Ben Moore, managing director of Positive Image, shares six ways to better utilise personalised video for B2B marketing
Personalised video is a key component of any self-respecting marketer’s tool-kit for 2015. Jim Nail, principal analyst at Forrester, recently noted: “We believe that personalised video will command increasingly larger portions of advertising and marketing budgets due to its ROI improvement over traditional video content and other outbound methods of communication.”
Consumer marketers are already embracing personalised video where it’s seen as a natural extension of print personalisation. Companies frequently bolt their customer databases into animation which displays customer names and their exact billing details. The aim is to make the brand messaging more relevant to each consumer which, in turn, has a positive impact on their relationship with the brand.
However, B2B personalised video has to go a notch further if it’s to be truly effective. In business, people buy from people and it’s more important than ever that an authentic, personal connection is made.
Personalised video by definition comprises far more than just automated text or photo inserts. At its simplest, it can be a one-to-one video selfie delivered (via a link in an email) to a customer’s inbox. At its most effective, it can combine self-recorded clips with a choice of pre-edited, bite-sized clips that blend into a single, perfectly formed individual video for every customer or prospect – as used by Vodafone’s highly innovative enterprise marketers for example.
Creating leads via video
A key driver for many B2B initiatives is creating leads. This can be achieved in any number of ways but once those hard-won leads have been passed to sales, they often falter. A smart, fully-integrated campaign should include personalised video at this critical stage in the buying cycle. Think about your own reaction. What would make more impact for you following a sales call – a text based email with a link to a website or a one-to-one video message from the person you spoke to, seamlessly leading into a video with clips that are relevant to your exact needs? It’s a no-brainer and results show that personalised video at this stage of the buying cycle get viewed an average of four times each, which suggests they get cascaded too.
When a target is very precise it is also worth considering personalised video as part of a very focused email campaign. Recording ‘selfies’ needn’t take long with the right tools and a personalised video message can easily be delivered to 10-20 targeted prospects in the space of an hour or two. These could seamlessly blend into an explainer video for whatever vertical market your prospect might be in. According to Forrester a generic video in an email improves click-through rates by 200-300 per cent, the impact on a prospect when they are addressed by name and are provided with a video that exactly fits their interest will be far greater.
Presales
Once you get a positive response, it could be time to introduce your customer or prospect to a subject-matter expert or senior director. When the stakes are high, a few moments of their time could make an enormous impact on the sale, particularly when you consider that personalised videos often get shared. Very large and complex bid wins have been attributed to the interest taken by senior directors using personalised video tools. As a B2B marketer, it’s a great opportunity for you to initiate a programme to make this happen. A personalised video from a senior director might take moments to record but its impact can be enormous.
Post-meeting
With your encouragement and support, sales people can also make an impact by following up a meeting with a personalised video message, drawing in relevant clips from a library that your team have supplied. By the time their customer gets back to their desk, a video filmed in the car park on a smart-phone has been blended with relevant clips and is sitting in their customer’s inbox.
Triggered actions
If you use a personalised video tool which is properly integrated with your organisation’s CRM, it should be possible to track views and trigger actions as a result.
When a personalised video is viewed, a follow up call can be made to take the sale to the next stage, or an automated email can be sent.
Tweak to perfection
Analytics often allow you to see who has watched what video and for how long, allowing you to assess the impact of your work. If viewers fall off every time you use a particular clip then it’s probably time to replace it. With B2B personalised video this is an ongoing process of improvement.
Senior advocacy
Consolidated metrics will not only be of interest to you as a marketer; your sales directors should see them too. Once they see the positive correlation between personalised video and sales, their advocacy and support will really help make sales people engage.
The benefits of personalised video are manifold. Right now early adopters are getting the benefits of real differentiation and initial positive metrics may well be reflecting that. Whatever the case, 2015 is the year to make it happen – before your competitors do.