If you’re looking for a video marketing guide, you’re not the only one. There are still some brands that haven’t gotten on board with video marketing – despite knowing its value – and the ones who have been are looking to build a more robust commercial video strategy.
Videos are naturally more engaging because people are visual. Still, if your video marketing strategy isn’t up to par and you’re still not generating leads, it could use some revamping.
Video Marketing for Lead Generation
According to CISCO, between 2018 and 2023, 82% of internet traffic came from video viewing or downloading. About 68% of customers prefer watching video content to reading articles, and 83% of marketers say videos help with lead generation.
If you aren’t using videos in your lead generation strategy, it’s a great time to start. Videos can help your lead generation by:
- Boosting social engagement: Videos are easy to consume, especially on social media. When you include social media video marketing in your overall marketing strategy, you can reach your target audience and boost engagement significantly.
- Improve SEO: Video content adds more value to your pages by improving bounce rates and exits. Google also prioritizes video content.
- Build brand trust: Videos sharing tutorials, customer testimonials, case studies, and behind-the-scenes content help users get to know your brand, boosting their confidence and trust.
- Increase conversions: Most people don’t have the attention span for long articles, especially on complex topics. Videos make this information more digestible and help users make the decision to purchase or subscribe.
Best Video Types for Lead Generation
Video is important, but you can’t just point and shoot to gain leads. It’s important to adopt a solid strategy, just like any other marketing initiative.
Here are some video types that work well for lead generation:
Live Videos
Social media platforms often have alerts when a user or page does a live video. These types of videos attract more people and can be used to build a brand reputation. Because they happen in real time, these videos trigger them into engaging with your brand. People also have an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback about products and services.
Explainer Videos
Why are you in business? Surprisingly, it’s not to make money. While turning a profit is a goal, you’re really in business to solve a problem. Customers buy the “why.”
Explainer videos are a great way to put your “why” out there. They aim to sell a concept by explaining how a product or service makes a difference in a customer’s life in context. If you provide enough information and explain why your prospects should be interested, you’ve captured their attention.
Product Demo Videos
If you have a complicated product or service, particularly in the B2B market, product demo videos help build awareness and interest with your audience. With these videos, you’re demonstrating some possible uses for your product or service and showcasing how it solves their pain points.
Brand Awareness Videos
Rather than promoting a product or service, a brand awareness video simply showcases your brand and helps people learn more about who you are and what you do. Often, these videos use storytelling to humanize their brands and evoke emotions.
For example, you can create a video that tells your audience how you got started, what problems you’re solving, and how you’re solving them.
Tutorial Videos
Similar to a product demo, tutorials show your audience how to solve multiple problems and make the best use of the product or service. Ultimately, they’re buying your solution – not your product itself.
Explaining the nuances of your product or service in written content can be challenging, especially if you don’t have images to go along with it. Producing a tutorial video is a great alternative that helps to put your product in real-world scenarios.
Testimonial Videos
Customer stories and testimonials have the same appeal to people as word-of-mouth recommendations. They’re more likely to trust a real-life customer than a brand selling itself. Reviews done with video offer an authentic spin on your product and build trust.
FAQ Videos
No matter the product or service you sell, your customers probably have questions – often a lot of the same questions. If you create an FAQ video, your audience will not only get answers to their pressing questions but realize that you are there for your customers, not just in it to make a sale.
How to Leverage Video Marketing for Lead Generation
Leads are important for keeping your business going. Videos can be an excellent source of high-quality leads at different stages of the marketing funnel. Here are some practical ways to use videos for lead generation:
Embed Videos in Your Landing Pages
Landing pages are often a significant touchpoint for your customers. They get an overview of your product on a page that’s optimized for conversion. If you add a product demo video or testimonial to your landing page, it will grab your visitor’s attention and keep them on your page longer.
Create Gated Video Content
Content gating is creating a “lock” for your content. To access it, your visitors must complete an action – usually signing up for an email list or providing contact information. This can be a valuable tool for boosting lead generation, which is why about 80% of B2B content is gated.
Keep in mind that you shouldn’t gate all your video content. If you do, you will likely turn many visitors off and tank your SEO. Make sure any gated video content is valuable enough to earn that email signup or information exchange.
Offer Free Resources
When a brand offers the right solutions, people naturally engage. While you can leave the in-depth tutorials for gated content, shorter, simpler tutorials should be offered for free to help your visitors learn more about what you have to offer. In addition, it showcases your expertise in your industry.
Creating free how-to videos shows that you want your customers to get the most out of your products or services. Even if they haven’t purchased yet, they’re more likely to choose what you have to offer because it’s familiar and valuable to them.
It’s important that you understand what your audience needs help with. You can do so with some keyword research about what your audience is looking for or asking your current customers.
Produce Video Case Studies
Case studies are a vital component of the late-stage buyer’s journey, especially for B2B brands. They come from real user experiences and offer in-depth details and quantitative data demonstrating how your product helped a real-life customer.
This content can be dry, however. If you put a case study in a video format with a catchy intro, you can capture the attention of portions of your audience that may skim over a case study.
Leverage Social Media
Videos tend to perform well on all social media platforms. Just look at the success of a platform like TikTok, which is entirely short-form video. There’s no shortage of likes, comments, and shares because people are naturally drawn to videos more than other types of content.
The major social media platforms also offer tools for advertising and targeting an audience based on their interests. This way, you can reach the right audience to promote your product, service, or brand.
Sharing videos on social media will boost your reach. Your videos may even go viral.
Produce Video Content for YouTube
If you’re not using YouTube for lead generation, you’re missing out on a lot of potential leads. This platform has exceptional tools for lead generation, including end screens and cards that drive your audience to other videos and encourage subscribing.
That said, YouTube is filled with high-performing videos, so standing out can be challenging. Your video should be creative and engaging, optimized for the platform search, and designed to hold the audience’s attention.
Nurture Your Video Leads
Once you have leads, don’t leave them behind. Your leads opted-in because they’re interested in what you have to offer, so make sure to follow up with them.
Start interacting with your audience regularly and nurture them through the funnel. It’s important to get to them at the right time and with the right message to encourage a purchase. Segment and nurture your leads and send them promotional emails or newsletters on a regular basis.
Check Progress
Like any type of marketing, it’s crucial that you check in with your video campaigns and ensure that they’re performing as expected. Most social media platforms offer advanced analytics to break down what’s working – and what isn’t – for your campaigns, so use these insights to inform your future campaign plans.
Generate Quality Leads with Video Marketing
Videos are more engaging and entertaining than other types of content, which is why so many people consume videos on a regular basis. It’s too good of an opportunity for businesses to miss out on, especially if you’re looking to generate more leads. Plan your video marketing strategy carefully and you can reap the benefits of this new and popular content type.
