7 Secrets to Success with Web Video
The full effect of the growing impact of web video has yet to be seen. One thing is for sure though; web video is changing the way businesses communicate. Before you leverage web video, I suggest you do a little research. There’s lots of great info on best practices in this blog, and while I may be a bit biased, I can guarantee that all of the information you need to successfully leverage web video and video email marketing can be found here [and a whole lot more!]. My goal with this post is to delve a little deeper into web video best practices. Below I have listed seven secrets for success with this powerful new medium:
1. Record Reusable, Evergreen Videos:
Use Web Video to Connect While You’re Out of the Office or Asleep – Evergreen videos are prerecorded videos that you create to accomplish a specific and recurring purpose. A great example is a “Thank You for Purchasing” video that you send to every one of your customers after they pay for your product or service. Evergreen videos allow you to satisfy repetitive tasks with an automated process. So now, you can connect with people any time, with minimal effort. When integrated with a CRM system, your evergreen videos do your job for you, whether you’re at lunch with a friend or at home sleeping.
2. It Only Takes 3 Videos to Build Trust with People You’ve Never Even Met:
When You Send Video Emails to Prospects, a Little Version of You Waits in Their Inbox – The three building blocks of this philosophy are the introduction, bio, and follow-up videos. One of the key aspects of building trust with a person is to give them the opportunity to get to know you. Unfortunately, taking the time to let every prospect get to know us can be unrealistic, especially as we become more successful. Luckily, there is a simple solution, web video.
Every time you record a video of yourself, you are making a little clone version of you to convey a specific message to the recipient. From the recipient’s end, it’s like you’re waiting for him inside his inbox. Therefore, when you create these three videos, you are replacing the time obligation required for the first steps of relationship building with the smaller, video version of you. Now a prospect can get to know a little bit about you and your company with an introductory video. Then, he may want to know a little more about you as a person, before he’s ready to become serious, and that’s when he’ll watch your bio video. At some point you or someone at your company will be in touch with this person and after that occurs, you send the follow-up video. This video can be evergreen, or if the situation warrants, it can be personalized (meaning made for this person). This video offers you one more opportunity to interact and reaffirms the conversation.
3. Web Video Improves Customer Satisfaction:
Video Responses to FAQs Leave You More Time and Energy to Better Serve Customers – At the core of excellent customer service is the ability to quickly address the concerns of those who use your product or service. By recording videos that address all of your frequently asked questions, you are taking the first step toward increased customer satisfaction. Now, you have a library of helpful content waiting to answer questions immediately (and video combines the benefits of over-the-phone support with showing someone how it’s done). As time passes, you can add more and more content to your video library. As you do, you’ll see a reduction in call volume to customer support (a savings of time and money), which means that when someone does need to call, you’ll have more time and energy to help that person. The natural result is a happier customer. When they have a question, they can go online and find an informative video to help them. When that’s not enough, they can call in and speak to a real person, who isn’t too busy to take the necessary time to help them.
Oh, and when a new question comes up, you can create a video to address that as well, so your video library will continue to grow and improve through the course of normal operation. Consequently, by adding web video to your customer service arsenal, you will reduce your staff and time requirements every day.
4. Combine Video Email Marketing with a CRM for Explosive Results:
Automation + The Power of Web Video = Save Time & Make More Money, While Providing Better Customer Service – CRM stand for Customer Relationship Management and refers to software and systems implemented to accomplish this task. CRM software such as Infusionsoft (the CRM that we use) allows you to automate and control many aspects of customer relations. Using the system, I can decide control exactly what will happen if you sign up for a newsletter or decide to take the 30 day free test-drive of our web video and video email marketing system>> I can control exactly how and when you’ll be contacted and what messages you will receive.
CRMs are a powerful tool for managing customer relationships. What most people don’t know is that web video can be easily integrated into these systems. It’s as simple as including a link to a video. And with the addition of videos to your messages, you don’t have to write as much. It’s actually beneficial that most of you message be included in your video. So with the combination of these two tools, you can increase your impact exponentially, without increasing your workload.
5. Exit Links Drive Business:
Don’t Sell, Educate – People like to buy, but they don’t like to be sold. Just think of going to a car dealership. The thought of getting a new car is exciting, but dealing with the salesman… not so much. So the difference is clear, if you can sell, while avoiding coming across like your selling, you’ll make a lot of money. Sounds crazy right; selling without selling. The alternative is to educate your prospects on the values you provide. The more you can teach them about why you are the right choice, and the more you can make them feel like they are the one in control, the more likely you’ll be to convert that prospect to a client.
So you might be asking, “How do I sell without selling?” The secret is the exit links located within every video your send. These links are located on the right-hand side of the videos you send, and they should be chosen with strategic intent. The objective here is to include links that will guide your prospects research in such a way that the end conclusion is to buy from you. To accomplish this, you want to include links to information on programs you offer, up-sells and cross-sells, and even yourself. The last point is important. You have to sell the customers on yourself, so include your bio video as one of the exit links so they can learn a little more about you. You could even create a testimonial video which includes a few of your most satisfied customers.
6. Send Regular Video Emails to Build and Maintain Strong Relationships:
Take the Time to Show You Care, Without Spending All Day Doing So – Why do customers stick around? Well apart from you doing your job, one of the reasons is that they received excellent customer service. And part of excellent customer service is making customers feel that you genuinely care about them. I can guarantee you that if you make your customers feel special, they’ll come back for more. Think of the bar Cheers (the one in the TV show). Why did the characters in the show go there day after day? The answer is that they felt special, because everyone knew their name. The bar wasn’t necessarily the best at serving drinks, and it probably wasn’t the cheapest, but it was the best at making its patrons feel like they belonged, and that is hard to replicate. Differentiating yourself through your relationships with customers cannot be copied. Even if your competitors do the same, they won’t be able to take your clients, because they already belong to you.
What’s the secret to making customers feel special? Communicate with them regularly. Keep track of their birthdays and important dates (anniversaries, children’s birthdays, etc.), and send them video emails acknowledging them on these days. Let them know you care and that they’re important to you by remembering them. If done right, you can create one video for each purpose a year and reuse it for every one of your customers. Then the next year, record a new version and start over. Have you ever received a video birthday greeting from a company you use? Imagine how special you’d feel.
7. Avoid Wasted Effort by Filtering Prospects:
Spend Your Time Wisely, Spend It with People Who Will Buy – Have you ever spent hours with a prospect, only to find out he decided not to buy? This is a frustrating scenario, and one we can all relate to. It can be hard to tell who will buy and who won’t from the outset. So how can you ensure that you spend your time only on those who will buy; by using web video.
While there is no way to completely avoid wasted effort, you can greatly reduce the time lost to missed opportunities by using web video to filter prospects. By using video email to communicate with and educate your profits, you are achieving this aim in two ways. The first is that by using web video, you’ll have a higher conversion rate for the reasons listed above. The second is that by automating the first steps in the process of relationship building, you’ll have freed yourself from the part of the equation where most failures to convert occur. The people who emerge from the other side of these automated communications are by default, more likely to buy because they have made it farther in the process. So your CRM system or if you don’t use one, simply your pre-authored video emails, handle those prospects who are just “testing the waters.” Now you can take all the new free time you have to handle these filtered prospects.
There you have it. Web video and video email marketing have a host of benefits, especially when combined with a CRM system. When used correctly, these tools enable you to increase your productivity by an order of magnitude. However, like any tool, web video must be used correctly for it to be effective. Our goal is make tons of great information available to you, including web video best practices. If you have any additional tips or advice, please comment below. We are always interested in what our readers have to say. We look at this blog as a community of valued members. Maybe your comment will provide insight that will help us all as we seek to constantly improve.
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