Video in the workplace isn’t limited to marketing and training; it’s also a tool that can be used to optimize your sales funnel.
Just like a sales rep making a product pitch, a sales video is a personal, human way to connect with customers. It can combine a number of elements—footage of your sales team, narration, personalization—to answer customers’ big product questions and persuade them to become buyers.
Along with having a human touch, video works as a sales tool for a few other key reasons:
- It’s easy to create. Communication between sales reps and leads needs to be fast and simple—otherwise, prospects might have enough time to change their minds. Between smartphones and today’s accessible video software, it’s never been easier to quickly put together a sales video.
- It’s shareable. Prospects don’t always have time for an in-person demo or even a phone call with a sales rep. Luckily, videos can be shared with prospects in any location at any time through social media, email, and more. They can watch your sales video whenever and wherever it’s convenient for them, and you don’t have to miss a potential purchase.
- It’s visually dynamic. Whether you want to introduce a sales rep or highlight product stats in a demo, a sales video can cover all types of imagery to showcase your product and communicate with prospects.
We created this post to help your sales team create the best video content for each stage of the sales funnel. We’ll walk you through the purpose of sales videos and the different video types you can create to convert more leads into customers.
Why make videos for sales?
Sales videos and marketing videos are often blurred together, but each serves distinct functions that should be understood before you start creating. Videos for the marketing funnel are designed exclusively to generate awareness around your product and brand, while sales-funnel videos gradually move leads toward a purchase.
There is a bit of overlap between sales and marketing in the awareness stage, but they build awareness in different ways. While marketing builds awareness through product promotion at a high level, sales builds awareness through one-to-one communication, such as a cold call.
Here is a summary of the purpose that videos in each sales funnel stage should achieve:
- Top-funnel “awareness” stage: Videos that generate leads through personal communication from a sales rep to potential buyers.
- Mid-funnel “evaluation” stage: Videos that justify your product and validate leads’ decision to purchase.
- Bottom-funnel “conversion” stage: Videos that address prospects’ final concerns and give them a final push towards purchasing.
The three stages of a sales video journey
Your sales funnel is full of prospects who could very well become your company’s next customer. Use video to win over as many leads as you can with thoughtful, targeted communication. We’ve highlighted the best types of video for every sales funnel stage so you can deliver the right messaging for each unique lead and help them move along your funnel to become a customer.
Top-funnel “Awareness” sales videos
The sales process begins with your top-of-funnel (ToFu) leads—the prospects who are just beginning to gain awareness of your product.
While a sales team won’t build awareness through a promotion like marketing, they do generate leads through one-to-one communication. Through cold (or warm) outreach, sales reps introduce people to the product that they are selling and try to persuade them to learn more about the company.
The beauty of video here is that you can shrink the education cycle in terms of the number of content items the buyer needs to see. Here are a few ideas for ToFu sales videos that sales reps can make to build product awareness and generate leads:
Video voicemail
Instead of writing a cold email to prospects, go the extra step by emailing a video voicemail—a cold call in video form. Say hello, explain how your product can help them, and then close with details about how they can get in touch with you for further details. The personal one-to-one video will make leads feel valued and most likely motivate them to respond. We were impressed by the custom video Maya at Intercom sent us and how she integrated it into her email with a GIF:
Also, learn how Intercom’s sales team helped reboot all of their educational videos.
Sales rep intro
Sales reps may not have time to create a custom video for each lead. As a broader solution, each rep can create a general intro video where share their name and a few fun personal facts, note key product benefits, and invite viewers to reach out and ask questions. Your company can post sales reps’ videos on a single site page for visitors to see and can also share intro videos through email.
If using video as cold outreach sounds like more trouble than it’s worth, don’t worry. There are plenty of video platforms out there that allow you to quickly create professional videos, regardless of your experience level. Here’s an animated sales rep intro template that you can update in Vyond — in minutes — to create a unique sales rep video that reflects your brand.
Click here to import this video project into your Vyond account or free trial (be sure to log in first). Learn more about Vyond.
You can also try a screen recording and webcam combination tool like Wistia’s Soapbox to make a simple video voicemail. Watch some Soapbox examples here.
Middle-funnel “evaluation” sales videos
At this stage, the potential customer knows the basics about your company and its competitors. In this evaluation stage, prospects are seeking education to help them justify a potential purchase. Accordingly, this is a great place to present your lead with video content stressing the return on investment (ROI) of your product.
You’ve attracted a large number of leads with high-level ToFu videos. After connecting them to your brand, you’re ready to start positioning your product as the solution to your customers’ pain point/s.
Keep these middle-of-the-funnel (MoFu) leads interested by demonstrating that your product can solve their problems. Justify your product by creating videos that show how it works, how others have successfully used it, and the benefits or ROI that your product will help them realize.
Here are a few ideas for MoFu videos that build trust in your product:
Product demos
By showing how your product works, a demo video helps MoFu prospects clearly understand how your product will benefit them. For a more personal video, create a demo that features your sales team members explaining how the product works, just as they would in an in-person demo. Retail companies know the benefit of this strategy and have been practicing it for some time. Zappos famously added hundreds of thousands of product demo videos to their site in 2009 and saw a 6-30% increase in sales on products with videos attached. Here’s a beautiful example from Apple. They released this product demo video to highlight the key features of the new Apple Card.
Customer testimonials
According to Bazaarvoice’s Conversation Index, prospects who saw reviews on a product page had a 58% higher conversion rate and 62% higher revenue per visit than those who didn’t see reviews. Take advantage of the power of this data by filming customer testimonials to motivate MoFu leads toward purchasing. The video conferencing software Zoom published this testimonial to show how Zendesk employees use their product:
Here’s another example where we combined Vyond animation and real video footage for this customer testimonial of Vyond on Instagram.
You can bring mid-funnel customers even closer to making a purchase with video tracking. By using a video hosting platform you can monitor not only what prospects are watching but also how long and when they’re watching your videos. With those analytics, you can build MoFu prospects’ interest in your product even further by sending them videos based on their viewing history.
Bottom-funnel “conversion” sales videos
A lot of companies are hesitant to put videos this far down in the sales cycle, knowing that the potential customer is close to opening her wallet. Why jeopardize that with a video that could divert her attention?
A bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFu) video, when done well, isn’t a distraction—it’s a final push to secure a purchase from the prospect. Use your BoFu videos to address concerns, answer specific questions, and offer excellent treatment that wins prospects over.
Videos at this point can live on the pricing page, on deeply targeted landing pages, or even on the signup pages themselves. Here are a few ideas for BoFu videos that will help you seal the deal and close purchases:
Support Team
Quality customer support is a convincing benefit. Highlight that your team will be there to answer any questions a paid customer might have. Put a human face on the customer service process and include hours and phone numbers to assuage the customer that she will be supported post-purchase. Here’s a video we use at Vyond to introduce free trial users to our customer support team.
FAQ video
It’s likely that a bottom-funnel prospect will browse through your FAQ page to answer any last-minute questions. Instead of just leaving text responses, include a few videos to explain the answers. Prospects will prefer to watch a product video than reading text about a product, so creating video answers to common FAQs is well worth the effort.
FastBrewing.com, for example, has a dedicated video FAQ page for prospects and customers. A prospect debating beer-making kits from two companies can watch this video and feel fully informed before making a purchase:
Video follow-ups
If you had a sales call with a prospect, follow up in a unique, memorable way—with a video! Film yourself asking the prospect how they’re doing and let them know that they can reach out with any additional questions. When you email the video, be sure to include the lead’s name in the subject line—the extra personalized touch will help you increase open and response rates. Similar to a follow-up email, a follow-up video should recap what you discussed, reiterate the next steps, and include a thank you.
Because BoFu prospects are so close to making a purchase, add a call-to-action to your bottom-funnel videos for a final push. For example, you might include a “Check out our [product name]” link that leads to your product page.
Use Video to Drive More Purchases
Whether you’re at a B2B company or a consumer-facing business, video is a powerful tool to drive sales. When you use video throughout your sales funnel, you’ll persuade prospects at each stage to seriously consider your brand and buy your product. Use this guide to create the types of videos that resonate with top-funnel, mid-funnel, and bottom-funnel prospects and motivate them to journey through your funnel.
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