How To Multiply Your Bottom Line With Sales Videos (That Actually Work)
Every business has to rely on consistent sales to survive but consistent sales can be challenging when you consider that people make 95% of purchases based on habit (Inc). Breaking through someone’s purchasing habits means you need to effectively communicate how your product or service fits into their lives. From my experience producing videos for brands in the past, one thing remains true about sales videos. Like any type of selling you need to target the emotions. Focus on how your product or service fits into their lives and make them aware of the emotional end state after using your product or service. After all, videos engage the emotions through lighting, cinematography, editing, music, sound design and much more so using a video as a marketing and sales tool makes sense. In this article, we will be covering the different types of sales videos as well as some sales video examples. So let's jump into the basics of sales videos.
Despite the name, a sales video is really a marketing tool that brings the prospect closer to a sale. Depending on what you're selling and to whom, a sale will most likely be closed by a person. Any video that has the end goal of directing someone towards a sale or sales meeting can be categorized into 2 different types of videos: Outbound sales videos and Inbound sales (marketing) videos. In a nutshell, inbound sales are when the prospect initiates the sales process and outbound sales are when the business initiates the sales process. Let’s unpack these two types of sales videos a little more.
Inbound Sales Videos
Inbound sales videos are videos that fit into something called the video marketing funnel. The video marketing funnel is a customer journey mapped out and designed to attract people typically through earned media platforms like YouTube, Instagram etc and owned media platforms like websites, email lists etc. The videos that are part of a marketing funnel strategy are the touchpoints your customer makes with your brand as they go from not being aware of your brand to paying customers. These types of videos can be defined as SEO-driven free-value videos. The types of videos that fall into this category are videos that answer questions people are searching for (Q & A), Vlogs, Educational Videos, Explainer Videos and Review Videos. These types of videos work because they automatically build trust and attract qualified prospects to your sales pipeline since they were the ones that went looking for an answer to which you can provide. Therefore you position yourself as the subject matter expert. You give value before even meeting them and in their mind, if you give enough value for free, they can only imagine what kind of value they get when they pay.
Outbound Sales Videos
Outbound sales videos are designed to be sent to a prospect with the goal of initiating the sales process and are usually part of a larger outbound marketing campaign. These videos should be used in conjunction with other outbound marketing efforts such as cold emails, cold calls, paid ads etc. If you create a video to be sent to a prospect via email or even used as a paid ad it will most likely be in the form of a Video Sales Letter (VSL), Demo Video or Case Study Video. Depending on what you’re selling and to whom, a VSL video is a very effective sales tool that every business should be utilizing in their video marketing campaigns. It’s all about getting that sales meeting and moving the prospect towards closing the deal. The VSL is the script which someone will narrate in the video. A great VSL should consist of the following:
The Hook (An opening line that captures someone's attention)
The Pain Point (Addresses the prospect’s problem that you can solve)
The Offer (exactly what you sell that solves the problem, solution = What you’re offering)
The Benefits (benefits = Why someone should buy it, focus on emotional end-state)
The Features (uses logic to help prospect justify their inherently emotional purchase decision)
Social Proof (if it worked for other people then it will work for them too)
Urgency (create a sense of scarcity, why they should buy now instead of later)
Call-To-Action (prompt them with the next steps)
Something to keep in mind when creating your sales videos is that you will need to pay attention to detail and plan it out thoroughly before investing money and time into distributing the video. You might be paying to advertise the video, you might be spending a lot of time sending the video to prospects, but regardless, making a video is very time-consuming. So the last thing you want is your video not to work or fall short because you didn’t take the time to create the video properly.
We talked about what the content of your sales videos should be but you might be wondering what the video should look like visually. In this case, you have a couple options. You can film it yourself using a cell phone or basic camera but depending on what kind of brand you wish to build you might want to hire a production company to professionally produce your video. If your video looks high-quality it communicates that your brand is high-quality. If your video looks cheap it communicates that you don’t care as much about your presentation. Kind of like showing up to an important meeting in track pants and a stained shirt versus in an ironed shirt with a suit and tie. Your sales videos can sometimes be the first impression you make on a prospect and first impressions are everything.
Conclusion
Videos are an effective tool for outbound or inbound sales efforts because a sale is an emotional decision and a video is an emotional communication tool. Sales videos will be your secret weapon to breaking through the prospect’s habitual buying cycle. You are now equipped with the knowledge necessary to create effective sales videos that will help you jumpstart your business or even scale it to new heights. Getting in front of your ideal customer is key to becoming one of the brands that occupy the prospects 95% of buying decisions. Take your time to plan it and get it right. First impressions are everything.
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