Why use Live Engagement for business?

Live engagement techniques are extremely popular among customers. The data shows that adopting these methods is a sure-fire way to delight your audience, increase engagement, and grow your brand.

Let’s take a look at the stats supporting some key live engagement techniques.

Live videos

Live video content is an extremely effective way to connect with customers in a way they consistently love. Video has always been a popular medium, and combining it with real-time interaction has proven to be a big hit.

• 80% of consumers prefer to watch live videos from a brand than read a blog
• In 2019, internet users watched a total of 1.1 billion hours of life video
• The online live streaming industry has grown by 99% between April 2019 and April 2020

Chatbots

Chatbots are developing at a rapid rate. It wasn’t long ago that they were fairly basic, limited to answering simplistic questions, and essentially functioning as glorified FAQs.

Today’s chatbots are much more advanced, capable of walking customers through fairly complex procedures, handling the bulk of the sales process, and handing users to real staff to complete a transaction.

57% of businesses now agree that chatbots deliver a large ROI with minimal effort, making them almost a no-brainer for brands.

And — perhaps surprisingly — the popularity of chatbots spans all generations. It might not be shocking to learn that 70% of Millenials report positive experiences with chatbots, but baby boomers also seem to like them.

Real-time marketing works

Engaging with your audience in real-time is clearly a successful approach. 85% of respondents in one survey said providing experiences that are responsive to customers based on real-time, in-the-moment behaviors is fundamental, significant, or important to their future business.

And marketers in the UK reported a 26% increase in conversion rates from real-time marketing. It’s clear that there’s a big demand for this kind of immediate, dynamic interaction between brands and their followers, and that’s reflected in the bottom line of companies that can deliver this.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also had a major impact on how customers want to interact with brands — driving more demand for real-time marketing. Here are some stats to highlight this trend:

• 75% of consumers have changed their shopping behavior in response to economic pressures, store closings, and changing priorities
• 20% of those consumers that have changed their shopping behavior have tried a new digital shopping method.
• 80% of those consumers that have tried a new digital shopping method will continue to use it in the future.
  McKinsey, 2020

So how can you build real-time marketing and live engagement into your sales and marketing process, reaping all the above rewards and many more?