Using Video for Lead Generation: 7 Tips For The Best Results

What is Video Lead Generation?

Video lead generation is the use of videos to attract people and gather contact information from those who may be interested in your products or services. That contact information is what’s called a lead in sales.

Videos work the same way as other content types – like blog posts, podcasts, and social media posts – in that they draw the attention of people looking to solve a specific problem they are facing at their homestead, in their business, or in their life in general.

How do you generate leads using a video?

The standard way to generate leads with a video is to publish it as content on your online properties – your blog, product pages, homepage, and on your social media pages.

If you have done your research and the quality is good, you should be able to catch people’s attention as they watch your videos. This gives you the chance to request their contact information. 

The contact information you collect from the people who oblige becomes your leads, the reason being they wouldn’t watch the video unless the content aligns with the problem they are trying to solve.

To collect the contact information, you can embed an email request form in the video, offer a valuable resource in exchange for their email, or you can ‘gate’ the video by asking for an email address before a person can watch.

Opinions differ, but video marketers seem to agree that placing the contact collection form 10 to 20 percent of the way into the video works best. But you can test to find your own sweet spot.

Below we share 7 pro tips on how to generate leads through video content:

7 Tips for Using Video for Lead Generation

According to the latest video marketing stats, more than 81% of businesses put video content at the forefront of their marketing strategy. Marketers also earn at least 66% of their qualified leads through videos.

From all these statistics, one thing is clear: video isn’t only a highly-engaging content format; it’s also an ideal medium to improve your lead gen at every stage of your client’s buyer’s journey.

However, not all videos can bring you qualified leads. You need to create and use them the right way to attract the right profile of potential customer. So, here are seven handy, actionable tips to generate leads using videos.

1 Define and understand your audience

Before you spend a dollar on video production, you need to be sure about who you are creating the video for. By defining your target audience, you’d be able to appeal to them and create a well-tailored, powerful video based on their preferences and behavior.

Therefore, the more you understand your target audience, the higher the chances you’ll get to create engaging, videos that are effective for generating leads.

Understanding your target audience can also help you get a solid grasp of the type of videos that will work best for you to pull more viewers in.

2 Add clear, obvious CTAs (Call to Action)

Crafting a compelling, eye-pleasing video isn’t all you need to get all the leads and sales you are after. The actual content of the video has to be relevant to the viewer – it must address their pain points. 

Importantly, you need to guide your viewers on the steps or actions to take after they watch your video.

What do you want them to do? Do you want them to purchase your product? Or do you want them to visit your website? May be you want them to sign up for your newsletter? 

Unless you tell them directly with your CTA, the viewers will not take the actions you want them to. The CTAs you use depend on the stage of the sales funnel you want to guide the viewers toward.

For instance, if you just launched a new product or service, you can create an explainer video or product demo and put a catchy CTA that links to a downloadable whitepaper or ebook about a user manual or trial offers.

Make sure you use a good video editor to add the CTA or take advantage of professionally designed templates from sites like Envato Elements to ensure this important element is included in the most effective way. Along with basic video editing features, it should have features such as background video removal tools, green screens, thumbnail makers, etc.

3 Leverage the Power of Social Media

More than 3.8 billion people are on social media worldwide. While these all can’t be potential customers for your business, it gives you a perspective on the opportunity that social media offers for lead generation. It shows there are enough of your potential buyers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to add these lead-gen channels.

Creating social media videos shouldn’t only be for the goal that one of them will go viral and thrust your brand into the limelight. It’s also a great medium to engage with your social media following and get them off your social platforms onto your email list.

You can also invest in paid advertising on popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube. These platforms have advanced targeting features that make sure your videos reach the right audiences, which boosts your video lead generation ROI.

4 Add videos to your landing pages

An effective way to generate leads with videos that you should try is embedding relevant videos on your landing pages. Landing pages are crucial pages on your website that nudge prospects one step closer to the sale. 

Landing pages are purposely designed to convert. They tend to look simple with fewer distractions compared to your home page or any promotional pages, and thus are perfect for hosting your videos. The video will help instill confidence and trust in your offer, which convinces the prospect to buy.

You can use a simple, versatile, and straightforward video like an explainer video to add depth to your landing pages and reassure potential customers they are making the right purchase decision.

5 Embed personalized videos on your email campaigns

More than 81% of small businesses still heavily rely on email marketing as their primary customer acquisition channel. So who says email marketing is dead?

However, getting your email opened by the sendee is never smooth sailing. When you’re freshly reaching out to a new lead, it’s so crucial to make your email stand out, get read, and engaged with. And adding video to your emails is great for this.

Embedding videos in emails can increase click rates by 96%. That means the more people click on your emails, the higher your chances to generate leads. 

People generally prefer to watch than read something. So adding a video ensures recipients who would otherwise never read your email fully would get your message from watching the video. All you would need to do is add a CTA to direct them to the next steps.

Here’s an example from Gainsight email marketing that includes stunning video content:

6 Use videos as gated content

Another effective method to get leads with video is by using it as gated content. It means people can only watch the video after they have submitted the information you have requested, typically their names and email address.

For more insights, below is a great example of video as gated content from Wistia:

You can create a pop-up in the middle of the video to collect the viewer’s contact information. It enables you to generate leads from wherever your video gets played.

One thing to bear in mind, though, not everyone is comfortable sharing their personal information in exchange for your videos. Pushing them to give their contact only to continue watching the video can decrease your views drastically.

So, make sure you offer them a choice whether they want to complete the form or just continue watching.

7 Include testimonial videos on your website

It might sound like a simple thing to do, but it’s so powerful. Placing a testimonial video on your website to generate leads is another pro tip you should put to use if you have customers who are willing to share their experience with your product or brand on video.

Customers trust the opinions of people who have bought and used your products more than your own marketing. So they seek out and read online reviews before purchasing a product. 

To express this with a number, the effectiveness rating of customer testimonials is an eye-popping 89%.

In short, if you have not placed a testimonial video on your homepage or product or services page, make it a priority. Take a look at this simple but catchy testimonial page with videos from mHelpDesk:

Creating compelling video testimonials reassures potential customers, and fills information gaps they may still have in an easy-to-digest content format, which builds more trust and confidence in the purchase. 

When prospects trust your brand enough, they are also more willing to complete a form and give you their contact information.

Start Using Video for Generating Leads Today

Using video to generate leads is now a lot simpler, thanks to the proliferation of video creation tools. And between Youtube, social media, and your own website, there is no shortage of places to show and promote your lead-gen videos. 

You don’t have to create Oscar-worthy lead generation videos. As long as you use professional filming and editing tools to ensure decent quality and the content is relevant and compelling, your videos will attract leads. 

Put to use the tips we have shared here for using video for lead generation and we can promise you that both the quality and quantity of the leads you will generate will go gangbusters.