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Despite the ascendancy of social media, email marketing is still one of the best ways for businesses to create new customer connections. That’s because people opt-in for email marketing. Whether they’ve signed up through a physical or online mailing list or clicked a link in a Facebook video, people on your email list want to hear from you. As a result, direct email marketing gets a higher response rate than any other form of advertising, including social media, text messages, and telemarketing combined.
But how do you get people on your email list in the first place? We’ll show you how to harness the power of Facebook with these key points:
Get leads with targeted Facebook video ads
How to create video lead ads for Facebook
Adding lead links to your Facebook videos
How to create a great landing page
Harness the power of Facebook
Facebook advertising is one of the most powerful ways to get your message out to people.
With more than 2.4 billion monthly users, Facebook is the world’s most popular social media platform – and that means your target audience is bound to be there. On top of that, Facebook ads are very cost-effective and can be narrowly targeted to reach the most promising demographics.
So, Facebook advertising is a great way to get new eyes on your business. The next step is to encourage users to give you their emails, and the best way to do that is with a lead magnet such as a special offer, free ebook, or even a broader benefits package for subscribing.
Your lead magnet can be a text or image post but if you want the best results, you should use video.
Get leads with targeted Facebook video ads
Targeted Facebook video lead ads are the ideal way to build your email list for a number of reasons:
Online video is incredibly popular. In 2016, online video accounted for 67% of all internet traffic – by 2021 that will rise to 80%.
Video posts on Facebook have 135% more organic reach than photos.
Facebook videos get 4 times the engagement of YouTube videos, and 60% more than all other online video platforms combined!
Facebook lead ads allow users to sign up to your mailing list from within the video itself.
Video allows you to communicate the value of your offer in a direct and engaging way.
How to create video lead ads for Facebook
The first step when creating a video lead ad for Facebook is to choose your lead magnet. The magnet may be the video itself. For example, if you own a bakery and create recipe videos, you could make a video for a popular seasonal cake with the option to sign up to receive more via email.
Other great lead magnets can be:
A free trial of an online service
Access to a discount code on sign-up
A free download of an e-book
A VIP pass to a store opening or exclusive event
The key is to provide something that is valuable to your target demographic but doesn’t cost too much to offer up-front. Once you have a potential customer on your email list, you can begin to nurture the relationship that will lead to purchases down the track.
Once you know what your video ad will be about, it’s time to create it. There are a few basic principles you should follow to make your video effective:
Stick to a short script – 2 minutes or less – to give you the best chance of holding viewers’ attention to the end.
Open your video with movement or engaging text; many videos on Facebook are viewed without sound so you need to engage users visually.
Lead with the hook – your giveaway or special deal – then follow up with good information or a successful client story to keep people watching.
End with a clear call-to-action inviting users to provide their email to get the deal.
If you want to create your video as quickly and easily as possible, try this Facebook ad maker. It provides you with stylish templates tailored to Facebook video specifications, so all you need to do is customise the text and images then download your finished video.
Adding lead links to your Facebook videos
Once you’ve created your video, it’s time to create a Facebook lead campaign around it. Here’s how to get it set up:
1. Set-up your ad campaign
To get started, log into your Facebook Business Manager account and create a new lead generation campaign inside your Power Editor.
2. Set the parameters
Navigate to your Ad Sets inside the new campaign and select the Facebook page connected to the lead ad. Next, choose your budget and tailor the audience, scheduling, and placement for the ad.
3. Create the video lead ad
Now navigate to the ad and get all the details looking the way you want them. You can add a headline, descriptive text, video URL and link description. Then scroll down, select the ‘video’ option and upload your video lead ad.
4. Upload thumbnail and subtitles
Make sure you upload an eye-catching custom thumbnail to grab the attention of Facebook users who have disabled auto-play for videos. It’s also a great idea to create and upload a subtitles file to ensure your video can be watched and understood without sound.
5. Choose the information you want to gather
Aside from collecting users’ email addresses, you can opt to collect a range of contact, demographic, and work information:
This is the information users will be invited to provide at the end of the video in order to cash in on the promise of the lead magnet. Click all the fields that will be most important to your business and then click ‘Next’.
6. Provide privacy policy
Because you’re collecting personal information, you’ll need to provide a link to your company’s privacy policy for users to review before signing up. Make sure you don’t do anything with their information that isn’t covered in that form!
7. Connect your video to a landing page
Finally, provide a link to direct users to if they click ‘visit website’. This should be a customised landing page related to your lead magnet. Your landing page will also invite users to provide their emails, giving you another chance to gain leads from those who didn’t fill out the lead ad form.
How to create a great landing page for email leads
It’s essential you create a great landing page to boost your leads even higher. A landing page is not designed to promote your business as a whole. Instead, it’s focused on highlighting one promotion, event, or products.
That means your landing page needs to be tightly focused and perfectly crafted. You can create amazing landing pages online with simple online tools but before you get started here are some essentials to include:
A great headline – your headline should be short, sweet, and to the point. Clever headlines are great but the most important thing is to communicate what the page is offering. If you have to choose between cleverness and clarity, always go with the latter.
A complementary subheading – after your headline grabs attention and your subheading needs to hold it. You can offer a little more detail here, as well as exercise some persuasion. Subheadings can be below the headline, as the name suggests, but they don’t have to be. Look at HelpDesk’s landing page:
The subheading here is above the headline, but it works beautifully.
Include a large, engaging image that supports the text on your page. Our brains process images 60 000 times faster than text, so a picture is essential to make your landing page appealing. The image/s on your landing page will be the first thing to create an impression on users, so ensure the image is relevant, dynamic, and high quality. Don’t use stock photos or small jpegs that will pixellate on larger displays.
Explain what your landing page offers – this doesn’t need to be a standalone piece of text explaining things, but people need to quickly and easily understand the benefits of following your CTA. Check out this landing page from InVision:
It’s just a heading, subheading, and CTA but it clearly communicates that this is a free design tool for teams that you can start using for free right now.
Focus on pain points – psychologists have shown that the pain of losing money outweighs the pleasure of gaining the same sum. The lesson? Humans want to avoid pain. If possible, hint at what people might be losing by not joining your email list as well as emphasising what they stand to gain.
Include multiple contact options – this provides a better user experience as everyone prefers to contact companies in different ways. It also makes your company seem more legitimate and approachable.
A high-powered CTA – this is the most important element of your landing page when it comes to conversions. In fact, every other element of the page exists primarily to support and strengthen your CTA!
Here are some tips for a great CTA:
Use a button – it’s what people are used to and it’s convenient.
Make the CTA big.
Use compelling emotive language – ‘Make the change today’ not ‘Submit form now’, for example.
Use a contrasting colour scheme so your CTA button pops off the page.
Learn more
There are many other social media marketing tools available to help with your campaigns as well. Use them to complement your Facebook video and emailing initiatives and reach a wider audience with eye-catching content.
