First up, what is Personalized Video?
It’s where you use specialist video software to automatically put your leads/customers’ personal information right into the video itself, for example:
name
LinkedIn photo
company logo
browsing history
purchase history
engagement stats
…or any other data you have on your customer.
Like this one:
It can range from as simple as including a name…to actually showing different content based on purchase history.
And it’s not that hard to get data. For example, you can get a LinkedIn photo from an email address, a homepage screenshot from a website, or a picture of their office from their address using google street view.
Is it just a gimmick?
Far from it.
Everyone knows by now that video content rocks (for example, ComScore found that after watching a video, viewers are 64-84% more likely to buy.)
And it’s not hard to figure out that consumers prefer personalized marketing.
Everybody is drawn to experiences that are tailored to them. (For example, clickthrough rates improve by 14% and conversion rates by 10% when a personalized email is used.)
Bottom line: People love video, and people love personalization. So why not combine the two?
And the numbers are hard to argue with. Switch Merge sent out an email campaign with a personalized video and saw a 1,025% increase in clickthrough rate.
How do I use it?
Let’s take a look at some real examples of how you can integrate personalized video in your marketing funnel:
Ads
1. Ads or Product Videos
Personalized sales ads or explainer videos are more engaging.
Just take a look at this example from Barclays:
How much more are you likely to watch this to the end than a generic ad?
Viewers are spoken to by a real person who even says their name out loud. Their name appears throughout and they’re shown the house they could live in and given specific figures of numbers they could borrow.
2. Brand connection campaigns
And if that doesn’t convince you, watch at this heart-melting ad from Cadburys designed to build brand loyalty:
Cadbury asked viewers login to Facebook, and then pulled in their name, photos and a close Facebook connection to make the video.
Notice how it is cleverly shot from a first-person point of view, allowing the viewer to easily imagine they are the subject of the video.
3. Trigger-based videos
You can also trigger personalized videos based on an action your customer performs on your website, or in your email automation sequences.
For example…
4. Welcome email
If someone subscribes to your blog or signs up to your email list, you could send them a short welcome email with any information they provided when they signed up, for example “Hi Laura!”
Tip – Make sure the video preview in the email shows the scene with their name on to make them more likely to watch it. Also make sure that their name isn’t in the centre where it may be hidden by the play button.
5. Thank you pages
If someone fills out a form to either download a lead magnet or make a purchase, you can immediately take them to a thank you or upsell page with a personalized video using the information they filled out in the form.
Pretty neat, huh?
6. Webinar or event invitations
Webinars and events can be big money-earners, but only if you get the people in.
That’s why the way you invite your audience is crucial.
For example Marketo used a personalized video to invite people to its Marketing Nation Summit conference in 2016. This generated over 50 registrations and over $70k in revenue.
7. Abandoned cart emails
Most e-commerce companies have abandoned cart emails set up for their website.
But what if instead of a text-based email, you sent them a personalized video showcasing the product they almost bought?
Imagine the potential increase in sales.
8. Inactivity emails
Do you send ‘we miss you’ emails when customers have shown inactivity for a certain length of time?
Add the personal touch by including a video with their name and previous engagement video to remind them what they are missing.
9. Holiday emails
Holidays are an opportunity to be more fun and casual with your customers, like RIP Media who produced this personalized holiday video:
10. Anniversary emails
Do you also send anniversary or birthday emails? Why not make them personalized?
Like this genius example from Nike, that sums up the customer’s year using personalized data.
This creates a memorable brand experience, as it really feels like Nike care about you achieving your fitness goals.
Conclusion
So if you’re looking for ways to wow with your prospects and customers, boost your clickthrough rates in email campaigns and content marketing, and generate more sales, it’s worth giving personalized video a try.
And remember as the software becomes more intelligent, personalized videos will become more sophisticated and unique – basically more awesome.
So it’s pretty safe to say that personalized videos are soon going to become the norm.
But the great thing is – few companies are using personalized video at this stage.
So it’s an easy, fully-automated way to really engage with and wow your customers.
Bottom line: get in there now and leave your competitors weeping.