Using Video Marketing for Generating Leads

There are many different ways of generating leads. Starting from conducting email campaigns to writing blogs, all of the tactics have their pros and cons. However, one method of lead generation is slowly making it into mainstream – video marketing.

Is Video Marketing Worth It?

Many marketers refrain from leveraging video marketing as it requires resources, money, and time. You can write a blog post from the convenience of your living room. But when it comes to making good video content, you need a set, some props, lighting gadgets, and a microphone to capture the audio.

This is not all; after you are done shooting the video, you have to run it through the post-production phase, where you edit the video, cut, and paste certain parts, add effects, and finally render the finished video.

But is the hard work worth it? Yes, of course. According to a recent survey, video marketing can produce 66% more leads than any other form of content marketing.

In another survey, it was found that digital marketers consider video marketing to be 83% more effective than blogs.

So, it isn’t a question about whether you should start video marketing; instead, the question is, when and how should you start video marketing?

What is Video Content Marketing

Just like any other form of content marketing, the purpose of video marketing is to raise awareness about a product and educate its target prospects about a certain product, workflow, or company.

When it comes to selecting distribution channels for your video content, you always have YouTube. There are other video hosting services as well, such as Vimeo.

Many marketers embed videos in emails they send to their leads. As people have a low attention span, you can deliver a message quickly and more effectively using video content.

Video content can also take the form of live video, webinars, course material, and self-hosted video.

Video content works perfectly for both B2B and B2C sales strategies. However, the success of video in your B2C and B2B email marketing campaigns will often depend on the quality of your email lists.

Ideally, you should wait for the prospects to share their emails voluntarily — over your website contact form. But, you can always speed this process up by using contact databases such as SignalHire. This tool will give you access to millions of verified emails across multiple industries. The trick is to figure out your target audience and bulk search the database using relevant parameters.

You do not always have to create full-length videos. Social platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube let users share short videos as their stories. The production cost of such videos is not that high.

Getting Started with Video Content Marketing

The first thing you have to understand is, proper research and background study are the keys to running a successful video content marketing strategy. Think about TV commercials. No marketer will spend money to buy air-time unless they are sure that it will generate necessary results.

Maybe you want to increase his sales or raise awareness about a new feature upgrade. Whatever the purpose is, marketers need to understand why they are making video content and why they should put effort into developing a well-crafted distribution strategy.

Crafting a Video Marketing Strategy

The first step involved in developing a marketing strategy is to set your goals. As a rule of thumb, you should put in the effort to make a separate video for every separate step of your marketing funnel. However, you can always prioritize. This means you should start with video marketing campaigns that will bring the best results. 

Get Ready to Offer Solutions to Your Prospect’s Challenges

You will have a good portion of your target segment that still lacks awareness regarding your product. For prospects at this stage of your marketing funnel, you need to focus on breaking their misconceptions, introducing new concepts, and consolidating that info.

You should also include a portion in your video documenting the exact problem that your target audience faces every day and for which they need a proper solution. Your purpose in this stage is to make the viewers start thinking about how they can solve the problem they are faced with.

In the last segment of your video, you want your target market to decide which product they will purchase. Do not think your prospect will pick you over the competition just because they saw your marketing video first. This is a faulty assumption. A big part of the purchasing journey of every customer is comparing different products against each other.

Identify your Target Segment

Do not make generic videos that appeal to every tier of your target market segment. The key here is to categorize your target market based on different criteria such as demographics, purchasing behavior, age, gender, location, annual income, and so on. The more specific you can get, the better. Remember, if you do not pick a target audience, your marketing video will fail to grab your prospects’ attention and will not deliver your message.

You can also profile your target market segment during the product development phase. Every R&D department creates a customer profile at the initial phase when it first starts to put together its product and service features. Ask your marketing team to collaborate with your R&D department if they need assistance.

Still, complex products may have more than one market segment, and it is crucial to address different market tiers when promoting different aspects of your product and services. Often, you may send one video email to just several people, but if those messages are properly personalized, the results will usually be worth the effort. If you do not have your top prospects’ contact data, 450+ million verified SignalHire profiles could help you find the necessary info.

Tell a Story with your Video

To many marketers, crafting a story and sharing it using just the right visuals is the key. And if you think about it, your entire video will appear useless unless you tell a story. A well-crafted story binds all the other elements in a video.

If you pick a protagonist or a narrator for your video, you should go with someone who resonates with the message you are trying to deliver to your target market. Do not pick someone who looks and sounds completely different from your target audience. There should be similarities in demographic characteristics.

Other important elements of video content are struggling/conflict, quest, and resolution. There should be a conflict in your story which the protagonist will resolve. You should not just jump into the solution right after describing the conflict. Rather, you should introduce a journey. Most importantly, you should show this journey for the message to sink in.

And finally, your video content should end at a triumph point. Show victory, and try to end your video on a good note. 

You should use music and narration if that helps with telling a story. Also, always try to generate a certain emotional response from your viewers. Unless you can stimulate your audience, you cannot expect to have a strong impact.

All in all, video marketing is a very effective channel of lead generation, and if you put enough effort into it, the results will not disappoint.