As it’s become easier to connect with people over video chat and more common for employees to work from home, video prospecting has emerged as an invaluable strategy for sales teams. By using video to engage with prospects, you can make your outreach more personalized, showcase your product in new ways and stand out from the competition.
In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about video prospecting — from its benefits to the different ways you can use it — and cover nine video prospecting tips to help you get started.
What is video prospecting?
Video prospecting is the method of reaching out to potential customers using video instead of traditional written or phone communication. It involves creating personalized video messages you can send directly to prospects.
The goal of video prospecting is to establish a connection with prospects by showcasing your personality, expertise and product in an engaging and memorable format. Video prospecting allows you to communicate your message in a personal and authentic way, which can help to build trust and credibility with prospects.
By using video prospecting, you can also differentiate yourself from your competitors and increase your chances of converting prospects into customers — in a recent study, 94% of respondents reported that video converts the same or better than any other content form.
Video prospecting benefits
Next, we’ll dive deeper into the advantages of video prospecting and explore how you can use it to move prospects through the sales funnel. Here are some of its benefits:
1) Personalization
Video prospecting allows you to personalize your outreach in ways that you can’t always replicate over the phone or by email. Some effective ways to do this include:
- Addressing each prospect by name: By using their name and referring to specific details about their company or industry, you can demonstrate that you’ve done your research and are genuinely interested in their needs and challenges.
- Showcasing your personality: This can help foster a more human connection with prospects and establish trust and rapport, which are crucial to building meaningful relationships. For example, a good sense of humor can go a long way, as can energy and enthusiasm.
- Tailoring the content to address pain points: A great way to catch a prospect’s attention is to speak directly to their specific needs. This demonstrates that you understand their situation and are trying to help them by offering a relevant solution.
2) Engagement
Video is a highly engaging medium for sales prospecting — in fact, 74% of people would rather watch a video than read text. Some unique ways to make your video outreach as engaging as possible include:
- Using humor and creative storytelling: This helps create a more memorable and enjoyable experience for your potential customer and can also create a positive association with your brand.
- Showcasing your product or service: By showing your product in action or providing a demonstration, you can create a more tangible experience for the prospect, which can help overcome any objections or skepticism they may have and move them closer to a buying decision.
- Keeping it conversational: Avoid overly scripted language in order to produce a natural and authentic video that your prospect can connect with.
3) Differentiation
Another key benefit of video prospecting is the ability to differentiate yourself from the competition. You can help ensure that you stand out from the crowd by:
- Using visuals, graphics and animations: These can help create a more dynamic and engaging video that captures the prospect’s attention and keeps them interested — setting you apart from the competitors who may be using a more static or boring approach.
- Including testimonials: Customer testimonials are a great way to build social proof and demonstrate your successful track record. Including these in your video can help establish credibility and trust, which are imperative to winning over skeptical prospects.
When to use video prospecting
Video prospecting can be used at various stages of the sales process to increase engagement, build relationships and nurture potential customers toward a purchase. Here are a few examples of when it makes sense to use video prospecting:
1) An introduction
Use video to introduce yourself, your company and your products. This can be a great way to make a strong first impression and build rapport with the prospect. By creating a short, personalized video that addresses their pain points, you can increase your chances of getting a response and starting a conversation.
2) A follow-up
Video prospecting can also be useful for following up with prospects who have already been contacted but may not have taken action yet. A video that addresses their objections or concerns can help re-engage the prospect and move them closer to a buying decision.
3) Account management
You can use video to strengthen relationships with existing customers. Creating a video that provides updates, tips or other content that relates to your customers can help increase the chances of retention and upselling.
Pro Tip: You can stay up-to-date about key news and activity for your target accounts using Crunchbase alerts.
4) Account-based marketing
While it’s not part of every sales team’s process, account-based marketing involves targeting high-value accounts and tailoring sales and marketing efforts to meet the unique needs of those accounts. While the traditional approach to sales and marketing is more generalized, with a focus on attracting a wide range of leads, ABM is more personalized and targeted. When done well, it can be very effective — revenue can increase by as much as 208% with a good ABM strategy.
You can use video as part of an ABM strategy to create personalized messages for target accounts. These videos can be tailored to the specific pain points and challenges of each individual account in order to speak to them in an up-close and individualized way.
9 video prospecting tips
The following tips will help you get more clicks, leads and sales from your video outreach efforts:
- Keep it short: Shorter videos are more effective because 5% of viewers will stop watching them all the way through after one minute. Try to keep your video under 60 seconds if possible.
- Be authentic: Remember to be transparent and consistent, and don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. Let your personality shine through and be yourself — authenticity helps build trust with prospects and allows them to see the real person behind the sales pitch.
- Use a script: Plan out what you want to say ahead of time to ensure that your message is clear and concise.
- Practice, practice, practice: Record multiple takes until you feel comfortable with your message and delivery.
- Keep video production in mind: Make sure your video is well-lit and use a microphone if possible to ensure that the sound is clear and easy to understand.
- Show, don’t just tell: Use visual aids such as slides or screen recordings to help illustrate your message.
- Leave them wanting more: End your video with a clear call to action — for example, this could be scheduling a call or responding to your message.
- Follow up: Don’t forget to follow up a few days after sending your video to ensure that the prospect received it and to continue the conversation.
- Keep a folder of pre-recorded videos: If you find yourself answering the same question often or running through the same mini-demo script, consider recording a version of that video that you can keep handy in your library.
Pro Tip: Crunchbase can help you find and connect with qualified prospects — learn more here or talk to sales if you’re looking for a custom prospecting solution for your team.