Say Hello to Personalized Video!

Today’s marketers have demonstrated a deep understanding of what today’s consumers are looking for: in the age of the Internet, engaging digital content, mainly in the form of video, is in high demand. These past few years have seen the best marketers rise to the challenge, adapting strategies and embracing video marketing to engage and convert audiences like never before.

But, smart marketing means continuing to adapt, seeking new and fresh ways to attract attention and convert audiences who are constantly bombarded with–and somewhat numbed to–marketing from all angles and in multiple ways.

In answer to this, and to provide marketers with the best, innovative ways to drive and strengthen their results, we are proud to announce Personalized Video from Vidyard, an exciting new way to entice, engage, and convert audiences by connecting with each person on an individual level and bringing the viewer right into your story.

Say hello to Personalized Video!

Think about the last truly meaningful conversation you had. What was it about? Maybe it was with a friend, a family member, or maybe even a colleague. Chances are, the person you were talking with knew your name, knew something about you that allowed them to connect with you on a personal level and made you feel valued as an individual. Now compare that to any one of the many transactional conversations you have every day; they are impersonal, lack depth and have no substance. Can you remember the details of one of those? Didn’t think so.

We all want to be seen, treated and spoken to as individuals – not as just another person in a crowd. Personalized Video makes it possible to use video to help build stronger, one-on-one relationships with customers at scale.

With Personalized Video, unique details about each viewer are seamlessly weaved right into the video content itself. Personalization can take many forms – from text, like their name, email, company name and job title to images, like their company logo, LinkedIn photo or picture of their website or one of their products.

More than just a party trick, personalization is critical for B2B marketing and sales.

We’re now living in a world where we’re bombarded by 3,000 marketing and sales messages each and every day. For marketing and sales that means it’s tougher than ever to stand out, keep audiences engaged and build memorable relationships. By treating each prospect and customer as an individual, Personalized Video can help with all three.

Stand out

Delete, delete, delete, delete. This is how many of us spend time managing our inboxes. According to a 2014 study by Radical, “Business users send and receive on average 121 emails a day in 2014, and this is expected to grow to 140 emails a day by 2018”. How are marketers and sales executives supposed to cut through the inbox clutter and stand out?

Well, for starters, thanks to research from the Forrester Marketing Group we know that including a video thumbnail in your emails can increase click-through rates by 200%-300%. But what if that thumbnail had the recipient’s name, job title, or company logo on it? I know I’d be even more compelled to press play! Wouldn’t you?

In fact, we’ve seen staggering increases in conversion metrics using personalization in Vidyard’s own demand generation campaigns. Compared to campaigns that used generic video thumbnails and non-personalized content, our personalized video campaigns resulted in a whopping 16x increase in click-to-open ratio. Here are a few examples of our personalized splash screens:

That means that 16x more people visited our campaign landing pages and watched our videos when presented with a personalized video! Average conversion ratios sit between 1-3%, so this is an incredible change in email campaign performance. Just imagine what this could mean for your next email campaign, event, landing page, and beyond.

So we know that personalization gets people to click. But why? As Dale Carnegie said, “A person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” Remembering someone’s name makes a positive and lasting impression because it taps right into their identity and individuality. It could quite possibly be the best way to get someone’s attention. I mean when was the last time someone called your name and you didn’t turn around!

Keep them engaged

Not only will adding personalized elements to videos get people watching, but it will keep them watching even as attention spans get shorter and shorter. According to research from Microsoft, the new average human attention span of 8 seconds has dipped below that of a goldfish!

Video is already a great medium for engaging audiences but by strategically placing personalized content throughout your video you can keep them interested and watching longer. Imagine just as you were about to lose interest in a video you saw your name in lights – who wouldn’t want to keep watching to see what happens next! We’ve also seen from our own experience that if a personalized element is featured in the thumbnail image, the viewer is not only more likely to press play, they’re also more likely to watch until the end. Is it because they really want to see how their own information is weaved into the story? Or because that level of personalization suggests the video must be directly relevant to them? Or simply because of the incremental entertainment and inspiration factor? Likely all of the above.

Build memorable relationships

Getting, and keeping, your audience’s attention is important but both these goals serve a larger purpose – to build a relationship with your audience. And the way we do this has changed along with the buyer journey itself: between 60-90% of the purchase decision is now made before a buyer ever has direct contact with a brand. That means brands must now rely on digital content, like video, more than even before to build strong online relationships with buyers and researchers.

By coupling video and personalization, you build one-on-one relationships with your audience that make them feel good about themselves – and by extension your product or idea – ultimately creating a highly memorable experience with your brand.

Using information like someone’s name also helps to level the playing field. When you address someone more formally, like by using Mr. or Mrs. for instance, you automatically establish yourself as lower in status. Not the best strategy when trying to close a deal. But by using someone’s name or by connecting on a personal level, you approach them more confidently.

When should you use it?

There are no rules about when and where to use Personalized Video. There are only incredible possibilities for this new technology throughout the entire funnel, across inbound and outbound marketing as well as sales and customer success. Here are some ideas for how Personalized Video can be incorporated into your existing marketing and sales programs:

Inbound Marketing

Increase engagement on landing pages and websites
Send personalized videos via email after someone visits a web page or downloads a piece of content

Outbound Marketing

Create personalized content campaigns before and after trade shows and events, during product launches, or even during the holidays to send a friendly greeting
Nurture leads to deepen relationships at different milestones in the buying journey

Prospecting and Selling

Send personalized and branded videos tailored to each lead’s needs (just a push of a button from a Salesforce contact record!)
Share personalized versions of your product demo or customer case studies to deepen engagement late in the sales cycle
Make a strong first impression while onboarding new customers by giving them a warm, personalized welcome

At Vidyard we don’t just talk the talk, we walk it, too! Our marketing and sales teams are using Personalized Video across our business from prospecting to event follow-ups.

Will you adapt to growing demand and get personal?

At Vidyard, we stand firm in our belief that the future of the Internet is video, in no small part because consumer behavior predicts and influences enterprise trends.

Just as mass consumption of online video has led to the need for enterprises to adopt video for purchasing and selling, the consumer demand for personalized video experiences is driving enterprise to adapt. Netflix and Apple TV are just two examples at the tip of the iceberg – consumers are gravitating towards curated, personalized video content experiences.

Personalized video experiences are the next frontier of modern B2B marketing and sales, and once again, Vidyard is leading the charge!

Want to experience the power of personalized video for yourself? Get a fun video created just for you.