The Most Compelling Reasons (With Stats) to Use Video Inside your Sales Play
What do we mean when we use the term video prospecting? This refers to when sales reps use video in their sales outreach, embedding it in emails, texts, and social media.
There’s a reason why more and more sales reps are shifting towards video: it has the potential to instantly grab a prospect’s attention while allowing you to deliver your sales messaging in a more dynamic, interactive way.
Video’s use in sales outreach aligns with our day-to-day use of video as a primary form of communication that most of us are comfortable using, accredited to changing attitudes and the accessibility of recording and sharing video on a variety of devices.
Take the business world for example, where remote working has become the new-normal for a range of industries, meaning video conferencing has become commonplace and more important than ever. At OneMob, we understand the true importance of video and how it can empower your approach to sales. For us, video is a great tactic for engaging with prospects in a unique, memorable and most importantly, human way.
In the following blog, I’ll dive into why you should start using video inside your Sales Plays, covering the benefits of using video over more traditional channels and highlighting its advantages. I’ll also cover how to get started when creating video for your sales outreach while sharing advice and best practices with insider know-how.
Why should I use video?
Sales outreach is a tough, frustrating necessity that requires resilience in the face of constant objections. It’s no surprise that companies and their sales reps are constantly looking for new ways to innovate and increase opportunities through their outreach.
Inside sales teams have already adapted to changes in technology. In fact, the term “inside sales” was coined to help differentiate more traditional phone sales from the multi-channel approach that is now widely adopted across a growing number of industries.
However, it is becoming increasingly clear that video has an important role to play in sales outreach alongside phone, email and social. In order to stay competitive, sales reps need to adjust to changes in technological trends or, more importantly, how buyer behaviors are reacting to these changes.
Video prospecting can help you cut through all the noise and truly stand out amidst the emails, calls, and messages your prospects are bombarded with on a daily basis. It’s steadily become the most powerful and engaging method of communication available to marketers and sales professionals, leveraging audio and visuals. It allows you to deliver your sales messaging in the easiest way possible as prospects simply click, watch and engage. You can even embed Calls to Action (CTAs) into your videos, letting prospects access additional content and request a demo or callback with a few simple clicks.
Video also allows you to channel more creativity and experimentation than if you were composing an email, message, or phone call. It can help illustrate your pitch in a clearer, more direct, and often more provocative way, to seize your prospect’s attention. It’s true that while some sales reps might not be strong written communicators, their speech-savviness means they may excel in a presenter role, and video is an effective way to channel this.
But, as with all communication channels, success relies on targeted research and being creative. Just because you commit to using video doesn’t guarantee immediate results. It may not be the be all and end all strategy for Sales Plays, but it can be an invaluable extension to add uniqueness, context and that much-needed human element to your sales process.
While success isn’t guaranteed, it’s worth thinking about video as a complete strategy for your organization – and there’s clear evidence to support effective implementation inside your Sales Plays.
Here’s why:
Nearly 90% of sales professionals report the importance of accessing video viewing data to qualify leads & engage prospects
A SalesLoft study reports that embedding video in an email increased their reply rate by 26%.
In 2021, an average person spends 100 minutes every day watching online video content, almost 20% more than they did in 2019.
One of our partner clients, ADP, recently saw an 80% increase in replies and a 218% increase in clicks through the use of video.
Video Sales: Best Practices
What should you be doing?
As previously mentioned, committing to video isn’t enough on its own. It requires a creative mindset and a good understanding of how the medium can be used to sell.
Even if you’re using the same messaging, adapting this to a written, audio, or video format all require vastly different approaches that can change depending on your prospects and their industry.
A recent study found that 58% of viewers will watch a business-related video all the way through if its runtime clocks in at under a minute. For this reason, your first cold outreach should be no longer than 30 seconds.
But, even though video is a more captivating medium, that doesn’t mean your prospect won’t click away if they get bored or can’t understand what it is you are pitching. This means that it’s even more important to captivate your audience from the very start. The first seven to ten seconds of video are crucial, so it’s important to get creative and naturally engage the viewer from the get-go.
At the same time, if a prospect can see that your video is longer than the time they’re prepared to watch it, this can impact whether they click to play. Animoto states that 59.9% of people will be deterred from watching a video if they think it is too long.
You need to be clear, concise, and confident in delivering your sales messaging. Although any good sales rep can talk about how good their product or service is til the cows come home, this first touch should be short, sweet and get to the point.
As you engage with prospects again at later stages in the sales funnel, that’s when video content needs to be more elaborate and detailed as you highlight the parts of your offering that can help them overcome business needs or highlight the advantages you have over competitors in the same industry.
Where the initial sales outreach should be brief, those prospects at the consideration stage prefer long-form content. This can include webinars in which you demonstrate your knowledge of their pain points and challenges, or demos/tutorials giving them a more in-depth overview of the products and services your company offers.
Valuable Considerations
Don’t get lost in the video creation process!
Remember: the scope for success can change on a case by case basis.
As with all sales activities and practices, you need to combine data and your own assumptions, experimenting and testing to get the most accurate insights; there’s no one-size fits all approach to video sales and you need to adjust according to each prospect.
At the same time, you need to consider the effort that goes into recording and editing any video content and what the return on effort will be. That time you spend personalizing a video that then receives a low clickthrough rate may have been better used elsewhere across your other sales activities.
For this reason, it’s best practice to use the data you collect from your video outreach to help determine where best to focus. Also, to help speed up the process of creating video make sure you are using the right tools such as OneMob!
At the same time, you need to consider the effort that goes into recording and editing any video content and what the return on effort will be. That time you spend personalizing a video that then receives a low clickthrough rate may have been better used elsewhere across your other sales activities.
For this reason, it’s best practice to use the data you collect from your video outreach to help determine where best to focus. Also, to help speed up the process of creating video make sure you are using the right tools such as OneMob!
Video should be a useful component in your sales arsenal, NOT your entire strategy.
You should first understand your audience, and know how to integrate video to tactically appeal to them.
Never write video out of the question just because it hasn't worked for you before.
There's no guaranteed, universal approach to successful video Sales Plays, you should build them around your prospect.
How can OneMob help?
OneMob is an all-in-one video platform, empowering Sales Plays through the use of video. We give sales professionals the tools needed to quickly create and share personalized video content to engage prospects, grabbing their attention and increasing the chances of closing that deal.
OneMob can take the stress and complexity out of video prospecting. You don’t need Hollywood-grade magic to create compelling video for your sales plays. Using our tools, you’ll remove the need for an elaborate studio setup or extensive video editing training.
Our online service and processes make it easy to plan, film, and customize your video message from scratch, recording from any device and letting you add your own company’s branding.
From there, you’re free to personalize your video before sending it to prospects either by directly posting the URL or integrating with software such as XANT and Salesloft for easier distribution, monitoring the performance of your video content.
When creating videos, you need to think about more than just the footage being used. Video platforms, including OneMob, use iFrames to add forms, booking requests, URLs to web pages, and other CTAs to help boost their effectiveness. Knowing how to create video content that encourages those iFrame clicks will take experience to learn and master.
In the same way that inside sales reps can experiment with their phone, email, and social media messaging to help boost engagement, video can offer even more ways to get creative. You could even use green screens to switch out boring backdrops for those that illustrate your company, service, or product for a more captivating setting. This technology is more accessible and easier to use than ever.
Remember, it’s important to innovate and experiment. There’s no standardized approach to effective video sales plays, so analytics are a truly invaluable asset. Track your results and use this gold-dust data to create actionable insights for your business.
Founder and CEO of OneMob, a suite of digital tools to drive personalized sales. I’m a seasoned entrepreneur with startup and big company experience that can transform an idea into an established company. Specialities include salesforce.com, social collaboration, ISV and consulting alliances, vertical solutions, front/back office horizontal CRM extensions and getting stuff done!
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