Video is quickly becoming a mainstream medium for the internet. Just look at the popularity of sites like YouTube, and you'll quickly realize that video could also be an effective lead generation tool.
Video is still an emerging tool for lead generation, but I predict that within 3 years marketers will be sending out more videos than they send company newsletters or sales brochures. And as Google learns better ways to help people search for video content, videos will start to show up more frequently in search results--driving more traffic to your website.
The big question is: How can you use video as a lead generation tool?
First, I'd recommend that you put videos on YouTube and several pages of your company website. Then, get the word out through email. I'll show you how to create a targeted email campaign and send the video to your entire contact database.
If you design your email message correctly, you'll find that a video email will often have more than 3 times the response rate of a normal, text only email message. There is also the "wow factor" when people receive an email with a video in it, since this is still not common.
Here are a couple ways in which you can insert a video inside an email message:
Option 1: Add the video as a link
This is the simplest option, since you won't actually be inserting the video inside an email. Instead, you'll only be creating a picture of your video that links to the actual video on your website (or YouTube). An example of this appears on the right side of this page. If you click on this video player, it will forward you to the actual video on my website.
You may be asking, "Why do I need to use an image as a link? Why don't I just create a text link that says 'Click Here To View The Video'?" The reality is that very few people will click on a text link, and an image is much more engaging.
to create your image, first you'll need to capture a screen shot of your video player. Do a Google search for "screen shot software". It's important that the picture of your video looks exactly like the real video that will play from YouTube or your website. Most people will click on the image, expecting the video to begin playing--instead they will be redirected to your website where the video will play.
This option is best suited for situations when you want to get the person to your website, perhaps so you can direct her to other content after she's done watching the video.
Option 2: Embed The Video So It Plays Within The Email Message
With this option, the person can actually watch the video from his Outlook email account. It has also a bit of "wow factor" since most people aren't used to seeing a video play inside an email message. For this option to be possible, you'll need email marketing software that has the capability for full HTML. First, go to the YouTube page where you uploaded the video. Then, copy the code from the video and paste this code into the HTML section of your email program. That's it! Now when the person receives your email, they can click to play the video without having to leave the email message or visit a website. This is ideal if you want the maximum number of people to watch the video, without the risk of losing people when you force them to go to your website to watch it.
