So you’ve produced and posted your video. Now what are viewers supposed to do after they watch it? What are their video marketing CTAs? How do we get them to buy something?
Buy now, buy later, click, watch more, share, learn more, visit, sign up, subscribe or just be aware that your product, service, organization or movement exists. These are just some of the “Calls to Action” / CTAs that prompt viewers to take the actions you want them to take before, during or after they watch your videos.
What are the 10 Best Video Marketing CTAs for Top Sales?
CTAs should be considered and incorporated into your videos before the creative and messaging have even begun.
1. Get Them to Watch
We don’t think about it, but The most important video marketing CTAs happen before viewers watch your videos. You have to give viewers a reason to watch. Use a captivating title and thumbnail. Assuming you’re planning on paid promotion, blog, publication and influencer outreach, make sure there’s an enticing story behind the video and catchy ad subject lines to draw people in.
2. Be Searchable
To help people find your videos, optimize for search using the appropriate short and long tail keywords in the video title, description and even in the dialogue or voiceover of the video. Youtube allows for closed captioning which creates searchable transcripts. You can also copy-and-paste the transcript text into the video description on any video sharing platform, making the dialogue or voiceover searchable.
3. Visit our Website
This call to action pushes a targeted audience of likely buyers to your website where they can get more information, contact you or make a purchase.
4. Learn More
Prompting a viewer to learn more enables you to leave heavy branding, messaging and product or service information out of the video and focus on giving viewers entertaining or informative content. Link your learn more CTA to a social media channel or a website landing page where you’ve placed additional information, a contact form or additional videos.
Also, once they’re on your website they’re likely to click round and find more reasons to buy.
5. Buy Now
This is the most direct way to put your goods and services in front of someone, make a compelling case for why they should buy and ask them to buy.
6. Don’t Wait! Limited Offer! Closing Soon! Everything Must Go!
This is the gold standard of “Buy Now” video marketing and how TV channels like QVC are so successful.
Reasons for the rush to buy include a limited time / time constrained offer, a limited quantity of items or spaces available, or a fake going out of business sale designed to create urgency and a sense that if they don’t act quickly, the viewer will miss out on the opportunity.
7. Subscribe / Sign Up
This is a way to gather names and email addresses for future use. The video viewer doesn’t necessarily have to make a purchase now, but we’ll start sending them emails with more videos on topics in which they’ve shown an interest, helpful or entertaining blog posts and other interesting content until they eventually make a purchase, or share the content with someone who will.
Not everyone is ready to buy when they watch your branded videos. The point here is to stay on your potential customers’ radar so that when they’re ready to make a purchase
8. Share the video!!
Getting people to share your videos on social media channels like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, embed them on blogs and publications and even email links (yes, people still do that), is extremely important in getting the videos seen by as many people as possible.
The more targeted the video is, the more likely it will be shared by people who are interested in your product or service with other people who are interested, since people who are connected socially often have common interests.
There are video marketing CTAs that kid to quick sales!
9. Leave a Freakin’ Comment – Please
Ask for people to leave a comment. Why do you think Yelp works so well?
10. Watch Another Video
Didn’t get them to take action with that first video? Produce a series of videos and encourage them to watch the next video until you have them in a video watching frenzy and they’re ready to buy anything you’re selling.
This makes them MORE than aware of you. It makes them very familiar with your products and services and they may even start to LIKE you. Not in a Facebook way. In a real-world way.
The various actions are not always exclusive to each other. You can combine multiple video marketing CTAs and let the viewer decide which one they prefer to do.
They may even watch a video, share it, then go back, tell a friend, watch it again AND make a purchase.
Consumers are crazy that way.
Need help with your video creative, production, marketing or PR videos – give us a shout: CONTACT
