How to Leverage Video Testimonials for Demand Generation Marketing
Sales teams are juggling multiple different tasks on any given day.
They have to follow up with prospects, prepare pitches, answer questions, and learn about new product rollout plans and features. On top of that, they have to perform cold outreach to ensure that their pipeline is full and engaged.
But what if you could help by ensuring inbound leads are engaging with the company without having to go on the offense?
That’s where demand generation marketing comes into play.
In this post, we’ll examine everything you need to know about demand generation marketing and how businesses can use it to increase sales.
Before we dive in, let’s look at what exactly demand generation marketing is and why it should be a key focus for you this year.
What is demand generation marketing?
Demand generation marketing is the act of building an effective system that automatically attracts, engages, and nurtures new prospects, so they are ready to buy.
To scale your business, you need to have a demand generation marketing strategy.
To put it simply, a demand generation strategy manufactures and captures demand for your product. This can be accomplished through optimized and promoted content that resonates with your target audience at all the different stages of their customer journey.
An effective demand generation engine can save your employees time and drive more revenue through your sales funnel.
With an automated demand marketing engine, you can drive new leads into your marketing funnel and nurture them until they are ready to buy.
Let’s take a look at how this can happen in real-time.
First, you would launch top-of-funnel marketing campaigns to raise brand awareness. Some examples of these campaigns include digital marketing, PPC campaigns, email marketing, events, and more.
After you’ve captured the attention (and basic information) of the lead, your demand generation engine can begin nurturing.
This typically includes adding them to an email nurture campaign that automatically sends content at certain intervals.
Common types of middle-of-funnel content include guides, reports, webinars, whitepapers, and other assets that provide insights to increase credibility.
Finally, once the lead is qualified and closer to converting, you might consider sharing video testimonials and case studies with them. These assets provide social proof and can explain your product in an authentic and engaging way.
The magic of a demand generation system is that most of these demand generation campaigns can run independently.
As a B2B marketer, your job is to build a marketing funnel and continuously feed it with engaging content marketing assets. Then, the demand generation marketing and lead nurturing tactics will begin to pay off.
The right demand generation strategies need to align with the marketing tactics you're deploying to reach a lucrative potential customer. If your marketing team isn't in sync and your strategy isn't unified, you will fall short.
But why should demand generation marketing move to the top of your marketing strategy to-do list?
Let’s look at why it should be such a vital part of any marketer’s sales pipeline and marketing strategy.
Why is demand generation marketing important?
Without a demand generation marketing strategy, you’re working harder and not smarter.
Demand generation marketing is an important part of any successful marketing strategy. The benefits associated with B2B demand tactics are beneficial for new prospects and existing customers alike.
Some of the most significant benefits of demand generation marketing include:
- Saving your sales team time that they would have spent on cold leads
- Continuously keeping your funnel and pipeline full of maturing leaders
- Automatically nurturing leads from one phase to another
- Re-engaging old leads to bring them back into contention
- Personalizing the buyer journey based on industry, preference, and product
Most importantly, though, generating traffic and leads is one of a marketer’s top challenges. That is exactly what an effective demand generation strategy can address.
A proper demand marketing system would have top-of-funnel channels like PPC ads, events, search-engine-optimized content.
You’ll need to see which channel is performing the best and increase your budget for it to get a meaningful increase in leads. Once you captured your prospect’s information, they would be added to your drip email cadences and nurtured until they were ready to buy.
If this system is set up correctly, you will continuously drive more leads and traffic to your site while saving your marketers and salespeople hours of work.
But what are the types of content that supercharge your demand generation marketing strategy and accelerate the time it takes prospects to convert?
Many businesses have found value in video testimonials — especially when they’re used right.
How to use video testimonials for demand generation marketing
One of the most important tools of your demand marketing engine is the type of content you use to attract, nurture, and convert new prospects.
Video testimonials are impactful content that can be useful in many different parts of the funnel.
Let’s explore some of the most effective ways to use them in your demand generation marketing strategy.
1. Use video testimonials in a social media ad
Before you can begin nurturing your prospects, you need to grab their attention.
One of the easiest ways to do this is through a social media ad on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn. With the right targeting, you can get a dynamic piece of creative in front of your prospects for just a few dollars.
But what creative should you use?
Video performs best in a Facebook Ad, so you should start there. Video content on Facebook generates an average 0.26% engagement rate, almost double the average post engagement rate of 0.18%.
By capturing a video testimonial from an existing client, you can authentically engage your prospects.
As the prospect sees one of their colleagues sharing a similar problem that your product may solve, they will begin to empathize and relate to them. That’s why creating video testimonial ads can be an effective way to lure more prospective B2B customers into your funnel.
Look at this example ad that we ran for our site. See how UiPath shared its testimonial for us in a quick 0:22 second video ad:
It captured the essence of what we do in a clear, concise way.
This top-of-funnel strategy will attract new leads who see the video testimonial playing in their social media feeds.
2. Include a video testimonial on your website
A video testimonial on your site can provide a valuable form of social proof for those who just need a slight nudge to sign up.
These landing page testimonials can have a dramatic effect on your conversion rate.
Place your video testimonial near your call-to-action button so existing customers can help hesitant prospects realize that signing up is a good decision.
The video testimonial might be the missing component needed to help make up a prospect’s mind.
Include one on your landing page to increase the time they spend on the site.
By embedding the video directly on the page, you’ll reap the benefits of a longer dwell time, which will positively impact SEO.
3. Embed a video testimonial in an email nurture campaign
You can’t expect your prospects to simply land on your site and immediately watch your testimonial video. Make it easy for them to access by sending it to them directly through email.
For prospects in the lower funnel, you can send a video testimonial from a client in the same industry via email.
Testimonials in emails can provide additional context for your product’s use cases, benefits, and unique functionality.
Testimonials will provide validation in ways your marketing messaging simply cannot.
Sometimes your prospects don’t need to hear from you. They need to hear from your happy existing customers. Their words and enthusiasm for your product can infuse excitement into prospects and answer all their questions without corporate messaging.
Video testimonials provide a full 360-degree look at your products and company through the eyes of a satisfied customer. Prospects will learn about the functions, benefits, and solution-oriented approach that is built into your offering.
By leveraging testimonials and your existing clients in the form of advocate marketing, you’ll energize prospects stuck in the middle of the funnel and get them ready to buy.
4. Embed video testimonials in blog posts
Go beyond landing pages and make sure your video testimonials live on a resources page or blog post.
With an optimized blog post that includes a video testimonial, you’ll expose your brand and product to an entirely new segment of prospective customers actively searching for similar solutions.
Best of all, if these blog posts are optimized for search engines, more prospects searching for relevant keywords will be able to find your content.
This top-of-funnel strategy is a great way to bring new qualified leads into your funnel, activating the entire demand generation flywheel that you’ve built.
Here’s an example video testimonial that would be great to embed in a blog.
In this video testimonial, Lucky Brand endorsed Celect for its inventory management, forecasting, and planning process needs.
The video introduces you to multiple people at Lucky Brand who have used the Celect product and explain it in their own words. This is a compelling testimonial that brings the viewer into the factory and shows Celect in action.
These types of video testimonials can enhance any point that you’re making in your blog post.
The true magic of a video testimonial is that it provides additional context in a way that’s accurate, meaningful, and relatable.
By embedding them in a blog post, you’ll make the content jump off the page and engage the interest and attention of viewers.
Conclusion
A marketing strategy without a demand generation plan is like a car without a motor. You need to carefully consider how you’ll create a system to generate new leads and qualify them for your sales team.
Demand generation marketing can power your marketing efforts. Consider ramping up your video testimonial production to engage prospects at all points of your funnel. You’ll be able to attract, engage, and nurture prospects with high-quality videos all the way to conversion.
By keeping the leads flowing to your sales team, you’ll save time and money while driving more revenue for the business.
Supercharge your demand generation marketing efforts with high-quality, compelling video testimonials. Contact Testimonial Hero today to get started.
