How Adding Video Will Help You Succeed in Outbound Prospecting

Video content for outbound prospecting has been around for a long time. It can help to drive more sales and revenue to your business.

What is outbound prospecting?

Outbound prospecting is about getting a hold of relevant leads and approaching them wisely. Instead of blindly sending emails and messages to potential clients, you need a strategy.

Defining similar user groups in your customer demographic is essential for success. Once you’ve done this, you can start reaching out to potential leads.

Reaching out to prospects is a part of the sales process or sales cycle that might feel scary. The fear of rejection might hold you back. The reality is that many of your emails might never get opened, which is quite normal.
You’ll want to increase your open rate, but your bigger goal is to convert those that opened into clients.

In 2020, the average email open rate decreased to only 21.3%. In comparison, in 2013, the average open rate was nearly 30%. That’s a significant drop.

Suppose you are working as a salesperson who uses cold emails as a primary means of promotion. In that case, you know your open rate averages are only partly a measurement of your work success.

If you send many emails, 21.3% can be a lot. The question is how to transform that percentage into conversions and improve clickthrough rates.
Try targeting highly valuable leads with messages that stand out in their inbox. We suggest you use videos in your prospecting, especially personalized video emails.

Add video. Why?

Would you say that you read more text (like in a blog post) or watch more videos? If you are like the majority of people, you watch more videos. The leap that video content made in terms of usage is enormous. Video rules internet content – TikTok now has more traffic than Google.

It’s estimated that by 2022, 82% of the internet traffic will come from video, according to Cisco. When you think about the rise of video consumption, it makes sense to start including prospecting videos in your outbound prospecting.

Video content became the most effective communication medium. And it’s also easier and faster to process than plain old text. The type of video you use is also essential.

Some might use videos for entertainment, while others might use them for educational purposes, but videos’ influence on purchase behavior is outstanding. Multiple research stats support this statement.

Here is one example: 90% of consumers say that they watch videos to help make a final purchase decision. Consumers enjoy seeing videos of what a product can do and how it looks.

Customers can gain a better idea of the size and functionality of a product through video as well, as opposed to just an image and description. Videos for products are particularly popular with tech companies. This video from Docebo is a great example of creativity. See the full video here.

When you receive emails with a video or a message that includes visual content, you are probably more intrigued by them. Including the word “video” in the subject line of your email has been a promising approach for years.

An outreach video may be what you need to start getting your prospects interested in opening your email. It also shows that you took the time and effort to not only include a personalized video message but to create one in the first place.

Understand your audience to attract them

You’ll want to get to know your prospects or potential customers first to make the most out of your outbound sales prospecting videos.

Since you want to produce a highly personalized video, you’ll need to roll your sleeves up and dig deep. Remember, you are making a video directed toward an individual, and there may not always be a one-size-fits-all approach.

You should perform significant research to create a compelling video that forms a meaningful connection.

You can use [social media monitoring tools]and other video tools on the market to get a better idea of what you need to do to create a video that draws attention and opens the door for quality conversations about your content.

Additionally, you can monitor your competitors’ audience and response rates by reading their comment sections or inspecting the engagement metrics. You can do all this through the analytics tracking tools that most social media apps have within their software.

Some of the things you should keep in mind:

• Try to keep it short
• Make it personal
• Use videos as an addition, not as a substitute
• Be friendly and credible
• Test different campaigns
• By keeping it short, you won’t bore someone – you do want them to watch the entire video, after all. Try to be concise about the message you want to send and get right to the point. That way, interested viewers can quickly separate from the crowd.

Those sales reps and teams that spend more time learning about their target audience throughout the sales process usually see the best results.

Elements of personalization are essential. Sales teams and reps know that personalizing your email or LinkedIn connection request is the only way to increase your chances. Personal connection is vital.

Without personalization, any sales prospecting strategy might fail.

The same applies here — know your recipients so you can tailor the video to their interests. There will be different types of video content for different audiences.

Learn their needs, fears, and wishes, and you’ll be able to create a perfect video that might make them want to know more about your offer. If you do the research part correctly, making the video is a piece of cake.

Your video should make the recipient perceive you as friendly and easier to do business with. It’s essential to stand out from the millions of messages users receive. If you can make your prospecting emails look trustworthy and not a form of promotional material, you’re halfway there.

Avoiding promotional content can be challenging because you want to sell your product/service, but forming an emotional connection is essential and makes the customer feel like a human, not just another number.

That’s very hard to accomplish by only using text. That’s why videos are the tool that helps you warm up a, usually, cold outreach email.

By providing quick value, such as education or tips, while appearing friendly and sympathetic, your videos are likely to have an impact. Don’t forget that video in your outbound prospecting strategy is part of a larger strategy.

Don’t fail by trying to say it all in a short video — you’ll get viewers confused and hit them with too much information. Always consider these quick videos as an addition to your pitch, not a substitution.

Note: It’s a great idea to upload a specific video thumbnail image to ensure it looks professional.

When to use video in your prospecting

Another question is when and how often you should use video in your prospecting strategy.

The answer is pretty simple, whenever you think your conversion rate may need some improvement. It’s important to remember that video in your prospecting strategy is an addition to your other sales efforts. It’s not a standalone fix-it-all solution.

Frequently in the sales cycle, you will begin by sending a regular outreach email to your prospects and monitor the response you receive in the beginning without video. From there, you can gather a better idea of when to add a video to your prospecting strategy based on the response rate/s you receive.

You cannot always communicate some parts of the sales cycle to prospects as well as a video. Consider using video in your strategy and see how your audience reacts.

You can always start small, experiment with video prospecting with a smaller group of prospects, and keep track of the responses you receive. That way, you can get an idea of when and how to increase video outreach efforts that will only add to your more extensive sales campaigns in the future.

Create the right types of video

First, you’ll want to define your outbound strategy step by step. These are a few of the most effective types of videos for prospecting that should go in this particular order:

• Introduction video
• Demo video
• Follow-up video
• Summary video

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Introduction video

This one is the most critical video in your funnel. The text has an essential role here — if it seems salesy or spammy, people might not open it, or their email client might even mark your messages as spam.

It is a good idea to formulate a script beforehand, something you can continuously work on throughout the process and see what tones of voice you prefer and which you don’t. Other sales team members can collaborate and generate ideas to make the message stand out.

Trying to come across as less promotional and more ‘human’ to your audience can be tricky. It takes practice formulating messages that resonate with your prospects. The more outreach you do, the better you will become at understanding what your audience wants to see.

It’s essential to spend a lot of time creating the first message your prospects will resonate with and the actual video your prospects will see. The introduction video is like the first impression your audience receives from your brand. You want to make sure it’s attention-grabbing and informative.

Types of video content like introductory videos and their video messages are great for connecting with prospective customers. Personalizing it for a specific company (or a person in charge) increases their chances of watching the whole video. This also improves your video metrics.

If you somehow teach them how to solve their problems or even provide a real solution to complex topics— you’ll likely have their full attention. That’s all you need to start from a single video.

This example from Canny is an excellent example that shows the value of their product.

Demo video

Demo videos are often used as a part of the sales funnel when the users are already familiar with your brand. They might have even asked for it to get a better glance at your product.

Now it’s on the demo video to do its part. Live demos that get done 1-on-1 are impossible since they use a ton of time both for you and your prospect.

Short personalized sections at the beginning and the end of demo videos are the keys to sales success. People like watching a video that feels like it was made just for them and answers their questions.

In the generic, prerecorded part, you must showcase how your product is relevant to your prospect and how it helps them. Here you visualize your services and product benefits.

This video content will help keep prospects engaged and continue moving through the sales funnel and improve the sales process.

Remember, they must be personalized by a short welcoming greeting or a farewell message made specifically for each prospect. It is an excellent type of video to showcase your brand’s image and increase brand awareness.

Follow-up video

You might not know if your recipients even opened the first few emails or messages. The majority of sales folk give up before this part. But, this is a missed opportunity.

This opinion is based on research by WoodPecker that says – follow-up emails/messages have a 40% higher chance of being replied to than the initial ones.

A video in sales emails can significantly improve your outreach efforts.

The good thing is that you don’t need to change most of the script. Start with a recap, mention your recipient’s problem, and explain that you have a video that will likely help them somehow. Finally, you include the prerecorded video content.

Follow-up videos are essential as they may not always get seen the first time around. Perhaps your prospective client missed the email and has no idea you reached out in the first place.

Sending a follow-up email with your video will help ensure that you have covered your bases and give your prospect a chance to see your sales efforts if they missed them the first time. Follow-ups assist with building a foundation of a potential relationship with a prospect.

Summary video

When you come to this part of the funnel, you want to make sure you close the deal with a strong message that forms a meaningful connection with your prospects. This is where you have to add a more personal touch to your summary video.

Include everything from your prior communication and any relevant information you’ve gathered at this stage. This helps your prospect feel like there is a real person behind all this back and forth.

Emphasize everything you know about their problems and potential solutions so the recipient feels you can help them.

You can always research similar summary videos that other brands have used. That way, you can get a better idea of what works and what garners a positive response from an audience.

If you have some complex concepts you are trying to get across to your prospect/s; a summary video should do an excellent job of simplifying those concepts and bringing them across in an understandable way for your entire audience.

Don’t act like this is a farewell and try to seem confident that you’ll meet again. Even if it doesn’t turn into a conversion this time, you’ll want to re-prospect them in your future video marketing efforts.

Video is the future of outbound prospecting

Whether you’ve tried it or not, video in outbound prospecting is quickly becoming a necessity.

You should consider experimenting with it in your sales strategy and remember the types of video content you want to create and how it relates to your brand.

There are several examples of the power of video for sales prospecting and how it has helped and is helping brands around the globe.

The internet is full of research done by competent experts, and practices for video prospecting are working — you need to leverage them correctly, and your conversion rate will thank you.

It takes time to produce all the actual video content at first. But, after a while, you’ll get the hang of it and be able to create sales prospecting videos for your potential prospects without it consuming too much of your time.

It can be a moderate investment — no need to go big. Just be sure to start as soon as possible to see the sales videos’ results.

The power of video prospecting is vast and is quickly becoming a vital element in the sales cycle. It is one of the most successful lead-generation strategies out there.