If you are not using video in your lead generation strategy, now is a good time to take a closer look at this channel. Used as part of a multi-channel approach, video offers a way to connect to potential leads on a deeper level. Video can help to build trust, encourage interaction, inspire action, and promote your offer in a far more effective way than images and text.
Using Video in Your Lead Generation Strategy
How do you use video to get the most from this channel? How can you be sure that your videos are helping your lead generation efforts? What should you avoid? Just like any other digital marketing strategy, video required a fair bit of thought and planning to ensure that it brings you the results you are after. Keep reading to find out how to get the most from your videos.
In this guide, we delve into the world of video to see how to use it in your lead generation campaigns. For best results, try these tips to get started:
1. Plan carefully
That means knowing your target audience and tailoring your video to that audience. Trying to appeal to an overly broad audience will not have the same effect as targeting your niche demographic. Buyer personas are always a good idea during the planning stage to make sure that you stay on track. This will avoid losing your viewers before they have finished watching the video.
Preparation also means planning the video itself, long in advance. Simply putting together a homemade video that has no real purpose or plot is not the same as planning and executing a well-thought-out video that has a clear purpose. This is why it is important to first consider your primary goal for the video. Are you aiming to educate viewers on your core offer? Are you doing a demonstration to highlight the core benefits? Are you selling the experience with a video that promotes the offer’s ability to solve viewer problems? Once you have a purpose in mind, it will be much easier to plan out your video.
2. Use wisely
On a similar note, you should think very carefully about why you want to add video to your lead generation strategy in the first place. Over and beyond your video’s primary purposes, why do you think that video is a good choice? What makes your video worth watching? What can your audience get that they can’t get from similar videos? Are you providing genuinely useful content or are you rehashing ideas that can be found anywhere?
Many brands add video because they have heard about the advantages. They assume that video equals clicks equals conversion. Although video certainly plays a vital role in the lead nurturing process, helping to get leads into your lead funnel and nurture them all the way to sales, it is only truly effective when used properly. As we mentioned above, throwing together a video for the sake of it is never wise. Adding video to jump onto the bandwagon is never advised, either.
3. Position smartly
You’ll also want to think about where to use your videos, along with why and how to use video. Will you be adding videos to your home page? Will you use them on landing pages to showcase your core offer? Will you add to blog content or social media pages to direct traffic to your landing pages?
Then, think about where on your pages you will position the video. Will you keep text down to a minimum and focus entirely on the video? Will you add a transcript below? Will you position the video above the fold, as a pop-out or below the fold? Testing is an effective way to see which position gets the most views. Heat mapping is another great tool to determine where on the page your video would get the most views.
4. Include CTAs
If your video does not have CTAs, how can you expect viewers to take any sort of action? Just as Calls to Action are essential for lead generation landing pages, forms, and other content pages, they are equally important for video. These will help to highlight your key message. You can add them within the video itself, within the video description or both in the video and the description.
For optimal impact, keep your CTAs simple. Think about your primary goal. Are you encouraging leads to click links in the description for more information? Are you offering a free trial or a lead magnet? Are you offering exclusive access to gated content? Are you encouraging leads to contact you for a quote?
5. Stay on-brand
This can be a challenge when using some third-party video platforms such as YouTube. Others, such as Vimeo, offer a bit more flexibility for personalisation. Whatever platform you are using, the video itself should always be aligned with your brand. That means in tone and core message as well as other elements such as visual branding.
If you are offering a free trial for your online fitness programme, and your brand is light-hearted, inspirational, positive, and simple, a long, overly technical, formal videos will not work for lead nurturing at all. If, on the other hand, your video features before and after pictures, smiling models, a positive tone, and a bit of humour, it will have a far better chance of attracting leads.
6. Improve accessibility
Video is a fairly unique platform in terms of accessibility in that it is both visual and auditory. With that said, many businesses are so focused on the visual aspects that they put little to no thought into the auditory aspects. Overly fast speech, badly synched voice-overs, and scripts that use too many complex or confusing words can all affect accessibility for hearing-impaired viewers. A lack of subtitles can be equally bad if you are aiming to be inclusive.
Likewise, for the visual aspect of videos, accessibility can be improved with audio descriptions. For best results, try and offer a choice of accessibility options and allow viewers to choose the option that works best.
7. Optimise properly
You will also need to optimise your video in other ways, aside from better accessibility. Enhanced user experience is crucial. Slow-loading videos are extremely bad for lead generation conversion, contributing greatly to abandoned videos. Videos that are not optimised for multiple devices will also not be able to compete with those that are fully responsive for mobile, tablet, and computer.
Once again, the best way to ensure that your videos are fully optimised is to test thoroughly. Use testing at every stage of the video implementation process to see how it is viewed across all devices, how fast it loads, whether there are any stops along the way, whether the image and audio are both clear, and whether any improvements are required.
Video for Lead Generation
If planned and executed properly, there is no doubt that video offers a highly effective way to convert leads. Rather than taking the risk of using video without any effort or thought, it is always recommended that you do some planning. Put some thought into your video strategy and you will be able to see first-hand how video can improve your current lead generation efforts.
