We recently came back from the INBOUND 2016 Conference in Boston, MA. While our head is still spinning from everything we heard, learned, saw and discussed, we did walk away with a pretty great take-away that was a confirmation to the direction we think our company and clients should begin diving into. That take-away was video marketing for lead generation.
Video marketing was discussed in many of the breakout sessions. They taught how to add it to your agency's services and why you should be doing video marketing for yourself and your clients. Here were some of the things we learned about using video as a means of lead generation:
It’s a fact that not everyone digests information the same way. For example, some of us are more of a hands-on learner. In order for those people to really grasp something, they need to experience it firsthand. They have trouble reading a whitepaper and getting the same ideas and conclusions as others would if they were watching an instructional video. That being said, your marketing tactics should allow for all types of learners to come to your website and get information in a way that lets them absorb the information best.
Sure, video adds a visual component to a boring web page or landing page—but if the video doesn’t produce the goal you had in mind, then it really was just a waste of time and money. Honestly, we are amazed at how many businesses focus so much on the vanity of their website and collateral but put zero thought into the ROI. In this super important planning phase, you need to decide if you want a video to help with:
You know what’s worse than reading a really bad whitepaper, filled with chest-beating promos and sales pitches? A video that does the same thing! We can’t stress enough that your video needs to be short (no longer than 90 seconds), to the point, highly focused, solving a pain point of some sort, and with a call-to-action at the end.
Another tip is to make sure that not only the content of your video is great, but also that it can pull at an emotional heartstring. This is why the most shared videos on the Internet are either funny, sad, inspirational, or helpful. This is also why I have seen that video of the cat trying to jump on the windowsill but falling short about a million times and in a million places—people love watching and sharing something that made them FEEL something. Apply that to your video for marketing, the formula will work! Here are some ideas of types of videos you could use for lead generation:
Let’s say you made this great informational video, a how-to clip, or you turned a blog topic into a video. Let’s say that great video gets shared and watched and begins to produce more traffic. Are you going to let all of those precious and potential leads fall off your site? The best and easiest way to give your viewer more value to your video is by adding a relevant call-to-action at the end. Whether you want them to subscribe to your blog, download a premium content offer, or contact your company for more information, make sure you easily give the viewer the next logical step in nurturing them, or you might lose the opportunity to convert or engage more with that person.
For a contractor, they always say there is less damage control to do if one measures twice, cuts once. We think the same message could be applied to your video marketing. You must be able to measure the return on your investment because video typically takes more resources to produce than other types of content. So if you don’t measure, how will you know whether it’s worth making another video? There are different kinds of tools that can help in measuring the success of your video like YouTube, Wistia, tracking URLs. No matter what tools you use to measure, here are some stats your team should be monitoring post-production:
We are excited to keep going down this path, and happy that a lot of my research and discussions have led to the conclusion that video is possible for lead generation and it can also be successful.
We would love to hear what types of marketing video content you enjoy watching. Leave a comment in the area below!
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