4. Plan Your Show

Set yourself up for success by planning these aspects of your livestream.

Like so many things, planning is critical to the success of your livestreams. There are a few key elements to consider before you go live.

When will you go live?

Understand when your audience is available, and go live during that time. This may mean looking outside of business hours or experimenting with show times until you find something that works.

Once you've settled on a time that works, stick to it. Go live at the same time for every show - whether that's one evening a week or every morning before you start your day. The details depend on your content and what your audience will find relevant. Focus on what is best for them to maximize attendance and engagement.

Tip: Don't forget to update your Shop App card with your show time so your audience knows when they should watch for the notification.

What will you talk about?

You don't need to script out an entire show - in fact doing so may make you seem stiff. But especially for your first few shows you will feel more comfortable if you have an outline of what you want to do or talk about on stream.

Are you inviting any participants?

One way to add interest to your streams is to bring on a co-host or guests. You can have a fireside chat, debate or discuss a product you're featuring, play a game, or divide and conquer by each preparing segments.

These guests may also be able to help you promote your show by inviting their audience to watch.

Participant feeds can be added to the studio by sharing an Invite Link that your guest open in a web browser or the Stage TEN Connect App for iOS. To ensure participant feeds look their best, make sure to send them the Before-You-Go-Live Checklist, and do a Tech Check in advance. When it comes to quality, their device can matter almost as much as the one you use to run the Studio.

Is anyone helping you run your livestream?

Are you planning on using overlays? Featuring or revealing products? Showing media assets like images or videos during your show?

Depending on the complexity of your creative vision, you might want to share the responsibilities for operating your streaming tools, such as:

• Have a Director operate the studio so the host(s) can focus on performing their best.

• Have another person moderate chat and manage your Sale using the Companion App.

Tip: If the host isn't operating the studio, open the Interactive Player on a spare device so they have a monitor to see themselves. Just make sure to turn the volume down so you don't create feedback or echoing.

Promote your show

You've put work into planning your show. Now make sure your audience shows up to watch. This starts well in advance of your first livestream, and can make all the difference in whether you generate any sales in your Live Shopping streams.

We've put together a guide on building a promotion plan and collected some detailed tips and best practices for promoting your show on a variety of social networks.