How to Generate Leads From YouTube - The Ultimate Video Lead Generation Guide

Want to learn how to generate leads from YouTube? If you do, you've come to the right place.

While many businesses and marketers tend to gravitate towards Google and Facebook to generate leads, YouTube is a very powerful option. Millions of leads have been generated through organic and paid video marketing, and more potential leads are joining YouTube daily.

In this article, you will learn:

How to Do Lead Generation Marketing for YouTube
How to Make Good YouTube Videos for Lead Generation
YouTube Lead Generation Strategies

Read on and learn everything you need to know about doing video lead generation with YouTube.

How to Do Lead Generation Marketing for YouTube

Let's face it- attempting to use YouTube for lead generation can be a difficult task. There are many steps involved in the process, and things can become complicated very quickly.

Luckily enough, many people (including myself) have done a lot of testing to determine the areas that you should be focusing on when trying to generate leads from YouTube. Focusing on these areas of interest will make the process much easier for you.

Here's how to do lead generation marketing for YouTube:

1. Target good keywords
2. Optimize your YouTube channel
3. Create engaging content
4. Add a call-to-action to your videos
5. Include website links in video descriptions
6. Add YouTube end screens and cards
7. Organize your videos into playlists
8. Encourage video engagements
9. Partner with YouTube influencers
10. Utilize paid YouTube ads

Let's discuss these things in more detail.

1. Target Good Keywords

Before you start creating videos, you must ensure that you are creating videos on the right topics. The easiest way to determine if a topic is worth making a video about it to do keyword research.

As you perform the keyword research process, you will be able to determine whether or not a particular topic is worth making a video about based on the keywords related to the topic. If the related keywords are poor, then it might be a good idea to move on from the topic at hand.

If you fail to target good keywords, you could end up with a channel filled with videos that cannot be discovered organically. This is not a position you want to be in, as many businesses and marketers tend to burn out when this happens.

By targeting good keywords, you will increase the chances of your videos being discovered organically in the YouTube search results by your target audience.

2. Optimize Your YouTube Channel

Just like with a website homepage, you need to optimize your YouTube channel page. Channel pages can be discovered organically when they are optimized, and viewers do visit them to learn more about brands and businesses.

YouTube makes optimizing your channel a simple process. All you need to do is fill out your channel "About" section and channel keywords. By doing these two things, you will give YouTube (and viewers) information about your channel so it can be promoted to viewers that might be interested in your content more often.

Also, it's a good idea to include your website URL and social media links on your channel page as well. While there is no SEO benefit to doing this, viewers will often search around channel pages in search of these links. So, having them present is a good idea.

3. Create Engaging Content

People go to YouTube to watch videos. When they watch videos, they respond more positively when they are engaged. Knowing this, you must do everything in your power to create engaging content.

Creating engaging content doesn't come down to the camera or microphone you use- it comes down to the videos themselves. Meaning, people are engaged when they watch videos they deem to be valuable.

You can create valuable content by:

• Educating viewers
• Answering questions
• Entertaining viewers

Creating content that does either of these things will help you engage more viewers. When viewers are continuously engaged while watching your content, their relationship with you will improve. This will make it easier for you to turn these viewers into video leads.

4. Add a Call-to-Action to Your Videos

If you want people to do something online, you have to tell them to do it. Meaning, if you want viewers to visit your YouTube landing page, you must direct them to do so through the use of a strong call-to-action.

The internet makes it very easy to get distracted. YouTube, in particular, is great at distracting users. You cannot assume that viewers will visit your website or landing page. Odds are, they will get distracted and will click on another video when they are done watching yours. This is why having a call-to-action in your videos is so important.

Ensure that the CTA you use in a video is one that your target audience will respond positively to. Try not to use a general call-to-action, but also recognize that having a general CTA is better than not having one at all.

5. Include Website Links in Video Descriptions

YouTube allows you to place clickable links in various locations, and one of the most common locations to do so is in the video description box. Viewers are trained to go to the description box to click links, so it's a good idea to include your links in your video descriptions.

When placing website links in your video descriptions, try to place them near the top of the description box. Specifically, try to place your most important website link in the top two lines of the description boxes of your videos. This will ensure maximum visibility for the link at hand.

Of course, some users will scroll down to the bottom of your video descriptions (especially if you tell them to) but most will stick to the top of your video descriptions as they will need to click the "Show More" button to access the lower section of your description boxes.

6. Add YouTube End Screens and Cards

Adding YouTube cards and end screens is another great way to direct viewers to your lead generation page. Both cards and end screens are interactive elements, which means that viewers can click them to be brought to another page or video.

YouTube end screens and cards should link to related, relevant content. Doing this will increase the likelihood that viewers will interact with the presented elements.

Try linking to the following through cards and end screens:

• Related videos
• Video playlists
• Your website
• Opt-in pages

Think of your end screens and cards as an additional call-to-action that you can use to convince viewers to interact with your content and brand for a longer duration.

Remember, video cards will be clickable throughout entire videos, but end screens will only appear during the last 20 seconds (or less) of a video. Keep this in mind when determining what you'd like to link to.

7. Organize Your Videos Into Playlists

Playlists are essentially a collection of related videos that you can group together on your channel. Grouping videos together in playlists will make it easier for viewers to discover relevant content that you have created and published on YouTube.

A powerful way for marketers and businesses to use playlists is to use them like marketing funnels. Meaning, videos inside playlists can be ordered in a certain way, which can make it easier to place viewers into a defined content consumption pathway.

So, when it comes to using playlists for lead generation specifically, try to craft your playlists like you would a marketing funnel or email autoresponder sequence. Order your videos in a way that brings viewers from step one to step two and so on.

Also, playlists can rank in the YouTube search results and be recommended to viewers. Just like with your channel and videos, ensure that your playlists are optimized and feature good keywords in their titles so they have a higher chance of ranking in the search results.

8. Encourage Video Engagements

While video engagements don't hold as much weight as they used to, the YouTube algorithm still takes them into account when judging the quality of videos.

One way to get your videos recommended to viewers more often is to get them to engage with your videos. As they engage with your videos, this will tell YouTube that they found your videos to be of decent quality, and YouTube will use this information when choosing future videos to recommend to them.

Remember, marketing tends to be more effective when you have built a relationship with individuals. The easiest way to strengthen your relationship with individuals online so they're more likely to become leads is to get them to consume your content more often.

9. Partner With YouTube Influencers

A way you can boost your reach on YouTube quickly is to partner with influencers. Influencers have established audiences already, which can make it easier for you to get in front of your target audience.

Many internet users place a lot of trust in influencers. Since this is the case, it's safe to assume that if an influencer recommends that their viewers opt-in to receive a product from your brand, the opt-in rate will be quite high.

When searching for influencers to work with, recognize that the size of their audience is less important than the quality of their audience. Just because a YouTube channel has 100,000 subscribers, it doesn't mean you will generate more leads by partnering with them than a channel with 10,000 subscribers.

Think of influencers as advocates for your brand. Do you want the individual with the biggest audience to be an advocate for your brand or the individual with the highest quality audience? Remember, you're trying to generate leads- your influencer selections must reflect this.

10. Utilize Paid YouTube Ads

Organic video marketing is a great way to generate leads from YouTube, but paid advertising is also a great option. Many brands and businesses devote all of their attention to paid advertising, though doing so isn't what many people (myself included) would recommend.

Paid YouTube ads can help you get your brand seen by your target audience faster than if you were to do strictly organic marketing. Along with this, YouTube advertising can be more cost-effective than advertising on other platforms such as Facebook and Google.

Many brands have been able to use YouTube ads to generate a large number of leads for an affordable price. However, on the other hand, many brands have failed to do this and have lost a lot of money.

Before you dump your entire budget into paid ads, recognize that paid advertising introduces new challenges that aren't present when doing strictly organic marketing. You must ensure that your tracking is set up properly and that you have a sales funnel built.

Failing to take the steps necessary to ensure that your ads campaign is set up properly will cause your return on investment (ROI) to be poor. Make sure you have everything in place beforehand so things run smoothly.

How to Make Good YouTube Videos for Lead Generation

People come to YouTube to consume video content. If the content someone consumes is not suited to them, they will become less engaged and will stop consuming the content.

For your lead generation efforts to be effective, you must create engaging and valuable video content for your target audience. Your audience will not opt-in and become a lead for your brand or business if your videos are not good.

Here's how to make good YouTube videos for lead generation:

1. Determine your target audience
2. Establish your objective
3. Establish viewer intent
4. Develop a relevant opt-in freebie
5. Create a strong call-to-action

Let's discuss this process in more detail.

1. Determine Your Target Audience

If you don't know who you're making a video for, it can be difficult to craft a video that will resonate with a specific audience. For this reason, you must determine your target audience before starting the recording process.

Your target audience will determine everything. What subject matter your videos contain, the language you use in your videos, etc. These elements all contribute to the overall quality of YouTube videos.

Videos that resonate stronger with a particular audience are more likely to lead to a positive result for both parties- the brand and the audience. Knowing this, it should be easy to see how important determining your target audience is for converting viewers into leads.

2. Establish Your Objective

Every YouTube video is different. While you might have an overarching goal present for your video marketing efforts, it's important to recognize that you must establish an objective unique to each video you produce for your lead generation efforts to be effective.

For example, if your goal is to get viewers to opt-in to your email list, your video must be constructed around this objective. This will help increase the conversion rate of viewers to leads.

Failing to establish an objective for every video you create will lead to a lower opt-in rate. At the end of the day, your goal should be to generate as many targeted leads as possible for as little work as possible.

3. Establish Viewer Intent

When a viewer comes across a video on YouTube, they have expectations as to what the video should contain. If the video does not deliver on the set expectations, the viewer has a negative viewing experience and often leaves the video shortly after it has started.

Whenever you make a video, you must establish the intent that viewers are likely to have before viewing it. In other words, you must define the reason why a viewer might be interested in watching a video devoted to a particular topic.

For example, if a viewer clicks on a review video for a particular product, they want the product to be reviewed for them in the video. They do not want to see you go about your day-to-day life and talk about the dinner you had last night for 5 minutes.

If someone clicks on one of your videos expecting to receive a certain viewing experience based on their intent, but your video doesn't match their intent, do you think they'll be likely to become a lead? Probably not.

4. Develop a Relevant Opt-in Freebie

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and been taught about physical fitness by your waiter? Probably not, because you went to a restaurant to eat- not to learn about physical fitness. Keeping this scenario in mind, imagine how someone would feel if you pitched them a freebie that wasn't relevant to them when they watched your videos.

The freebie you give away to entice people to opt-in to become a lead for your brand or business is extremely important. It must be relevant to your target audience, and it must also be related to the content you publish on YouTube.

Remember, every viewer has a certain intent present when clicking on videos to watch. Failure to create a lead magnet that is related to this intent will cause viewers to ignore your attempt to get them to opt-in to become a lead.

Ultimately, you should approach the development of your lead magnet like the development of a product. Who are you targeting, how does your product relate to the target audience, what is a member of the target audience doing before the call-to-action is made, etc?

5. Create a Strong Call-to-Action

YouTube makes it difficult for users to leave the platform. Videos are present in the sidebar and there's a comments section attached to every video. Distractions are everywhere. For you to break through these barriers and reach viewers, you'll need a strong call-to-action.

You might be wondering- what is a strong call-to-action? Put simply, a strong CTA is a CTA that heavily resonates with the audience at hand. Strong CTAs get members of the audience to respond positively and urgently.

Think about your target audience, and try to determine what you would need to say for a member of your target audience to say, "I need that!" Also, think about what you would need to say for them to take action and visit your YouTube landing page.

Be very specific about the benefits that viewers will receive by visiting your opt-in page and getting access to your lead magnet. Do not lazily tell them to join your email newsletter. Nobody wants your general newsletter, they want value related to a specific topic.

YouTube Lead Generation Strategies

There are many different strategies available for those looking to use YouTube for business lead generation. However, a few strategies, in particular, have proven to be more effective for marketers and businesses looking to get more leads from YouTube.

Two of the most effective YouTube lead generation strategies are:

1. Remarketing ads
2. Promoted video funnels

Let's go over these strategies in more detail.

1. Remarketing Ads

Remarketing ads are some of the most powerful ads on YouTube. They can be hyper-specific and they're often less expensive than ads shown to fresh prospects. This combination makes the remarketing ads lead generation strategy one worth looking at.

The strategy is quite simple. All you need to do is create a campaign inside AdWords and pay to show an advertisement to members of an audience that have recently visited a certain page (or pages) on your website.

For example, if you had an opt-in page with a freebie for a free consulting call, you could run a remarketing video advertisement to the people who visited the page but did not opt-in to get a free consulting call with you or a member of your business.

As was just mentioned above, you can get hyper-specific with remarketing ads. You can say, "I noticed you didn't opt-in to receive a free consulting call…" in the video, as this message will be relevant to the audience you're advertising to.

If you have the budget available, consider experimenting with remarketing ads alongside your organic video marketing efforts. For even just $5 a day, these ads can be a game-changer for your brand or business.

2. Promoted Video Funnels

Remember what was said about video playlists above? You know, thinking of playlists as step-by-step sales funnels. Well, this strategy can be a great way to make your YouTube lead generation efforts more effective without having to create more videos.

This strategy is simple. Create a series of videos closely related to each other and place them inside of a playlist. Then, promote the playlist wherever you promote your content (Facebook, Twitter, etc).

By promoting the playlist and not an individual video inside of the playlist, you can cause viewers to automatically be placed inside of the video funnel. This will make it easier for them to justify watching the next video and the next video after that.

Ideally, each video inside your video funnel should work off of each other. For example, if your video funnel was devoted to showing people how to build a WordPress website, the first video should show viewers how to register for a hosting plan, the next video should show viewers how to install WordPress, and so on.

Think of a video funnel like a course that leads viewers to the finish line- your opt-in page. By the time viewers reach the finish line, chances are they'll be looking at you or your brand as an authority, and they'll be more than happy to opt-in and become a lead.

Conclusion

You now know how to generate leads from YouTube. While YouTube presents some different challenges than other video lead generation platforms, it is a platform that marketers and businesses should seriously consider using to reach their target audience. It is affordable, secure, and has produced great results for many brands.