Guest Blog by Tony Gnau, T60 Productions
The question these days isn’t so much should your business produce videos. Research data tells us we should be asking what videos should you produce, how many, and what’s it going to cost?! The good news is the answers are pretty simple… even the cost one.
I recently talked with two marketing pros on the front lines of marketing videos and sales enablement. They shared their insights on how video can support sales and business development.
They will be going more in depth into this topic during their Experience Inbound session, "Got Video? Four Tactics To Drive More Sales Through Video Personalization."
Katie Morrissey works at Wistia, a leading video platform that makes video production and sharing easier for all of us.
Jeff Coon is one of the founders here at Stream Creative, a Wisconsin-based inbound marketing agency.
I’ll go over some of what we talked about during that conversation, but I encourage you to watch the accompanying video for all the details.
Busting the Video Marketing Myth
Let’s start with the whole cost thing. Yes, video production can cost a lot. Trust me, I run a Milwaukee video production company, so I know all about it. However, there are plenty of ways to create videos on a tight budget. As a matter of fact, you can do them for as little as $0.
DIY Video
Believe it or not, I actually advocate producing your own videos. Say what?! A video producer who encourages DIY video!? Yup, although only in certain circumstances.
If what you’re looking to produce is an About Us video, customer testimonial story, branding video, et cetera… you have my blessing to create these types of videos if…
- you’re a start-up or micro business with zero budget.
- you have a company culture that’s kind of kitschy, and your customers understand that about you.
- you’re doing something on Facebook Live or creating short social media videos like on Instagram.
For everyone else, I recommend hiring a video pro who tells these kinds of stories for a living.
Taking Your Sales Emails to a New Level with Video
The good news is we’re just scratching the surface on the types of videos you can produce, and here’s where I’ll bring in Katie and Jeff.
Katie says she and the Wistia team frequently create sales videos themselves. They’re low on production value but high on ROI.
“The first is the video voice mail,” said Katie. “So when you’re reaching out to someone, ‘Hey, here’s who I am, here’s what I saw on your website, would love to connect.’ Pretty quick video, maybe 90-seconds or fewer in that type of video.”
I really LOVE this idea. What a great way to set yourself apart from the crowd!
How many emails do we get everyday? How many fail to garner more than a quick scan?
Now, imagine getting an email from one of your vendors with an embedded image that includes a play button on it. Are you going going to click? Of course you are!
And that’s how to do it. You don’t have to attach or embed the actual video in the email. Just include an engaging image with a play button on it (you can use online apps like Canva), then link that image to a page at your website that has the video.
Boom!
Not only have you set yourself apart, you’ve brought them to your website. Maybe on that page with the video you can provide additional marketing content? Maybe use it as an opportunity to up-sell something more? You have options to play with.
After hearing Katie talk about this, I immediately started looking for opportunities to do this myself.
Proposals Using Video to Standout
One of the things Jeff mentioned is something we at T60 have been doing this year with great success, so I was excited he mentioned it.
“We were finding that we were putting together these long proposals or trying to address these needs of our prospects and our customers, and then we’re finding out they’re not either reading the document or it’s too technical,” said Jeff. “We came up with the idea, instead of doing these long traditional proposals, why don’t we do more video proposals?”
Like your daily email, it’s hard to make a proposal stand out. Every business looking for a vendor will get at least a few proposals for any given need. Those documents tend to look and sound alike, so finding something unique in one is often welcome.
You could include something highly produced that can be used in proposals for multiple prospects, maybe a video highlighting your products or services, your process, a demo, et cetera.
Or… do what Jeff does and simply record yourself in a basic video sharing your computer screen. You can go over certain aspects of the proposal and share some examples of how you do things.
Video Helps Build Trust
Both of these video ideas capitalize on something you just can replicate with the written word. It puts a real person in front of the prospect.
Words on the page/screen are great. I’ve been a writer all my life and I love to write, but getting in front of a camera and putting yourself on video shows the prospect they’re dealing with a real person. Someone they can see, listen to, and most importantly… TRUST!
“It was a way for us to build trust in the sales process,” said Jeff. “Now they can see my face, they can hear my voice, so for us it was the next best thing as if I had the opportunity to sit right next to this person and hold their hand and talk them through a proposal."
We are all in the trust business, and the more you can get a prospect to trust you the more likely they’ll be to do business with you.
Putting yourself out there to be seen and heard goes a long way to earning people’s trust.
Don’t Overthink Things
Last but not least, both Katie and Jeff mentioned how important it is not to sweat the small stuff. For these low cost video ideas, don’t worry about production value. Don’t worry if you said, “Umm,” a couple of times, or stumbled briefly when you mentioned something. Don’t let stuff like this get in the way of you producing these videos!
I don’t think anyone who clicks on an email video or proposal video is going to be turned off by an amateur video. It’s more about you offering something unique, and again, putting yourself out there for them to see and hear from you.
Didn’t say something the “right” way? You’re welcome to record another take, but don’t obsess over it. Our speech in daily life isn’t perfect. We stumble, we say, “Umm,” it’s okay to have those things in these basic videos. We’re human, and we want prospects to see us as human.
“Unless you’re sneezing and falling off the chair in one of your videos, if you do something, if you mess-up for a minute, that’s okay. That’s part of that human process,” said Katie.
Still a little unsure? Don’t worry, there are plenty of tips available for creating better DIY marketing videos.
Again, these are just a few takeaways from my conversation with Katie and Jeff, so please check out the video for more.
We want you to watch the video… then start planning your approach!
Want to learn more about building authentic sales relationships with video? Join Wistia’s Katie Morrissey and Stream Creative’s Jeff Coon as they discuss the four types of video that your sales and marketing teams can implement to delight leads and close more deals. You can see their session at this years Experience Inbound!
Tickets sell fast, so get yours today!
