According to Invodo research, 90% of consumers watch online video. Businesses around the globe have been utilising this now integral part of marketing to generate leads and increase exposure. Here are some tactics to make most of your online video efforts.
Using the appropriate video sharing website
Whilst there are a number of video hosting services available, YouTube is one of the most widely used and trusted (Vimeo and Wistia are other well known video hosting services). Setting up an account is simple (and necessary for the purposes of generating leads for your business).
In addition, your YouTube account can be set up in tandem with other social media networks, increasing the possibility of exposure. View counters on videos can give a good idea as to how well your marketing is working.
Consumers are much more likely to finish a video than read an article, so it’s a good idea to embed relevant video content alongside written articles/information to ensure a better audience understanding.
Video Content
Setting up and uploading your videos is the easy part, what’s truly important is the content of your videos. These days consumers are bombarded with video and it’s important to set yourself apart from the crowd and present a meaningful experience.
Ensure the content of your videos is well prepared. Be direct, address the viewer and always keep your key personas in mind when producing and delivering information. Videos should be short and to the point. Always be sure to end videos with a call to action and/or a link to a landing page.
Whilst high production values are useful, it’s not necessary to go all-out. Go for good, indoor lighting, a still camera and simplicity in order to not overwhelm users. What users are watching your video for is the content – keep the focus on that, and not excessive production.
Lead Generation
Since video content has a higher consumption rate than comparable written content, there is a greater possibility of concrete lead generation. With the technologies available in online video, it’s possible to generate a lead at any point during the consumption of your content.
The simplest and most effective method is achieved by including video at the front/start of any landing pages you use. By framing video as the first thing users see on a page, they are more likely to garner an interest in your services, respond to the calls to action in your video (and hopefully further down the landing page) and possibly generate a lead (60% of people prefer watching video to reading text).
Another simple method is through an email gate around your videos - either at the beginning; placed before allowing access to an article containing the video etc, during (through the Elcom and YouTube’s ‘annotation’ services) or at the end of a video. Links to your articles or posts sent from other avenues can be locked off until an email address is entered, upon which the video is revealed. Try to keep up a standard of quality to provide an incentive to pass through the gate!
YouTube’s annotation system (mentioned above) allows in-video links to other pages. Well-placed annotation links in your videos can draw viewers back to other content on your social media platforms or draw viewers back to your website, blog posts or a landing page. As noted above, ensure your annotations retain the quality of your videos! Try to place them as to not obfuscate the content. Follow YouTube’s guide to add external links to annotations.
If the content of your videos are compelling enough, these in-video links are a powerful way of moving engaged audiences to opt-in to your services.
These calls to action should be used to direct consumers towards surveys or a landing page where details can be collected and leads generated. To encourage consumer participation, try to make any gates require as little user information as possible – a simple form requiring just email can begin the lead generation process.
Social Media
Make sure to attach any video content to your social media accounts! Updating your articles and posts with videos can draw in new audiences and paint a better picture of what your business offers to consumers. By the way, be sure to subscribe to the Elcom YouTube channel here.
Thanks to the power of social media, videos have become an even more powerful tool for lead generation. If someone finds the content of your videos interesting, they can share it on their own accounts, thereby opening up a new market that may have gone undiscovered. Additionally, unlike copy-pasting segments of articles or simple word of mouth exposure, as your videos travel across the web they keep their lead generation abilities intact – CTAs or other links are left embedded in the video for new audiences to encounter and act upon.
If you’re thinking of integrating your video content with social media, it might be worthwhile to upload separate video to Facebook’s own video service. Since studies have shown that their service improves consumer engagement, it brings us to our next point:
Brand Building
Alongside social media integration is the concept of brand building. When updating your video content, ensure you push your brand as much as possible (show a non-obtrusive brand logo in every video, highlight your brand in the end-video call to action etc.). Posts including videos have a 25% higher engagement rate in social media (as seen in Adobe’s studies), and if the content is good, it will foster engagement (sharing, liking, more exposure) and create a sense of familiarity and trust alongside your brand name.
When you put out your calls to action (CTAs), offers and/or any links to your services, more clicks are guaranteed thanks to the leads you’ve generated via these methods of encouraging high engagement.
Experiment with these ideas and let know us if you see any improvement to your lead generation!