Watching video online used to be a chore. Now, it’s just a part of internet life, whether we’re watching a two-minute tutorial or binge watching an entire TV series. With that in mind, there’s no reason for your business not to be using video as method of lead generation.
Here are some ways you can include videos in your next inbound marketing campaign.
1. On Social Media
You’ve made a video telling people about your latest product or a great service your company provides. Or maybe you’ve been to a trade show, or hosted a webinar relating to your business.
If you’ve got it on video, what better place to share it than on your social media feeds? Put your videos on your Facebook page and Twitter feed as a way of lead generation by drawing customers back to your home page.
And don’t forget YouTube, and its billions of users. Set up a YouTube channel and tell the story behind your product or service, or educate your customers on how to use them.
The hope is always that your video will go viral, but don’t bank on that driving your lead generation.
A video achieves viral status thanks to a combination of topic, timing and serendipity.
In the words of blogger: “Creating a viral video is a bit like catching a fish… with your hands. It’s slippery and almost impossible, but if you manage it, you’ll feel fantastic.”
2. On Your Landing Page
Visitors to your landing page might find some sort of lead generation form or offer they can download. Instead of text explaining how that works, why not post a video that tells your visitors what they’ll get when they sign up for your service or buy your brand?
This type of video is known as a “conversion video,” a steady and trustworthy form of inbound marketing, aimed at achieving a specific goal. It’s something more and more companies have begun to focus on as their customers value video over text.
Having video on your landing page means customers will spend more time there. That brings your search engine results page authority goes up, which means your ranking on search engines goes up as well.
3. Collect Leads Directly From Videos
There are a number of tools available online that allow you to add email capture to your videos as a quick and easy way of lead generation. Email capture also lets you measure the success of your videos.
Finally, keep these three tips in mind:
- Before you make the video, make sure you have your target audience, strategy and goals clearly in mind.
- Keep it short. Your customers may be willing to watch an hour long TV episode from their computer, but unless your business is HBO, your audience will want the videos on your site to run 60 seconds or less, with a specific, targeted message.
- Issue a strong call to action: “Sign up here,” “Download this” or “Buy now.”
We began by saying that video has gone from being something that could be a chore to watch to just another part of internet life.
In fact, it’s on track to become the biggest part of internet life, with video projected to account for 75 percent of all web traffic by 2017. Your customers will be a part of that wave. Be sure you have something for them to watch.
As inbound video marketing becomes the internet’s dominant form of content, video marketing will become a key tool for lead generation.
