How to generate (qualified) leads with online video

Sure, videos look awesome, but you need to make money, right? Of course you do! And for many businesses, generating leads is the key to measurable return on your online video investment.

But anyone can generate leads online. Qualified leads are even better!

Let’s look at three steps to generating more qualified leads with your online video.

Step 1 – Pick the appropriate platform

If people are already looking for your product or service, then YouTube may be the right platform for your online videos. YouTube is still reigning as the second most popular search engine after Google. And it’s also owned by Google, so its results show up in the most popular search engine as well!

Or maybe people aren’t already looking for your product or service, but you’d love it if they discovered you. In that case, Facebook may be a better fit for you. With over two billion users, there’s a good chance your ideal client has an account.

Step 2 – Optimize your video for the platform

Okay, you actually need to figure this out before you even make the video. Optimizing it starts before shooting, then continues through the filming, editing, and even uploading of the video.

On YouTube, optimize for search. Make the topic one people are actually searching for by doing your research with a keyword research tool. Then front-load the beginning of your video with a hook and search terms. But make sure it still sounds natural! Finally, create your title and description with keywords as well—but not too many—and finish up by uploading a transcript.

On Facebook, you should optimize for engagement. Your topic should encourage comments, shares, likes, and all those other weird reactions people can now do on Facebook. Short, inspirational videos do well, as do entertaining ones.

Of course, you can—and should—crosspost videos from one platform to another to give them more life. But you’ll get better results if you pick your ideal platform and optimize for that one.

Step 3 – Have a call to action

I like to call these Clear Next Steps, but CTA—Call To Action—is a more common term.

The easier you make your action to take, the more likely people will do it! Instead of asking interested parties to contact you, consider a smaller step. Maybe offer a free download from your website, like an ebook, in exchange for their email address.

Then be sure to actually send them an email newsletter or something similar on an ongoing basis, so you can keep nurturing the lead until it’s more qualified.

Step 4 – Rinse and repeat

To really set yourself up for success, keep publishing videos on a consistent basis, repeating steps two and three each time. The chances that a one-off video will generate leads for you are similar to the chances of winning a race after jogging once. Extremely low, in other words.

Of course, online videos aren’t just for lead generation. One-off videos may make sense in those cases, as will a lot of other platforms and strategies. (Vimeo, anyone?)

But if you want leads, be sure to follow these steps.