Video marketing: how to generate leads with CTAs

Every piece of content you create is a gateway to conversion, and the best way to prompt viewers to engage with your company and move along the buyer journey is a clear and strong call to action. You can do this with b2b web video.

Whether you intend to drive visitors to your website, share a brand message, increase subscriptions or prompt your audience to get in touch – your video call to action is the trigger.

You can easily convert viewers and generate leads using powerful video CTAs, here’s how.

Best practices for a video call to action

Your offer should be simple, obvious and valuable.

Attention depletes quickly online, so fewer words and a straightforward message will garner higher click-through rates.

Spending too long labouring the value of your offer will detract from the original focus of your video and harm share factor. Viewers enjoy branded video, but are reluctant to share or forward blatant advertisements.

Your video call to action should stand out yet remain harmonious with your company branding: use bright colours, simple language and action words to catch the eye.

Make it obvious where to click and be honest and clear about where it will take your viewer.

Before making your CTA, you will need to anticipate your viewer’s next steps. Would it benefit them most to be directed to further video content, to your channel or to your website?

Consider where they lie in the buyer’s journey. You want your offer to be both appealing and valuable to your target audience – this will have an impact on the kind of video CTA you use.

What call to action should your video use?

The destination of your video CTA depends on several factors:

• your audience
• where they are on their inbound journey
• where they viewed your video, and
• what they would want next.

On your video channel, you might want to promote other videos and encourage viewers to subscribe, like and share. This will build authority.

If you have shared a video on social media or a video platform like Youtube, it’s highly likely you want to drive those viewers to your site.

Promote your inbound content

Your brand can use video CTAs to lead viewers on a strategic content journey.

Increase page views by linking your video to relevant written content such as web pages, blogs or eBooks.

Your CTA could be placed either in the video description or a link that pops up in the video (called cards or annotations).

The best online videos are short - which means you can’t always cover every detail. However, every time you edit for brevity, you create a chance to bridge that gap using inbound content on your site. Resultantly, traffic to your website will increase.

A simple suggestion like “click here to learn more” is a great way to use video call to actions to keep your video script concise, your viewers happy and your website bustling.

Queue more video

If your company has committed to web video production, you might want to use a call to action to boost viewership.

Inspire your audience to hear more from you: you can use video CTAs to promote your video channel and encourage viewers to subscribe. These contacts are particularly valuable to your business as they have volunteered an interest in your content – they watched your video and appreciated it.

Including film stills of other videos sparks interest in your library. Displaying relevant, visually striking thumbnails in the final moments of a video will help your viewers browse your library, especially if you label them with optimised keywords.

Further educational material is particularly effective for buyer personas in the awareness stage because video can offer people information in manageable chunks.

Your business can build trust by helping personas conduct enough research around their problem to better understand their options. If you have other video content that would be useful to them, link it up.

Drive visitors to your campaign landing pages

If you are using an external video distribution site like YouTube, or your video marketing campaign rests heavily on social sharing, it’s important to drive viewers back to your website.

A GDD website is carefully optimised to progress qualified leads along the sales funnel.

Bringing viewers to your website makes it easier to convert them to customers. You can minimise distractions (because you have more control over the content they see), you can gather data about their browsing habits and you can use their experience to improve your site for other potential customers.

CTAs promoting larger, gated content offerings such as eBooks and white papers may be attractive to a viewer that has already defined their problem and is looking for a solution. This content takes time, research and attention to produce, which is why eBooks and white papers are viewed as such precious components in your inbound marketing machine.

Lead viewers who are hovering in the consideration stage to your gated content. Landing pages on your website extract contact information in exchange for an obvious, simple and compelling offer.

A compelling video CTA that extends the reach of your inbound content is a fantastic way to generate MQLs.

Get to know your user base

Your team can track CTA links and analyse your video marketing metrics to identify what content resonates with your viewers.

CTAs can also be used to encourage viewer interaction. Interactions will help your business develop an in-depth understanding of your buyer personas, which can inform and improve future sales and marketing operations.

One way to do this is to ask a question and invite your viewers to “join the conversation”. This discussion may be held on your brand’s social channels and encouraged by a dedicated hashtag.

Polls are another way to get a pulse on things your viewers care about. You could use a CTA to encourage viewers to vote on a topic and get a feeling for popular opinion.

Encourage subscription

Webinars, blogs and newsletters are reliable ways to demonstrate thought leadership in a field.

If you have a content offer that you distribute on a regular basis, video is the perfect platform to promote it.

Offer a free trial

Free trials may make an appropriate call to action if you have a subscription-based service. Tempt customers by giving them a taste of your product.

Ask for permission to contact

The inclusion of a contact form enables you to capture information about leads, but it’s only effective in special conditions - a contact form at the end of a social video would be absurd.

However, if you are using video under the kind of circumstances where your viewers are actively trying to network, you might want to ask for permission to contact your viewer.

For example, when showing corporate video at a promotional event or conference, the use of a contact form CTA could capture valuable leads. In this scenario, you should limit your form fields to the essentials so that you don’t deter people with a lengthy task.

As part of your inbound marketing campaign you consistently generate helpful content that guides your prospects through the sales funnel. Make the most of this material by including video CTAs that channels interested viewers directly towards it.