How to Use Video Prospecting for Outreach


Sam Brodie

February 7th

Marketers representing businesses are always on the lookout for techniques that improve outreach with minimal investment.

Video prospecting is one such technique that can greatly improve outreach. It’s fast gaining popularity because it makes the target audience pay attention, improves their engagement, and converts prospects into leads.

So, what is video prospecting? It’s an outreach program that uses personalized video content to grab attention and connect with prospective customers.

It’s less expensive than paid promotions, and more effective than text-based campaigns in delivering results. What’s more, video prospecting is simple, flexible, and versatile.

Our little guide contains valuable information about video prospecting. You’ll learn why video prospecting is so effective, how to use this powerful strategy, and how businesses have benefited from it.

Is Video Prospecting Worth the Investment?

This decade belongs to video content. Prospecting per se is not easy. According to a survey, over 40% of marketers claim that prospecting is challenging and hard. Well, video content is changing the perception already.

Using video content for prospecting and customer outreach is delivering positive results to businesses. Statistics show that video prospecting works.

  • Using videos has increased the email open rate by 16%.
  • Campaigns that use video content receive 26% more replies from the target audience.
  •  Emails that use videos and contain the word “Video” in the subject line increases open rates by 7% to 13%
  • The ROI of video content even if you use a video company is really impressive. An astounding 89% of marketers claim they get a higher return on investment with video content.

For example, the time between the initial outreach and subsequent contact to reinforce the message and convert the prospect into a lead is crucial. The shorter the time gap, the better the impact and result.

Make use of a marketing tool that can notify you when the video content is watched by the prospect. This data will allow you to take follow-up steps to convert viewers into leads.

Tips to Succeed in Video Prospecting

Clear and proper planning will improve your success rate with video prospecting.

Here are some tips to make your personalized outreach more effective and efficient.

Know Your Prospect

We’re just stating the obvious, but this needs to be mentioned. Personalized video outreach will work only if you know your target audience.

If you’re targeting an account or company, you need to know the person who makes important decisions.

Learn about the person’s designation, responsibilities in the companies, and most importantly, the challenges encountered during the decision-making process.

If you’re focusing on more than one account and reaching out to people of a specific group, then create a prospect persona or customer profile. But, first, perfectly segment your lead list then prepare the prospect persona.

Here too, the prospect persona will contain information such as job designation, standing in the company, nature of the industry, key responsibilities, primary and secondary challenges the prospects face, etc.

Once you know the target audience, you can tailor the message and make video to attract their attention and close more deals.

How to create video for prospecting

Quite a few varieties of videos help sales reps connect with their prospect. That said; most of the videos follow a template that has proven effective in engaging the viewers.

You can add to this structure but all the below-mentioned points are a must-add to your videos.

  • A personalized intro.
  • Reasons to contact the prospect.
  • State their pain points and your solution.
  • Present a case study or show how you plan to solve their problem.
  • Include an effective call to action.

The initial few seconds can make or break your content. If the first few seconds don’t attract attention then you’ll lose your audience.

A webcam, screen capture tool, and video editor are basic equipment you need to create personalized outreach videos.

You can also grab the prospect’s attention with animated videos. Animated content is more expensive than traditional videos, but the positive outcome will justify the extra investment and effort.

The type of video content you choose will depend on the audience’s needs and preferences. Make the personalized video concise and let the prospect persona dictate the decisions you take in every step of the video production process.

Include a Strong Call to Action (CTA)

Do not create a situation where the prospect has to think about the next step he or she should take. It’s your responsibility to encourage them to take the next step. This can be done by adding a strong call to action (CTA) to the video.

The call to action depends on the goal you want to achieve with the prospecting video. It could be as simple as “Learn More,” “Click Here for a Free Ebook,” “Get in Touch Now,” or “Book a Meeting Now.”

You can increase the chances of a response from the prospect by including a value proposition such as a free guide, free template, free use of software, etc.

Include the call to action in more than one place. Place the CTA at least once in the video and the supporting copy.

For example, Joel S. Smith & Associates CPA used whiteboard hand drawing style to make this video: 

Thinking of Taking on a New Controller? with Joel S. Smith & Associates CPA

At the end of the video, Joel S. Smith & Associates CPA offer to contact them back for a free consultation with a link to their website and a phone number.

Take Risks to Reap Rewards

To stand out, beat the competition, and attract attention you need to get creative. You don’t have to do anything outrageous or controversial with the content.

Keep the content real and natural, but add a pinch of personality, emotion, wit, and creativity to evoke a response from the prospect. The prospect can’t help but reply to creative content.

For example, the competition was intense when companies came to know that Buffalo Wild Wings was in the market looking for a technology company. Frank from Dynamic Signal had to do something special to stand out from the crowd.

He decided to get creative. He bought one of their spiciest and hottest Blazin’s wings and started recording a personalized outreach video. Battling tears and mouth on fire, Frank delivered his pitch for their account. Frank’s hot wings video did the trick as he managed to book a meeting.

How to Use Video Prospecting

Regardless of the industry, there is always a place for video prospecting in the digital marketing strategy. But, this outreach technique works best in certain situations. Use video prospecting in the following scenarios:

  • Use personalized videos to send cold outreach.
  • Use videos to reconnect with a prospective customer.
  • Leverage video content to convey a specific brand message to a select group of prospects.
  • Use videos to highlight a new piece of information to an account.

Knowing when to use video prospecting will minimize your costs and effort. But, you can experiment by using personalized videos at a variety of stages and points of your marketing funnel.

Bear in mind that video prospecting is a powerful tool. Hence, whenever you need a boost – a way to attract attention and engage – try your luck with video prospecting.

Personalized video outreach is a natural fit in any normal situation that demands in-person meetings and face-to-face interaction. You can even use it to invite celebrity guests and grow your podcast.

Your business, marketing goal, and target audience will dictate how and where you should use video prospecting. Always start at a place where personalized video content naturally fits in your customer outreach strategy.

How to Use Postaga to Improve Your Outreach?

Cold outreach even with personalized video is a challenge. In this, you’re pitching your product (or service) for the first time to an audience. Automation tools can reduce your investment, workload, and deliver the outcomes you desire. Postaga is ideal for successful yet cheap email marketing.

If you’re a business looking to use video prospecting for cold outreach then Postaga can help with the following points:

Prospecting: Find suitable companies, accounts, or websites that match your ideal audience.

Contacts: Collect information like website and contact details, and make your presence known to them by commenting or acknowledge them on social media platforms.

Messaging: Get in touch using emails or other marketing channels to promote your product or service.

Using Personalized Video in Postaga

Postaga has a native integration with image and video personalization platform, Nexweave.

Check out this article on how to integrate your Nexweave account with Postaga:

What Are Some Other Video Prospecting Tools to Try?

Sales reps will readily take up video prospecting only if video production is convenient and cost-effective.

With the right production and video editing software, videos for customer outreach can be produced in-house. The following will make the job of the sales reps easier.

Soapbox: This is a free-to-use Chrome extension from Wistia. The tool helps sales reps record webcam videos and capture the screen at the same time.

The extension also provides basic editing features so that you can create and share professional-looking videos in a jiffy. Choose the premium plan to unlock advanced recording and editing features.

Bonjoro: This video capture and editing tool is similar to Soapbox. Bonjoro provides branded templates to customize the content for different users.

After the video is recorded and customized, the sales reps can share the link or embed the content in their emails. Another advantage of using Bonjoro is that the software can be used along with other marketing tools.

Loom: Loom is flexible and versatile. The platform allows users to create webcam videos from any device.

To share personalized videos, the sales rep only has to pass on the generated video link. Anyone with the link can watch the video as no password or logging in to an account is required. The platform allows video creators to add emojis and time-stamp comments to the videos.

What Are Some of the Best Examples of Video Prospecting in Action?

You’re probably thinking – does video prospecting work in practice? Thousands of businesses have already benefited from this technique.

Here are 3 examples of video prospecting in action.

Musical Selfie Video for LinkedIn

This short video appears personalized even if it doesn’t use a brand or name. It combines a fun element (music) with a marketing message to attract attention and engage customers. Another added advantage of this video is that it can be used again and again in mass outreach campaigns.

https://video.vidyard.com/watch/41Pcu55nKPcsuBNbbrHTeE

HubSpot

The success HubSpot had with video prospecting is the biggest endorsement of the marketing technique.

The company wanted to test the effectiveness of personalized video outreach, in boosting sales opportunities, compared to traditional methods.

They wanted to find out whether videos were easier or harder for their sales reps and whether video content was more engaging and better at creating opportunities compared to other outreach techniques such as phone calls and emails.

The marketing experiment that lasted for one-and-half months resulted in a 4 times increase in sales opportunities.

A Prop Video to Lafco

Sales reps who research their prospect will see better results. In this video, the sales rep uses a prop to capture the prospect’s attention. The prospect is a candle-selling company and the sales rep rightly uses candle wax to engage the viewer.

Sales reps selling a product to a niche market can use a cheap-but-suitable prop to create an impact with the viewers.

https://video.vidyard.com/watch/34ZDZ57E2aApSveZrxSiLq

Final Thoughts

Adding video prospecting to your marketing mix can help maximize results.

More and more businesses (and marketers) are adopting video prospecting. Hopefully, this guide will help you beat the competition, reach and connect with the target audience, and boost lead generation.

Author bio:

Cristian Stanciu is a freelance video editor, owner and post-production coordinator of Veedyou Media – a company offering video animation services to marketing agencies, video production studios and brands all over the globe. You can catch up with him on his blog or on LinkedIn.

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