Who can convince you to go to an Italian restaurant?

Person A: Someone who has told you, “I love Italian food! If you want to go to an Italian restaurant, call me. Here’s my phone number."

Person B: Someone who has never said anything about Italian food to you. 

Definitely, person A right? Well, that’s the idea behind lead generation. It’s the process of acquiring a “lead” – someone who has expressed interest in you or your product or service in some quantifiable way –  to make closing a sale easier.

One effective way you can generate leads is through making videos. Basically, this is how it works:

• People discover your video

• They watch it

• They enjoy watching and/or find it useful

• They develop an interest in you

• They go to your website and leave their contact info to hear from you/your brand

While it sounds simple, there’s a lot that goes into making compelling videos for lead generation.

So, here are some tips on how to maximise your lead generation using videos.

Create quality videos

First, you’ll need to create some high-quality videos. It sounds obvious, but it’s crucial! If your video is boring, poor quality, or doesn’t add value to the viewer, people aren’t going to finish watching it. This way, they aren’t going to become a lead. 

This means your videos need to be a combination of: 

• Entertaining

• Engaging

• Informative

The point is you want the video content to keep people engaged while you demonstrate your potential value to them.

How do you do that?

Here’s how to go the extra mile while creating videos for lead generation: 

• Be creative- Find ways to make your videos interesting and stand out from others. This isn’t the time to be bland– have fun with it!

• Plan the video- Taking the time to plan ahead and think about what you’re going to talk about and it’s accompanying visuals will drastically improve the quality of your video. It will look much better organised.

• Find your video “style”- Do you have an energetic personality? Does humour come naturally to you? Whatever it is, having a style for your videos will give them consistency as well as create familiarity among your audience.

• Be natural- It’s best to be yourself! You don’t have to create a “persona” for your videos. Try to sound much more natural and relatable. If you’re struggling with this, pay really close attention to how you talk to friends and family so you can be aware of how you usually speak.

Ideas for lead generation videos

Here are some potential video ideas that are great for lead generation and tend to rank well:

• How-to videos- For example, “How to change your car battery” for an auto supplies shop

• Guide videos- For example, “A guide to installing your new plasma TV” for an appliance store

• Explanatory videos-For example, “An explanation on conversion rates” for a conversion rate agency

• Advice or tip videos- For example, “Advice on picking the perfect golf putter” for a sporting goods store

• Interview videos- For example, “An interview with a commercial director” for a marketing company

You should also make sure your video is technically sound. Blurry footage or unclear audio is an immediate turnoff and could overshadow your great content. Good videos are just one of many B2B lead generation strategies.

Equip yourself to make more videos

If you plan on using videos for lead generation in the long term, it may be worth investing in some equipment, such as:

• Camera- Footage from smartphones are pretty good these days, but a good camera can make a world of difference.

• Microphone- Getting a microphone for your camera will drastically improve your sound quality. You can also get a lavalier mic if you stand and move around in your videos, or a podcasting mic if you usually sit down.

• Tripod- A tripod will help keep your videos stable, and you won’t need to prop your camera on ten books!

• Video Editing Software- There are free editing softwares and even easy in-browser video makers that can make your videos look so much more professional.

Use a CTA with an incentive

You know how at the end of every YouTube video, you are asked to “like, comment and subscribe!”? It turns out that actually has a purpose, and it’s something you should be doing for sure. It’s called a call to action (CTA), which is a specific direction given to the consumers of content to get them to take the desired action.

People are so much more likely to do something when given instructions because they don’t always take initiative. So having a CTA is so important.

When creating your CTA, first you have to determine what type of action you want your viewers to take. For lead generation, you will likely want people to go to your website and leave their contact information (on something called a landing page, which will be discussed further in the next section). 

When someone leaves their contact information, it is clear that they are interested and you can contact them to try and make a sale  – hoorah!

The CTA alone could be good enough to get people to your site. But to make it even better and attract more people, you can add an incentive to your CTA. An incentive can be a:

• Discount

• Free sample

• ‘Lite’ or limited version of your product or service

• Newsletter

• More in-depth video

It is anything that will give people a tangible benefit by going to your website.

Now you can draft your CTA. It doesn’t have to be anything too extensive. Your CTA isn’t a monologue. It is pretty much a simple sentence or two, telling the viewer to go to your website for the incentive.

For example, if you are a fitness business and you’re promoting a new supplement you just came out with, your CTA could be:

“To get a free sample of our new multi-vitamin, go to our website www.fitnessbiz.com, or click the link in the description.”

Simple, clear, and effective. That’s all you need.

So feel free to use the above as a template for your CTA, or create your own. Just remember to give clear instructions and provide an incentive.

Make a landing page

A landing page is crucial for any type of lead generation. It is a page with a form on your website where people can leave their contact information, usually in exchange for something, like an incentive.

Your landing page typically works hand in hand with your CTA as your CTA will ask your audience to click on a link that will send them to your landing page. There's another effective way you can generate leads.

Landing pages are critical for lead generation, because what’s the point of having a lead if you can’t contact them to convert them into a customer? Your landing page provides you with the ability to do so, whether that be adding them to an email list, or reaching out to them directly.

So for your video, you should:

1. Create a landing page

2. Link to it in the description of your video

3. Mention your link in your CTA

Most platforms will have templates or add ons you can use to create landing pages. For example, you can get the Beaver Builder plugin for WordPress websites.

Optimise your video for lead generation

Alright, so let’s say you’ve filmed, edited and posted your video. Now you need to get your video seen. 

With millions of videos out there, how do you get yours to stand out and garner views? 

The answer: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO is the process of optimising your content to rank high on search engines; in this case, YouTube. There are several different tactics you can use that will help YouTube more effectively understand what your video is about and get it views.

The first thing you absolutely need to do is determine your primary keyword or phrase. SEO revolves around keywords, as they are what search engines use to determine what your content is about to help it appear for relevant searches.

It shouldn’t be too hard to SEO check online determine your primary keyword, as it will essentially be what your video is about.

For example, if you run an interior design business, you may be making a video about how to most effectively position one’s couch in their living room. So your primary keyword is probably “couch placement”, “where to put couch”, or something of the like.

Now that you have a keyword, there are four things you need to do with it:

• Put it in your video title

• Use it in the video description

• Integrate it in  your script  across your video

• Use it in your video file name

You can then use your target keyword to create a list of secondary keywords and phrases that you can use naturally throughout your video and in its title and description.

In sticking with the couch placement example, secondary keywords could be:

• Furniture arrangement 

• Living room couches

• Couch placement in your living room

• Where to put your couch in your living room

Create a list of 10-20 different but related keywords and use them throughout your video.

Once you do that, here are some other ways you can optimise your video:

• Optimise description- Use your keywords and frontload the description with important info, your CTA and links.

• Tag video with your keywords- Tags help tell people and YouTube what your video is about.

• Categorise your video under advanced settings- This allows YouTube to group your video with similar ones.

• Use a thumbnail- This is the image people see when your video comes up in search results. It gives people info on what your video is about and makes it appear more legitimate and branded.

• Add cards and end screens- These are buttons that the viewer can click during (cards) or at the end (end screen) with links that can send them to your channel, other videos, your website, to subscribe, and more.

• Add subtitles and closed captions- These help SEO by highlighting important keywords.

• Promote your video- Use platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora and your website to show the video to more people, as well as get backlinks, which are super important for SEO.

• Create playlists- They automatically play the next video and can help you garner more views.

Hire a professional lead generation agency

While the above tips are sure to help your video get more views on YouTube and generate more leads, you could also consider hiring a professional lead generation agency to fully maximise the lead generation potential from your videos. 

You can leverage their experience, and although it costs money, it may be worth it in the long run.

Get started on videos for lead generation

While using videos to generate leads can sound like a lot of work, it is absolutely worth the effort in the long run! Use the tips and tricks mentioned to maximise the number of leads you receive through your videos. Good luck!