Have you been using video for sales and have been searching for a better way to engage with your audience? Or are you thinking of using video for sales for the first time?
If so, you have come to the right place.
In this comprehensive guide, we want to take a deep dive into how you and your organization can use video for sales. Whether you just started a startup or are looking for a better way to hit your sales quota, you can use this guide to hit your sales goals and grow your business.
Below is a table of contents for the entirety of this post. If you have any questions about using video for sales, don’t hesitate to contact us at Dubb. We would be happy to further discuss how your sales team can use video to generate more sales. Click here to reach out.
Table of Contents
Video Helps You Build Close Relationships With Your Audience
Video Lets You Tell Compelling Stories
Video Lets You Show Off Your Personality
Video Lets You Communicate With Your Audience At Scale
Video Is More Popular And Engaging
Understanding Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Video
Where You Can Use Video in Your Sales Cycle
Engaging With Interested Prospects
What You’ll Need to Get Started
Tripods, Lighting Stands, and Stabilizers
First Principles For Using Video for Sales
Use an Outline for Longform Content
Take Advantage of Calls to Action
Letting Your Fears Interfere With Creating Video Content
Spending More Time Planning And Less Time Acting
Getting Started On Your Video Journey
Why Video is So Powerful
Before sharing some actionable tips on how you can use video for sales, it is important to share why video is so powerful in a sales context.
After all, you have plenty of different ways to generate more sales and accelerate your business. You could do everything from take out print ads in your local newspaper to take out radio ads during a local sports game. You could rely on in-person referrals to grow and scale your business.
The list goes on and on.
These strategies and tactics could be effective ways to connect with prospects. There are certainly stories of companies that have found game-changing customers through these methods. For instance, companies like Betfair have capitalized on referrals to build large businesses. Looking at the data, we can also see that around $11 billion was spent on newspaper advertisements in 2020. In 2019, radio ad spending in North America took up nearly $19 billion.
That being said, my Dubb colleagues and I believe that video is an extremely powerful tool to find new customers. It has become an increasingly popular way to connect with prospects, build long-term relationships with prospects and customers, and generate more sales.
This has been especially true amidst Covid-19. Mandatory quarantines and social distancing have forced many of us to work exclusively from home. Yet at the same time, we have needed to continue nurturing our prospects, meeting with new prospects, and checking up on existing customers.
Businesses aren’t standing still. According to a study by McKinsey, one of the most renowned consulting firms on the planet, video has been an essential tool for companies to connect with their customers. McKinsey cited new research which shows that a whopping 76 percent of sales leaders say that remote sales interactions are equally or more effective than in-person engagement or prospecting. One study from Zoom and Chorus also says that deals that are closed/won used video 18.5 percent more often than deals that are closed/lost. Along with this, deals that are closed/won used screen sharing in video calls are 26.3 percent more often than deals that are closed/lost.
We can go on and on with the data. Simply put, more sales professionals are using video to accomplish their business goals. They have discovered that by using video, they can unlock a huge amount of value for prospects, customers, and the company itself.
Video is such a powerful tool for so many reasons. While this isn’t an exclusive list, here are some of the reasons why video can be your organization’s secret weapon as you work to hit your sales quota.
Video Helps You Build Close Relationships With Your Audience
This is one of the best parts about using video for sales. By leveraging video, you get to build those close bonds with your audience members. They get to see your face, hear your tone of voice, and analyze your body language. This is true whether you are creating a screen share video or are creating a selfie video when you are away from the office.
By building a face-to-face relationship with your audience members, you make it much easier to connect on a personal level. Even though you are communicating over bits, you are essentially arriving at your audience’s door. It is a great way to introduce yourself and build a tangible relationship with every member of your audience.
Video Lets You Tell Compelling Stories
Video is tailor-made for storytelling. Whether you are recording video content on your desktop or while you are away from your office, your camera can bring your audience into your life. You can show your audience what life is like inside your company, how your product or service improves your customers’ lives, or something else.
The beautiful thing is that you can tell all sorts of stories in a sales context. There are few rules here.
For instance, you can pull out your cell phone and shoot a quick video about a new product or service that you are introducing. If you are meeting with a satisfied customer, you can record a quick testimonial video that you can later use in your sales and marketing work. And if you are sitting in your office? You can still rely on video to tell interesting and engaging stories. You can interview your colleagues in your office to discover their thoughts on your sector. They can share their impressions on recent trends and how they are going to affect your customers.
Video is especially great for telling your company’s origin story. Whether your company started in a garage or spun out of an already-existing company, you can illustrate that compelling story through video. You can show how you (or someone else at your company) came up with the idea for your company and what it has evolved into today. There are plenty of great examples of this, ranging from Dollar Shave Club to Burberry.
Whatever the case may be, a storyteller’s best friend is video.
Video Lets You Show Off Your Personality
By using video for sales, you also have a fantastic opportunity to show off your personality.
When I say “show off your personality,” I don’t mean that you have to put on some animated persona when speaking to prospects or customers. In fact, if you force it, I think that video can be a hindrance, rather than an asset.
Instead of that, you just want to be yourself.
By being yourself on video, you get to connect with your audience on a different level. Sure, you can incorporate emotion and personality into text-based sales efforts (like sales emails or text messages). You can include things like exclamation points or emojis.
Audio also lets you incorporate emotion. If you are leaving a voicemail or are on a cold call, your prospect can hear your tonality. They can hear whether you are excited about your product or whether you are just faking it.
Video, however, is the only medium where your audience can see you, hear your tone of voice, observe your body language, and listen to your message. Yes, you are not face-to-face with your audience. However, it is as close as you can be to being physically in the room with your audience.
Because sales requires you to build real connections with your prospects and customers, you can use video to show the human side of both you and your business. From sharing your professional story to talking about why you are so passionate about your product or service, video lets you be yourself. You can truly be authentic and build strong relationships at the same time.
By opening up in this way, you are much more likely to have your audience open up to you as well. Because emotion is such an important component of making a sale, you can use video to build that important emotional connection with your audience.
Video Lets You Communicate With Your Audience At Scale
It may sound familiar, but this is another key advantage of video over other types of mediums.
Simply put, by using video for sales, you can basically clone yourself.
What do I mean by this?
By recording yourself on video, you can deliver the same high-quality and engaging message to hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. Even though it may take you 60 minutes to record a webinar or 30 minutes to interview a customer, you can use that same video in so many different places.
It’s unlike other traditional sales tactics (like cold calls). With cold calls, you need to continuously pick up the phone and speak to individuals one-on-one. With video, you can record an excellent piece of content one time and send it to countless numbers of people.
The power of video comes from the fact that the marginal cost of distribution is so low. In other words, it costs next to nothing to distribute your same video to another individual.
In the end, it is an extremely cost-effective way to clone yourself and generate more sales.
Video Is More Popular And Engaging
Finally, let’s talk about popularity and engagement.
It may not surprise you to hear that Internet users are absolutely in love with video. YouTube is the second-most visited website on the Internet today. 78 percent of people watch video online every week and 55 percent watch online video every day. By next year, 82 percent of Internet traffic will come from video.
All of this data is here to show that online video is here to stay. In all likelihood, your prospects and customers are already watching online videos.
It’s in your best interest to meet them where they are. Creating video content for your prospects and customers lets them consume content in the way that they want to consume it.
Not only is video popular, but it is also extremely engaging. To put it another way, members of your audience are more likely to consume your video content and interact with your company after consuming that content.
For instance, Tweets that include videos experience 10 times more engagement than those Tweets that do not include video. On Instagram, video creates more engagement than any other type of content. And even on Pinterest, there is data showing that users are a little more than 2.5 times more likely to make a purchase after viewing some type of branded video content on the platform.
Understanding Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Video
Those are just some of the reasons why video can be so powerful. It is true whether you are trying to grow your personal brand or are trying to convince a key prospect to become a paying customer.
At the same time, the word “video” can be slightly ambiguous. Ultimately, there are two different types of “video” that you can select from when using video for sales.
There is synchronous video and asynchronous video.
Understanding what they are can help you determine which video type that you’ll want to select when communicating with prospects or customers.
Synchronous Video
Let’s start with synchronous video.
Synchronous video is a fancy phrase for videos where the participants are communicating live. Essentially, all of the communication in a synchronous video is happening at the same time. It’s as if you are in the same room as the other participants, but you are clearly in different places.
One of the more obvious examples of synchronous video is a Zoom conversation. Once we enter a Zoom room, we can see and hear the other participants in real-time. We can converse about anything we want and we can even share our screens with each other. Using Zoom, for instance, you can also record your conversation, use an in-meeting chat, and enable closed captioning.
Another popular tool is Microsoft Teams. You’ll find plenty of similar features on Teams, including the ability to speak to all of the participants in real-time.
Synchronous video can be used in many different situations. One of the most obvious use cases has been to hold internal meetings with your team. This is why Zoom became so popular during Covid-19. Because teams weren’t able to meet at the office, they relied on Zoom (or Microsoft Teams) to conduct their regular meetings. In fact, we used Zoom so much during Covid-19 that we have developed the so-called “Zoom Fatigue.”
Beyond internal meetings, however, you can use synchronous video tools like Zoom to conduct things like live webinars. Synchronous video tools let you easily share your screen and share your thoughts on virtually anything. If you are using PowerPoint slides, you can easily display them to an audience of one or hundreds. These are certainly options if you want to communicate with a small or large group in real-time.
Asynchronous Video
As you can likely guess, asynchronous video is video that does not occur in real-time. In other words, you are recording video at one point in time and your audience is consuming that video at another point in time.
With asynchronous video, you obviously cannot interact with your audience as you are recording. There will be at least some type of lag involved, whether that is a few minutes or a few days.
Having said that, this is arguably one of the key benefits of asynchronous videos.
By choosing to record asynchronous video content, you get to avoid one key flaw of synchronous video. That is scheduling. With asynchronous video, you don’t need to ensure that everyone is available at the same time. You don’t need to send countless emails back and forth to make sure that a sufficient number of participants can attend.
Rather than that, asynchronous video lets you take control of your own schedule.
If you have an open 30 minutes in your schedule, for instance, you can take that time to record all types of video content for your audience. This can be everything from quick 30-second videos for key prospects to a 30-minute webinar on a newsworthy topic.
Once you have finished recording your asynchronous video (or videos) on your own time, you can distribute that content to your audience. Then, your audience can consume that content on their own time. It makes for a less stressful and more pleasant experience—both for you and every member of your audience.
Beyond this huge benefit of asynchronous video, you will find that asynchronous video offers many of the same benefits as synchronous video. Creating an asynchronous video, you can share your screen with your audience, highlight certain parts of your screen, and include closed captioning or a transcript of your video.
That said, asynchronous videos also provide some advantages over synchronous videos.
The lack of friction is extremely beneficial. If you are thinking of a certain prospect or have a sudden flash of insight about your sector, you can simply take out your phone and start recording. You don’t need to wait for permission from anyone. You can get started when you feel like it.
Moreover, with asynchronous video, you or your audience can rewatch a particular piece of video content. Yes, things like Zoom meetings can be recorded, but rewatchability is intrinsic to asynchronous video itself. Even in the middle of the video, your user can pause and rewind, helping them fully comprehend and remember the meat of your video content.
Then, there are the little things that you get to bypass. With asynchronous videos, your audience doesn’t need to listen to annoying hold music or be distracted by enter and exit notifications. There isn’t distracting background noise from an attendee forgetting to mute their microphone.
Collectively, these little things matter and can make the experience much more enjoyable for your viewer.
Where You Can Use Video in Your Sales Cycle
Ultimately, it is important to remember this distinction between synchronous and synchronous video. They can be useful in different situations, so you’ll need to make a judgment goal on which one will accomplish your objectives and goals.
No matter which type of video you choose, there are plenty of benefits that you can leverage.
That being said, some sales professionals get stuck. They don’t know how to specifically take advantage of this opportunity.
In other words, they don’t know how to go from point A to point B.
If you feel like this applies to you, don’t worry. Anyone can learn how to incorporate video into their sales process.
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of using video for sales, it’s helpful to identify where you can use video in your sales process.
The great news is that you can use video throughout your sales cycle.
To illustrate how you can do this, I want to share several brief examples.
Finding New Prospects
You can use video for sales at the absolute beginning of a prospect relationship. In fact, you don’t technically need to have met a specific prospect in order to leverage video right off the bat.
I think this is one of the most powerful applications of video in any sales cycle. It’s really where the cloning effect is the strongest.
By releasing a less targeted, more generalized video to your social media channels, for instance, you can start planting the seeds of strong relationships. You may not even know who your prospect is or the precise problem that he or she wants to be solved. But by releasing a high-quality video to your social channels, you can start to explain what your company is, the value that your product or service provides, and how you can improve that prospect’s life.
If you are targeting prospects at the top of your sales funnel, you may not get as high of a conversion rate as you would at the bottom of your funnel. Nonetheless, you can obviously cast a wider net. If you are consistently posting high-quality video content to your social media channels (or even distributing those videos through your email list), you may be surprised at the types of prospects that enter your funnel. At the very least, those prospects will be ones that you envisioned. But in other circumstances, your video content may lead you to prospects that you would have never even thought about targeting.
This is an important point. By using video at the top of your sales funnel, you get to unlock the power of serendipity. In other words, you are putting content out into the world and letting that content work for you—even when you are sleeping.
Engaging With Interested Prospects
The middle of your sales funnel can be one of the more challenging parts of your sales process. After all, those prospects that reach the middle of your funnel have expressed some interest in your product or service, yet you still aren’t quite sure whether it’s worth investing significant amounts of time in nurturing the sale.
In these sorts of circumstances, video can help you engage with those prospects and move them one step closer towards a sale.
You can do this in so many different ways.
For instance, if you have a prospect that watched a more generalized video about your company, you can create an entirely new video that is specifically catered to them. That video doesn’t need to be unduly long. It can simply be a 30-second or one-minute video where you introduce yourself, perhaps briefly talk about your product or service, and invite your viewer to contact you. Your call to action can be everything from scheduling a call with your company to inviting your viewer to create a video of their own.
In other situations, you may want to create a short video that addresses some objection that a viewer may have. The video may be a bit longer, but the same principles apply here. You can use that video to directly address the prospect’s objection and invite him or her to contact you with any more questions.
As a general rule of thumb, you will want to start leveraging personalization at this stage. This means that you will create more effective video content if your video addresses that specific viewer’s wants, needs, objections, and problems. While this means each video may not necessarily appeal to a broad audience, taking a more granular approach through video increases your chances of making a sale.
Closing Warm Prospects
Video is a fantastic tool to use when you are trying to close warm prospects.
In your business, there may be situations where you are used to closing prospects in person or over the phone. However, I encourage you to seriously consider video in those important moments.
Video can be a major asset when closing warm prospects. From the comfort of your office (or wherever you are), you can address any final issues that your prospect may have about your product or service. If you’ve noticed that your prospect is ready to buy but has one late objection, you can address that objection head-on. If you are selling a digital product, for example, you can record a quick screen share showing off your product and addressing any final objections.
You can even share customer testimonials and case studies (it’s even better if they are videos themselves).
As you likely know, a positive customer testimonial can go a long way. The data is overwhelming. Testimonials are so effective because your prospect can visually see another satisfied customer. It isn’t you or your company talking about how good your product or service is. Instead, that satisfied customer took time out of his or her day to speak highly about your company. If a prospect is on the fence, showing him or her a video testimonial can be just the thing to convert that prospect.
Ultimately, you can definitely leverage the power of video at the bottom of your sales funnel. By showing off your face and personality, you can reassure your prospect as they are preparing to make a purchase. Customer testimonials can provide significant social proof and make your prospect feel more comfortable buying from your company.
In the end, by visually being with that prospect—even if you aren’t in the same room as him or her—you can greatly increase your chances of making a sale.
Communicating After The Sale
It’s easy to think that your work is done after convincing a prospect to make a purchase.
As you likely know, however, the work is not over.
In fact, it is just beginning.
Because it is much more profitable to generate business from an existing customer than a new customer, it’s in your financial interest to stay in touch with those customers. Even though it may be difficult to anticipate what a specific customer will want in the future, keeping in contact with video will make it much easier to sell to them at a later point.
By using video for sales, you make this work much easier. You can set up reminders in your calendar or CRM to shoot and send a quick video to existing customers. These videos don’t need to be overly complex or long. Actually, by keeping them short and authentic, you’ll do a better job. If you really look at it, the message is less important than the fact that you are thinking of that specific customer and took the time to record a personalized video for them.
And let’s be clear: when sending these videos, you definitely don’t need to be salesy. You don’t need to create these videos with the hope of generating a sale right away.
In fact, that probably shouldn’t be your goal.
Your goal, instead, should be to sustain—or even build upon—the relationship that you have with that customer. If you focus on building that relationship, the sales will take care of themselves.
One great example of the power of this strategy was during Covid-19. The start of the global pandemic may not have been the best time to use a hard sell approach with all of your current customers. Instead, the better approach would be to check in with your customers and see how they were doing. Anything from a quick 15 to 30-second video to a 60-second check-in video would have been effective.
Therefore, even once you have signed a certain prospect, don’t stop leveraging video. By continuing to invest in video and build that relationship, you may create a customer for life.
What You’ll Need to Get Started
As you can see, you can use video for sales throughout your entire sales funnel. You don’t need to reach a certain point before engaging with your audience through video.
You can get started today.
Speaking of getting started, I think it’s important to briefly discuss the actual tools or equipment that you need when using video for sales. Many salespeople and other creators spend an inordinate amount of time obsessing over the equipment that they’re going to use.
It can seem natural because there are so many choices that you can make. If you go one step further, the sheer amount of potential equipment can be overwhelming.
I encourage you to resist these temptations. In the beginning, it is better to choose equipment that is “good enough” rather than perfect. The goal is to focus more on creating and less on the equipment that you are using.
With all of that said, let’s get to equipment that you will need at a bare minimum.
Mandatory Items
A Camera
Because you are recording video content, you are obviously going to need some type of camera. The outstanding news is that you likely already have a sufficient camera.
That camera is in your cell phone. If you have an iPhone or Android device, you likely have a great camera to get started.
Really, all you need to do is point and shoot. Since you are using video for sales, you will likely record many of your sales videos in selfie mode. You’ll want to be showing off your face as you are talking about your product, service, or company as a whole.
This also means that you don’t need to be an expert videographer or producer when making your video content. Simply take out your phone, put it in selfie mode, and start recording.
If you’d like, you can always invest in a more advanced camera. This camera can be used whether you are recording video content in your office or on the go. While I won’t give any specific recommendations here, rest assured that you’ll likely be able to find a high-quality camera that meets your budget.
To reiterate, however, you absolutely don’t need to purchase a separate camera to get started. In fact, I recommend that you keep things simple.
At least in the beginning, stick with your cell phone camera and go from there.
An Internet Connection
Besides a camera, the bare minimum that you’ll need is an Internet connection. This can be the Internet on your phone or on your computer.
If you are recording synchronous video (like a Zoom call), you will need to have an Internet connection before you even get started. While you can record an asynchronous video without an Internet connection, you will eventually need one to send that video to your audience.
Ultimately, an Internet connection is non-negotiable. You can do so many things with your video, but before any of that, you need to have an Internet connection.
Software
Along with a camera and Internet connection, you will need to use some type of software to distribute your video content.
In some circumstances, you are going to want to record a video and immediately distribute it to your audience. If you are recording synchronous videos, for instance, you will need some type of software to record and host the video. Zoom is a common choice, but there are plenty of others. Upon selecting your hosting platform, you can start recording when your meeting begins. Once you have finished recording your video, you have the choice of uploading that video to social media platforms (like YouTube).
Alternatively, you can leverage live streaming tools on the social media platforms themselves. You can go “live” on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and more. If you want to connect with your audience on social media, this is a great option, as social media platforms tend to give greater reach to live videos.
Technically, editing is optional for synchronous videos. If you are conducting a live webinar on Facebook, you don’t necessarily need editing software. You can just release it to your audience and continue promoting the video after the fact.
If you decide to record an asynchronous video, however, you will likely want to invest in some type of editing software. Whether that editing software is on your desktop or smartphone, it should give you the tools to make your video appear the way that you want it to look. You should be able to do everything from splicing clips together to adding music or text to your videos. There are tools that can help you with these types of tasks (including Dubb).
Whichever tool that you choose, editing a specific piece of video content can make it more professional. It can create a good impression and increase your chances of making a sale.
After your video has been edited, you will want to distribute your video to your audience. Like creating a synchronous video, you can upload your videos to social media platforms, email platforms, or other places. The choice is yours.
Whatever you choose, however, you’ll want to make sure that you give yourself the best possible chance of reaching your audience. Not every audience is created alike, so do your diligence and target platforms where you will meet your audience.
Optional Items
A camera, Internet connection, and software are the bare minimum that you need when using video for sales. But beyond that, there are some additional items that you can use in your video sales work.
While you can certainly invest in some or all of this equipment, you don’t need to do so to get started.
Microphones
External microphones can be good investments, as they can drastically improve the audio for all of your videos. If you are operating on a strict budget, you don’t necessarily need to buy another microphone. The audio on your desktop or smartphone can be sufficient.
That being said, there is something to be said about recording your video with some type of external microphone. There is a clear audio difference and your viewers will be able to tell.
The great news is that there are plenty of microphones on the market. You can find larger podcast microphones or smaller lavalier microphones that you can use away from your office. Large podcast microphones are more appropriate if you want to record high-quality audio from your office or home.
Lavalier microphones can be especially useful and flexible. These are high-quality microphones that you can use wherever you are. You can clip them to your shirt and get awesome audio quality—even in noisy environments.
The bottom line? If you have the budget and are seeking high-quality audio for your sales videos, go ahead and invest in a microphone. It doesn’t have to break the bank and can make your videos that much more effective.
Lighting
Along with a microphone, you may want to invest in some type of lighting for your video content. Lighting is just as important to your video quality as audio. It really makes your video content pop—no matter the type of video that you are recording.
All of that said, lighting is especially helpful if you are recording stationary video in your office or home office. It can really brighten up your face, making it much easier to build that rapport and relationship with members of your audience.
If you don’t have great lighting, on the other hand, it can be extremely distracting to your audience. It will make you harder to see and it can even make you seem untrustworthy.
Granted, you may be in a room where natural light is all you need. Alternatively, you may be recording a video outside and the lighting may be just right. But if you are regularly recording video content in your office or some other interior location, think about purchasing some lighting. Like microphones, there are many that you can choose from. I’m certain that you’ll find a good number that are both high-quality and within your budget.
While you will certainly want to do some research in this area, investing in some lighting can make a subtle, but important improvement for your video content.
Tripods, Lighting Stands, and Stabilizers
Now, I want to talk about three different accessories that can make your life substantially easier. They are tripods, stands, and stabilizers.
Tripods are helpful because you can attach your cell phone to them. Once you do so, you can then set your tripod on your desk and start recording. The tripod is a simple tool, yet it can save you from some annoying headaches. You can certainly try to prop your cell phone on something solid. In some situations, that can be sufficient. However, you never quite know whether your phone will inadvertently fall while you are in the middle of recording. A tripod can solve for that and can give you the confidence that your video won’t be shaky or erratic. If all else fails, you can simply use your arm, shoot a selfie video, and move on.
Lighting stands can be an attractive option if you are looking to brighten up your video content. They can hold all different types of lights and then you can direct that light in whatever way that you’d like. There are also things like LED ring lights that you can purchase. While they may be on the more expensive side of your budget, these types of lighting stands and LED ring lights can make your videos look that much more beautiful. But if you don’t know much about lighting or don’t have the budget to invest in this type of equipment, you can still make great video content without it.
Finally, you may want to consider investing in a stabilizer. This is an option if you are not using your cell phone to record your video. In other words, you will need an actual camera to use a stabilizer. A stabilizer is an interesting tool because it makes your camera gooey and smooth. Even if you are just hearing about stabilizers right now, you’ve seen videos that have used them (like music videos). Ultimately, stabilizers are great options if you want to record very intentional shots for a polished piece of video content. They are less useful if you want to quickly record shots when you are away from your office. While a stabilizer can be useful in certain circumstances, make sure that you are actually going to use it before making your purchase.
Some Other Helpful Tools
Finally, I just want to mention some other tools that I use when creating videos for Dubb. Again, these tools are optional, but they can make your life easier as you are creating virtually any type of video content.
First, think about investing in some headphones. AirPods Pro is a good choice. You may even have a pair of AirPods that you use in your day-to-day life. AirPods can very easily fit in your ears (they include a small rubber piece that keeps them stable). They also contain noise cancellation features, which make it easy to remove auditory distractions and focus on the work at hand.
While AirPods Pro can be slightly expensive, you may want to consider making the purchase if you are thinking of creating lots of video content. If they are out of your budget, you can also purchase another pair of headphones at a lower price. There are plenty of good options out there.
Along with headphones, you may want to purchase an external hard drive. An external hard drive can be a great tool if you are recording lots of longform video content. While you can store some longform videos on your computer or cell phone, you will quickly discover that you are running out of space. An external hard drive can directly address that problem.
Once you are finished recording a specific video, you can back up that video on your hard drive. One hard drive that I like to use is a LaCie external hard drive, but you can definitely choose other ones. While this isn’t an absolute “must have,” it can keep your content secure and free up space on your computer or cell phone.
Again, you want to keep things simple here. The technology shouldn’t get in the way of consistently creating video content and releasing it to your audience. If it does, think about eliminating or minimizing some of the equipment that you’re using.
In fact, I’d argue that it’s better to start with less equipment in the beginning so that it doesn’t prevent you from getting started. As you get started and are seeing traction in your work, you can then upgrade your equipment as necessary.
First Principles For Using Video for Sales
By this point, we have discussed some of the most important parts of using video for sales. As you know by now, video is an outstanding way to build a strong relationship with any type of audience. You can use video to generate sales both now and in the future.
Even better, you can incorporate video throughout all different points of your sales process. Whether you are trying to find new prospects or trying to find recurring sales from an already-existing customer, you’ll definitely want to take advantage of video.
I’m assuming that you are at least somewhat interested in incorporating video into your sales process. Because of this, I want to share some important first principles when you are using video for sales. These first principles apply to all kinds of videos and are applicable to virtually any product or service.
Whether you are new to the video sales game or have been making sales videos for quite some time, you can rely on these first principles to make high-quality video content.
Know Your Audience
This may seem like an obvious first principle. That being said, to create the most effective video content, you need to have a granular understanding of your audience. You need to understand who they are, what problems that they are facing in their lives, and even where they like to hang out.
Ultimately, there is no other choice but to step into your audience’s shoes. You must be empathetic and truly speak to your audience when creating your sales videos.
So how do you do this?
For one thing, it’s important to clearly identify who your audience is. Your audience isn’t necessarily all of your customers or prospects. It can be for certain videos, but it doesn’t have to be.
As just one example, you may be introducing a new product to the market. That product may be substantially different from other products in your product line. Therefore, you may want to create a sales video that only targets a sliver of your overall audience. That segment, for instance, may be a cohort of your audience that is most likely to be interested in this new product.
Once you have actually identified your potential audience, you are going to want to get even more granular. Because you have already developed this product, you likely have a good idea of the problems and dilemmas that your target customer is facing.
If you haven’t already done so, however, you may want to sit down with several individuals from this cohort. The goal here is to have an intimate understanding of your audience so that you can create effective sales videos that speak to their underlying wants and needs.
From there, make sure that your video content actually speaks to those wants and needs. Granted, you’ll have your own reasons for creating a sales video. In the example above, you are clearly trying to generate buzz or interest in your new product. Sales videos are all about generating sales, right? However, to generate those sales, you need to not only know your audience, but speak in a way that causes them to take action. In other words, by knowing what makes them tick, they will be more likely to make a purchase.
Ultimately, you should incorporate this empathetic view into your video creation process. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for instance, is known to have one empty chair at all of his meetings. That empty chair is supposed to represent the customer’s voice when Amazon is making every single decision. This may seem drastic or excessive, but it goes to show why it is so important to think about your audience.
No matter what type of video that you are creating, keep the audience at the top of your mind. This is your North Star and something that you should be constantly contemplating.
Use an Outline for Longform Content
One of the best parts about using video for sales is that you can take it in any direction that you’d like. You can shoot a quick 15 or 30 second video to a certain prospect or can make a much longer video. It’s up to you and what you want to accomplish.
All of that said, if you plan on making a video that is longer than one or two minutes, I seriously encourage you to outline your thoughts. This doesn’t have to be an “official” outline or something that you use in school. Like any other tool, it loses its usefulness if you put too much time into it. Nonetheless, a quick outline is a fantastic way to create high-quality videos.
Instead of riffing or speaking off-the-cuff, you can create a cohesive and organized video. Why does this matter? Essentially, an organized video is much easier to follow. Your audience won’t get bored by strange anecdotes or a lengthy rant on a topic that is adjacent to the overall conversation.
To be clear, you don’t need to strictly adhere to your outline. If you think that a certain thought is valuable and it isn’t included in your outline, feel free to include it. The overall point is that an outline will keep you disciplined and will help you organize your thoughts before hitting record. While it may not be necessary for a shorter video, you can create a quick outline for any type of sales video.
Take Advantage of Calls to Action
This is an important first principle. It is relevant regardless of your sector, industry, organizational size, or product or service.
As you may already know, calls to action (CTAs) are tools that can direct your audience to take some type of action. While they are typically used in the marketing realm, they have a direct link to sales.
The overall goal is for individual audience members to get that much closer to purchasing your product or service. By directing your audience toward a direction that you want, you can substantially increase your odds of making a sale.
Think about it. You don’t want your audience to passively consume your video and simply move on with their lives.
Sure, your video may be entertaining. Through the video alone, you may be building goodwill and positive relationships with members of your audience. Nevertheless, the common goal is making a sale. CTAs make the process of getting a sale that much easier.
The awesome thing about CTAs is that they can really be anything. The definition is so broad that a CTA can be anything that leads your audience member from point A to point B. To provide some more color on the different options out there, check out this list of potential CTAs.
- Scheduling a call on your calendar: This is a powerful CTA because you directly link your video content to a phone call with a warm prospect. Giving that viewer the chance to schedule a phone call on your calendar brings that prospect to your door. It is purely passive and lets you spend more time on prospects that are more willing to buy.
- Downloading an eBook or white paper: This is a fantastic CTA if you want to build more awareness about your product, service, or company. It is also a great way to monetize some written assets that you already have. The thinking is that by directing your viewer to an eBook, white paper, or other digital product, he or she will learn more about your company. From there, that viewer will be more likely to get on a call with you and potentially make a purchase.
- Completing a form: This is a CTA that can offer you a wealth of information about your audience. It is especially valuable for those viewers at the top of your sales or marketing funnels. You can ask whatever questions that you’d like, whether it is related to the viewers’ demographics, behaviors, or problems that they want to be solved. Ultimately, this is a quick and easy way to get an in-depth look at your audience.
- Recording a video testimonial: This is an underrated, yet extremely effective CTA. Like I mentioned above, video testimonials are very powerful tools. They are highly persuasive for prospects that are thinking about purchasing your product or service. A video testimonial CTA makes it really easy for your most satisfied customers to record testimonials of their own. Think about using this CTA when you are creating video content for already-existing customers.
- Making a purchase: For many creators, this is the best possible CTA that you can have. Through this CTA, a viewer can follow a link and immediately purchase the discussed product or service. This is often a better CTA for audience members that are at the bottom of your funnel. However, if you include it earlier in the sales process, you may be surprised at how many people immediately make a purchase. You won’t get the sale unless you ask for it.
These are only five potential CTAs that you can use. The overall conclusion? Make sure that you are using CTAs in your video sales work. Your future self will thank you.
Follow the Data
One of the best things about using video for sales is that you get detailed data about all of your videos. That doesn’t just include how many people have watched your video. You can see where your viewers are located, how they found your video, and the average time that they watched your video.
Using a tool like Dubb, you can go one step further. For instance, Dubb lets you get granular information about specific viewers. You can see whether a specific viewer has watched your video, how much of the video that they have watched, and whether they have interacted with any of your CTAs.
So why does all of this matter?
To put it simply, you can use this data in so many different ways—all of which can help you generate more sales.
Let’s start with all of that data about individual viewers. Gathering and analyzing data about how a specific viewer interacts with your video content can provide you with some important clues about that viewer’s wants and needs.
For instance, you may notice that a certain prospect watched the entirety of a lengthy introductory video about your product or service. She then engaged with your “download an eBook” CTA. With that information alone, you can see that there is something about your product or service that speaks to her. At that point, you’ll likely want to try individually reaching out to her. When doing so, you can reference points that were made during the introductory video and in the eBook. You will still want to be gathering information at this point, but it’s a great way to get started in building the customer relationship.
Then, there is another scenario where you have a viewer that consumed the entirety of that same lengthy introductory video. He religiously consumes your video content and has even downloaded your eBook. However, you also noticed that the viewer quickly exited from a recent video that discussed a specific feature of your product. While it may seem like a small or noisy data point, this one behavior can provide some important information. It can mean that this particular viewer wasn’t interested in that specific feature. It can mean that he recently lost interest in that product entirely. Or it can even mean that he had to quickly stop watching that video because their son was crying. In any event, the viewer’s habit of continuously watching your video content is a good sign. You’ll want to do more digging to see why he abruptly stopped watching that video. But when doing so, you’ll be in a much greater position to follow up and pitch to that prospect.
If we were to zoom out, you can use your aggregated data to learn about your audience. This is slightly more straightforward than analyzing individual data.
Just as a quick example, you may find that one of your recent videos is performing much more poorly than your prior videos. You’ll certainly want to rule out “noisy” explanations (like technical errors or issues) before putting any real credence into this data point. However, if there aren’t any noisy explanations for this poor performance, you’ll want to ask why. Is your audience uninterested in a certain feature that you discussed in the video? Did you record an interview that your audience found boring?
These are questions you’ll want to ask yourself as you are analyzing this data. There is some trial and error here. That being said, you will want to look at your video data, avoid what isn’t working, and double down on what is working. Over time, you’ll find that your sales videos are much more effective.
Stay Consistent
Finally, I want to spend a moment talking about consistency.
I’m sure that you and your colleagues are extremely busy. I get it. Whether it is addressing customer service tickets, focusing on product development, or making sure that you have a little time for your personal life, it can be tough to consistently create video content for your audiences.
Consistency, however, is a key element to using video for sales. If you stop making videos for your audience, you will slowly realize that your audience is fading away. At best, it is remaining stagnant.
On the other hand, by consistently creating both generalized and personalized video content, you are implicitly creating strong brand equity. You’re not only showing your knowledge of your sector and the value of your product or service, but you are building a strong reputation.
As part of this discussion, you’ll need to settle on a content schedule. You may want to create a longform video once per week and more personalized videos every day. If you have more time, you may want to increase the longform goal to twice per week (while also communicating with a certain number of prospects per day).
Whichever cadence you select, make sure that you are being consistent. Your audience will thank you.
Some Mistakes to Avoid
These first principles will help you go a long way in using video for sales. That being said, it’s not only helpful to study these first principles.
It can be immensely helpful to study mistakes and understand things that we should not be doing.
There are plenty of potential mistakes that you can make when using video for sales. Rather than listing them all, however, I just want to highlight a few of them.
No matter what type of video that you are creating, you’ll definitely want to keep these avoidable mistakes in mind.
Not Including Your Branding
When making a new sales video, it is easy to focus on the specific message that you are presenting to your audience. This can be everything from a certain feature of your product or service or a certain angle that you want to take with a VIP prospect.
Focusing on all of these things, however, may cause you to inadvertently forget about including branding in your video. While it may seem like a small thing, branding is a huge part of making effective sales videos. It gives you plenty of other opportunities to build your audience relationship. For instance, it’s a huge mistake if you don’t include your branding colors, logo, URLs, or even tagline in your sales videos.
You can certainly mention or include these things in the heart of your videos. However, there is an easier way to include your branding. What you can do is create a quick five to 10-second intro or conclusion that you can put at the beginning or end of any sales video. Investing some time into creating a professional intro and/or conclusion is a great way to brand all of your videos.
Letting Your Fears Interfere With Creating Video Content
This is a big mistake that a lot of sales professionals make. Even though we may be confident in pitching a prospect about our business, the dynamic seems to change when we are doing so on camera. Some of us don’t like hearing our voice on video while others don’t like the way that we look.
Ultimately, it’s all too easy to get into our own heads. If we let our inner anxieties and fears bubble to the surface, it makes it all too easy to stop creating video content. We put it off “for another day.” The unfortunate reality is that the “other day” never comes.
I urge you to steer clear of this trap.
Even if you aren’t completely satisfied with your voice, appearance, or general demeanor on camera, the best way to improve is through practice. Better yet, the best way to get over fears is through deliberate action and consistent practice.
In those very early days, don’t hesitate to record a few practice videos for yourself. Be easy on yourself and just focus on getting in the habit of creating video content. After some time, you’ll notice that it becomes much easier to create all types of videos for your audience.
Spending More Time Planning And Less Time Acting
Whether you are using video for sales or are starting a business, it’s important to develop some sort of plan. Even if real life doesn’t match up with the plan, thinking about and developing a plan can help you avoid some avoidable mistakes.
That said, there is a fine line here. You don’t want to spend too much time planning. Planning is worthless if you aren’t taking action and actually using video for sales. Whether you are just starting to use video for sales or want to take your video sales work to the next level, it’s important to have a bias for action.
Even if you are releasing content that isn’t “perfect,” make sure that your video content is getting out to your audiences. By doing this, you not only get to satisfy your audience’s expectations for consistent content, but you get more data that you can then use to create more effective videos.
Avoid this mistake of being slow or over-analytical as you are creating video content for your audience.
Failing to Think About SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a huge part of creating any type of content. Whether you are writing a blog post or creating a sales video, you’ll need to think carefully about the keywords that you want to use.
If you don’t think about SEO, you are losing out on an effective (and free) opportunity to generate inbound traffic to your company. If you are thoughtful about SEO and the keywords that you include in each sales video, you’ll quickly find new prospects that you may not have found otherwise.
SEO is an in-depth topic in and of itself. However, if you want to get started generating keyword ideas, I recommend that you check out Google Keyword Planner. Keyword Planner is an excellent tool to think of some affordable, yet high-ranking keywords for your sales video content. You will need to be patient, as it takes some time for the full benefits of SEO to emerge. Nonetheless, don’t make the mistake of failing to think about SEO when making your sales videos. If you do, you will be foregoing a massive opportunity to expand your reach and generate more sales.
Getting Started On Your Video Journey
All of us are trying to generate more sales for our businesses. Whether you are struggling to hit your sales quota or simply want a better way to grow your business, I highly recommend that you use video for sales.
As we have discussed in this post, video can offer so many benefits to you and your organization. Not only that, but it is easy to get started. With minimal equipment, you can start creating high-quality content and deliver value to your audience.
Finally, if you would like to learn more about using video for sales, don’t hesitate to contact us at Dubb. At Dubb, we believe that video is the best tool to connect with your prospects, build your brand equity in your industry or sector, and generate more sales. Our platform offers many tools and features that can help you when using video for sales, including plenty of calls to action, dedicated Dubb landing pages, a dedicated Dubb mobile app, an easy-to-use Chrome extension, and more.
If you would like to try Dubb, click here for a free seven-day trial of our premium plans.
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