Zach Basner, Director of Video Training & Strategy at Impact

I'm Zach Basner, I'm the Director of Video Training and Strategy at Impact. I'm speaking about video, about how to in-source video productions, about how when you're working with in-house marketers, in-house sales team, how you implement video into their processes, how you get trust earlier in the sales process, all these great things, making more human connections using video, and which the big thing is how and when to use video in these different processes. Yeah, so I mean my theory is that you could use video to get someone a hundred percent of the way through the buying journey without having actual contact with a human. Now it's not necessarily gonna happen that way, but if that's the goal that we want to have the entire, you know, buyer's journey fulfilled with some piece of video, whether it's awareness, consideration, decision stage, all throughout the sales process, if we're there when the customers have questions, well then we're gonna get that trust earlier, they're gonna feel more of a connection to us. And so that's really my theory with video, and so if the answer is when, it's, you know, depending on where the customer's at, when the timing's right. I mean the biggest thing is that customers, consumers of any B2B, B2C, whatever industry, whatever product or service, they've got fears, they've got anxieties before they're buying something, and they're going through a process of encountering those fears or anxieties, or figuring out what's a good fit. And so we want to be there to address concerns before they become concerns. And so, you know, there's different types of, you know, just like you have the funnel, or now the flywheel, there's gonna be different phases that they're going through and different things you make video about. So the closer somebody's getting to actually making a decision, the real thing that changes is that you want to start working in the people who are gonna be helping them purchase things. So, you know, we at Impact, and what we really within that video journey. And so whereas the marketing team might be responsible for these top of the funnel awareness stage, consideration stage, pieces of content, helping to answer these questions, eventually the customer's gonna want to know about price, they're gonna want to know about fit, in which the sales team is typically involved in those conversations. So what's changing with the video is the people who are in the video. And we want to have the sales folks, the sales organization, in those videos, because those are the people who, are used to talking about those things and two are going to be the ones that the customer ends up interfacing with so yeah so here's the major the major thing about HubSpot video is one it's going to help organizations who haven't yet embraced video they're going to have basic tools to at least start to get their feet wet and the major thing for me is that it's included free with these pro and enterprise levels of HubSpot anyways right the biggest anxiety that I see for organizations who are adopting video is the investment that it's going to take to get started and it's not necessarily that they're afraid to spend the money they're afraid that the risk is not worth the reward so they're going to spend money doing these things and it's not going to pay off what this new integration now does is gives them tools in a platform they're already paying for there's no additional investment they can start to use calls to action in their videos and different tools in a platform they're used to rather than making investment in another video host or another platform or another tool and so that's I think that's the biggest kind of draw for HubSpot video for companies who aren't doing video yet for companies who are they're now going to have tools that make it easier to get let's say the sales folks for instance they might not be working in the HubSpot marketing tools very much they might not be working in a video host very much now having video tools integrated in the CRM that they might already be using makes their job much easier for sending videos and emails for tracking analytics of those videos for recording videos front within the CRM and so once again it makes adoption of those things easier it makes their life much easier people are feeling these anxieties they realize video is important but they're either not sure where to go with that um or they're just afraid to make an investment in it because they're not sure they're afraid maybe they're going to do it wrong they're going to buy the wrong products whatever and so this at least gives them some introductory tools of course if you're doing video really well you're likely going to need more than just the basic functionality of HubSpot video I mean let's just be honest about that yeah quite frankly in the market so it's really hard to use the unlimitedül That also makes it much easier to start the conversation of we need to be doing more video. We need to be doing video better. Let's start with these basic tools so we can figure out what that plan looks like. I think the biggest challenge for marketers specifically that are getting into video is producing the right types of content and delivering them in a way that's valuable to the prospect. I think there's a lot of mystified of what do I make my first video about? It's a common question I hear all the time. I usually go, well, your sales team actually has the best answers for what you should be making your first videos about. There's a lot of ways that you can start to use video in the sales process. The marketing team typically is the one who is implementing these things. The marketing team is typically the one who's doing the video. What we typically do at Impact to help people get over this hurdle is meet with the sales team, figure out what are the most common things that customers are asking you. If we can make video content that addresses those things, we know we're making the right content. If you start the ball rolling that way, then it no longer becomes a challenge anymore. For one, the sales team is already interfacing with all these customers. They, for argument's sake, may know your customers better than you do because they're used to dealing with them. They know how to talk to them. They know what they want to hear. They're really the best people in the organization to talk to about this. Also, customer service individuals who are interfacing with customers on a regular basis, they're going to know how they like to talk to the customers. They're going to know what they like to hear, all these things. Wow, that's a good one. So what I typically focus on, and our consulting model is really to make our customers the best visual educator in their industry. If they can educate their customers better than anybody else, then they're going to be the most trusted voice within that industry. And so in order to do that, what you've got to do is get the real people, the real people on camera, to answer these common questions, to establish themselves as thought leaders. And if we can get key people on camera, subject matter experts, the sales folks, the service folks, whoever these people are, we can get them on camera. We don't need professional talent to come in and talk about the product. You've got people in the organization that talk about it all the time, and they are likely passionate about it. They're likely very good and eloquently at speaking about it. So that's one of the biggest things we focus on, is how can we get the whole organization to embrace video as a culture and get everyone not only using video in the sales process or in their processes, but getting them in the videos themselves. I'd say as far as equipment is concerned or production value is concerned, to be honest, it differs depending on the type of brand you have. If you have a landscaping company, you don't need to have this $10,000 production, red cameras. You don't need to spend all this money on making a big production. You can get away with an iPhone or any sort of smartphone, for that matter, and still make a connection with your customers. Now, if you're a big enterprise-level company, big brand, a phone quality, although it is very high quality nowadays, likely isn't going to be a good representation of the brand. Trust is now being lost because of that. So really, it depends on the scenario. It depends on, really, I feel like production value is very important, but what is really important at the end of the day is communication. If you can effectively communicate with an iPhone, go for it. If you can effectively communicate with a really expensive camera, expensive equipment, then do that. Do whatever you can to just communicate. So I think being the best educator and earning trust of consumers through education is going to continue to be a big trend. Brian Halligan talked yesterday about simplifying the customer experience, not just focusing on having the best product, but having the most streamlined customer experience. And I think if we are there at the right time with video or with anything, really, I mean, it doesn't have to be video. It can be a blog article. It can be any sort of helpful content. If we're there when people have questions and we're being that best educator, we're really a resource for them, then that's going to lead to a shorter sales cycle because the consumer is not trying to figure out, should I trust you? Should I buy from you? They're trying to figure out, are we a good fit? Because they likely already trust you if you've educated them really well. So the biggest advice, if you want to be the best educators, is figure out what people are wanting to know. So once again, go to your sales team, figure out what are these common questions? What are the first things we can start to address right now? Generally these things are the same in most industries for most products or services. What does something cost? Who's a good fit for the product? When's a good time to buy it? Why do I need it? These are really common consumer questions across the board. Many industries, many services and products. So that would be the first step is figuring out what those questions are and then answering them in the most transparent way possible. Because not only are you being the best educator, but you're being the most open and transparent educator about it because that's what really leads to trust. Really answering the question well and giving the consumer everything they need.