Lead Generation Tools

Add one of our lead generation tools like Turnstile email collector, Calls to Action, and Annotation links.

Note

Lead Generation Tools are not compatible with audio files at this time.

Want to add a Call To Action at the end of your video? Need a sweet email collector to capture leads? Then check out our lead generation tools, friend!

To add one of these interactive tools, navigate to the video you’d like to add it to and select Customize. In the Customize panel you’ll see options for Annotation Links, Calls to Actions, and Turnstile.

There are lots of ways to customize your video’s timeline, but the biggest players are Turnstile email gate, Calls to Action, and Annotation links.

Note

For more information on tracking these analytics, check out our Stats Overview page.

Before we dive into those, let’s first walk through how you can set these tools up.

Using Waypoints

Any one of these tools added to your video will appear as a waypoint below your video timeline. All tools can be placed at any time within a video. To change when these show up, you can simply adjust the time stamps in the Customize menu or drag the waypoints to the exact frame you want it to appear.

Annotation Link

An Annotation Link is a great way to notify your viewers without interrupting the video.

The Annotation link, when added, will appear in the upper right corner of the video, and it can stick around for as long as you’d like. You can adjust the time by updating the time stamps or dragging the waypoint below the video timeline. To make your annotation links longer or shorter, adjust the length bar by clicking and dragging. Learn more on the Annotation Links page.

Tip

If you want to create an Annotation without a click-through link just leave the URL line blank.

A Note on Mobile Support for Annotation Links

Calls To Action and Turnstile will work properly on pretty much every mobile device (all the environments we’ve tested at least … which is a bunch). This is because even when playback is handled by the native player on a device, we can pull out of fullscreen to show the overlay (and CTAs/Turnstiles will pause playback naturally).

Annotation links are a bit different, because they appear over the video mid-playback. They’ll work properly on any device where the Wistia player controls are able to function (via our Tiny Vulcan mobile player), which includes many Android devices and iOS10+. Earlier iOS versions do not support custom inline video players, so playback on those devices will go through the native player, thus annotations will not work.

On newer iOS versions (iOS10+), the native iOS video player takes over in landscape mode and fullscreen. In those modes Annotation links cannot appear because playback is not being handled by the Wistia player, and also because nothing can be displayed in front of the native iOS player when it’s in fullscreen mode.

Call to Action

A Call to Action is a clickable message, image, or HTML script that appears anywhere in your video, and it lets your viewers know what you want them to do next. You can learn more on our Calls to Action Page.

There are three types of Calls to Action:

Text: add a quick, customizable message that links to direct your viewers.
Image: use an image instead of a text link to direct viewers.
HTML: write your own custom Call To Action.

Note

When adding your link, make sure you include the http:// or https://.

Custom HTML Call to Action

You can build a custom HTML Call to Action that takes on-page or inline styles. Where possible, use on-page styles (i.e. including them in a <style> tag in the head of your page), because they may be stripped out during the customization process.

Note

Since HTML Calls to Action allow for advanced customizations (which could lead viewers away from our stats servers), they won’t collect any Action stats.

It’s also important to note — Wistia will strip out javascript from your custom CTA, so make sure to stick to HTML (and some basic CSS). Looking for some inspiration or sample code? Have a look at our HTML CTA examples page.

Turnstile

Turnstile is an easy email collector for your video content. It’s great for lead generation, and connects with a bunch of great email providers to make tracking new leads super simple. It’s so powerful, we made a page just for it. Read more on setting up a Turnstile.

You can place a Turnstile at any point in your video by adjusting the time stamp or dragging the waypoint to the exact frame you’d like it to appear. Neato!

Integrate Turnstile with an Email Provider

Emails captured with Turnstile email collector can be piped directly to an email provider list, which makes it easy to follow-up with them.

To get started, click the Setup an Email Provider link under the Turnstile option. Choose your provider and fill in the necessary details, and click that shiny Connect button. Then you’re smooth sailing. ⛵️

Check out the full directions on the Turnstile help page to get your provider fully setup and linked.

If you choose not to integrate Turnstile with an email provider, you can check out Turnstile entries on the Audience page in your account.

Removing a Lead Generation Tool

To remove any of these tools from your video, you’ll first need to navigate to the Customize panel, under the ▸ Video Actions menu. You’ll then need to open the settings area for the tool you’d like to delete. Here, you can disable

Afterwards, just be sure to save your settings! You can find the Save button at the top of the Customize panel.

There’s no need to re-embed your video — it will update out the in wild automatically.

Lead Generation Tool FAQ

Can I have more than one in my video?

Yes, kind of … You’ll only be able to add one Turnstile, and one Call to Action to your video. You can add as many Annotation links as you’d like. The other big thing to keep in mind — these cannot overlap, so they’ll have to be presented one at a time. But this video timeline is totally acceptable, if that’s what you’re into:

Can I further customize Annotation links?

At this point, it’s not possible to move the Annotation link, or further customize its color. The reason for this limitation is currently that the other spaces on the player are “occupied” — the bottom of the screen needs to be able to accommodate the controls and play bar when a viewer hovers over the player, without interfering with an Annotation that may be located there.

Phew, that was a long answer. We know it would be a better experience for our users to be able to choose the location of the link, so we’re working on making that possible. If that’s something you’re interested in, feel free to give us a shout in our support inbox.

Why can’t I remove the Skip Button on a CTA?

The logic behind disabling the Skip option is due mostly to the nature of a Call to Action. Since it can appear anywhere in the video it’s sort of fruitless for it to not be skippable, since it blocks the rest of the content from being visible. There’s really no point in having anything after a CTA if someone can’t skip it. The viewer is sort of just stuck there.

For this reason, we’ve made it so that the viewer will always be able to skip a Call to Action. The button will become a Rewatch button if the CTA is placed at the end of the video.

Can I change the copy on the Turnstile button?

When you move a Turnstile to the end of the video, the Play button will automatically become a Submit button. It is indeed possible to further customize or change the language of the Play/Submit button in Wistia.

Can I add a custom field to Turnstile? Like phone number?

Not with Turnstile out of the box. But our friends at FormKeep have put together a nifty custom Call to Action that allows you to add custom fields. Check out their guide here.