How to Leverage Social Media Video for B2B Lead Generation

It's no secret that video content in the next big thing. It's forecasted to account for 80% of all internet traffic by 2019. In November 2016, Facebook stats showed it was receiving about 8 billion video views daily, and as of 2016 it saw around 100 million hours of daily video watch time.

Meanwhile, photo-sharing app Instagram has been growing at an accelerating rate, in part due to the launch of its popular video-based “stories” feature less than a year ago. This has created formidable competition for Snapchat, whose growth has been slowing since the release of the feature but nevertheless has kept it near the top of the global social media list.

What does this mean for marketers?

It simply means that it's time to deploy your marketing arsenal to leverage social media video forB2B lead generation. If you're unsure about merging your video marketing with social media, we're here to help.

This blog post is part of “Your Definitive Guide to Lead Generation” blog series.

We're going to show you how to make the most out of social media video to boost your lead generation. Let's get right to it.

Understand Where Social Video Fits in Your Plan

As a marketer, you understand that there are many ways to include social video in your marketing strategy.

The most obvious use of videos on social media is to build brand awareness or tell a story. For example, Redbull and GoPro are some of the brands that are known for creating amazing videos for branding.

Typically, you want to define the role of videos in your marketing. Your target is to reach your audience where they are and share content that connects to them. A CRM software marketer can create a video to share the unique features and benefits of the software, and this can go viral depending on the relevancy of information the video holds.

For B2B lead generation, keep your video short, relevant, fun and don't forget to finish off with a powerful call-to-action. Be sure to align the content of the video with the best interests of your target audience. 

The Video Creation Process

Creating the video is one of the most important parts of the campaign. You want to pay attention to the actual video duration. Typically, the length depends on a number of details you want to share. Try to test different video lengths to get an idea of what will work for you.

When it comes to the maximum video lengths, Facebook's length is 120 minutes, Twitter's is 2 minutes and 20 seconds, and Snapchat has a cap of 10 seconds. Ensure that your video length of each platform allows for sharing the most important details.

For all platforms except Instagram, you can post a YouTube video link on your page if you want to share lengthy videos. Make sure your videos are optimized for autoplay, which means videos automatically play when users are scrolling through their feeds. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have this feature enabled.

Don't forget to add subtitles to allow those with hearing impairment to get your message.

Strive to Grab Attention Early

The secret to using social media video for B2B lead generation is to grab the attention of your audience early, at least within the first 10 seconds or less. Don't just depend on the call-to-action to woo them-- you want to ensure they watch the video to the very end.

The average length of videos in media like Snapchat proves that it's possible to capture the interest of your viewers in seconds. A good example is this Knorr's video on food flavors. At first, it introduces viewers to a familiar but popular topic: Love. That's a perfect attention grabber.

Adding emotion to the video is also a powerful way of encouraging your viewers to share. Airbnb's "Is Mankind" video is an actual concept of how emotion can make a commercial a hit. The human brain is more inclined to share content with an emotional component; make sure to take advantage of that!

Add a Lead Generation Form

This is one of the most vital elements to keep in mind when creating a video for B2B lead generation. You may want to ask, where in the video should you add the form? Well, this depends on the content of the video and your specific goals.

Adding a form to the video is called a turnstile. Traditionally, marketers have always added the form towards the end of the video. Well, you can do this if you want to give your prospects time to determine whether your content was valuable.

Today, marketers tend to add the turnstile at the beginning of the video, somewhere between 10 to 40 percent of the video length. You can test this out to see how it works for you. Make sure to plan your script around the lead generation form so that it doesn't surprise your prospects.

The number of people that will fill the form shows that they watch the video to the end and were impressed with the video content.

Use Video in a Content Sequence

A single video should not be the only piece of content you share to generate B2B leads. Even if it becomes a hit, you need more content to back it. Great marketers understand that videos can't do all the heavy lifting.

Many B2B clients like to engage with different content types before talking to a salesperson. You want to ensure that the video is live on different social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. Back the video with different content elements that help to address the needs of your prospects.

C-Level executives prefer videos that are supported with other contents. You can add the video to your email, newsletter, white paper, and landing pages. This is an ideal way to drive conversions and boost lead generations.

B2B Lead Generation - The Takeaway

Video marketing is a powerful tool for storytelling and educating. It helps to share short, but informative content with your specific target audience. The right video can get executives, salespeople, and managers to share it with their teams.

Overall, there are a ton of social media B2B videos out there, and making yours stand out above the crowd is important. Keep monitoring how your videos are being received and use the data to get other content elements online. Don't forget to set the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to can help you to tweak the performance of your videos.

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.