Are you looking for video prospecting tips? Regardless of the message, you are trying to communicate, more people would rather hear it through video than text today. In fact, 74% of people prefer watching a video over reading blocks of text. You should start with a basic understanding of what video prospecting is.
Video prospecting uses video messages as the main component of reaching and interacting with potential clients.
Why is video prospecting essential in today’s marketing and advertising landscape? Videos can allow people to make a connection with their audience. This connection can often be made easier and quicker than with the written word alone.
Using video to connect with a broader audience has increased in popularity over the years. People often look for video prospecting tips to increase engagement, connect to their customers and target audience and improve sales across all their product lines.
An interesting thing about this method is that it can be used for many different things, which is why it is so popular. Some common goals of video prospecting include finding new leads, reaching out to previous leads and customers, running cold marketing campaigns, and even testing out new campaign ideas.
What are the Benefits of Video Prospecting?
When determining which methods of lead generation, lead and customer communication, and marketing strategies work for your business, you may look for and compare the benefits of each potential activity. When searching for the best video prospecting tips, you should first consider this method’s different benefits. Once you know the potential benefits, you will want to compare them to your business model to see if this is the right strategy for your business today.
There are many different benefits of video prospecting. Video can create a connection with potential customers and leads that is hard to replicate through text alone. However, because it is a video and not a face-to-face encounter, people using video prospecting can connect with people worldwide at any time of the day, night, or day of the week. Although video prospecting can be closely compared to face-to-face communication, it has another huge benefit. People creating videos can spend all the time they need to create the perfect pitch, demo, or communication. They can also edit out anything they were not pleased with. One-on-one communication can be flawed; text-only communication can have far less connection and is not a dynamic form of communication or sales.
This form of communication has been around long enough for statistics and studies to exist. Here are a few interesting facts about video prospecting that you might enjoy:
- 90% of people report that video prospecting has led to quality leads and sales.
- 82% of companies believe video is integral to their sales and marketing efforts.
- This form of sales is growing. There has been a 26% increase in replies from prospects.
- Shorter videos are more effective.
- Click-through rates are as high as 47%.
If you need help getting started, you can always choose a trusted video service such as OneMob. OneMob helps individuals and companies use video content to find leads and create relationships with potential customers. They have three different pricing plans, including a free version. This makes this service perfect for anyone to try before committing!
How Long Should The Videos Be?
When preparing videos for marketing, most people recommend that you keep your videos short, concise, and focused. In fact, one of the best video prospecting tips you may get is to keep your videos between 30 – 60 seconds long.
Short-form videos are very popular today because most people live busy lives and have limited time. Shorter videos have a better retention rate because there is little to no time to get distracted, allowing the viewer to pay attention and get your entire message.
When creating short-form videos, there is also less production and editing time. This can be very helpful for a busy entrepreneur or business. Shorter timelines for creation can help in two ways. The first way is that less time will need to be dedicated to this type of marketing. However, the second way is a better business decision. If short videos take far less time to shoot, plan and edit – you can create multiple videos at once.
Besides shooting and editing multiple videos at once, there are extra activities that you can do with your time to help them become successful. This includes adding text and other elements to the videos, creating great video titles and subject lines, and focusing on your video’s CTA (call-to-action).
Know Your Target Audience
Regardless of the type of content you create or the medium in which you publish it, you must understand your target audience to succeed—understanding your target audience includes understanding your product and service and who is most likely to become a customer. Do they fall within a particular gender, age group, financial status, or behavior type? If so, how are you ensuring that your content reaches those specific people?
There are many different areas that you could focus on. Here are some criteria that can make up a target audience.
Demographics: Most businesses start here. This is basic information that can be used to group people together. For instance, sex, age, income, where they live, education level, employment status, single or married, children or none could fit into basic demographic information.
Psychographics: psychographics is a deeper understanding of an individual based on strong emotions. For instance, what causes them pain, what problems they have, what makes them happy, or what their goals are.
Behaviour Profile: A behavior profile is based on typical online behavior. You may target people based on how they act online, whom they engage with, what social media sites or online communities they are part of, or what they do after engaging with online content.
Prospect Persona: An activity that many marketers looking for video prospecting tips engage in is called making a prospect persona. This would create your ideal (and most likely) customer based on all available information in the first three examples. You want to combine everything from surface-level details to motivations, personality, and goals.
By focusing your efforts on marketing to the correct audience, sales and leads will react positively. This will allow you to spend your time efficiently while creating success for your business.
Use Thumbnails and Great Titles
Why are thumbnails so important? It does not matter how fantastic a video is if it is never seen. This is why having intriguing and powerful titles, as well as well-designed thumbnails, is so important. This is even more important when sending out sales emails with videos attached. Most people do not want any sales emails they receive, and getting people to open them is challenging. This is where good thumbnails and titles come in.
One reason people look for video prospecting tips is that it can be a very profitable way to reach new customers. In fact, marketing emails with videos have a 16% higher opening rate. They can get 26 – 56% more replies than a non-video marketing email. You will want to create a superb title and thumbnail to ensure this is a higher possibility for your business.
Creating a title for your email is similar to other marketing efforts. However, the thumbnail may be something new to you. To create a great thumbnail, you will want to choose a frame in your video that best captures the mood and action of the video. Always use a custom thumbnail.
YouTube has been around for almost 17 years, and currently, 150,000 videos are uploaded per minute to this platform. If anyone knows videos, it is YouTube. YouTube has stated that 90% of their most popular videos use custom thumbnails. This is undoubtedly a strategy you should use in video prospecting.
What to Avoid with Video Prospecting
Are you looking for more video prospecting tips? Here is an important one. Even though video can boost sales and leads, many things can make them less effective.
People often want to use video for everything when they start doing video prospecting. Although video can be a powerful tool, you should be careful not to overuse it. There are many places it is excellent, like connecting with customers and clients or giving explanations of complicated topics. However, communicating quick yes/no answers or short answers to questions does not need a video response.
Another common issue is giving up on this medium too soon. Remember that running a business is a marathon, not a race. Even if video is a viable strategy, in the long run, that does not mean it will be an instantaneous hit with your business. Put the work in, give it time and track what does work and what does not.
Finally, one of the biggest things to avoid when video prospecting is creating lengthy videos. The sweet spot is between 30 – 60 seconds. Remember, you are creating marketing videos with a call to action. This is entirely different from videos created for entertainment or education. People will not stay focused on a sales video for more than 1 minute, so design your script accordingly.
Write an Outline of a Script
Here are some more video prospecting tips – brainstorm your video ahead of time, including writing at least an outline of the script before you start filming. When creating prospecting videos, there is a fine line you want to balance on. This is between sounding authentic and being organized.
This is why creating a script outline (instead of a full word-for-word script) is the best idea to follow. Start by brainstorming your video. This should include exactly the point of the video, the overall message you are trying to communicate, who your prospects are, and what your call to action will be. Visualize what you want your video to look like and what the result should be.
Once you fully visualize your video, it is time to make a script outline. The script outline should be created on what you have already envisioned. This outline will cover the specific points you want to cover but not anything too lengthy. This outline should keep you on topic but allow you to speak authentically to your audience and form a connection.
Make it personal. It is perfectly fine to look for sample scripts; it is encouraged. Research is always a good idea before putting together your final product. However, make sure you use these examples to jump-start your creativity. Do not just copy another business’s script.
Why CTA’s Are Important
If you are planning to do video prospecting, it will be essential to master CTA’s (call-to-action) in your videos. The point of these videos is to connect with potential customers and nudge them into action.
A call-to-action video is a video piece of content that directs the viewers to a specific action. Typically, the call to action is found at the end of the video, leading the viewer to do something. However, often it is mentioned in the beginning, although briefly, as well.
To mention it twice, you would say something like, check out the link below the video to (some action – visit my blog, get a coupon, etc.). At the end of the video, you would reiterate this information. Except this time, you would give more detail, and now that the video is over, it is the perfect time to encourage people to do what you want them to do.
One of the best video prospecting tips is that not every call to action equates to clicking here to buy something from me. There are many different calls to action that video prospecting can utilize. Here are a few examples:
- Buy Now
- Book a Meeting
- Sign Up For a Seminar
- Sign Up For a Free Course
- Sign Up For a Webinar
- Sign Up For a Newsletter
- Read Our Blog
- Read Our Testimonials
- Get a Free Trial
- Book a Demo
Finally, it is crucial to understand that when you are creating a video, they are very short. Since they are short, usually around one minute in length, it is essential only to use one call to action. More than one can either turn off a potential customer or confuse your message resulting in them doing nothing.
Offer Free Content and Follow Up
Almost everyone likes free things. People prefer free blog posts over ad-driven blogs or subscription-based websites. They like free videos, ebooks, courses, and anything else that can be viewed as valuable. If you are looking for video prospecting tips, giving away free content and then following up with these leads is a great idea. When looking for video prospecting tips, remember, free is something almost everyone loves.
Be genuine and give your customers free information. Include something they may not have known before that they will find valuable. By researching your audience, you will know what information they would be interested in.
Besides the video itself, you can offer other free items. For instance, your video can offer a CTA to sign up for a free trial, a course, or a report. Make sure that whatever you offer is valuable, not fluff that would not interest them.
Later, you should follow up with the customer after they have had a chance to use the free item you gave them. For instance, if you gave them an email course that takes two weeks to complete, follow up shortly after they would have completed it. This will remind them where they got this free information, which could lead to a sale now or down the road. If nothing else, it will help you connect and form a relationship with them.
Final Thoughts
Reading this article has given you many video prospecting tips that are easy to understand and utilize. Remember, when creating videos, take the time to make a good title and an original thumbnail for each video you post or email.
Be sure to be creative and provide value to your customers and leads. This will help you stand out from the crowd, leading to more sales.
The future of marketing is video. Short videos are easy to create, can create a lot of new sales, and help you form connections and relationships with your viewers. Video can produce faster and better results than just about any other medium, and it is easy to get started today!
