Myriah Anderson, Manager of Demand Generation - IMPACT

Mariah Anderson, I'm manager of demand generation at Impact and our one to one video specialist and we are a digital sales and marketing organization. So I'm kind of split at Impact between two different roles. One of them being marketing for our agency and the other half being more of a business development rep type of role where I'm the first person that anybody interacts with at Impact and makes sure that a lead is qualified and then hands them off to our sales team to close the deal. So when I first started using video at Impact, I took a look at our entire sales process and thought about the ways that I could inject video into each stage of the sales process. So what were those moments where a cold email could be turned into more of an engaging opportunity? So everything from adding video into prospecting outreach to adding video into even something as simple as if someone were to book a meeting on my calendar, getting them a video, introducing myself and setting expectations for that first conversation. And even something like that, I saw a decrease in no shows because it just brought more of a human element to that introduction. But even everything from the pass off to a salesperson who was going to close the sale to walking through RFPs or whatever. It's been pretty wild. When I first started doing one to one video, there really wasn't much of it out there. And now I'm seeing more and more of it happening. I think another trend that's coming up in terms of one to one video is one to many videos. So I think a lot of times sales professionals get a little intimidated with doing one to one video because they feel like it's just this other additional task that they have to do that's going to add time rather than just be a one to one video. And that's something that I think is probably getting bigger and bigger and something that can even be used within the marketing process as well and entering that into email campaigns. The advice I would give to people who have not started doing one to one videos is first, don't be intimidated by it. I think people get really scared about being on video, but at the end of the day, you would have a conversation face to face with somebody or on a video call. What's the difference between me recording a video for them and the moment that you do it and you start to see that success? It's going to be something that you're never going to want to not include a video in your sales process ever again. But I would say that another thing is keep it short and sweet. When I first started doing one to one video, I realized that my videos were probably a lot longer than they needed to be and I would continuously look back and watch and see, am I using filler words? Am I repeating myself? Because we see that shorter form video content is what people prefer to consume or you're going to have someone drop off and maybe miss an important message that you have. So continuing to look back at. How short can I keep this and straight to the point and how am I adding value or something that this person is going to actually be interested in? So in terms of how we are using the one to one video is entering it into our emails. And I mean, a really important point on that is you have to think about the strategy of your thumbnail of your video as well. I think a lot of times people just assume, okay, well if I add a video, someone's going to actually watch it. But you have to be strategic about what is in your thumbnail. One, having a static image for a thumbnail. Isn't that great? Make it animated. Second is it shouldn't just be a video of you, especially if it's early on in the sales process. They probably don't know who you are. It makes it feel very self serving that it's about you. So finding different things like having a whiteboard and having their name on it or even a question. I feel like that gets people interested in, well, what do you have to say about that? And really provides us like not one way conversation, but I'm sitting between two people. And then I would also say letting the person know the length of the video in your email copy. So this is going to be a six minute video. Um, is going to provide somebody, you know, a little bit of background of how much time am I going to have to take into watching this video? Uh, so that's really helpful in terms of getting people to actually click through to it. So when you're using one to one video, you want to make sure you're tracking it because what's the point of you just adding it in? You know, I feel like sales team members would know if it's working because you'll see people engaging a bit more, but at the end of the day, if you want to be the most effective with it, you need to have a tool that allows you to track how long are they watching it? When are they dropping off? Are they actually clicking through to it? That way you can improve upon your strategy and what you're doing. And the best thing about having a tool like that as well, where you're tracking when is when somebody is watching it, if you have a stalled op or like a cold lead and you see they're watching it, it's a perfect opportunity for you to reach back out in that moment and you know, start that conversation up again. So it really gives you those insights that allow you to really strengthen that process for your team. Another thing that you want to make sure you do in your videos is have an actual call to action. If you're early on in the sales process, the worst thing you could do is have a video and get them excited and then not have a really easy way for them to get in touch with you. So if it's something earlier in the sales process, I'll have a book a meeting CTA come up so that within that video they can click their own book and meeting on my calendar. So one of my first instances of using one to one video was I was, someone was having a conversation on our chat bot on our website and they went to book a meeting and they didn't end up finishing filling out the meeting form. And so in that moment, I had their email address. And I recorded a quick video and said, Hey, I saw you were just on chat. Would love to book a meeting. Here's my calendar link. And the moment they opened that email, uh, they, and, and watch the video, they ended up booking a time on my calendar. Uh, and when we got on the phone, they were like, the only reason that I am having this call with you right now is because of that video. I've never seen anything like it before. Uh, they were in an industry that's, I would say they prefer to do in person business and for them that provided this extra layer of trust. They just, you wouldn't get from a client. So I got them on the call that actually ended up building this trust that we wouldn't have had otherwise. And the deal ended up closing half the time that originally would have taken. And it was actually our biggest client that we had ever had and closed. So I would have lost that opportunity if I had not sent that video. Like it was the only reason that they had booked that call with me. Um, another thing I would add in terms of making sure people actually open your emails to watch your video is we always include video in the subject line. So whether it's 30 second video message in. Brackets. Video message or I made this video for you. Uh, that has, I actually, someone tweeted our company and said, I don't even know who they are. It was like someone in a marketing campaign where we added a video, but I opened this because it said video in the subject line. So it's a really great way to make sure people actually open up your emails.