How To Use Personalized Video in Your Sales Process [+Video]
Ask any salesperson — at any company, in any industry — and they’re sure to tell you that getting a prospect’s attention and building trust is one of the biggest hurdles to landing more sales.
The great thing about personalized video, however, is that it accomplishes both.
Businesses that use personalized video in their sales process see on average a 70% increase in open, click-through, and response rates. The result has been a steady sales increase of about 20% for businesses that use video to correspond with prospects.
The important part of this puzzle is understanding when to use personalized video and whom to target with your one-to-one or one-to-many videos. The awesome thing about these videos is that you don’t need to create a new video for every scenario. There is a way to consolidate your personalized one-to-one or one-to-many videos and streamline the process to be sure it’s easy for your sales team to implement.
Today, we’re going to dive into how you can use two types of personalized videos (one-to-one and one-to-many) for specific prospects or an entire group of them. We’ll cover:
- What personalized video is and why it’s useful for your sales team.
- What to know about using one-to-one video for targeting specific prospects.
- How to use one-to-many videos to streamline your sales process outreach for a group of prospects.
This way, you can be sure your sales team is set up to properly utilize video for shortening their sales cycle and making their outreach more personal.
Let’s get started!
What is a personalized video?
If you are new to the world of video selling, this might be a new term for you. (For those of you who are familiar, I give you permission to skip past this part.)
Personalized sales videos are videos you can create for your prospects to communicate with them directly, and in this article, we’re covering two different types: one-to-one and one-to-many.
Generally, these videos are less produced and more “off the cuff,” like those that might come from a friend.
With that in mind, you can create these videos on your computer or on your phone to create that more organic, less planned impression.
They are also a powerful way to build trust with your prospects. As Tyler Lessard, the vice president of marketing and chief video strategist at Vidyard, explains in this excerpt from The Visual Sale:
“Every great sales rep knows the power of connection and trust. If someone knows you, likes you, and trusts you, they are much more likely to buy from you.
However, in an increasingly virtual world, we can no longer rely on face-to-face meetings, phone calls, or static content to build relationships. …
[I]f there’s anything I’ve learned in my [time] at Vidyard — a provider of video hosting, creation, and analytics tools for businesses — it’s that video is the next best thing to being there in person when it comes to creating connections and earning trust.”
Personalized videos build this trust especially when they feel more authentic and allow you to connect with someone on a human-to-human level, and the production process can be as simple as hitting “record” and “send.”
You can learn more about Vidyard’s video-creation tool here — and even check out their free Chrome extension.
What is a one-to-one personalized video and when do you use it?
A one-to-one video is created by one person for one specific person. In other words, it’s a video that isn’t meant to be used over and over again for multiple prospects.
In a one-to-one video, you want to take advantage of the fact that you’ve created a personalized experience for the person watching.
You should be using the video content you’re creating when you need to communicate specific information related to the prospect’s name, their title, company, or their specific challenges.
One-to-one video tends to be most effective earlier in the sales process when you’re in the midst of building trust and getting your prospect’s attention.
An example of a one-to-one video would be if you are prospecting. You wouldn’t want to send a generic video to everyone. Think about being on the other end of a sales email. The most effective ones aren’t those that are copied and pasted into an email and blasted out to a large pool of people.
Outreach that is specific and valuable for an individual person works best.
What is a one-to-many video and when should you use it?
A one-to-many video is still meant to feel personalized and give the impression to your contact that you made it just for them but is ultimately meant to be used more than once.
For instance, instead of saying the prospect’s name and specific company, you would use words like “you” or “your company.”
Here’s an example of a one-to-many video that was previously used by IMPACT when someone would book a time to meet with us. We’d send it out in a workflow after someone scheduled a sales conversation.
When deciding when to use one-to-many video, I suggest taking a look at your entire sales process and identifying where you typically have automation instead of personalized outreach.
That’s a great opportunity to take the automated emails you have and start to build out one-to-many videos that you can include in them.
Some examples of when to use one-to-many videos are:
- Follow-ups after someone has booked a demo/sales appointment.
- Stalled opportunity sequences.
- Team introductions.
Speaking of team introductions, learn how to create incredible bio videos for your client-facing team members and get lots of great examples in our article, “How To Make Amazing Employee Bio Videos.”
These videos are part of what we call The Selling 7, which are videos that will move your sales and marketing success needle the most.
Incorporate personalized video into your sales process today
Using personalized video in your sales process isn’t just to help you stand out and build trust faster; it’s also meant to make your job easier.
The best way to approach a strategy for when to use one-to-one or one-to-many video for your sales process is to sit down with your team and identify when it would be effective to use each type. Once you do, plan and record the one-to-many videos and start to integrate them into your process.
To learn more about how, head over to our learning community IMPACT+. There, you’ll find helpful lessons on using video for sales, including:
- The Visual Sale for Sales Professionals
- Video Selling Strategy
- Getting Started With Sales Technology
Once your team gets these skills down, they will not only get time back in their day, but they’ll also be able to seamlessly adopt the new tools necessary, which will positively impact your business’s revenue opportunities.