When you find something that works for you in your sales prospect generation formula, it only makes sense to take it as far as it can go. Sometimes in that process, however, we run the risk of becoming entrenched in our ideas of what works. More often than not, I see this when I take a look at how businesses are approaching their prospecting emails.
The reality is that you should always, always be looking for new methods and creative ways to tackle email prospecting. Attention in 2019 is measured in fractions of a second, and everyone is out there vying for an opportunity to grab a slice of it. You take the same old boring approach, you’ll be met with greater and greater degrees of deference.
Enter: video. Video methods in email add layers of creativity, transcending what a classic text-based feeler email can ever accomplish through the magic of integrating visual, audio and text in one sleek package. It seems obvious, but the facts also back it up: prospecting reps that utilize video in their prospecting and sales emails see open rates at over five times the amount of others that stick with text, and they subsequently see open-to-reply rates at eight times the rate of their peers.
On board yet? Maybe you’re there, but you’re thinking, “Look, I don’t have the time to go to film school and manage my sales”. The joy of video comes in the fact that nowadays, the equipment is high quality at a low price, often built into what’s already present in the office: a smartphone or a computer with a camera. Not only that, but software and applications are so intuitive that it’s easier than ever to shoot film, edit it and upload it to a host. We obtain experience on an almost daily basis in our personal lives as it is through engaging with video in social media.
Ready to make video a part of your email prospecting campaign? We’re going to outline some key methods for implementation that will get you started and hopefully stir up some ideas for you to approach. These initial skills will focus on:
- Focus Attention on the Video Itself
- Video as the Ultimate Ice Breaker
- Skip the Infomercial-Style Focus on Sales and Pricing
- Leverage Your Existing Relationships with Clients
- Use 30 Second Custom Intro Clips to Build Bonds
We’ll tackle all of these and give you a primer to start thinking about how you can make video a pivotal part of your prospecting plan.
Focus Attention on the Video Itself
Immediately, before doing anything else with video, creating a video, hosting a video, anything at all, you need to understand how critical is to just type the word: “video”. As we mentioned, video presence surges click-through rates. Let your viewers know off the rip, simply by including the word “VIDEO” as the preface in your subject line. Couple this with a thumbnail of a video in the email body. A lot of email programs lag behind on their video capabilities, but explore embedding video, at least with links, to drive traffic. This will have attention focused exactly where you need it to be.
Video as the Ultimate Ice Breaker
Where do we go next with our video-augmented cold prospecting experience? Well, as with any other introductory email, coming cold means you might have to assume that the person you’re emailing has absolutely no clue who you or your company are. And before, you’d take a paragraph to introduce yourself. But by 2019, people have become more than wary of this, and with limited time and attention they’ll tune out from reading quick. That’s where video can arguably make its greatest contribution.
Being able to instantly attach a face with a name, coupled together with the aforementioned higher open rates, can push your email over the edge into the realm of sales conversion. That’s the sweet spot we all dream of. Be ready to send an introductory email, and save yourself some time with canned videos or footage ready for distribution. Here’s the catch though; you need to balance recycled product info with a personal touch. Our rule of thumb is to always include a brief introductory that’s unique for each prospecting email (we’ll cover that in greater detail later on). Couple this together with focused product information in a video format, along with follow-up contact and a simple call-to-action to progress the funnel forward.
Skip the Infomercial-Style Focus on Sales and Pricing
Treat your prospecting videos and emails as an opportunity to build a mutually-beneficial relationship with a client. This means avoiding some of the sales jargon you may have grown up on with infomercials or sales ads, and it might go against your instincts to skip mentioning numbers at all. Treat these videos as a form of education, allowing you to show off your expertise and sell the idea, not the product, to your prospects. Keep things flowing naturally as you speak in a video, just as you would talk to a friend. Get your prospects to the point where they see your product as necessary to their success, and see the benefit of “partnering up”, not just them buying from you. A lot of this involves considering the language you use in a video, as well as your own demeanor. When in doubt, just ask yourself: “Would I speak to a friend this way?”
Leverage Your Existing Relationships with Clients
No matter what juncture of the relationship you’re at with your clients, feel free to reference it in your video. If your client was glowing months back about how much a certain product of yours increased sales for their business, feel free to reference that in your video. Take notes and use them in your videos; feel free to bring up compliments they’ve expressed in the past. Maintain consistency across your videos as well, just as you would in your relationship with a client. Keep your sales reps consistent, faces as consistent as possible and keep building on the same foundations you formed. Use a first-name basis when you reach that point; every little bit of personalization matters.
Use 30-Second Custom Intro Clips to Build Bonds
As we said before, you can recycle footage across emails at any point of the prospecting process. Still, you want the customization element, and to do so you should make use of thirty-second intro clips to form the bonds you’re looking for. Take, for example, a 3-minute product clip you want to send. Upload that into your favorite editing software. Prior to the beginning, add in a thirty-second shot that could be filmed just at your desk. Greet your clients, use their name, and explain why you’ve sent this video and what they’re about to see. Use names, running jokes, anything that’s natural to you to remind and build on your relationships. This is the sales point, the bread and butter of how you’ll relate to your client and a rare ability to get a meeting right in their office without you even having to be there, which illustrates the power of video all along.
