Video seems to be everywhere these days. Your prospects are watching marketing videos on your website, seeing videos on Facebook and Instagram, and getting hilarious content from their friends on SnapChat. Video may be the coolest content on the block, but there’s one place it’s sadly lacking – prospecting.
When you’re reaching out to new leads, what’s your first step? A BASHO email? Maybe a cold call? These strategies are were once incredibly effective, but today’s buyers are getting wise to the traditional tricks of the trade. That’s where video comes in – it’s unexpected, and if you do it right, it can be personal and powerful. But first, let’s look at why video works.
Prospects Want Video
According to Forbes Insights, 60% of business respondents said they would watch a video on a web page before reading any text at all, and after watching social video, 65% said they end up visiting the business’ website. That’s a pretty big jump from just regular text, right? And it gets better! Google surveyed buyers and found that 70% of B2B buyers and researchers are watching videos through their entire path to purchase, and 48% are watching more than 30 minutes of video.
So, how does this apply to your prospecting? Easy – if buyers are hungry for video, then this is your opportunity to take a piece of that 30 minute pie. By incorporating video into your prospecting, whether it’s sharing marketing content or recording your own (we’ll get to that in a minute) you’ll be able to capitalize on the hunger for video content and control that conversation.
Look at it this way: would your rather buyers go searching on YouTube for information about your product or service, or would you rather take the first step and lead with video content that is relevant, memorable, and valuable?
Video Works for Sales
So buyers are looking for marketing video content, but how do you know that video in the sales process is effective? The stats don’t lie here, either. We’ve seen a 5x increase in our open rates and a 8x increase in click-to-open rates since our sales team started incorporating video into their prospecting, and we’re not alone.
Even adding the word ‘video’ to your email subject lines can increase open rates between 7% and 13%. And the best part of video is that it’s the easiest piece of content to measure you’ll ever use. Video platforms that connect to Salesforce can show you exactly how much of a video a prospect has watched, whether they re-watched portions of the video, and even help you tie pipeline to video views.
That’s powerful data to have at your disposal. So why not start creating some videos of your own?
Video Has Never Been Easier
Where many sales people get tripped up is thinking that video has to be a high-quality, Michael Bay affair when it comes to production quality. When’s the last time you sent a polished, fully formatted, HTML5 compliant email to a prospect? Or left a voicemail recorded in Dolby surround-sound with noise dampening? Exactly.
Treat video like any other tool in your sales toolbox: quick, effective, and scalable. As Dan Stone pointed out during his talk at Dreamforce, even Fortune 500 companies don’t always have million dollar budgets. From filming in front of makeshift green screens to using free tools to create easy screen captures, Stone and his team have made hundreds of videos for pennies.
The moral of this story is that scrappy is okay when it comes to video. Whether you’re producing webcam videos to leave as video voicemails:
Or going more in-depth and using screen recording tools to walk your prospects through how you can solve their problems:
Adding personalized video touches to your prospecting doesn’t have to take effort, and doesn’t require a big budget. All you have to do is connect with your prospects, show them who you are, and tell them why you’re there to help.
So Let’s Get Started
Adding video to your sales process is probably the easiest thing you can do to immediately start seeing ROI. Whether it’s higher response rates on your emails or increased engagement, video follow ups and screen walkthroughs are effective tools.
As a bonus, they both allow you to connect directly to prospects right away, putting a face to the name, and cutting through the clutter of email back-and-forth. If someone likes what they see, they’ll watch, and you’ll be able to see that data right in your CRM.
If you’re using Chrome, a screen and video recording tool like ViewedIt can help you get started with your video prospecting right away, and for free. Even if you don’t have access to a specialized tool, recording a video with your webcam takes just a few minutes, and you can post videos privately to YouTube so that only those with a link can see it. Obviously you’ll lose the tracking you would see from a dedicated video platform, but sometimes you have to start with what’s easiest.
So don’t be afraid to press record on your next prospecting interaction. You might find that video becomes the most powerful tool in your fight for attention, and your prospects will be more engaged too.
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