Are your cold email outreaches falling flat? Is social selling leading to results far below your expectations? Then it might be time to explore video email to break through the noise.
You know the noise I’m referring to… Full inboxes, a constant newsfeed on social media that never ends, and distractions from notifications you wish you could figure out how to turn off. You’re likely overwhelmed by all the digital hubbub, and you better believe that your prospects are too.
In this article, I’ll show you how video can make a big difference in your prospecting efforts.
Importance of Videos for Salespeople
87% of businesses have caught onto the importance of video, but what about salespeople? More than half of executives prefer video over text when given the option. If you haven’t jumped on video for sales yet, what are you waiting for?
Jolynn Hauser, Sr. Channel Enablement Manager at CenturyLink, wanted to help her sellers break through the noise with video as part of their digital selling program . She hired Vengreso for virtual sales training since she’d worked with the team before, and understood that investing in a product wasn’t enough. Her team needed training as well.
Vengreso taught her sales team how to get comfortable with video, the different tools available, and what to record. Additionally, we trained them on best practices so their videos will drive sales conversations! Watch the short clip below to hear her testimonial and keep reading to learn how sales video can launch your sellers to the next level of selling.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Looking for a way to prove the effectiveness of videos in #sales and get buy-in from your boss? Read this article to learn five benefits of using video in your #digitalselling efforts.” quote=”Looking for a way to prove the effectiveness of videos in #sales and get buy-in from your boss? Read this article to learn five benefits of using video in your #digitalselling efforts.”]
How Video Email Benefits Selling Efforts
Sales videos can be emailed, posted on social media, and shared almost anywhere around the web. They can be personalized for individuals or created for a broader audience. These five benefits will have you pressing the record button in three, two, one – action!
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- Increases response rates – Jeremy Steinman of the New York Jets finally received a reply after sending a personalized video email message to a prospect who was not responding. This is not uncommon. Here’s another example, OneMob recently reported how an account executive increased her response rate by 9 percent with video.
- Improves visibility – Videos on social media platforms tend to receive more engagement than other post types. Especially native video and not a URL to a YouTube video. Read Viveka von Rosen’s blog article on How to Upload video on LinkedIn Profile to learn more insights from THE LinkedIn Expert.
- Boosts credibility – A plain text email shows zero personality and gives people very little reason to trust you. With video, a salesperson can start to build a relationship with the other person. They see your facial expressions and gestures, hear your voice, and get to know, like, and trust you more than they would from a written message and with promo videos, you’re not just capturing attention; you’re also setting the stage for a memorable brand experience..
- Captures and keeps attention – Unlike an unmoving block of text, a video has sound and a moving picture that will keep the viewer interested.
- Quickly disseminates information – When you have a topic you want to share with someone, recording a short one- to two-minute video takes a lot less time for you, and is quicker for the recipient to consume. Salespeople can get their point across fast with a video email.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”More than half of executives prefer #video over text when given an option. If you haven’t jumped on video yet, what are you waiting for? Break through the noise and start reaching your buyers with #video! #DigitalSelling” quote=”More than half of executives prefer #video over text when given an option. If you haven’t jumped on video yet, what are you waiting for? Break through the noise and start reaching your buyers with #video! #DigitalSelling”]
Video Email Marketing vs Video Sales Email
The differences between these two video marketing methods are slight yet distinct.
Video email marketing is adding a marketing video to an email to make it more visible in the recipient’s inbox. Marketing videos usually have a high production value, with lots of bells and whistles in terms of the messaging, the footage and the special effects. The main characteristic is that it’s the same video for all the recipients, so the same video can be shared on the company’s website, on social media, and, of course, emails.
Video sales emails, on the other hand, are not one to many but one to one. They are created by the seller specifically for a particular buyer. Video sales emails are all about establishing a connection with a potential client.
When it comes to building rapport with potential clients, salespeople are starting to see the benefits of using video sales email platforms. Because potential clients see your face, there is an instant familiarity that can go to great lengths in establishing a relationship, even more so in times of remote selling when you also need the best remote selling tools.
Creating a video puts you one click beyond the rest simply because it increases your website’s click-through rate and general engagement in your inbox by 19%.
How to Send a Video Through Email
When it comes to sending a video through email, things can get a bit tricky. Quite a few email providers don’t allow you to embed videos directly into an email. One way of doing this is to use one of the video platforms available to you. You could also simply do it yourself.
- Take a screenshot of the part of the video that you would like to use as a thumbnail. Make sure it’s eye-catching and not just a blur of color. Add the triangular “play” button to the screenshot. This ensures people know it’s a video, and it encourages recipients to click on the linked image. But make sure that the play button is not over your face (see video below)
- Upload your video to a video hosting site such as Youtube or Vimeo . Make sure you save the public URL.
- Create the email using your usual email software.
- Add the video thumbnail and link it to your URL.
- Make sure the thumbnail says what’s in the video.
- Ensure that the word “video” is present in your subject line.
- Hit send!
How to Compress a Video for Email
So, it’s common knowledge that larger files might trigger some red flags and have you banished to the spam folder.
Video marketing doesn’t have a set of specifications for pixels and file size, but the site Litmus recently found that 2.7MB is the optimal amount of images per email.
You should never try to attach a video to your email. Videos are large files that will not be well received. You can include an image thumbnail, though, that takes the prospect to a page where they can watch the video.
If your video’s thumbnail is larger than that, you can simply compress it using a free site like TinyPNG. If you decide to make use of video sending platforms, they typically compress the file for you.
How to Send a Large Video Through Email
If you do have to send the original video file, then you have options like Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive available at your fingertips.
Although these might seem like easy options, you don’t want to be sending your potential clients a Dropbox link to download.
The easiest way to send large video files through email is by embedding the video within the email. To embed a video in an email is a simple process of uploading the video to a hosting site, copying the URL and linking it to a static image, thumbnail, or an animated GIF within the email. Another way to simplify this process is to use a video email platform like OneMob or Hippo Video.
Video Email Platforms
With the recent increase in video marketing, quite a few video email platforms have come up. They offer a variety of options to suit your budget and video needs.
One of the greater advantages of using a video email platform is the ability to track your emails and monitor your hits and misses. They offer real-time analytics to ensure that you get the absolute best out of your video emails and your marketing plan.
In addition, many of them offer seamless integration with your workflow, simple editing features, and resources.
These are some of the top-ranked video email platforms available.
Hippo Video
Hippo Video‘s homepage sums up their ethic, bright and upfront, making it easy to see why they’re a firm favorite with leading companies such as Panasonic. They have free sign-up and a whole host of resources available at the click of a button to help you make the most of what they offer. They offer comprehensive tools for both video marketing and video sales. In addition, they offer a 15-minute demo to newcomers, which is great for seeing if you would be a good fit.
OneMob
OneMob kicks off the show by saying they’re the “All-in-One video platform” for sales representatives. They are easily integrated into your workflow by being linked to apps like Office 365, Zoom, LinkedIn, and SalesLoft. You can monitor real-time video engagement and receive alerts. All their plans include documents, landing pages, contact management, and activity tracking, and they also have a free trial option.
BombBomb
BombBomb guides you, your revenue team, and your leaders and managers to success with video email messaging. Whether you use Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, Outreach, Zendesk, iOS, Android, or any of a number of other integrated systems and platforms, they say you can enjoy clearer communication, human connection, and higher conversion with the people who matter most to your success. I will also add they have over a decade of experience and they have a 14-day free trial option on thier website.
Vidyard
One of Vidyard‘s key features is the ease with which you can connect with prospects and stay on top of your sales in every step of the sales process. They integrate effortlessly with other platforms used for prospecting, which saves you time. Their interface is easy to use, and their support team is available to assist you in every step of the process, all day and night.
StoryXpress
StoryXpress is a one-stop shop for all your video marketing needs, and it really is as easy as one-two-three. They offer a comprehensive package that includes everything from video creation to hosting to analytics for any business or individual. Their video capturing and editing feature is easy to use and saves you from having to spend time uploading a video you recorded on a different device. Their very easy-to-use editing feature is not just for webcam recorded videos but can be used on uploaded videos too.
Video Email Templates
Understanding the significance of video email templates is pivotal to your sales success when it comes to video marketing.
People no longer want to see generic, standard-issue stuff when they open their mail. Instead, they want to be greeted with a host of images that tells them that you know exactly what they need.
They also want to see who you are and what you’re bringing to the table. Choosing a solid video email template that supports your brand goes the longest way in creating longevity in sales.
There are many templates available online, and as things usually go, the ones you pay for are usually a lot more reliable and finely tuned. However, there are video email templates available for free download on sites like Vidyard.
Learn How to Create a Video Email Messages that Make an Impact on Buyers
I hope that you now have a better understanding of why video is such an important ingredient in your sales team’s digital selling efforts. Through our Video Sales Mastery course, your salespeople will learn the recipe for creating an effective, response-worthy sales video all from home. Click on the image below to learn more, and don’t forget to check how a text expander can help your entire sales team and save them a lot of time!
