Not too long ago, on the sidelines of a digital marketing event, some of my buddies and I met for a brief friendly chat.
What started as a casual discussion on sales strategy soon became a full-blown argument. We disagreed on many points and had the same opinion on only a handful, one of which is the potential of video prospecting to generate leads and close more deals.
Even for us in the same industry, the evolution from cold outreach to custom videos for outreach and lead generation felt remarkable.
I was so excited about our discussion. Then and there I decided to write a guide on video prospecting. This little guide is the result of our combined knowledge and experience.
By the time you reach the end, you’ll have a fair knowledge of ‘why’, ‘when’, and ‘how’ to use prospecting videos to get more leads.
You’ll also find real-life examples of video for sales prospecting for inspiration and some common questions people have about this subject. Let’s start your video prospecting journey.
What Is Video Prospecting?
Text and audio communication are old-school methods. Although they are still relevant, most sales professionals feel these methods have reached saturation. The use of text and audio to improve leads is just too much work for very little reward.
Is there a better alternative? Yes, enter video prospecting. This modern-day sales outreach and lead generation technique uses video to grab attention, connect, nurture, and convert prospective customers to paying ones.
Do all sales videos fall under this category? No. Video prospecting strategy involves connecting and building relationships with customers using customized videos. This is a key component that’ll help spark interest, build trust, and make the customer feel valued and important.
Sales video prospecting is a simple concept, with a powerful impact, that can deliver great results. It’s easy to adopt and is widely used for its versatility.
All you need, to get started, is a smartphone, a great script, a reliable editor to help with video post-production services, and two crucial qualities – patience and perseverance.
Video prospecting content can be dispersed and used along with a variety of tools. You can also send such videos to potential customers via social media channels such as LinkedIn, X, and more.
Sales prospecting is hard work, and it has a steep learning curve. However, you may not have to face this situation.
The FlyMSG Sales Pro for Individuals and Teams provides on-demand sales prospecting training on various topics, including using AI tools for better reach, engagement, and conversion.
5 Reasons Why You Should Use Prospecting Videos
The internet has democratized marketing. Now every business, regardless of the size or budget, can use email marketing, cold calling, and other techniques to generate leads. You’re not against a few competitors. In addition to local competitors, you might be up against competitors from the other corner of the world.
What other reasons are there to use sales prospecting? Here are the top five reasons:
1. Video Outreach Gives better Response and Engagement Rate
Video prospecting is a better option than other traditional methods such as email marketing and cold calling. According to data released by Cognism, cold outreach has one of the lowest success rates compared to other sales techniques. It has a success rate of 4.8%.
In the case of email marketing, the email open rate doesn’t exceed 28%. According to a study, out of 100 customers, only 28 open and very few of them decide to engage with the information in that mail.
In contrast, adding video content to your marketing mix increases the open rate by 16% and response rate by 26%. Plus, according to Gong, video personalization through the use of webcams led to 41% more deals.
2. Personalized Videos Help Build Trust and Credibility
The use of the prospect’s name, and company logo, if any, in the video helps build rapport and effectively conveys your marketing message. Personalized content allow the clients to see your personality and enthusiasm.
Prospects watching personalized video message will feel their options are valued. The prospects will then shed doubts about your offer, leading to higher trust and credibility.
It’s worth noting that personalized text content is equally effective in building relationships with prospects. Plus, this has become quite easy with the social media AI engagement tool FlyEngage AI.
Use this tool to create highly relevant, personalized responses to LinkedIn posts. The tool creates natural and authentic engagement that’ll help grow your LinkedIn network and lead to more customers.
3. Video Outreach Generates Interest in Your Product or Service
If your video content can hold the prospect’s attention until the end then you have already achieved some success. Video personalization holds the viewer’s attention through a personal approach and by providing valuable content.
Additionally, most prospecting video content follows the principle of ‘show, don’t tell’.
The prospect is likely to watch your video if you highlight their pain point and show how your product or service solves the problem.
4. Videos Helps You Stand Out
The personalized approach which is the hallmark of sales video prospecting helps you stand out from others, mainly your competitors. The first impression that your videos create lasts well beyond that moment, thereby giving you a clear advantage over others.
5. Personalized Videos Improves Information Retention
Customers have nothing but a positive attitude towards personalized content. Moreover, personalization positively impacts every stage of the sales funnel, from outreach to closing deals.
Further, 90% of the information we process is either visual or audio. Experts believe that people are more attentive to visual content and retain more than 60% of the information compared to text content.
Why Is Prospecting Video Not Widely Used?
Let’s consider a scenario that most prospective customers face often in their business life. They receive multiple emails per day and a few cold calls too. They ignore all the sales calls and delete most of the emails. They never get time or feel compelled to go beyond the second line of the marketing emails they receive.
This doesn’t mean prospective customers are averse to emails or cold outreach. They have no problem responding to unique content that attracts and holds their attention.
Fortunately, artificial intelligence has come to our rescue in this regard. You don’t have to spend hours creating posts.
The AI tool FlyPosts AI is a post generator that creates highly engaging posts in various categories. It can help disperse the latest company news, establish thought leadership, and also celebrate personal and company achievements.
According to a survey, 81% of customers are ready to share personal information and 28% are ‘extremely willing’ to share personal information for personalized video message. Then why do very few executives receive only 4-5 first prospecting video in a year?
Why are most marketers reluctant to adopt this sales strategy?
- Sales rep don’t know where to use prospecting videos.
- Many marketers believe personalized videos cost a lot of time and money.
- Most sales professionals don’t know how to create videos that convert.
This little guide will teach you all these and more.
When Should You Use Sales Prospecting Videos
There are certain points in the sales cycle where such videos fit like a glove. Sales reps can use videos in these places without any hesitation.
The Initial Outreach
The first impression can have a lasting impact on the potential customer. Make it count by using the first prospecting video which is more compelling and engaging.
Instead of the standard text emails, send videos that showcase the prospect’s pain points and the benefits of using your product/service.
When you talk directly to the customers; highlight the potential of your offering; it becomes a lot easier to convince them to act in the way you want.
Reinforcing the Relationship with Personalized videos
You have made a great first impression with the initial personalized outreach. What is next? Strike the iron while it’s hot. Send short follow up videos, with a personal touch, to reinforce your commitment to provide a solution to their problem.
Reactivate Cold Leads for More Sales
It cannot be denied that out of the three types of leads: cold, warm, and hot leads, the first one is in higher quantity. Most leads turn cold because the prospect isn’t convinced about your offer or requires more information from you.
The best way to re-engage these leads is to reach out and rekindle interest in your brand. When the prospects see you’re willing to make that extra effort to connect and address their specific needs, they’ll warm to your sales outreach.
Create Compelling Product Demonstrations
Buying guides, product explanations, and user manuals are long and tedious to read. You need a compelling narrative to spark curiosity and engage the audience.
The use of engaging videos with a webcam or dynamic presentation can help break down and simplify complicated concepts. Creating a compelling narrative can both improve understanding and aid information retention. This helps your target audience realize the value of your brand.
Generally, customers won’t close a deal or take the next step in the buying process if their doubts are not cleared.
Creating video FAQs sends the message that you’re sensitive to their concerns and are willing to address them. Using a sales prospecting video at this stage will also boost trust and credibility of your brand.
How to Create Content That Get More Leads
There is no standard formula for creating a successful sales prospecting video. That said, after analyzing hundreds of video templates, we found certain elements that engage target audience and promote lead conversion.
Give Your Video a ‘From and To’
Within the first half of the video give a personal intro to the prospect. Make the introduction short and clear, instead of rambling about yourself, your history, etc.
Personalize the video by addressing the prospect by name, position, or title. Even at the end of the video, show that you care about their problems and opinions and respect and value their time.
Showing that you’re genuinely interested in them, and not only in the business can go a long way in building a relationship.
Use the Suitable Visual Medium
Video prospecting is not about what you like. Always keep the prospect’s preferences in mind. Think about how to present your message so that it’s readily accepted by the target audience.
Prepare a set of key points to cover. Use screenshots to show the software workflow, FAQ videos to answer common queries, or GIFs to grab the prospect’s attention. Take a proactive approach and use visual mediums that’ll have the desired impact on the audience.
Show Them You Are There to Help
Show the prospects that you understand their business, the challenges they face, and are willing to provide solutions that can improve their life or business.
You can identify the pain point by researching the prospect’s industry, customer research, company history, and recent news and trends in the market. Prepare a list of key points and cover them in your sales videos.
You can also share testimonials to show how others in similar situations have benefited from your solution.
Include Call to Action (CTA)
You managed to generate interest. What is the next step? It’s your responsibility to further the conversation by telling them what to do.
Add CTA, once or more, in your video and description to move the client forward in the sales funnel. The CTA can be anything from seeking feedback, promising more information, subscribing newsletter, etc.
8 Video Prospecting Tips for More Leads
Sit in front of the camera, begin video recording, deliver lines that come to your mind, and send the video. If you choose this path, the success of the campaign and sales process will depend on ‘Lady Luck’.
Don’t rely on luck for success. The following video prospecting best practices will help realize the full potential of your campaign.
1. Know Your Prospect for Better Video Outreach
To tailor the content to meet the needs of your prospects you need to perform in-depth research before creating the video.
The first step is to know their name, the correct pronunciation, their organization, job title, job responsibilities, preferences, and most importantly, their pain points. This will help you create a script that’ll attract and engage the prospects.
2. Create a Compelling Video Script
You can’t just give an extempore speech and hope for the best. You need a creative writer and wordsmith in your sales team. Include storytelling to leverage video content’s emotional appeal.
Additionally, at the end of the video, thank them and express your gratitude for spending their valuable time watching your video.
3. Make the Video Script Conversational
Prepare compelling video scripts, but don’t make them look like you’re reading an audiobook or news report. Use a conversational style but don’t lose sight of the fact that you’re creating professional videos.
A casual and friendly approach will help engage the audience; create a connection and build a relationship quickly. This style is particularly useful in keeping the audience interested in longer videos.
4. Repurpose Existing Material into Prospecting videos
The investment of time, effort, and resources deter many marketers from regularly using prospecting videos.
Videos that engage the audience and make them act are not hard to create. You don’t have to create videos from scratch.
To save time, you can repurpose existing marketing material into videos. For instance, you can convert FAQ videos, testimonials, product demos, etc. to prospect-specific videos.
5. Use Custom Thumbnail
You can create a compelling ‘subject line’ for a higher email open rate and an attention-grabbing thumbnail for an increased video play rate.
Your prospects are more likely to play a video if the video’s thumbnail contains a name or text or something that indicates the content is specifically made for them. You can also make the video thumbnail more attractive by having a smiling or happy face.
6. Pay Attention to the Video Length
Prospecting videos short in length are easy to consume. That said, it’s a challenge to fit your script (with customer pain points, solutions, etc.) in a short video. Use longer videos when necessary. Additionally, use a suitable video format so the content plays smoothly on all devices.
7. Invest in the Right Video Tools
You don’t have to spend a lot on filming equipment or video editing cost. A good tripod, decent-quality microphone, and video editing tool or software are enough.
A good editing tool or video post production services must be part of your sales toolkit. You can film outdoors to take advantage of natural light.
Generating leads and boosting sales is a complicated process. Businesses should use sales engagement platforms to plan outreach programs, engage, track, and optimize interactions with prospects across channels.
8. Use Follow up Prospecting Video to Keep the Leads Warm
Your approach with a lead in the initial stage of the sales process would be vastly different from the approach at a later stage. The prospect already knows who you are and what you offer.
To convince them to decide in your favor, use follow up content in the form of social proof videos. Include case studies and customer testimonials to establish your offer as the only solution to their problem.
How to Measure Your Prospecting Video Success
From the initial contact to closing the deal – it’s a long sales process. Rarely do we see a sales team go through all the stages in a single approach.
Usually, converting potential customers to paying ones is a multistage process. The prospect moves through several points before finally concluding the deal.
How do you know whether your videos are working and delivering results?
Open Rate: Measure the number of people who opened the email and played the prospecting video, as opposed to the number of people who received the mail.
View Rate: This metric will show the number of people who watched the whole video at various stages of the sales cycle.
Click-through Rate: This metric is the real deal. It tracks the number of prospects who clicked the CTA and took action.
These three metrics are just a start. You’ll have to track many more including subscriptions, landing page traffic, website page views, downloads, etc.
After analyzing the numbers if you find the results are not as expected then you need to identify problems and fix them.
Best Video Prospecting Examples
In the current digital era, multiple ways exist to connect with a prospect. The many benefits of video prospecting have ensured sales teams use personal video at different points.
If you want inspiration to start your video prospecting campaign, there are the best examples.
1. Kayla Cyrton-Thaler’s Personalized Video to Krishnan Patel
Canny’s Head of Sales begins personalization right from the subject line. The approach is straight-forward and clear; something all sales teams can adopt.
She mentions the prospect’s name, the company name, and the benefits that can accrue to them. The video itself is concise, and friendly, and lays down the appealing aspects they offer.
2. RepliQ’s Video
Video prospecting need not always be one-to-one. It can be one-to-many, addressing the common problems faced by viewers’ industry, and pitching an effective solution.
RepliQ incorporates video from the beginning. Their content focuses on their value proposition and brand message and uses a friendly and conversational tone to attract and engage the audience.
3. Video Explaining Pricing Structure
In addition to the initial outreach, prospecting videos are highly effective in removing objections. Experience tells us that many promising leads drop away after learning about the pricing.
That’s why, instead of text email or brochure, Katherine Caldwell decided to use a personal video to explain her premium plans and list the benefits of each.
Final Thoughts
Video prospecting has come a long way. Initially, it was mainly used for increasing the success of cold outreach. Now, it’s effectively used to build trust, improve quality and quantity of the leads, and reduce time and length of the sales cycle.
The audience will find personalized video content more engaging and compelling. According to Salesforce, more than half of all customers will leave brands that don’t use personalized communication. This will never happen to you if you use video prospecting guide.
Use our guide to create your first prospecting video. Adopt our strategies to effectively use video prospecting to get more leads and close more deals. Finally, use the information in this guide to avoid mistakes and find success in prospecting videos.
