Video Marketing Strategies for Lead Generation

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.