Lead Generation & Conversion
Video content has the potential to engage and educate customers in a way that audio or texts alone simply cannot.
This explains why it’s a preferred form of marketing for lead generation. In fact, 91% of businesses have adopted it as a marketing tool, as shown in the graph image below.
However, converting video content begins with quality editing. And the good news is that you don’t need to spend a fortune to learn how to edit your videos.
This article shares with you 5 top video editing techniques for lead generation and conversions that you can leverage today.
5 Video Editing Techniques for Lead Generation
Regardless of the platform or type of video you’re creating, correct editing is still crucial if you want to generate leads, increase user engagement, and convert viewers.
Below are 5 effective video editing techniques for lead generation and conversion.
1. Define Your Target Audience
Video marketing, like any other form of marketing, is audience-driven. When editing your videos, you want to ensure that the content, message, and even music appeals to your targeted audience.
That’s why you need to understand your audience before anything else. This begins with creating a buyer persona template. The template should answer the following questions about your ideal buyer:
- Who are they?
- What are their needs and interests?
- What’s their demographics (gender, age)?
- What type of content do they find informative and engaging?
Your target audience is responsible for your growth. They’re the ones who will watch your videos, share them with friends, and act upon them if prompted to.
By clearly defining them, you’ll be able to create and edit videos that resonate with them and ultimately drive results.
2. Choose the Right Video Editing Software
There are tons of paid and free video editing software for Mac and Windows available that offer different editing tools and features.
But with all these options, it can be challenging to choose the right video editing software for your marketing needs.
So always opt for one with features like:
- User-friendliness: It should be easy to use and navigate
- Video format support: Ensure it supports various video file formats, including MP4, WebM, and 4K
- Advanced editing tools: These include chroma key editing, 360° video editing, and fast rendering
- Budget-friendly: There are free video editing software options and those that offer free trials
You can try out different editing software and choose one that suits you best, depending on your skill level, budget, and preferences.
3. Keep It Short and Precise
The length of your videos is very important. You want to ensure that your videos are brief, with all the needed information effectively communicated.
Research shows that the average video attention span for online viewers is 2–3 minutes. This means that your viewers may not have the time to watch a 10 or 15-minute long video.
Below are the ideal video length on common social media platforms that will convert and help generate leads:
- Instagram: 60 seconds (1 minute) or less. You can choose to embed Instagram Reels on websites to further increase reach and engagement.
- Facebook: About 20 to 90 seconds.
- TikTok: Anywhere between 15 and 60 seconds. You can always calculate your TikTok engagement rate to gauge the effectiveness of this duration and optimize the length accordingly.
- Twitter: Less than 15 seconds
Sometimes, however, you can opt for longer videos, especially if you’re creating informative and how-to videos, or customer testimonials.
These kinds of videos can help you retain your customers, since they cater to customers already invested in your products or services.
4. Use Captions and Subtitles in Videos
Some viewers prefer watching video content with sound off because they might be in a noisy place or just want some quiet time.
To increase conversions from your marketing videos and make them more accessible, consider adding captions and subtitles in your videos.
Many video editing software offer automated transcripts that quickly convert speech into texts, speeding up the process of generating captions and subtitles.
Just keep in mind that the automated transcripts aren’t always 100% accurate. So you might want to go back and identify inaccuracies in the transcription.
Alternatively, you can write your own transcript for your video’s audio. Just ensure you break your texts into short sentences that match your video’s flow and timing.
5. Include a Call to Action
One of the most crucial video editing techniques for lead generation is incorporating a call to action (CTA).
A CTA prompts viewers to take a particular action after watching your video. This could be visiting your website, making a purchase, or subscribing to your channel.
The image below has an embedded WhatsApp link that prompts viewers to reach out in case they want to make a purchase or inquiries.
Therefore, always aim to strategically add a clear and conscious CTA. You can do this by:
- Including a direct verbal CTA within the video, e.g. say something like “subscribe to our channel for exclusive updates”
- Displaying the CTA as on screen text. Position the text strategically for better visibility
- Embed clickable links directly into the video description
- Encourage viewers to engage with your video on social platforms by liking, sharing, or commenting.
Wrapping Up
That’s it. 5 effective video editing techniques for lead generation and conversion that you can even begin applying now.
Remember, you can always get creative with your video editing styles. So look at these techniques as guidelines and not strict rules.
Happy editing!
Free Video Editing Tools To Edit Videos Online
One of the most critical elements of content marketing is a good video. A branded video of your business, with your business logo design, branding colors, and images, can take your business to the next level. So, it is the right time to start including videos in your marketing strategy if you are yet to do that.
Most video editing software is pricey but comes packed with premium features that enhance the quality of your video output. On the other hand, free video editors can get you started with your essential online video editing tasks.
Even though most free video editors have limited features, they are very easy to use with a user-friendly interface and can meet almost all your basic video needs like cutting, trimming, cropping, rotating, etc. These and other free video editing software can come in handy for your marketing efforts
In this article, we highlight features as well as some key details about some free and paid video editors. The paid editors also have free but limited/trial versions. These solutions may only support one user or one project and scaling often requires purchase.
Why Do We Need To Use Video In Our Business Marketing?
Video is very essential in digital marketing, hence the rising interest in video editing software. Video is by far the most viewed content type with engagement levels that make other multimedia formats green with envy.
Data from InVideo shows that online videos comprise 82 percent of consumer internet traffic. The data also shows that around 79 percent of online shoppers claim that one or more videos have influenced them to make a purchase or even download a software tool.
Recent reports suggest that in the last 30 days, more online TV content has been uploaded to the web than in the past 30 years of TV content combined.
Best Free Video Editing Software
Unless you’re producing an epic Hollywood blockbuster movie, there’s no point spending a fortune on expensive video-editing software for your computer. While many fair-priced video-editing suites are going for less than $100, various free or freemium editing packages can help accomplish most of what some paid video editors can do.
Different users compare different factors when considering free video editing software. Some users consider the software’s user interface, video formats supported, and video editing features. All these are pretty important and are covered in this roundup.
DaVinci Resolve | Blackmagic Design Video Editing Tool
This is possibly the best free video editing tool for professionals. Keep in mind that this is different from the DaVinci Resolve Studio which is not free to use.
Created by Blackmagic Design, a leading producer of video cameras, DaVinci Resolve offers many useful video editing features. Its color grading options allow the users to control the appearance of their videos and the smart video stabilization feature comes in handy when editing shaky shots. You will have the features you need to complete your video mixing and build your titles.
Animaker – Animated Video Maker
Animaker offers an online video editor to allow easier creation of video from photos, audio, text, and other videos. It is a simple do-it-yourself (#DIY) online animation video maker.
The lightweight app works on almost every web browser, meaning that it does not have any complex layers or timelines. Besides, you do not need any video editing skills to use it.
How does it work? All you have to do is log in and use the drag-and-drop feature to tell your story. Choose a 2D animated video template from the library or create your own. Also, you can add 2D backdrops, characters, properties, and animated messages to customize the scenes in your 2D animated film. You can also give your 2D animated film a rhythm by adding cool sounds and music.
VideoPad Video Editor
VideoPad is a cross-platform video editing software for learners. Although the free version limits the video exporting options to just two basic file formats. It has an intuitive interface hence, it doesn’t take much time to get used to, and it is perfectly accustomed to the needs of inexperienced video editors.
Besides, VideoPad can be all you require if you have to look for a free video editor that enables 3D video editing.
Users may upload their films straight to social networks like Facebook and YouTube using the application, which also provides a variety of social media-friendly transitions and effects.
The input formats are:
WMV, MPV, DivX, etc, while the output formats are: WMV and AVI. The disadvantage is that certain features become unavailable when using the free version of this video editing software over time.
Avidemux Video Editor [ for Win/Mac ]
Avidemux is a free video editor that can carry out simple tasks like cutting, filtering, and encoding. Avidemux features robust and reliable encoding options, and its interface is user-friendly. File types supported include AVI, DVD-compatible MPEG files, MP4, and ASF, using a variety of codecs.
The input formats are:
AVI, MPEG, MOV, MP4, etc. while the Output formats are AVI, MPEG, DIVX, XVID, MP4, etc. the disadvantage is that this video editing software doesn’t feature video effects or transitions.
Invideo – library of 5000+ templates, transitions, and effects
If you are looking for a cloud-based video creation tool, InVideo is surely the tool for you. For Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram, videos the platform you choose needs to offer a plethora of template options and this tool certainly checks this requirement.
Invideo makes it easy to produce effective advertising, promotions, YouTube videos, intros, and more, choose from more than 5000 designs.
This is the most extensive editing tool for both beginner and expert video editors, including controls for changing colors, animations, typefaces, and more.
Not only this, it does include intro maker, slideshow maker, invitation maker, and much more kinds of features within it.”
Openshot Video Editor
Openshot is another open-source video editor which offers basic video editing features like trimming and slicing. It also provides lots of transitions and audio effects to help you make simple videos with input formats like QuickTime, AVI, WMV, MPEG, and output formats like MPEG, Avi, mp4, MOV, etc. It is free as well as powerful.
The downside is it needs to install add-ons if the OS you are using doesn’t meet the system requirements for this particular video editing software.
VSDC Video Editor
This is a fantastic option for novices who utilize Windows machines with little processing power. The outdated Windows machines’ internals and specifications make them susceptible to freezing and crashing when used to run sophisticated video editing software.
VSDC video editor has tons of features and you can start for free. It features a wide range of filters, overlays, transition effects, and color correction abilities that you can apply to improve your outcomes.
Also, VSDC is designed with users in mind to deliver a smooth editing experience so that even beginners and learners can enjoy creative media projects.
It also features wide format support that allows it to handle all popular media files with ease. Boasting of Input formats like AVI, QuickTime (MP4/M4V, 3GP/2G2, MOV, QT), HDVideo/AVCHD (MTS, M2TS, TS, MOD, TOD), Windows Media (WMV, ASF, DVR-MS), DVD/VOB, VCD/SVCD, etc. and output formats like AVI, DVD, VCD/SVCD, MPEG, MP4, M4V, MOV, 3GP/3G2, WMV, MKV, RM/RMVB, FLV, SWF, AMV, MTV. This video editing software has an intuitive interface and is beginner-friendly. However, keep in mind that technical support is not free.
Blender – Free & Open-source & Professional Animated Film Toolset
Blender is a free open-source 3D content creation or video editing software that supports all major operating systems. Blender has various advanced features, such as modifier-based modeling tools, powerful character animation tools, node-based material, etc. You can add your 3D logo to the mix and make your video look innovative and modern.
Blender is one of the best-preferred video editors for both Windows and Mac users.
With input formats like the latest audio and video formats and output formats like MOV, MPEG4, MP4, AVI,.WMV, MPEG-PS, FLV, 3GPP, WebM, and a host of other advanced features, this video editor is perfect for advanced users.
Lightworks Video Editing Software
Lightworks ranks first in our list of the top 10 free video editing tools. It has a simple intuitive interface that makes it a perfect choice for both beginner-level and experienced video editors. Furthermore, this tool offers detailed video tutorials something that makes it the easiest-to-learn video editor available for Linux users.
By choosing this tool, you will have access to a speed optimization feature that will allow you to continue editing your video while importing content from other sources and a Multicam editing feature to sync video clips from several cameras.
Even more, you will manage to share your videos or export them to Vimeo, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook without leaving the editor. Lightworks supports many video formats.
Promo Video Maker
A fantastic Online Video Maker, Easily create videos from scratch or choose from our selection of great templates. You can create compelling video ads, social media videos, product videos, explainer videos, and more. Also, you can add your company logo, graphics, and slogan. If you don’t have a slogan yet, give a try to one of the free slogan generators on our top list.
SocialBook Video Background Remover
Are you unhappy with your video’s background? Do you want to change it? Then you should check out SocialBook’s video background. This tool will quickly remove video backgrounds even if you have very basic video editing skills.
You simply upload your video to it or add your video’s URL and it will remove the background for you. You can then replace it with something more attractive.”
Our Conclusion For The List Of The Free Video Editing Tools
These video editors are great to work with and are only a few of the many other video editing software or applications out there that can help you create a great marketing video for your brand or business in the new year. The tools on our list of free video editing software can be put to the test. When making your decision, take into account the editing features, the hidden fees, and the customer service. Besides, even though they are marketed as being free, some video editors need payment in order to access useful features or pro support.
Author Bio
Amos Onwukwe is an AWAI trained Business and Ecommerce Copywriter featured in blogs like Huffington Post, Dumb Little Man, eCommerce Nation, eCommerce Insights, Understanding eCommerce, Result First, Floship, Small Biz Club, Small Business Bonfire, Successful Startup 101, etc.
Twitter: @amos_onwukwe
