Email outreach is an effective strategy to generate fresh leads for your business. Unfortunately, it’s easy for a short email to get lost in an inbox, especially when all your competitors are using the same approach.

You need a better strategy to generate leads – one that will make people pay attention to your message; video prospecting.

Using videos in your lead generation efforts can help you better engage prospects increasing the likelihood of them becoming customers. Assuming you’re applying best practices, of course.

Using videos in your lead generation efforts can help you better engage prospects increasing the likelihood of them becoming customers.

This guide will discuss everything you ought to know about video prospecting. You’ll learn why video prospecting is so effective, and gain valuable insights into how to run an effective marketing campaign.

How video prospecting helps you get more leads?

In the world of cold lead generation, your first impression decides your fate.

Video prospecting helps you engage with your prospect by attracting their attention through an immersive experience.

Being less intrusive than phone calls and more interactive than emails, video prospecting fits right in the middle of your cold leads generation strategy. Not to mention, videos allow you to establish trust with prospects as they can see you and your product demonstrations live in action.

Videos build a sense of credibility by putting a face to a brand and help a prospect empathize with what they see and hear.

On top of this, when you offer solutions in your video’s content, you’ll demonstrate that you understand their pain points and show how you can resolve them effectively. 

6 video prospecting tips for your business

By now, we’ve established that videos can take your prospecting game a notch higher and help you generate leads.

Let’s now look at how you can use these videos to generate more leads for your business. Here are some tips for implementing an effective video prospecting strategy.

1. Know your target audience

Just like any effective outreach tactic, you need to know your prospect before you send them a prospecting video. Personalization is the key here!

Do your research to find out who you’re targeting. What’s their designation and function? What are their responsibilities and challenges? 

It’s a good idea to make your prospect persona based on their job type, industry, and key issues they might face working in a particular sector. That would look something like this: 

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Then you can tailor your message to each of your personas and personalize your communication. 

Here’s a great example:

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In the video, Kara of Fitness on the Go, uses her prospect’s name, Dr. Brown, several times. Notice the title of the video? It’s his name, too. She also mentions a common acquaintance somewhere in the video.

The result? Well, Kara gets plus points for doing her research and increases her chances for leads and conversions.

2. Decide what type of video to create

If you’re creating your first prospecting video, it’s good practice to follow a proven formula. Here’s an example of a prospecting structure that works:

• Explain why you’re contacting them
• Show your results
• Present the solution
• End with a CTA

Make a point to start your video with some enthusiasm, so your recipient is immediately engrossed. 

Although there’s a winning formula, it doesn’t mean you should stick to just one type of video. 

You can record your prospecting video on your computer’s webcam to showcase authenticity.

Or if you want your prospect to see how much you’ve prepared for the video, use fancy equipment.

You can even hire other people to create animated content for you. Just use a weekly schedule template to monitor how many hours they worked.

That animated content can look something like this:

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Don’t hesitate to dabble with different kinds of videos to suit your prospect’s needs and aspirations. There is no rule of thumb in choosing a format. Just make sure you keep your prospect persona in mind before scripting your video. Be concise and to the point in your approach.

3. End with a clear CTA

To make your video prospecting successful, don’t forget to include a call to action.

Every sales message should encourage the prospect to take the next steps, and your video prospecting message is no different.

Every sales message should encourage the prospect to take the next steps, and your video prospecting message is no different.

Make sure to include a CTA both in your video and in your supporting copy. The video CTA can be as simple as writing “Reply to this email,” “Learn more” in the video.

To increase the likelihood of getting a response, you need a strong value proposition. You could offer something to your prospect for free in exchange for arranging a call with you.

For example, if you offer SEO services, you might offer them a free content audit. Basically, anything valuable from your prospect’s standpoint and if you are looking to further qualify these leads, you can directly import them into a sales CRM.

Use one strong CTA and keep your messaging concise, leaving some details for them to come back to you.  

4. Use the thumbnail to grab attention

Your video will deliver no value if no one watches it. That’s where a thumbnail comes in.

The thumbnail is the banner image of a video that is displayed before you play any video. It helps catch your audience’s attention and prompts them to click and play the video.

Be smart with your thumbnail and pick something that is inviting and friendly. Check out this video thumbnail below. The sales rep looks friendly and welcomes the prospect for a quick chat

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Instead of making your thumbnails text-heavy, go for simple greetings and one-liners about your subject. You don’t want to overwhelm your prospect with too much information at this time. They might end up not watching your video in the first place.

5. Include testimonials 

You can use videos to build trust with your prospects, too.

You want your prospects to know you’re a legitimate business and that you know what you’re talking about. Sure, you could boast of your accomplishments but those won’t be as effective. People, in general, don’t like people who brag about what they do.

So, how can you build trust without running the risk of being called a braggart? Let your previous clients do the talking for you. Include testimonials to earn more credibility points!  

That’s what the Felder Group, which sells woodworking machines, does. It incorporates testimonials in its videos for prospects to see for themselves that they’re an authority in the woodworking industry.

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The result? People trust them and take them up on their offer.

6. Track the performance of your video

More than 50% of digital marketers believe that video delivers the best ROI to engage with your target audience. But that’s only possible if you’re constantly monitoring your videos and making adjustments to them depending on how they perform. I

n other words, you should be tracking the performance of your videos to ensure successful video prospecting campaigns.

But what exactly should you look at? Here are only some metrics you should track:

• Views: the number of times prospects watched your video. This would include consolidated views from social media, websites, emails, and other channels where the video was posted.
• Response rate: the number of prospects who got back to you divided by the total number of people you sent the video to.
• Average view duration: how long your prospects watched the video before leaving. It helps you decide the duration of your videos. 

Pay attention to the insights you generate. Look out for patterns and adjust your videos accordingly. That way, you’ll find that prospecting video that generates the best results for you. 

In closing

Video prospecting is something businesses can no longer ignore. Videos, by their very nature, can grab people’s attention. They help retain it, too. That makes them very potent tools for generating leads and conversions.

To generate the best results, though, you need to do video prospecting the right way.

Know your target audience first, choose the proper video format, and have a strong CTA. Also, include a catchy thumbnail and testimonials. To improve your campaigns, track your videos’ performance and make the necessary adjustments.

Complement these tips with your creativity and a great product and your business will be well on its way to success!

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About the author:

Owen Jones is the Senior Content Marketer at ZoomShift, an online schedule maker app. He is an experienced SaaS marketer, specializing in content marketing, CRO, and FB advertising. He likes to share his knowledge with others to help them increase results.