The importance of using video in sales emails
The process of prospecting for new leads in sales is not an easy job. In many ways, it can seem like an impossible task. First, you have to somehow find people who might potentially be interested in the product or service you have on offer. You then need to convince people you have never met that they should purchase the product or service they want through you. Then you have to do the process all over again with each new prospect.
Because of the amount of work that goes into sales prospecting video, every salesperson usually wants to do whatever they can to make that process easier. This is where innovations and additional elements can come into play that will enhance your sales pitch or make you stand out from the competition.
Engaging prospects through email can sometimes prove to be a very viable method of increasing your sales funnel. Using emails to connect with prospects allows them to peruse the information and offers in their own time and is usually perceived as less intrusive than a phone call, but there are ways to ramp up the impact of those emails.
An often underutilized media element that should be used in emails is video. So why should you use videos in sales emails? Read on to find out more.
Shortcuts:
- Why Should You Use Videos in Sales Emails?
- What Are the Benefits of Video in Sales Emails?
- How to Effectively Use Sales Videos in Emails
- How Else Can You Improve Sales Emails
Why Should You Use Videos in Sales Emails?
The simplest answer to this question is that statistics show that it works. A recent study by sales conversion platform AB Tasty found that adding video to sales emails can increase your clickthrough rate by up to 300%. This is an exciting figure because simply getting a prospect to click through is often the hardest part of the process.
Video, in general, is a much more engaging medium to communicate through. When compared to something like simple text, video eliminates misconceptions in message or tone of voice because your message pretty much sounds exactly as you intend it to.
Video can also feel more personal for a prospective customer or client, especially if YOU are in the video. Instead of reading text from a faceless entity, the prospect can see a face and hear a voice which automatically makes human beings more receptive and trusting.
Another great reason to use videos in your emails is that they simply allow you to share a lot more information in a short space of time. In a relatively short clip, it’s very easy to explain why a customer should use a product or service, offer case studies and evidence and round off with the appropriate value proposition and offer.
This can all be done the old-fashioned way, but in a world where even news websites tell us how long an article is going to take to read, time is everything.
Possibly one of the most important reasons to use video in your sales emails is that, as stated earlier, it’s largely underutilized. Setting yourself apart from the competition is integral in sales, and using video is an excellent way to stand out from the thousands of sales emails people receive every day.
What Are the Benefits of Video in Sales Emails?
The information above is a good overview of why it’s important to use video in sales emails, but there are some very specific benefits to be gained.
Increased User Interaction
People are used to checking their inboxes and seeing an ocean of text on plain backgrounds, occasionally broken up with images. This does serve a purpose, but it doesn’t really encourage the recipient to interact.
From the moment someone sees a video thumbnail, their instinct is to click play, which automatically makes them more likely to continue to interact with the email or even your website.
They Build More Authentic Relationships
Good salespeople are excellent relationship developers and managers. They know how to understand people and their needs. This is why great salespeople usually perform better on the phone and even better in person. The success of a salesperson is usually linked to their personality and ability to utilise their strengths to build good relationships. It can be difficult to achieve this strictly with text.
Video not only helps to encapsulate the personality of a salesperson or company, but it also helps to build and strengthen more authentic relationships with prospects.
Easier For Customers to Consume Information
Accurate information is important to consumers, but it can sometimes be overwhelming. In many industries, the information that needs to be delivered to potential customers can be dense, and sometimes it’s just a slightly altered version of legal or technical jargon that means something to the salesperson but looks like a mountain of words to a regular person.
Videos can be used to explain key information and points in a simple way that’s easy to understand. In fact, there are very few major companies that don’t already use explainer videos on the homepages of their websites. You can even record Figma prototypes to see if there is interest in new features that are still on the drawing board.
Improve Your First Impressions
It can be a bit of a tired old saying, but it’s still true; the problem with first impressions is that you only get to make one. In a world where people can literally put on a headset and be transported to the top of Mount Everest, receiving a wall of text isn’t really going to put you at the top of their list of things that they find interesting.
There’s so much about non-verbal communication that helps to create a great first impression. Human beings don’t just listen to the information they are receiving; they also perceive and judge how it is said. If you are relying solely on text as the first impression with a prospect, you are robbing them of the chance to experience your genuine charm and personality.
Ability to Optimise Performance with Data
Utilizing new methods of connecting with prospects can come with a certain level of risk, but fortunately, there are usually metrics that can help you to assess how effective your videos are. Even the most rudimentary video hosting platforms offer analytics on the videos they host. Platforms like YouTube and Vimeo allow video creators to see valuable information like how many users watched a video, for how long and where they found it.
The analytics available with video allows you to assess your approach and improve the quality of your videos to secure even more conversions.
How to Effectively Use Sales Videos in Emails
Hopefully, you now understand that using video in sales emails can really make a huge difference to your sales conversions, but let’s have a look at the elements that make videos as successful as possible.
Always Use a Script For the Video
When creating video content that is intended to amplify your sales reach, it’s important to take the time to script it first. You don’t need to spend months mulling over multiple drafts before you hit record, but you really should take the time to plan exactly what you’re going to say.
A good place to start is to think about the purpose of the video and the eventual action you hope to get out of the viewer. Do you want them to click a link? Do you want them to book a meeting with you? Once you have established this, you can write your script. A simple sales letter template can be used to help provide structure to your script.
On the topic of production, it’s also worth noting that while nobody is expecting you to produce Avatar, you should still aim to keep your video quality as high as possible. Always record in a quiet, well-lit room and remember that recording in portrait mode tends to be more effective for platforms like TikTok and Instagram than email.
Add a Professional Thumbnail to Your Video
It might be tempting to embed a video directly into your sales email, but it’s much better to embed a professional thumbnail that leads to the video via a link. The reason for this is that there’s no guarantee an embedded video will be displayed correctly in an email. If this happens, the message could be completely lost.
Embedding a thumbnail also increases the chances of a prospect clicking a link, plus you can personalize it to match any other personalization included in the look or tone of the email.
Even better than a professional thumbnail is using an animated gif as a thumbnail. This indicates that there is a video embedded and the prospect is more likely to click on the thumbnail. The screen recorder in CrankWheel does exactly that when you share your video.
Map Out the User Journey
Before you send your video-optimized sales email, think about the journey of the prospect and where you would actually like them to go. If the goal is for them to end up on a landing page, make sure it’s simple, easy and logical for them to do so. Start from the desired end result and work backwards from there to establish what kind of actions will deliver the desired end result and use that to help guide your prospects in that direction.
Build a Video Landing Page
In an ideal world, your video should be hosted on a specific video landing page, preferably on your website. The video itself can be uploaded to a third-party platform like YouTube, but the prospect should be viewing it on a dedicated landing page that is clearly linked to you and your business.
If the video is related to a specific campaign, you should customize the look of the landing page to reflect that.
Send Video testimonials to Your Leads
To be good at sales, you need to be great at selling yourself and your business, but sometimes it can be better to get satisfied customers to do the selling for you.
Customer testimonials amplify lead conversion mainly because they don’t come across as a typical sales pitch. A testimonial appears as an unbiased voice that helps to build more trust and, in turn, can lead to even more conversions.
Introduce Upselling into Sales Videos
Just because a lead has converted into a customer doesn’t mean that you should stop offering more products or services. In general, a new customer costs five times more than an existing customer when it comes to focus, energy and resources. It stands to reason that a business can greatly improve its profit margins by encouraging its existing customers to make another purchase or upgrade a product or service.
Using videos to point out additional services, features or products that could benefit existing customers can be a great way to drive up sales while also strengthening a general feeling of support.
Leverage Videos to Promote Virtual Events and Courses
When nurturing the relationship you have with leads, it’s good to remember that you don’t always need to be in ‘hard-sell’ mode. Sometimes it can be beneficial to offer value or support. This can come in the form of events or even courses.
To promote these additional value items and events, video can be an absolute necessity. Once again, it’s a great way to deliver a lot of key information in an entertaining and engaging way that will very likely help to create buzz or excitement.
If your business offers webinars or virtual events, videos detailing them can also allow customers to peruse them in their own time without feeling the pressure that can sometimes be associated with a ‘hard sell.’
How Else Can You Improve Sales Emails
Video is an excellent tool to help boost the efficacy of sales emails, but there are some other elements of the email composition that should be looked at to really grab the attention of the recipient.
Compelling Subject Lines
If your email contains a video, it can be helpful to let your lead know this in the subject line. Some salespeople like to add [VIDEO] at the very start of the subject line, followed by a value proposition or interesting hook. The main point here is that including [VIDEO] somewhere in the subject is an easy indication to the recipient that the contents of the email are going to be more engaging than they are used to.
Generally speaking, when you include the word ‘video’ in the subject line, your leads are 13% more likely to actually open the email. This might not seem like a large percentage, but in the sales game, every advantage is a good advantage.
Try A/B Tests
A/B testing is sometimes called ‘split testing’, and the basic principle behind it is that multiple versions of something are created and delivered to smaller portions of a group. In the case of an optimized email, perhaps a few versions are made with different phrasing in the subject line, different placement of the content or different links to click through.
The overall performance of each variation is measured, and the best performing one becomes the email that is sent to a larger group, or alterations are made to get a better response, and a new AB test is conducted.
AB testing is a great tool for marketing campaigns because it allows you to adjust your message, so you get the best possible clickthrough rate.
A great way to improve your A/B testing is to do email warmup before your first batch of emails. This will dramatically reduce the likelihood of them being marked as spam.
Keep Your Content Short and Concise
A really great thing to keep in mind when creating sales emails is that the average person receives more than 120 work emails every single day. On top of this, there are personal emails, phone calls, text messages and social media notifications. The general attention span of the average person is already spread pretty thin, so keep your message short and concise. Avoid lengthy pieces of text and in videos, as a general rule, try to keep them under two minutes.
Introduce Brand Personality in Your Correspondence
Brand personality is more than just logos and fonts; it’s the outward personification of your business. For a solo salesperson, brand personality is a direct extension of the person customers chat with on the phone, meet with online or talk to face to face. For a company, brand personality includes things like language choice, tone of voice and approach.
The introduction and maintenance of consistent ‘on brand’ marketing will definitely help to strengthen customer relationships and build credibility.
Be Creative
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Some of the most successful marketing campaigns in history involved a lot of creativity, and there are millions of ways to be creative in your approach while still remaining true to the core values of your business. For example, you can add subtitles to a video to personalize your sales emails. This is a great way to add an extra layer of attraction as it can help grab people’s attention and increase engagement.
Always Have Clear Calls to Action (CTAs)
However you decide to enhance your sales emails, make sure that every single piece of correspondence you send out has clear calls to action (CTAs). A good call to action should be specific and direct. At the end of reading an email, your prospects should know exactly what they should do if they want to know more, book an appointment or see how things work. Remember that the fewer clicks a prospect has to make to get what they want, the better.
Share Best Practices With Your Team
It might be natural to have an individualistic approach when it comes to practices that can increase your conversion rate, but there is value in fostering a culture of sharing within teams. This kind of culture can lead to all team members helping each other to improve CTAs, grab prospects with great hooks and ultimately raise conversion rates.
Conclusion
Video is a powerful tool that can uplift and enhance just about any kind of sales communication. Even integrating a small amount of video into your regular sales correspondence can have a significant impact on your reach, interaction, attention retention and ability to gain new leads.
You don’t need to be the next Spielberg to get started; you just need a record button and the best resource you have… yourself.