Hopefully, you’re more engaged than the average reader, so there is no need to repeat 90% of that first line.

Instead, let’s get on with looking at what makes video prospecting such a great tool and why you should use it.

Of all the sales media currently out there, video is one to watch. Why is this?

Video is on the rise, especially as far as younger audiences are concerned. This is shown by the increase in corporate video advertising spending.

Another reason is that it’s not nearly as complicated to make a video as some might think. The internet resources are legion and really helpful.

So, let’s see what video prospecting is and why you should be looking into it.

What Is Video Prospecting?

Video prospecting is using video rather than the traditional written word to raise awareness of your products or to connect with an audience. It can be put out via email, social media, or even through SMS/cloud message using a free VoIP phone number with a call forwarding system.

Why Is It a Good Idea?

It works. Studies have indicated that video can secure 480% more engagement than text.

One of the reasons for this is that it provides an immediacy of connection and gives voice to emotion.

People tend to respond more positively and more readily to a talking human rather than a dry piece of text. Whether you’re demonstrating how to use an app or visually demonstrating how you can solve a potential customer’s pain points.

In addition, meaning is discerned more faithfully; it’s sometimes easy to misconstrue tone when there is no facial cue to indicate the level of interpretation required. This is why sarcasm is often lost in print.

The other great thing about video is that it offers the opportunity for creativity, which can totally overcome what might be seen by some as rather an unprepossessing subject. For instance, who says how creatively seeing the process of how the IVR system works can’t be entertaining? Not this video maker.

Outbound Vs Inbound Video Prospecting

Outbound is the more traditional technique of reaching out to the customer. It’s easy to understand but not always that successful as it has a lot of competition to be distinctive from.

The advantage of using video here is that it does tend to stand out against written pieces. It shows that there is a real living human trying to reach out rather than a bot.

Inbound is all about enticing the customer to come to you. It’s a more sophisticated approach based on, for instance, a building brand profile so that customers are more likely to approach rather than there being a bombardment of outbound promotions.

The former is more immediate. The latter takes time but will yield better long-term results. It’s best to have a blend of both.

You can blend inbound and outbound, and video and non-video techniques. For instance, a small business with a cloud-based business phone system can make an outbound video prospecting piece that encourages customers to come; inbound to a call centre. There will then be a need to look into call centre services for small businesses, of course.

Get to Know Your Customers

Having a clear picture of your customers will help you a lot with both outbound and inbound video prospecting. Learn about them by pulling customer data from Databricks Hadoop and analysing it with Google Analytics. This will tell you how people are using your content. So, you can learn how to improve your work and keep people interested.

You will also gain some demographic information, which is a clear benefit in working out how best to shape your video.

You can segment your audience in lots of ways. Here are two examples:

• Audience personas. Create an archetype. Give them a name. What do they like? What do they do? How old are they?
• Funnel stage. How familiar is this segment with your brand? This pairs the right level of familiarity with that demanded by the video.

What Types of Video Prospecting Are There?

Webcam Outreach

This is probably the most basic. Record yourself on your laptop giving a pitch, and send it out. The success of these depends a great deal on your delivery, the quality of the product, and its relevance to the prospect.

Tutorials and Demos

These are good for giving an overview of a product’s features and functionality. They will instruct viewers in techniques that will be genuinely useful to them. For this reason, they tend to be very popular.

Quite often these videos should be viewed not purely as sales tools. They are a form of content with the primary purpose of giving value to the user. This will then encourage repeat visits to your site and enhanced levels of communication and engagement.  

Customer Testimonials

These are as they sound: a customer relates gushingly about a product.

A well-chosen reviewer who chimes in some way with the video recipient will work wonders. Testimonials, as with all online reviews, are a very potent tool.

It can go very wrong, though. The presentation needs to have evident truth to it. Unless your reviewer’s Marlon Brando, it’ll be immediately apparent that they’re acting, selling your product as a job rather than as a genuine wish to share their passion for it.

Capture the intensity of the enthusiasm but in a relatable way. Don’t allow the tone to become over-evangelical.

Product Promo

Good for the early stages of the funnel, wherein a customer wants a fairly top-line treatment of key features. They may be at a stage where they are comparing products.

When you’re at this point, it’s brevity that will score. Provide the main selling points of the product shortly and attractively.

Most importantly, don’t just list what you think are the best bits of the product. Also, consider what a customer will be looking for in a product of this nature.

By assuring them that, yes, these characteristics are very much present and correct, you’ll do a lot of the heavy lifting in product promotional work.

There are a lot of tools out there to assist with promo work, so do take advantage of them.

Welcome and thank you videos

When a customer signs up or makes a purchase, some companies reach out and show their appreciation by sending a customised video. A welcome video will often secure far better CTR than a simple email - as much as 96%.

How can you make these individual?

All you need to do is to tailor a script with the simple addition of the user’s name at the beginning. Ensure the person doing the talking is engaging and genuine-seeming, and the effect can be remarkable.

Put simply, individual videos can be terrifically effective at increasing return traffic (there are case studies of over 30% increases in repeat customer sales).

Assisting the process

There are some packages, such as the process workflow template, that will help you stay on top of the process. As soon as a purchase is made, a task appears on your interface incorporating product details, customer name, and all the information you need to make the video personal to that user.

Record the video, and the package puts it out there with a subject line, etc. Okay, you still have lots of videos to record, but this will ease the task.

Tips for thank yous

Timeliness is everything. If it reaches the customer so late that they struggle to remember what they bought and why, then you may have missed the boat.

Get the tone right. This may be related to the nature of the business. A chatty thank you from an artisan in their workshop will marry well to the product. A more formal thank you from an office environment would be more appropriate for an accountancy service, for instance.  

Video Prospecting Production Options

Doing it Yourself

There’s nothing wrong with sticking to a one-person, one webcam approach. It doesn’t have to be elementary in nature.

See what’s possible

Putting together your own team

This is a good option if you feel you need more input. But be mindful of the tendency for these things to take on a life of their own. Editors, writers, designers, choreographers, musicians, make-up artists – the list can grow rather quickly. Make sure you use the best enterprise call centre software when you’re in meetings with them.

The important thing is to remember that somebody with one particular skill in video making is likely to have competence in another area. 

Other advantages here are control and expertise. No danger of your brand being misrepresented due to unfamiliarity if you’re doing the representing.

Outsourcing

This can be expensive. There is often no drive to economise, so 3rd Assistant Directors and Mood Engineers can proliferate. However, if you have the capital, it can of course be well worth the investment. More experience and better equipment can do a lot to sell your brand. Additionally, it makes for a far less stressful experience for you. And if you’re really up for it, there is a docusign subscription that will make the process easier.

Creating the videos

How much you’re involved in each of these steps greatly depends on whether you’ve elected to conduct the project in-house or via outsourcing.

Even if it’s the latter, it doesn’t hurt at all to be knowledgeable of the main steps involved in video making. 

Pre-production

Firstly, the script.

Ideas and aims find their filmable form in the script. Don’t rush this bit. It determines the success or failure of the project.

Use the EVA approach

• Empathy – know your prospects.
• Value – how can your video help?
• Action – what do you want the prospect to do as a result of seeing the video?

Alongside this, think about the budget. The script and budget are co-dependent.

The script will determine how much you need to spend, especially if it starts with EXT: FRENCH RIVIERA – SUPERYACHT MAIN DECK – EVENING.

Conversely, the budget will rule out such extravagances. The thing to do is to be aware of how much, roughly, you want to spend. Fashion a script accordingly, then fine-tune the budget where necessary.

Production

This is the step that people tend to visualise when thinking about video making. If the script is well thought out, then there shouldn’t be too many surprises here.

But some of the best video makings can result from spontaneous developments in the filming stage, so don’t be afraid to go off-piste a little.

Just keep your central aim in focus, and don’t be afraid of imperfections. It’s these that make the whole process human, and it’s the human touch that sticks.

Post-production

This is mainly on editing, special effects, and enhancements. The suite of effects that is now available is mindboggling, even on a budget. Don’t be tempted to overdo it.

A well-shot and well-delivered talking head giving an honest appraisal of a great product can be so much more powerful than a kaleidoscope of animations and audio wizardry, some of which can seem to be trying to obscure something from the viewer.

Video Prospecting Analysis

The next level of video prospecting is determining how to monitor client satisfaction and selecting the best hybrid integration platforms for storing all of your data.

Facebook and Instagram, for instance, count any exposure of more than three seconds as a view. So, the views number will tell you how many people saw as little as a tiny bit of your video and not necessarily how many actually engaged with the content.

In combination with video views, you need a handle on average view duration. This will tell you how many viewers actually make it to the end.

Obviously, the shorter your video, the higher this figure will tend to be. Cold outreach videos should never be more than 60 seconds long, but 30 seconds is much better. Facebook maintains that 15 seconds is optimal.

Some Final Tips

Make sure the sound is good. People are generally more forgiving of bad video than bad audio.

Compose a killer email subject line. Something compelling but not overused.

Consider using an animated preview GIF to attract attention.

Build up a library of useful videos that you can leverage with frequently asked questions.

Conclusion

Video killed the radio star, and it’s now turning its attention to the text. As with all tools, for example, super apps, video needs user finesse and know-how to deliver the best results. 

Most importantly, you have to be temporal-minded. It’s important to be timely and time efficient. Be immediate, short, and snappy. Epics have their place, but not in video prospecting.

Think ten seconds rather than Ten Commandments.