream, direct the users back to your main objective.
Drop down any links to relevant products on your website that you discussed during the session.
Make sure that your CTA is compelling. A good CTA can be fun, perhaps makes a pop culture reference, is stimulating, and inspiring.
Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke with” is an example of a good CTA.
7. Engage with followers in real-time by reading and answering comments
This is a no-brainer; you must engage with your followers while doing a TikTok live to keep them interested.
Read the messages they are dropping, thank them for any compliments, and answer if they have any queries. Make your followers feel seen and heard, and give them respect- you will realize that good behavior, more than anything else, creates customers for lifetime.
8. Write a high-converting caption for the Live session
To get maximum viewers, write a high-converting caption.
Capture the users’ attention by using emojis, exclamation marks, and capital letters in the hook of your caption. After grabbing their interest, you should write about something interesting to them to keep them invested.
Then, create a desire for your product/service’s live stream, and then call them to action.
9. Give followers a reason to attend
Why would you or I want to attend a live stream when we have all the needed information on the page?
Valid question, right?
No one will want to attend a live stream, or any event, if there isn’t anything in it for them. So you will have to make Live valuable for the users by offering something to them.
You could announce a giveaway at the end of the session to one (or more) of your viewers. It will motivate them to attend your session.
Or you can make it interesting for them by presenting the live stream as an opportunity to get all their queries regarding the product or service answered.
In the same way, you can create live tutorials that explain how to use a product or showcase a service. Lastly, you can offer exclusive content unavailable, such as discount codes and free delivery.
10. Follow up with attendees.
When done with the live stream, create a post-live post on TikTok and any other social media platforms where you previously advertised for the Live.
Give a summary of what you discussed, who attended, and what was given in the live stream. The summary must be short, fun, and exciting to keep the viewers engaged. Show them a glimpse of what your streams are like and how much fun they will have if they attend future sessions.
Conclusion
Real time marketing and live streaming are at an all time high right now. Brands are experimenting with it, the audience enjoys watching them’.
If you still haven’t jumped on the TikTok Live bandwagon, now’s the time to dive in.
