How many whiteboard videos have you seen in the past few years? You know the type, those quick 2 minute animated 
explainer videos that depict a hand holding a marker, doodling stick figures and illustrating how a company can help you, the buyer. Chances are you've seen quite a few because let's face it, they're pretty cliche. I recall the first time I saw an animated "about us" video and jumped at the opportunity to work with a video production agency to create my own. It turned out great and helped explain our brand and product better than any other piece of marketing literature we had in our arsenal.
The thing is, video caught on like wildfire many eons ago, so if you aren't using it for marketing initiatives, then you missed the bus. In fact, according to a recent study by Vidyard, almost 70% of B2B marketers are using video in their mix and 82% of B2B marketers reported success with video marketing initiatives. The good news is, even if you are late to the party, video is continuously evolving and there are a lot of cool, innovative ways to use it. That being said, what I want to focus on today isn't just using video for marketing, but doubling down and implementing it into your sales enablement strategy.
Step 1: Embrace Video Internally and for Sales Training
So how can you use video to strengthen your sales enablement strategy? For starters, I'd suggest launching it internally. We will get into the perks of engaging consumers through middle to bottom-funnel video strategy, but to really convince your sales team of its external value they need to feel comfortable using it. Steer away from implementing depressing HR training videos featuring poor choices in hairstyle and electronic keyboard jingle background music. If you're using a versatile video platform like Vidyard you can cut out high cost production videos and just keep it real by creating short demo videos that can easily be replaced as procedures change. Furthermore, by using a platform that has integration functionality, you can stream video training content directly into your CRM as an easily accessible resource.
Even if the technology is pretty intuitive, you still want your sales team to feel familiar with it before engaging with a customer. And, more importantly, get them to not fear the camera! Instead of relying on dial in phone conferences, invest in a video conferencing platform like Zoom. The investment is 100% worth it just with the accountability factor alone. According to Forbes, "62% of executives agree that relative to audio conferencing, video conferencing significantly improves the quality of communication, a figure that rises to 73% among high-growth companies. In addition, 50% of those surveyed believe video conferencing also improves the degree of understanding." From personal experience I can vouch that a whole lot less zoning out, multitasking, and postponing takes place. And, as noted above, your team will become more comfortable in front of the camera and less intimidated to use a video tool with clients.
Step 2: Enhance Customer Engagement through Email And Video Calls
Once you have buy in from your team it's time to release your evergreen sales reps into the digital frontier with their tech savvy skill-set in tow. Encourage your team to host video calls with clients and see if they notice a difference in their relationship development. Being able to put a face to a name goes a long way. From initial prospecting all the way through the sales cycle, swap out the black and white text for personalized videos. Think about how often you read a page of a book only to realize you didn't digest any of it because your mind was elsewhere. If viewers only retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text, it's time to ditch unnecessary text.
Vidyard's platform is pretty great in respect to providing a full package toolset that's incredibly simple to use. According to Hubspot, video in an email leads to 200-300% increase in click-through rates so it's important that your reps feel empowered and confident to personalize their email correspondence whether it be a cold email, demo, testimonial, or presentation. With Vidyard's tool in particular, you can't edit your recorded videos outside of trimming the beginning or end, but that's part of the beauty of it. The idea is to create these videos on the fly and humanize your outreach instead of relying on rigid and spammy email templates.
Part of the reason we use email templates is to save us time, but think of how much time you can save whipping up a short video to explain something in your own words verses typing up long winded, elaborate emails. And even if you do botch it up, these aren't scary 30 minute videos you should be recording! It's best practice to keep cold outreach videos to 30-45 seconds, explainer videos to a max of 90 seconds, and micro-demo videos to 6 minutes tops. To get a better idea I recommend checking out their video hub to see some pretty great examples of sales outreach videos.
Step 3: Measure Performance and Track User Engagement
To further harp on Vidyard's platform, my very favorite feature is the ability to track engagement. That's right, you can actually measure how your recipients interact with your video via a query string that is used to identify the viewer by their email address. Whenever a recipient views your video you will be alerted, and analytics will inform you how much of the video they watched. Why this is so clutch is it presents you with insight of when to reach out to the contact at the most opportune time. Rather than sending a pesky follow up email asking if your recipient has taken a moment to review your previous email, you'll know right away when they have viewed your content and you can reach out while it's still fresh in their mind.
Invest in Video For Your Sales Enablement Strategy
By implementing video into your sales enablement strategy you can shorten your sales cycle, develop stronger relationships, reduce time spent on followup, and increase training participation and efficiency. Don't just stop at marketing, invest some of that video budget for your sales team and see how using these tactics can transform your business.
