Do Videos work for LinkedIn Lead Generation?

By the numbers, LinkedIn has 830 million worldwide members. On a site of almost a billion that sees a ton of content being published every day, however, marketing with LinkedIn has a serious downside:

It’s not easy to be seen.

You could put together a masterclass of content that your target audience would trip over themselves and crawl through a desert to access. But if nobody ever sees your material, was it ever really published?

Fortunately, there’s a way that you can make yourself more visible. You can start posting videos on LinkedIn for lead generation.

Are videos worth the time investment? How do you even begin finding topics for videos and uploading them? Keep reading to find out.

Why LinkedIn Videos Should Be a Part of Your Lead Generation Strategy

It’s not exaggerating to say that LinkedIn is hands down the most well-known professional networking site on the planet. But, as we all know, video marketing on LinkedIn is a different use of the site than job hunting or keeping in touch with old classmates.

Here are five major reasons to start using LinkedIn videos to generate leads:

1. People Engage With Videos More

It’s said that 66% of people see video as their top source of information. According to the same research, 93% of businesses acquire new customers by using branded video content.

Imagine you’re at work and the marketing team opens its latest proposal with the words, “We know that our buyers hang out primarily on Facebook. But we’ve decided to dump 90% of our advertising dollars into TikTok instead.”. In the absence of an extremely good explanation, how long would that team still be working at your company?

Exactly.

Lead Generation 101 is about meeting people where they are and giving them what they want.

And at this stage, the trend couldn’t be more clear. People want to see more videos. Not less.

2. You Can Expand Your Audience

Let’s say you’ve been blogging for a while. Your content is getting lots of likes and people seem to be appreciating your comments. But even so, you can tell that you’re mostly attracting the same people.

If you want to keep growing your audience, you’ve got two options:

• Find a new target audience
• Change your medium

And honestly, sometimes both adjustments may be necessary.

If you’re a small business accountant and your posts are being consumed by restaurant owners, perhaps florists and retailers should be your next demographic.

But if you’re not at that stage yet, you can post video content to reach the people in your target demographic who prefer YouTube videos over blog posts. To put it simply, video has the potential to boost your next campaign.

3. You Could Get More From Your Lead Generation Campaigns

There’s demand generation. And then there’s lead generation. People often confuse the two and it compromises their B2B marketing efforts.

Ads don’t always do a good job of attracting the right leads. And how many times have you googled a general topic out of interest, only to read the blog post, nod, and walk away?

A well-designed video allows your potential customers to self-qualify. If you choose a topic that offers a tangible benefit to your target demographic, clicking on your company URL is a logical next step for your viewers.

4. You Can Promote Your Brand

Writing experts talk a lot about the importance of showing rather than telling. The basic idea is that if your character is an intelligent person who makes good decisions, your reader should be able to see that.

Maybe instead of heading into the basement with a baseball bat, the horror novel’s main character leaves the house and calls 911. Perhaps instead of hiding secrets and starting arguments, the main character has a 10-minute conversation with their partner.

Business branding doesn’t typically involve dragons, wizards, and high-tech spy shenanigans. But in many regards, crafting a narrative around your brand is about showing instead of telling.

If you want to present an image that says, “We care about helping your business succeed.”, your video content can amplify that. Even if you’re marketing on LinkedIn for leads rather than brand recognition, your video can still help your company establish its narrative.

5. Your Content Can Help You Earn People’s Trust

On LinkedIn, connecting with people and getting followers is easy. Turning those same individuals into happy, paying customers? That takes a little more finesse.

In your personal life, relationships take time. And as you get to know a person, you eventually start to realize what you can and can’t trust them with.

Let’s say you’re expecting a baby but you’re waiting to announce the news. Or maybe you’re interviewing for a new job but you haven’t told your current boss that you’re leaving. In either of these scenarios, that gossipy relative who also happens to be your coworker is the last person you’ll spill the beans to.

As a company, you want people to interact with your content and think, “I can trust these guys to manage my taxes.” or “I should hire these folks for my next commercial roofing project.”.

LinkedIn videos are your chance to show people that you know your stuff. And because you’re an expert in your field, it just makes sense for them to hire you or purchase your services.

How to Post a Video on LinkedIn

Okay. So we’ve explained why LinkedIn videos are such a powerful lead generation tool. Now it’s time to talk logistics.

Here’s your step-by-step guide to creating and posting a video on LinkedIn:

1. Shoot Your Video

With LinkedIn videos, you don’t need Hollywood-level special effects to get results. You can just pull out your iPhone or Android during an afternoon stroll and start filming.

At this stage, you’ll want to look for a well-lit area with a neutral background and limited amounts of noise. The focus of your video should be on the content of what you’re saying.

Speaking of content, you may be wondering how to come up with topics for videos. Luckily, there’s a simple solution that will give you an endless fountain of ideas:

Ask the question, “Is this something my target audience would care about right now?”.

Look through the most popular LinkedIn posts in your industry. Browse your website’s Greatest Hits. That subheading on “claiming tax deductions for new commercial trucks” or “closing deals on luxury homes” could be the subject of your next three-part video series.

This Is How to Format Your Video

Like most video platforms, LinkedIn is pretty particular when it comes to what you can and can’t upload. For this reason, you’ll likely need a formatting checklist. Video requirements for LinkedIn include:

• Being 3 seconds to 10 minutes in length
• Being uploaded in a supported format
• Being between 75KB and 5GB in size
• MP3, AAC, or Vorbis audio

From a technical standpoint, LinkedIn supports a wide range of video formats. The list includes ASF, QuickTime, and MP4, to name just a few. This, in turn, means that you have a lot of latitude in terms of your content and your main method of recording.

2. Upload Your Video

Okay. So you’ve got the video and it looks fantastic.

Now it’s time to put it out there.

Go to your profile or your business page and look for the video icon. Click on it and choose the file that you’re going to upload.

Some additional audience-friendly features to consider include:

• Captions
• Filters

Captions are great for people who may be watching your video with the sound turned off. And filters can help you add visual interest to your video. However, both features are only available on business pages.

To add captions to your video, you’ll need to upload what’s known as an SRT file along with your video. Fortunately, the uploading steps are pretty simple. Click on the icon that looks like a pencil and upload it alongside your video.

Found it? Great. Your video is almost ready for the world.

3. Write a Post Description

Unlike turkey during Thanksgiving weekend, most video content doesn’t sell itself. You need to write up a description that helps potential viewers:

• Know what the video’s about
• Decide if they’re interested

If the video’s the steak, your post description can help you sell the sizzle.

4. Share Your Video

Even though your video should be posted and published at this point, your job isn’t done. You have to put your content directly in front of people.

To position your video for maximum impact, you’ll want to post it on social media. And you’ll need to make it easy for people to see and share. LinkedIn even allows people and companies to embed videos on their websites.

“But wait!”, You say, “I don’t want the people who follow me for self-improvement tips to see my latest video on sales.”. Another key feature of LinkedIn is its audience-targeting capabilities.

Best Practices for Creating High-Performing LinkedIn Videos

So you’ve gotten this far and you’re looking for an edge. You don’t want to just make great video content. You want to knock your lead generation campaign out of the park.

Here are some of our hottest video marketing tips:

1. Write an Amazing Headline

They say that many people who visit a site never bother to read past the title. If you want to post a video that makes your target audience stop what they’re doing and scroll over immediately, you need a fantastic headline.

Once you get good at creating show-stopping titles, you’ll never have to worry about generating leads again.

2. Match Your Content to Your Audience

In marketing circles, buyer personas are a foundational part of building a brand. Why? Because although international CEOs and solopreneurs might have some shared interests, the former has significantly different needs than the latter.

And it’s hard to craft content that speaks to both.

Before you start filming videos, you’ll want to drill down on your audience. The more focused your content is, the easier it will be to sell them on your services.

3. Use Keywords

Imagine your video on generating real estate leads takes off. You’re officially considered a go-to expert in your field and you’ve gained a lot of leads through this one piece of content.

If someone in your target demographic is researching your topic in the future, keywords can help them find your video. Don’t be shy about adding relevant keywords to your product description and headline.

4. Have a CTA

When you first uploaded your video, you did so with a single intention:

You wanted to get more leads.

If those interested individuals see your video and make it to the end, you need to tell them what to do next.

Do you want them to book a demo? Do you want them to sign up for your email list or give you a call? Your video’s call to action is your opportunity to make your pitch.

5. Don’t Forget About Your Text

In video marketing, people often feel like the video itself is king. But truthfully, your video description is also an exercise in marketing and sales.

Hit your target demographic’s pain points. Suck them in and convince them that they would be absolute fools to pass on your video. Your description shouldn’t be summarizing the video — it should be telling people why they need to watch your video right now.

6. Keep It Short

War and Peace is famous in part for being an extremely long novel. But there’s an argument that Tolstoy kept the novel as long as it needed to be.

Video doesn’t work like that. According to Vimeo, LinkedIn native videos should be 10 minutes long while video ads can be up to 30 minutes in length. And if you’re making a brand awareness video, it should be 30 seconds or less.

Grow Your Business by Posting Videos on LinkedIn for Lead Generation

Posting videos on LinkedIn for lead generation isn’t just smart — it could completely transform your business. But there’s more to LinkedIn than throwing up a few videos and hoping for the best. You need a system that will help you grow your audience without destroying your work-life balance.

Our automation tools will deliver prospects and connections to your LinkedIn account while you sleep. Register for your free trial today.