How ZeeBlu Generates More Leads Using Video

We all know that video is an engaging and memorable way to deliver a company’s message, but sometimes, that fact alone is not enough to convince clients that the money they’re spending on professional video is worth it. A steadily growing email list, however, is a convincing manifestation of a worthwhile investment.

Spenser Gabin, videographer at ZeeBlu, has plenty of practice gathering emails. In fact, he relies on email marketing to grow his clients’ businesses.

Enticing repeat restaurant visitors with email coupons

When’s the last time you subscribed to a business’s mailing list? Seriously, think about it. Why did you sign up? Were you glad you did?

“One of ZeeBlu’s value propositions is that we help businesses engage with their customers so that they become more frequent and recurring customers,” Spenser explained. “A critical part of this process is collecting contact information from leads, prospects, and current customers.”

Take, for example, the video Spenser produced for the Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch, located on their about page .

“For the Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch, our priority is to collect email addresses, since their business depends on repeat customers that need to be engaged on a regular basis for maximum profit.” To achieve that goal, Spenser implemented a Turnstile email collector on the restaurant’s videos to encourage users to sign up for monthly coupons. Who doesn’t want an occasional discount on a delicious warm meal?

Where to place the email collector

Since Turnstile is a major facet of his strategy, Spenser has taken the time to experiment with various implementations of the feature. “What I’ve found is that the best use of it depends on your goals for the video,” he explained.

After testing the location of the email gate, Spenser found that compared with placing the email gate at the end of the video, placing the gate at the beginning of the video resulted in about a 400% increase in the number of email addresses collected every month with no significant loss in view count.

Besides the location of the email gate, Spenser also tested to see whether an optional or mandatory email gate was more effective. “Disabling the skip button led to an additional 25% increase in the number of email addresses captured, but also about a 75% decrease in view count,” he commented.

Spenser shared their reasoning behind requiring people to enter their emails, despite the decrease in views: “The loss in views is unlikely to result in a lost sale, while capturing the email address is likely to lead to additional business.” It all comes back to the overall goal of the video.

“People receive truck-loads of emails everyday, and they aren’t going to give up their email addresses unless they get something valuable in return,” said Spenser. This promise of value along with a reasonable frequency of emails (monthly) make this offer enticing, and downright hard to resist. Unless you don’t eat chicken.

Creating ROI, straight from the email list

Spenser speculates that the average customer goes to the Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch once a month, but might go twice a month if they are receiving monthly coupons.

“Suppose Chicken Ranch makes $8 on the average customer per visit,” he says. “That would mean over a 5-year period, Chicken Ranch would make $480 on each email address captured.”

“This may sound modest, but with thousands of email addresses on their list, this could result in a seven-figure ROI over a 5-year period. Given the substantial long-term value of an email address, that 25% increase is well-worth the decrease in views.”

Of course, Spenser’s predictions are not foolproof calculations, but there’s no doubt that Turnstile is an invaluable (and scalable) tool for connecting customers and businesses.

Have you tested email collectors on your video content? How did you track their success? How much do you want grilled chicken right now?