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According to Cisco, almost 80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2019 will involve video. This means that there’s a huge demand for video content among Internet users, and companies that fail to adopt video into their marketing and lead generation strategies may be left behind in the near future.
Also, there is a lot of useful information that can be gained from video marketing if you have the tools to track it. Looking at how users interact with your videos will allow you to see what type of content and topics are important to them.
Using Video Marketing for Lead Generation
Before you start shooting video or contacting video creation firms, it’s important to create a detailed video marketing plan. Some questions to ask include:
- What is the ultimate goal of your campaign?
- How will videos help achieve that goal?
- Who’s your target audience?
- What types of videos will be most beneficial?
- Where will the videos be posted?
- How will you track their performance?
There are many different types of videos that can be used, depending on what you wish to accomplish. For instance, you can use videos to provide an overview of your company or demonstrations of a new product. Video testimonials can be used to build consumer trust. You can also use explainer videos to provide more in-depth information on your services and products, or to describe how your product or service fills a potential customer’s specific needs. The different video options provided by Forward Vision include:
- Live Action
- Live Action Animation
- Motion Graphics Animation
- Advanced Hand-Crafted Animation
- Standard Hand-Crafted Animation
To get the most out of your video content, you also need to be sure that your videos are high quality and have a tone that represents the spirit of your business. Things such as music, humor, video length, and onscreen and voiceover talent are all important considerations that can impact how your videos are received by viewers.
Once your videos are created, you have to get them in front of potential partners. YouTube is the go-to platform for video, and creating a company YouTube channel filled with great videos that all link back to your site in the descriptions can be very powerful for lead generation. After all, YouTube is considered by some to be the second largest search engine behind Google.
Videos should also be posted on multiple social platforms – especially Facebook, where video posts get more organic reach than any other post type. If you’re running an AdWords campaign, videos can be a powerful persuasive element on your landing pages. Lastly, you can put your most informative or “premium” videos on your website behind an email capture to garner leads and expand your email list.
Tracking Video Performance
According to a Demand Metric survey:
- Only 15 percent of companies have integrated video viewing data in their marketing automation systems.
- However, 70 percent of respondents agreed that video engagement data is effective as a business opportunity indicator or quality lead.
- The most common video types are explainer and product feature videos.
- Seventy-two percent of respondents are using only basic measures of video content effectiveness – which means there is no way to determine ROI accurately.
- Fifty percent say that the ROI of video is getting better.
Video is an aspect of marketing that benefits from tracking the right metrics and acting on the data collected. The beauty of video is that whenever someone hits the play button, you can see exactly what he or she viewed. You can see if the individual watched the entire video or turned it off after five seconds. Perhaps someone went back and watched a certain segment again. All of that video engagement data gives you powerful insight.
Then, you can take that data and feed it into your marketing automation platform. Add in information from other sources, such as users’ order history, landing page views, contact information and more. Once you pull those separate pieces of data together, you will gain a clear picture of your prospects, where they are in your sales funnel, and how they interact with your various marketing channels. You will be able to approach those prospects at the right time with the right content.
Tools for Video Marketing
There are hundreds of tools to help you with creating engaging videos that will convey your marketing message. Here are a couple to help you get started:
- VideoScribe – VideoScribe is an online tool that will help you create whiteboard style animation. You can add your own branding, voiceovers and artwork.
- HubSpot – HubSpot has a number of video marketing automation capabilities and features that allow you to build automated workflows around your goals. It is a comprehensive tool for marketing automation.
- Viewbix – Viewbix is an impressive video marketing tool that will create a video in three steps, complete with call-to-action buttons. This interactive video can then be uploaded to Twitter and Facebook, and you can see what is working and what is not through their actionable analytics.