Boost Cold Emailing Results with Personalized Video Emails
What are personalized video emails, and how will they help you improve your conversion rates?
People are busier today. There’s always something to get to. If it’s not a meeting, there’s a fire to put out. And that’s just the half of it. We’ve also developed an immunity to sales and marketing messages, making it harder for prospecting to stand out in a busy inbox. But that doesn’t mean marketing and sales teams should give up.
It’s a call to become more creative.
Personalized videos aren’t just about hitting the record button, sending an email, and hoping more people reply. Sure, like all things business-related, numbers matter. The more outreach you do, the greater the chance that you’ll generate more leads, opportunities, and close more deals.
What is a personalized video?
A personalized video is a video that has been customized to an individual viewer or a group of people. Personalized videos are designed to speak directly to an audience and address a specific problem or challenge that they face, making the message highly relevant and, therefore, valuable.
It’s a tool that takes the act of outreach and elevates it to a level that prospects can’t ignore. It grabs attention and does more for your pitch, brand, and product than a simple email could ever do.
Studies have shown that even using the word “video” in the email subject line, can boost open rates by more than 6%. At Uscreen, welcome emails with personalized videos have generated 80% more opens than text-only welcome emails.
Personalized videos also contain structured messages that initiate what could become a strong and beneficial relationship that leads to a sale. And because of that, they must be treated as important opportunities to make a lasting impression.
Why use Personalized Video Emails?
While prospecting will never go out of style, the way you prospect makes a difference. Buyers want more from engagements with brands. Here are three reasons why you should be using personalized video emails.
Personalization is a must
Personalization is a broad term. In simple language, it’s the act of making your message highly relevant to your audience. And it matters more than most know. When surveyed, 50% of businesses believe they can drive interaction within email by increasing personalization. And consumers have also drawn a line in the sand. According to SmartHQ, 72% of consumers claim they will only engage with personalized messaging.
You can learn more about email personalization and its importance from email experts here.
Personalized videos are impactful
Video captures attention because it satisfies the critical elements of effective communication. Verbal, non-verbal, and visual communication are the three ways in which people experience communication. And when combined in a video, you’re able to engage your audience or viewer in almost the same way you would if you managed to score some face-time with them.
Every aspect of how you communicate is channeled into video. Your voice, enthusiasm, and gesticulation are rolled into a short but powerful statement that can make a positive impact on prospects.
Personalized video generates results
Nick Saltzman, an account executive with HubSpot agency partners, faced a problem every salesperson understands. His market has been called on by many other brands, and he knew he needed to stand out from the crowd.
Instead of changing his email copy and hitting send, Nick chose to video. He began sending 3-4 minutes personalized videos to prospects.
In one month, he created 191 email videos. These videos went on to generate 50 opportunities.
Each video he made took only 3-4 minutes to create, all of which depended on how much he chose to personalize the video. And if you’re as pedantic about time as most salespeople are, you’ll notice that 3-4 minutes is about the time it takes to type up and send a personalized email.
So, what kinds of videos can you create to elevate your cold email outreach?
Types of personalized videos
There are different kinds of personalized videos you can create. Each version offers a degree of personalization, and as you see below, they can be used in various ways to engage with prospects. Let’s take a look at each.
One-to-one personalized videos
One-to-one personalized videos are likely the most customized version that you can create. They’re designed for an audience of one and speak to a unique pain point, challenge, or need that prospect has.
It’s important to note that the degree of customization or personalization you include in a video like this really depends on you. It’s also important to understand that the more personalized the message is, the more impact it has.
Because of the high level of customization, it is likely that these videos will take a little longer to create. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll be as effective as Nick. Creating each video will take less time, and you will be able to maintain the quality you need.
In this example, Kyleigh shows how to personalize a one-to-one video by talking about his prospect’s brand and how it can grow.
Bulk personalized videos
Bulk personalized videos are a little different. They include unique elements that are artfully inserted into videos. These include your prospect’s name, email, job title, profile image, company name, logo, or any unique identifier that stimulates a sense of flattery.
When created, only one video is recorded and used. Bulk personalized videos are typically used in marketing campaigns but can be used in sales too. While not as customized as one to one videos, bulk personalized videos require access to the right technology to add unique identifiers. If you opt to go for the bulk option, services like video art and personalization at scale will help you quickly and easily add identifiers to different parts of your videos.
PortoBay took the bulk personalization video concept and used it to generate a viewer attention rate of 70%. While this example is to drive more communication with customers, it can be applied to cold prospecting by using the right message.
Semi-personalized videos
Semi-personalized videos are similar to one-to-one videos. They can be used for anything from selling membership site subscriptions to professional service. These types of video include a degree of customization, however, when created, you don’t include any unique identifiers. This means you don’t use a person’s name, the company name, or logo.
The goal behind this kind of video is to focus specifically on a problem that you know prospects all share. It’s important to note that this kind of video requires an in-depth understanding of what your prospects are going through to be effective. You need to know what influencers led to the current position, what it’s like to be in a position, and how you can help them move to a more advantageous or rewarding state.
Semi-personalized videos, while similar to one-to-one videos, don’t take as much time to create. Because you are producing just one video, it’s easier and quicker to reach out to more prospects.
Haseen shows that a little creativity goes a long way in engaging viewers of semi-personalized videos. And because you only need record one, the effort is well worth it.
How to use Personalized Videos in Cold Emails
With an understanding of the different kinds of videos you can produce to boost your cold email results, let’s take a look at how to create them. What follows is a simple three-step process that gives you all you’ll need to make videos that prospects find engaging.
Step 1: Understand the campaign and goal
You need to identify the goal behind your video. For example, marketing teams may use cold outreach email outreach strategy to generate leads for sales. Sales, on the other hand, may have their own list of prospects and use personalized videos to initiate the sales process.
While marketing and sales go hand-in-hand, the importance of knowing exactly what your campaign goals are is essential. After all, if you don’t know where you’re headed, you won’t know how to measure your performance.
If putting together a solid campaign always seemed like a murky idea, here are three tips to clear it all up:
1. Determine what results you’re after
Establish one core metric that will help you move closer to your overarching goal. In marketing, if you need to generate new leads for sales, the number of new leads you’re after is your goal. If you’re in sales and want to generate more opportunities, the number of opportunities you’re able to create is your core metric.
2. Identify your audience and where they are in the buyer’s journey
The buyer’s journey is a universal concept for both sales and marketing. It makes the often uncertain idea of where your buyer is at any given stage along their journey simpler by understanding what information and experiences they’ve had.
As you are about to reach out to your prospect, it’s important to know where they’re at in the buyer’s journey. Understanding how much information they have been exposed to helps you determine what kind of message you put together.
3. Create a strong offer
The term “offer” is typically thought about in a marketing sense but is just as valid when it comes to cold prospecting and sales. Your offer must be unmistakable and valuable. In the sales cold outreach email, this can be the opportunity to learn more about how you can help by providing information your audience would otherwise not be able to come by.
You could offer a unique calculator that quantifies risk within their business or the opportunity to jump in a call with you.
Step 2: Create your script
Creating a script doesn’t sound like the most exciting idea, but it’s important. Scripts take the arduous process of condensing a large amount of information into salient points to produce a powerful, structured message that’s delivered perfectly every time.
What goes into your script?
Here’s a four-step structure you can use to build yours.
1. Create a powerful hook
A hook is the very first sentence that you speak. It’s designed to grab your viewers’ attention. You can grab attention in a number of ways. For example, you could make a bold statement or ask a question, both of which are directly related to the pain point, challenge, or need that your prospect has. Whether you’re creating a podcast episode, a YT video or a sales video, your hook is the difference between a viewer watching your video or skipping it after 5 second.
2. Tell a story
Stories are as old as time. When used effectively, they help people connect dots and learn better. The stories you tell in outreach videos must be about your prospect. These are stories that relate to the current state, and where they can be by taking the next step with you.
3. Include value
Today, time is a scarce resource for many. For your video to make an impact, you have to include something that makes your prospect stop and realize that learning more about what you have to offer is worth it.
When trying to quantify the amount of value to include, a simple rule of thumb is to think about sharing information that your prospect would not easily find, or may have to pay to get hold of.
4. Close with a strong call to action
Using a call to action isn’t a new idea but it’s still a crucial one. Because it is a personalized video, the call to action you use should be personalized, too. Once you’ve identified the pain point, challenge, or need that your viewer has, drive the message home by reiterating that progress happens when your prospect takes the next step towards solving or addressing the current situation.
Step 3: Write a compelling email
With your video ready to go, all you need is an email strong enough to support your video message. And that’s an important key. Your email must be brief and leave room for your video to do the heavy lifting. If you give away too much in the body of email, you whittle down all the work put into personalizing your video, making it just another prospecting email that can easily be marked as spam.
What goes into a compelling email? Here are four elements yours should include:
1. A strong subject line
Unopened prospecting emails don’t move businesses forward. This is because they aren’t captivating enough to inspire prospects into action. Your subject line has to be enticing enough to make prospects stop scrolling and pay attention.
Writing effective subject lines isn’t as difficult as you might think. To help, here are three tips to make your subject lines inspire more opens:
Keep them short
Long email subject lines may work for most other engagements, but when prospecting, they can be too much. Prospects are often wary of marketing & sales messaging, and when they become aware of a prospecting email, most buyers immediately raise their guard. The sales process is, in many cases, seen as painful and cringey — not something you want to spend time on.
Keeping your subject line short makes it possible to show that you appreciate your prospect’s time, but also that what you have to offer is valuable.
Make an offer
Offers equate to value. But not all offers are created equal. We want to make sure the video is about them and not just about your company and your product, the definition of a Marketing Myopia. Earlier we mentioned that your offer must be quantified as something prospects can’t easily come by or would otherwise pay for. The trick, however, is not to give everything away. Your video has to do the heavy lifting, so use your subject line to hint as to something valuable inside your email.
Personalize
Personalizing your subject line is easy. It can be achieved by including an identifier like your prospects’ name, their company name, or the name of a competitor.
2. Let your video do the heavy lifting
Having spent time creating a personalized video, be sure to let it deliver your message. It may sound like a tricky thing to do, but your email is meant to support your video. Create an email body that identifies a unique challenge, pain point or need, but don’t go all the way and share what’s in your video. Instead, mention that the solution or more detail is in the video and it’s just a click away.
3. Use your call to action to get video views
Calls to action in your email as just as important as in your video. Your email call to action is all about getting prospects to view your video. The great news is that this call to action doesn’t need to be a complex one either. To make it effective, inspire action by reinforcing what your viewer will gain by watching the video.
4. Design a beautiful attention-grabbing email
Sending a plain text email for a cold outreach has been done again and again. Your prospects are used to receiving hundreds of cold outreach emails every week. If you want to stand out of the crowd and get your message across, you might want to consider sending an HTML email.
Read more | Choosing between Plain Text & HTML Email
You can put together a beautiful email template in a few minutes using a drag and drop email builder, and without writing one line of code.
Start with your company logo, an interesting email headline, a short email body and then feature your personalized video right in the center.
Read more about embedding video content in your emails | Marketers Guide To Embedding Video in Email
Here’s an email example featuring a personalized video, sent with the subject line: Record your first video email.
This is another email example featuring a video right from the start, accompanied by the email subject line: 👀 Get more visibility over your team’s creativity.
You can find more email examples with embedded videos in our Pinterest board.
Step 4: Pick your tool
There are many tools to use to record your videos. What you’re looking for is software that will capture video and sound, and allow you to send it via email with ease.
Here’s a list of five tools you can use to record your personalized video:
To embed your video in email, you can use Chamaileon, an online email builder that allows you to add video content to your email templates in a few simple clicks. You won’t need to worry about email rendering issues or email size.
Tips for crushing your sales videos
With a clear picture of how to use videos in your sales process, let’s look at tips for creating powerful engagements. Effective videos are planned and well-executed videos. Here are three tips for creating your best videos:
1. Record in the quiet environment
Find a place where you won’t be interrupted when recording your videos. Ensure that you’re in a distraction-free space and that your video audio is impeccable.
2. Quality is everything
Quality video and audio as essential for prospecting videos. If your message is hard to make out and your video painful to watch, prospects will imagine that these are signs of things to come. While you can get away with a WebCam and a headset, the quality of your recording is important as it reflects your brand and the quality of your services. You can use a video compressor to ensure that your videos are efficiently compressed for online delivery without sacrificing quality. Don’t give prospects the opportunity of viewing you or your brand as anything but professional. Test your equipment by doing a couple of trial runs.
3. Be the best version of yourself
As you share your message, embody your best traits. Use gesticulation, smile, and be authentic. While people like great products, they are more willing to buy from people they like. Let your personality shine as you deliver your message.
It’s your turn
Video is a powerful tool. It’s not just used to monetize Instagram or host webinars, it’s an accessible and highly-effective tool for sales, too. When coupled with email, it allows brands to reach and engage buyers in a unique and effective way. To create powerful personalized videos for your cold emails, focus on value. Grab attention with powerful hooks and create emails that position your videos as the star.