[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In this Surge Session, we discuss video marketing and how it can help you boost sales and generate more quality leads. Whether you are a lead generation site or an eCommerce site, video is an incredibly powerful tool. Our Marketing Director Joseph Hassun is joined by Marketing Specialists Ohad Yarel and Carlo Ricordi.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Video Marketing Tips for Generating Leads” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]

What are some best practices you would recommend when it comes to going about a video marketing strategy? First of all, keep it short for multiple reasons. The first one is the attention span. Second is to make sure that it loads fast. It doesn’t slow your website down. It’s important to cut to the chase. ­­

Every video should have a specific purpose and you don’t want to wait around too long because on the Internet we have about three or four seconds to capture a user’s attention. So if you spend your time dragging on, you’re going to lose a user quick.

Also, invest in quality. Sometimes if a video is very low quality, it’s better left unpublished. And that goes for sound quality as well.

What are some of the benefits and some of the tactics that you would use to try to increase leads, specifically using video?

We’ve seen a lot of success with personalizing our videos and using videos specifically for lead generation purposes. We’ll start by identifying a prospect that would work well with our services and we will go in and do an audit of their site. That personalized aspect is what really makes the conversion since if somebody engages with your video then that qualifies the lead. If they’ve already interacted with your business, and they’re choosing to move forward, then that makes them a higher quality lead.

The personalized aspect of video when it comes to lead generation is extremely important. It really humanizes the video and makes it more relatable.

[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”How to use Video Content for Email Marketing, Landing Pages, and eCommerce” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text el_id=”carlo”]

What are some of the channels used to get these videos out there and do you guys just publish them on landing pages?

Definitely, email campaigns is a great way to do it. You can either have it in the email or, what we would recommend, you can have a landing page from that campaign that leads to a video. Same goes for any PPC that you run, as well as social media. And then lastly, even for SEO purposes.

We’ve had a lot of success with having video on landing pages. We’ve seen an upwards of 80% increases in conversion on landing pages that incorporate video. So definitely when it comes to lead generation, video marketing is extremely powerful.

Comparing lead generation to eCommerce, the types of videos that you produce are going to be different. So what are some of the benefits of video marketing in eCommerce?

You have a lot of options here: demos, how-to’s, videos highlighting your features, product close-ups. And that’s also great for social media. You have a lot of options as far as that goes. You can really just paint and feature your product the way you want your audience to see it.

As a consumer, one really wants to see the application of that product live. Sometimes just a static image, doesn’t really do the product justice. With product videos, you have a lot of influence when it comes to consumer behavior.

When making those videos, the important thing to keep in mind is even though a lot of us have become used to shopping online, when we have that information that makes the experience closer to shopping in store, it will relieve any doubt, fear, or anything that might prevent someone from converting.

So trying to think of any question that a customer might have to for an onsite salesperson, anything you know, how it feels, how it looks. Showing that in a video helps the experience be more of like an in-store experience and that might help people push them over the edge to actually convert.

We’ve actually seen an increase of 144 percent on commerce transactions for products that have product videos and things of that nature. So definitely when it comes to eCommerce, video marketing, again, is really, really powerful and extremely beneficial.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”How to Use Videos for SEO and Optimize Your Videos for Search Engines” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]

We know that video can increase eCommerce conversions and it can help increase your lead conversions. Really all of this is encompassed by one overall benefit and that is the SEO aspect of video marketing. 80% of the content consumed on the web right now is video.

When it comes to SEO, first there’s optimizing YouTube channels themselves. YouTube has over a billion users worldwide and that’s traffic that you can be leveraging to be pointing to your site. These videos even get featured in search results sometimes as featured snippets.

Also, it’s important to keep in mind that just like you would optimize a webpage, you would need to optimize the video. That includes the title, the description, and adding subtitles because a lot of people are on mobile. Maybe the viewer is on the train or on the bus and they don’t have earphones, some people don’t want the sound on. So it’s very important to have those subtitles.

Additionally, as far as accessibility goes, which is becoming a more and more crucial aspect of optimizing your site, make sure you have a transcript and publish it on the page. So if someone, for some reason, has a slow connecting speed or they have some sort of disability, they are able to read the transcript of the video.

Video is extremely important when it comes to increasing your online visibility, as Carlo stated from the beginning, make sure that each and every one of your videos serves a purpose. And as Ohad said, video content that isn’t quality isn’t worth publishing.

So it’s a combination of ensuring that you have a specific goal in mind, taking the time to actually create quality content, optimizing it when publishing, and then at the same time share it, post it, utilize every single social media channel out there.

Video content on social gets shared far more than every other form of content, more than photos and text. Utilize the video that you produce as much as possible.[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”eCommerce Videos vs Lead Generation Videos: What’s the Difference?” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]

Let’s talk about the different types of video content that you produce. The video content that you produce for eCommerce for a specific product is different than the content that you produce for lead generation and it’s different than the content that you produce for social.

When it comes to eCommerce we talked about how video has to be very informative. It has to give real examples and everything that might help that product be sold.

When it comes to lead generation, you need the video to establish a pain point and address it. You need to identify a problem and offer a solution. You need to capture their attention right off the bat.

That’s the difference when it comes to lead generation. You’re identifying a pain (a problem) and addressing what the issue and solution would be. Then eCommerce would be more informative to try to enhance the shopping experience for the user to purchase a product.

If you’re planning to publish your videos on social media, a good tip to help you get more attention is to always think of that first image, that thumbnail. It has to be disruptive.

Think of the way we use social media. We scroll through it, we sometimes scroll so fast that we miss posts, so think of something that will disrupt that experience. It could be anything from a picture that screams for attention to something funny, to bright colors to anything that while someone is scrolling, scrolling, scrolling will make them stop.

Video marketing is the future. We’ve seen exponential growth when it comes to video marketing in the past. There are no signs of it slowing down. It’s only continuously growing, so it’s a strong investment.

Make the investment and take the time to put together a nice concrete video marketing strategy. Reach out to us if you have any questions regarding how to go about starting a video marketing strategy. We’re here to help.

Need help producing high quality video? Want to create a powerful video marketing strategy? Contact us.

SPEAK TO AN eCommerce EXPERT[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]