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How To Optimize Your Video Marketing For Lead Generation

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By Michael Litt, CEO,
Vidyard

Modern marketers creating content already know the importance of using video to influence B2B purchasing decisions; now it’s a matter of using video to its full potential and understanding how it connects to lead generation and nurturing efforts.  

With 80% of Demand Gen survey respondents citing that they prefer interactive content, it’s no surprise that by 2017, video will make up 69% of all consumer internet traffic. There’s just no denying the demand for easily consumable content that’s engaging to watch.

Popularity aside, there’s still the question of whether marketers are using video effectively.


Sure, you can create video assets, but they have to inspire action or a purchase to add to the bottom line. In other words, just because 6,000 people watched your video, it doesn’t mean it’s working to deliver ROI.

That said, it’s possible to optimize your content and enable your sales team with increasingly qualified leads generated as a direct result of your video marketing. With some easy-to-implement techniques, you can collect lead data at several points in the viewing cycle and gain powerful insight about your customer’s behavior.

Here are some practical ways to get started:

Add an email gate to video content

One of the fastest ways to capture data from viewers is to gate your video content. In the same way you can use a form to gate white paper content, asking for an email address before content playback allows you to collect information as soon as a lead engages with your video.

The value of this contact information becomes available when you start to monitor how viewers interact with your videos. Once you attach identity to viewership, you can easily match contact information with resulting video analytics or attention span data your video marketing platform should deliver.

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For example, when taking a look at your video analytics, if you notice that your new contact, “Jeff from Marketing XYZ,” has watched four videos in their entirety about your services, chances are Jeff’s engaged, actively looking for more information and would likely respond well to a call from your sales team. Moreover, with a video marketing platform, your sales team has access to Jeff’s viewing history and knows exactly what to talk to him about on their call.

You’ll want to be careful with the types of videos you choose to gate, as people are selective about providing their contact information. You also don’t necessarily want to gate top-of-the-funnel video content, but mid-funnel content — such as a detailed product demo — is fair game as you’ll want to know who’s engaged at this stage and leads at this point are raising their hand.

Build a content journey with calls to action

Even if you’ve created an amazing video, you’re missing a huge opportunity if you let viewers drop off when it’s all over. YouTube and Vimeo both offer “suggested content” after videos end and if you don’t get your viewers hooked with another piece of your content right away, you run the risk that they’ll be distracted and completely forget about you.

That’s why, when your audience is most engaged, you’ll want to include a clear call to action at a strategic point in your video to direct viewers to related, targeted content. Consider the parts of the sales funnel you want to guide the customer through and develop a corresponding content journey for your leads to complete.

For example, if someone just watched your explainer video, the call to action at the end might lead to a product tour. Then, after that product tour, you can prompt a download of your company’s white paper or another video about setting up a trial; each piece of content leading consciously to the next.

Overall, you’ll want to:

  • Be direct with your language (“Start a trial today!”);
  • Use careful wording to promote a sense of urgency; and
  • Keep viewers on a defined content track that mimics and supports the buying process.

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Connect your video data to your marketing automation platform

When it comes to marketing automation and video content, it’s all about follow up. Specifically, it’s about targeted, personalized follow up that speaks to a lead’s demonstrated interest.

After you’ve generated leads with video, you can look at what content they’re engaging with and create custom email communication to send focused on their specific interests.

That is to say, if a lead views a long product demo, or watches a lot of your content in a short period of time, you should act promptly with an email introducing them to someone on your sales team or offering them even more content that is of interest. By establishing this type of automated nurturing based on video content, you’ll be able to segment and score leads more effectively.

Overall, by amplifying your videos with these techniques and tracking your viewers’ digital body language, you’ll be able to start using your video assets strategically to drive sales.

 

 

Michael Litt is CEO and Co-Founder of Vidyard, a video marketing platform helping marketers measure the impact of their video content. Thought leader, surfer, and serial entrepreneur, Michael is passionate about content marketing and changing the way we engage and purchase with video. Chat with Michael on Twitter@MichaelLitt or LinkedIn to learn more.

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