Setting my own business aside for the moment, I’ll try to make this product (or service) as agnostic as possible. No matter what we’re selling, the most difficult part is reaching those people or businesses who actually need what you have. I’ll even go so far as to say that good sales lead generation can be more important than putting out a good product or service, depending on the exact nature of your market.
The key to generating leads today is creating content which engages, actively and directly, with your market.
Engagement can take many forms, though. Product videos, problem solving pieces and other options that essentially make sure that both current customers and potential customers gain value by viewing your content are key.
Here are a few ways to make that happen, as well as actual strategies to follow:
1) Engage visually
Most people learn visually. They absorb information more quickly by watching it than reading it, and it forms more important memories that way. If you want to REALLY speak to your public about your brand, you are much better off showing them what you mean.
So what makes a product (or service) video an effective SALES lead generator?
At its core, a good product video is a demonstration of your product or service. It needs to show your potential customers how easy it is to use, and what pain points it can address for them. Just remember an ‘effective’ video doesn’t have to be a ‘big’ or ‘expensive’ video. Target your market narrowly, and you can do quite a lot with only a little.
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Good videos take a lot of time. You won’t be done in a single afternoon, and even if you turn the process over to a professional, expect to view at least a handful of iterations of the video before you find the ‘right’ approach.
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Don’t be afraid to outsource. If you don’t have any video making experience in-house, it can be extremely helpful and often less expensive to hire outsourced talent. Both videographers and script writers can be found on a freelance basis.
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Less really is more. People watch short videos to the end, and switch off of long videos when they lose interest. Say everything important early, and then end it. Some formats – like Instagram – actually limit your video time!
2) Pick a common, serious problem for your market, and show how to solve it
I can’t tell you exactly what – not only must it be different for each piece, it should be guided by your own in-depth understanding of your market and the challenges they face. Once you have chosen a problem, research it in depth and tell your market how to solve it.
How to choose the right problem to solve to generate sales leads
This can be trickier than you think. It has to be common, and difficult enough that most of your market hasn’t already found a solution or work-around.
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Talk to your existing customers. Engage with them personally, and ask about any pain points in their business.
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Look for solutions which involve your goods or service. You want to present yourself as expert in your field, not generally.
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Don’t present your services as the solution to the problem. Give them a real solution, for free.
3) Use gated content
The ‘heavier’ your content marketing materials are, the easier it will be for those who want to share them to share a link to your established server than to share the asset itself. If you have a page of text, many users will copy and paste individual sections or paragraphs which are appropriate to whatever they are doing.
If it is a 5-minute video or other ‘large’ asset, though, they’ll be a lot more likely to share the YouTube or other cloud-server link you provided. This lets you set prerequisites for displaying the content. That might take the form of an email opt-in form or almost any other data capture tool.
How to make gated content user-friendly to generate sales leads
Making something that is inherently obtrusive less annoying is an art.
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First and foremost, don’t put the gate first and foremost! No matter what you do, the ‘gate’ will be the place where you lose a lot of viewers. Even if there is an easy ‘opt out’ feature, may viewers will simply cancel and move on when they reach the data capture gate. The best way to minimise this loss is to place it 10% to 20% into the video or on ‘page 2’ of a written resource. More users will already be engaged by this point, and willing to jump through one small hoop to get to the end of the asset.
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Don’t present it as ‘sign up or go away’. One of the best options is to present the gate as an upgrade offer. “Sign up not to see the rest of these helpful videos” or “Register to receive bonus, members-only content for free.” In reality, it is still a gate, but you appear to be offering more, not taking away the unwatched remainder of the content.
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Understand the costs and benefits of gated content. Fewer people will see your content if it is gated. This is unavoidable. Many will turn away at the ‘gate’ and many will not share gated content. The total views will be much, much lower. HOWEVER, every single view flowed form a positive interaction, and depending on your strategy should have captured useful lead data for you. 100 times less likely to be seen but 1000 times more likely to generate a lead still works out to ten times as effective.
Overall, to effectively generate sales leads provide tools and information that your market can actually use, and make sure you represent your organization well and authentically when you do. Make sure you give the people who view your content ways to start engagements with your organization. If you can do that, you’ll get not just leads, but strong leads.
Nabeena Mali is the head of marketing at AppInstitute a DIY app builder for small businesses and passionate about sharing her knowledge and insights on design strategy, UI/UX trends and driving digital growth through content marketing.
If video marketing seems intimidating to you, or maybe you feel like you don't have the budget or resources to devote to it, watch our on-demand webinar, Low Budget In House Video Production.