Video mar­ket­ing is a high­ly effec­tive way of gen­er­at­ing leads, with 92% of busi­ness­es sat­is­fied with the ROI achieved through video. And com­bined, YouTube, Face­book, Insta­gram, and Tik­Tok have almost 9 bil­lion month­ly users.

There are count­less ways of approach­ing video mar­ket­ing, but they don’t all guar­an­tee lead gen­er­a­tion. That’s why this blog post will delve into the most effec­tive strate­gies to gain new leads.

Keep read­ing to learn how you can start your new video mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy, and get our top tips for mak­ing it attrac­tive to your tar­get leads:

Storytelling with a purpose

When exe­cut­ed effec­tive­ly, sto­ry­telling is a high­ly engag­ing way of gen­er­at­ing leads through a range of mar­ket­ing meth­ods – includ­ing videos!

This approach is about using nar­ra­tive tech­niques to craft a sto­ry that demon­strates a brand’s mis­sion and val­ues. The sto­ry needs to res­onate with the audi­ence on an emo­tion­al lev­el. So, brands need to find the inter­sec­tion where their sto­ry meets the view­er’s needs or desires.

Unlike tra­di­tion­al mar­ket­ing, which often push­es fea­tures or ben­e­fits, sto­ry­telling seeks to pull the audi­ence into a jour­ney that they find per­son­al­ly mean­ing­ful. So, while brand sto­ries do inform audi­ences, they should also inspire them.

Emo­tion­al­ly charged sto­ry­telling is effec­tive for lead gen­er­a­tion because it cre­ates mem­o­rable expe­ri­ences, encour­ages social shar­ing, and invites audi­ences to join a brand’s mis­sion. When a brand’s sto­ry strikes the right chord, it can trans­form view­ers into leads and leads into loy­al customers.

If you want to use sto­ry­telling in your upcom­ing video mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy, con­sid­er the fol­low­ing steps:

1. Iden­ti­fy the core mes­sage. Deter­mine the cen­tral idea or mes­sage that exem­pli­fies your brand’s val­ues and mis­sion. This should be a con­cept that your tar­get audi­ence can relate to on a per­son­al level.
2. Under­stand your audi­ence. Devel­op a deep under­stand­ing of your audi­ence’s needs, chal­lenges, and aspi­ra­tions. The more you know about your audi­ence, the bet­ter you can tai­lor your sto­ry to res­onate with them.
3. Craft a nar­ra­tive arc. Every good sto­ry has a begin­ning, mid­dle, and end. Out­line a nar­ra­tive that intro­duces a prob­lem or desire, shows the jour­ney through chal­lenges or dis­cov­er­ies, and leads to a res­o­lu­tion that ties back to your brand.
4. Choose the right for­mat. Decide on the best for­mat to tell your sto­ry. This could be a cus­tomer tes­ti­mo­ni­al, a behind-the-scenes look at your com­pa­ny, or a fic­tion­al nar­ra­tive that exem­pli­fies your brand’s values.

When using sto­ry­telling in your mar­ket­ing, remem­ber to show – don’t tell. For exam­ple, instead of say­ing your prod­uct is life-chang­ing, show a day in the life of some­one who uses your prod­uct and how it has pos­i­tive­ly affect­ed them. This approach allows the audi­ence to reach con­clu­sions on their own, mak­ing the real­i­sa­tion more pow­er­ful and long-lasting.

Explainer videos

Explain­er videos are short, engag­ing videos that break down com­plex ideas into digestible, easy-to-under­stand pieces. They typ­i­cal­ly address a prob­lem, intro­duce the brand’s solu­tion, and high­light the ben­e­fits and fea­tures in a way that con­nects with the viewer.

The goal of explain­er videos is not only to inform but also to cap­ti­vate, ensur­ing that the core mes­sage of the brand is under­stood and remem­bered. This is super use­ful for lead gen­er­a­tion because it clar­i­fies the val­ue propo­si­tion to poten­tial customers.

A well-craft­ed explain­er video can demys­ti­fy a prod­uct or ser­vice, mak­ing it acces­si­ble and appeal­ing to a broad­er audi­ence. This clar­i­ty can help nudge view­ers fur­ther down the sales fun­nel towards mak­ing a purchase.

If you want to use explain­er videos in your video mar­ket­ing, remem­ber to focus on ben­e­fits, not just fea­tures. While it’s essen­tial for explain­er videos to men­tion the fea­tures of your prod­uct or ser­vice, it will gen­er­ate more leads by also empha­sis­ing the ben­e­fits. Ben­e­fits speak to emo­tions and per­son­al gains, which are more com­pelling for audiences.

Interactive video experiences

Inter­ac­tive video expe­ri­ences trans­form view­ers from pas­sive observers into active par­tic­i­pants. This inno­v­a­tive form of video con­tent inte­grates inter­ac­tive ele­ments such as click­able hotspots, quizzes, and deci­sion points that affect the video’s nar­ra­tive or outcome.

By engag­ing direct­ly with the con­tent, view­ers become part of the sto­ry, cre­at­ing a fun and more mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence. This is great for lead gen­er­a­tion because the nov­el­ty of inter­ac­tive videos leads to high­er engage­ment rates and longer view­ing times.

If you want to cre­ate inter­ac­tive video expe­ri­ences suc­cess­ful­ly, con­sid­er the fol­low­ing basics:

1. Define your objec­tives. Know what you want to achieve with your inter­ac­tive video—whether it’s edu­cat­ing audi­ences about a prod­uct, enter­tain­ing poten­tial leads, col­lect­ing user feed­back, or sto­ry­telling in a way that aligns with your brand identity.
2. Plan your inter­ac­tiv­i­ty. Decide on the type of inter­ac­tions you will offer. Will view­ers choose their jour­ney, answer ques­tions, or explore dif­fer­ent sce­nar­ios? Ensure that each inter­ac­tion adds val­ue to the over­all narrative.
3. Devel­op a robust script. Map out each poten­tial path­way a view­er can take. A robust script ensures that regard­less of the choic­es made, the core mes­sage remains con­sis­tent and compelling.
4. Keep user expe­ri­ence para­mount. Ensure that the inter­ac­tiv­i­ty is intu­itive and adds to the sto­ry rather than com­pli­cat­ing it. The inter­ac­tions should feel seam­less and nat­ur­al. The key is to blend sto­ry­telling and inter­ac­tiv­i­ty in a way that feels like a nat­ur­al exten­sion of the user’s curiosity.

Personalised video campaigns

Per­son­alised video cam­paigns are tai­lored video mes­sages that cater to indi­vid­ual view­ers or spe­cif­ic audi­ence seg­ments. Indi­vid­u­alised mes­sages are more suit­ed in B2B inter­ac­tions because lead nur­tur­ing process­es are typ­i­cal­ly longer and there are few­er recip­i­ents than in B2C campaigns.

For exam­ple, an SEO agency may make an indi­vid­ual case study for a client pitch – and this could be one of 20 pitch­es made in a 6‑month peri­od. In con­trast, a B2C brand may have thou­sands of sub­scribers on its mail­ing list, so the lev­el of per­son­al­i­sa­tion is limited.

Nev­er­the­less, per­son­al­i­sa­tion on any lev­el makes a gener­ic mar­ket­ing mes­sage much more per­son­al, enhanc­ing the view­er’s engage­ment and increas­ing the like­li­hood of responding.

To suc­ceed in your per­son­al­i­sa­tion efforts, con­sid­er the fol­low­ing tips:

1. Col­lect data. Gath­er rel­e­vant data about your audi­ence. This could include basic con­tact infor­ma­tion, past pur­chase behav­iour, or inter­ac­tion his­to­ry with your brand.
2. Seg­ment your audi­ence. Organ­ise your audi­ence into seg­ments based on com­mon char­ac­ter­is­tics or behav­iours to ensure the per­son­al­i­sa­tion is rel­e­vant and targeted.
3. Cre­ate a scal­able tem­plate. Devel­op a video tem­plate that can be eas­i­ly cus­tomised for each recip­i­ent or seg­ment while main­tain­ing a con­sis­tent brand message.
4. Auto­mate per­son­al­i­sa­tion. Use mar­ket­ing automa­tion tools capa­ble of inte­grat­ing per­son­al data into your video at scale with­out sac­ri­fic­ing the qual­i­ty of the personalisation.
5. Bal­ance per­son­al­i­sa­tion with pri­va­cy. Ensure that your use of per­son­al data strikes the right bal­ance between being rel­e­vant and respect­ing pri­va­cy. Always obtain con­sent for the data you use and be trans­par­ent about how you use it.

Making your content accessible

Being acces­si­ble means cre­at­ing video con­tent that can be con­sumed and under­stood by every­one, includ­ing peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties. This involves adding cap­tions for those with hear­ing impair­ments, using colour con­trasts and text descrip­tions for view­ers with visu­al impair­ments, and ensur­ing that all visu­al con­tent is accom­pa­nied by descrip­tive audio or text.

The goal of this approach is to cre­ate an inclu­sive expe­ri­ence that does not alien­ate any part of the audi­ence. Mak­ing acces­si­ble videos is huge for lead gen­er­a­tion because it wel­comes a large por­tion of any giv­en pop­u­la­tion – 15% of the world lives with some form of dis­abil­i­ty! Tend­ing to this group expands your brand’s reach and may even lead to greater cus­tomer loyalty.

If you don’t know where to start when it comes to video acces­si­bil­i­ty, con­sid­er the fol­low­ing pointers:

1. Imple­ment cap­tions and sub­ti­tles. Pro­vide accu­rate cap­tions for the hear­ing impaired. Auto­mat­ed ser­vices can be a start­ing point but ensure accu­ra­cy with man­u­al checks.
2. Use descrip­tive text and audio descrip­tions. Include text descrip­tions and audio cues for key visu­al ele­ments in videos to assist those with visu­al impairments.
3. Adopt colour con­trasts and visu­als. Use high-con­trast colours and clear visu­als to make con­tent more acces­si­ble to view­ers with colour vision defi­cien­cies or low vision.
4. Test for acces­si­bil­i­ty. Reg­u­lar­ly test your videos with acces­si­bil­i­ty tools and seek feed­back from peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties to ensure that your con­tent is tru­ly accessible.
5. Con­sis­ten­cy across all con­tent. Ensure that acces­si­bil­i­ty is not an after­thought but a fun­da­men­tal part of your video mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. Be con­sis­tent across all your con­tent so that every piece is as inclu­sive as possible.

Sharing user-generated content

User-gen­er­at­ed con­tent (UGC) refers to any form of con­tent (such as videos, images, reviews, or posts) that is cre­at­ed by indi­vid­u­als rather than brands and shared on social media. UGC is authen­tic and can sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhance trust and engage­ment with a brand.

UGC acts as social proof, as it is a real-life prod­uct endorse­ment from real-life cus­tomers. When using UGC in your video mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy, don’t for­get your basic steps:

1. Encour­age shar­ing. Cre­ate cam­paigns that invite cus­tomers to share their expe­ri­ences with your brand.
2. Curate con­tent care­ful­ly. Select the best UGC that aligns with your brand’s image and message.
3. Seek per­mis­sion and give cred­it. Always ask for the cre­ator’s con­sent before shar­ing their con­tent. Don’t for­get to acknowl­edge them when you share their con­tent, as this will fos­ter good­will and fur­ther engagement.
4. Cre­ate hash­tags. Devel­op unique hash­tags for your cam­paigns, mak­ing it easy to track and col­lect UGC. Hash­tags not only cat­e­gorise con­tent but also ampli­fy your reach, as they can become trend­ing top­ics, lead­ing to greater vis­i­bil­i­ty and more leads.

5 top tips for video marketing

Now that you’ve got some ideas for your new approach to video mar­ket­ing, it’s time to hone your strat­e­gy. Here are five video mar­ket­ing best prac­tices to help your cam­paign have a lit­tle more edge:

1. Gate your content

Gat­ing con­tent means requires vis­i­tors to sub­mit infor­ma­tion before gain­ing access. This is a strate­gic move to con­vert inter­est­ed view­ers into leads by offer­ing them high-qual­i­ty con­tent in exchange for their con­tact details.

Gat­ing your con­tent helps with lead gen­er­a­tion if view­ers per­ceive the con­tent as valu­able enough. For instance, a com­pre­hen­sive how-to guide video that address­es spe­cif­ic indus­try pain points can be gat­ed, ensur­ing that the leads gen­er­at­ed are qual­i­fied and have a vest­ed inter­est in the sub­ject matter.

2. Use giveaways and sales

Sales, pro­mo­tions, and give­aways are a tried and test­ed way of gen­er­at­ing leads. By offer­ing these incen­tives in your video mar­ket­ing con­tent, you can boost your click-through rate and gain those first-time purchases.

Give­aways and sales should be exe­cut­ed with a com­pelling call to action. Even bet­ter, make your offer­ing time-sen­si­tive to cre­ate a sense of urgency. Some busi­ness­es even encour­age social shar­ing in their pro­mo­tions (such as give­away com­pe­ti­tions), and this can give your lead gen­er­a­tion a big boost.

3. Keep scripts short

By get­ting straight to the point, you ensure that your mes­sage is deliv­ered before a view­er can click away. Con­cise scripts can make your video more com­pelling and increase the like­li­hood that view­ers will watch to the end, lead­ing to a high­er chance of cap­tur­ing leads.

4. Offer free tools

Offer­ing tools to your audi­ence for free is a pow­er­ful way of gen­er­at­ing leads. By pro­vid­ing a valu­able resource at no cost, you can attract poten­tial leads look­ing for solu­tions to their pain points.

This approach estab­lish­es trust and demon­strates your brand’s val­ue, encour­ag­ing users to engage fur­ther with your com­pa­ny. In addi­tion, you can cap­ture leads via the con­tact infor­ma­tion users pro­vide when they access your free tool.

5. Collaborate with other brands

Do you know what brands your tar­get audi­ence likes?

It’s a great idea to iden­ti­fy brands that share your tar­get audi­ence but aren’t direct com­peti­tors. If you can col­lab­o­rate with them, you can attract leads in an inno­v­a­tive way.

This approach works because it lever­ages a mutu­al audi­ence. It intro­duces your brand to poten­tial leads who are already engaged with a com­pa­ny they trust. By pool­ing your resources, two brands can co-cre­ate video con­tent and pro­mo­tions that pro­vide val­ue, increas­ing the incen­tive for users to engage. Rec­om­men­da­tions from a famil­iar brand are more cred­i­ble to users, so it’s an effec­tive way of gen­er­at­ing new leads.

Final thoughts

Lead gen­er­a­tion can feel ardu­ous. How­ev­er, a decent amount of plan­ning will help mas­sive­ly with the exe­cu­tion of your strat­e­gy. Always con­sid­er your goals and audi­ence deeply before mak­ing cre­ative deci­sions, and remem­ber the field you’re try­ing to com­pete in. The world of video mar­ket­ing is vast, dynam­ic, and busy. A win­ning strat­e­gy will be unique, excit­ing, and offer great value.