How To Use Video In The Sales Process To Get Small Business Clients.
Imagine if every new potential customer that met you turned into a paying client. Then, think about the postive impact it would have on your revenues and business growth, overall.
The harsh truth is that most businesses leave far more money on the table than they bring in because they often fail to turn qualified customers into paying clients.
The business income they miss out on is dramatic as a result.
Why Prospects Don't Convert To Paying Clients (and how video can help you).
The main reasons clients don't convert into paying clients are (A) a lack of trust and (B) needing to feel understood.
Using video in your Business helps you address these problems and experience frictionless sales with customers ready to buy before they ever meet you in person.
For example, good use of video allows you to appear trustworthy through exhibiting the traits of a trustworthy person - competent at what you do, reliable, authentic, respectful, grateful, and honest.
It can make prospects feel like you understand them through videos where you talk about the main challenges they experience in their Business, as it's relevant to your solutions.
Why Business Don't Do Video Enough (even when they know they should)
The benefits of video content creation for businesses are obvious.
So, why don't more businesses do it consistently?
According to a survey of small businesses, the most common reasons why small businesses don't market themselves through video more are:
Not enough time.
No strategic approach to video marketing.
The price of video production.
The results are no surprise.
Producing video content can be highly time-consuming, hard to figure out an effective approach, and costly.
That is if you go about it a certain way, I.e., trying to become the next Mr. Beast, purchasing expensive equipment, and hiring video content editors.
However, there is a way to create compelling video content that drives leads and sales for your Business, in just one hour per week, with your iPhone and low-budget audio and light equipment.
How To Make 'Client Getting' Videos More Easily And Cost Effectively (when you have ZERO time).
So, now that you have options for solid audio and lighting let's talk about making the video production process.
To make any process more effecient, you need a system.
Here's the three-step system that I recommend:
1. Content Pillars & Content Calendar
The last thing you want is to create video content without a clear idea of what content you want to make.
You need to know this in advance.
Why? Because it will prevent you from getting stuck on precisely what to create video content for.
So, the titles of your content should be planned out in advance with a content calendar. Essentially, a spreadsheet featuring the pieces of content that you aim to create in your business on a specific date.
So, you should be able to open up your calendar and say:
"Okay! Today is Friday, 15th November. My editor calendar says I'm creating a video about "How To Train Your Staff To Be More Cyber Aware." "
Doing this will streamline your content production process dramatically.
2. Setup A Dedicated Studio
Scrambling to set up audio, video, and light equipment massively increases the friction of creating video content. It's for this reason that so few people make video content consistently.
But, you can alleviate this friction by setting up a dedicated studio with everything set up already, so you can 'click and shoot' every time you are ready to create video content.
3. Outsource Editing, Sharing & Post-Processing
One of the biggest time drains with video content creation is post-processing.
That means everything from the moment you finish shooting your video to the time you upload it.
That includes editing the footage (jump cuts, motion graphics, captions), sharing (social media platforms, your website), and including relevant metadata and text to accompany the video.
That work is $10-per-hour work that can be done with the help of freelancers on UpWork and Fivver.
So, outsource this work everywhere you possibly can.
3 Areas To Use Video To Get New Clients And Grow Your Business With Real-World Examples
You will want to use video in your Business in three areas of your sales process. We referred to these as; the top, middle, and bottom of your sales funnel.
Top Of Funnel:
The top of the funnel refers to the first stage of the buyer's journey. These are customers who have never come in contact with your Business before and do not know what you do.
The goal of the top of the funnel addresses these by getting attention and making customers aware that you exist.
The two video strategies that work best at this stage are:
1. Direct Response Video Advertising
Direct response is a type of marketing designed to elicit an instant response by encouraging prospects to take a specific action. Eg. book a call, schedule a demo, buy a product, etc.
The ads with the highest ROI I have ever created have been video ads. They are powerful assets that act as a mini salesperson pitching your clients 24/7, even while you are sleeping.
They are incredibly versatile, too, as one video ad can be used across multiple social media channels.
2. Organic Video Content -
YouTube is now the number two biggest search engine in the world, second to Google (which owns YouTube).
YouTube receives more than 2 billion logged-in users per month and feeds over 1 billion hours of video each day to users.
However, considering that over 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every one minute, it can take time to stand out.
So, it's an ideal place to make clients aware that you exist.
I started my YouTube journey in 2019, creating my first YouTube channel. I did so as I knew I needed to diversify from Facebook ads, as it was becoming more costly. Unfortunately, the quality of the leads could have been better too.
I only get some of my leads through YouTube. However, it produces the best quality leads, without question. There's something about people seeing you in the flesh that builds a trusted connection like nothing else.
The video content you create for YouTube can be re-purposed and shared across other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
Middle of the Funnel:
The middle of the marketing funnel is the stage in which leads who are aware of your brand start moving closer to buying your products or services. At this stage, you aim to grow your relationship with your audience and nurture your leads into loyal customers.
Video content that discusses problems your ideal customer persona has is a perfect way to build that deeper connection and bring your prospects closer to a new paying client.
Occasionally, you can inject call-to-action into your content to elicit an action that advances prospects down your sales pipeline. For instance, to book a call, reach out to you in the DMs, or sign-up for an assessment or trial of your product or service.
Gary Vaynerchuk would refer to this action as the "Ask."
"Jabs are the lightweight pieces of content that benefit your customers … right hooks call to action that benefits your business." - Give, Give, Give, Ask: Lessons Learned On Social Media And Entrepreneurship From Gary Vaynerchuk.
Many content creators provide value. But it's okay to ask every once and a while. People who would like to work with you are consuming your content, so it's good to invite them to do so occasionally.
In the past, I used to create a lot of written textual content for LinkedIn without any "Ask," I.e. call to action. As a result, I received some inbound inquiries, but only a few.
But, one day, I created a simple video for LinkedIn talking about advertising, with a call to action inviting people to learn more about my services.
What happened next amazed me.
A prospect to whom I sent a proposal reached out and signed up with me there and then. I was amazed! And completely sold on video content creation and the tactful use of call-to-actions.
Bottom of the Funnel:
The decision stage of the buyer's journey is where your audiences are making their final deliberations before choosing what brand they will become a customer of and buy from.
Video can be used to pre-frame and educate prospects ready to do Business with you.
These videos can be embedded within call application funnels and pre-call notifications.
They can include common objections prospects typically have, along with how your engagement model looks like.
If done well, opportunities are ready to buy there and then, upon first talking to you.
No need to sell, as you can now seamlessly discuss terms and conditions and the contract details and get them onboarded.
My personal experience of doing this came from a time when I experienced a low conversion rate from paid advertising traffic.
The lion's share of leads did not know; how we would work together, what my services included, the results they would expect to achieve, and so on.
They should have turned into paying clients, consequently. However, when I created a video in the application funnel addressing all of these questions and objections, subsequent leads converted 50%+ better.
They have educated leads coming versus utterly ignorant as to what we did.
I hope that you got value from this article.
To your success!
- Kieran
A Final Word…
Do you want new clients for your I.T services business? Then, join our free I.T business owners' Facebook group, where we cover best strategies to get new clients and increase revenues for your I.T business. Here’s the link to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growthstrategiesfortechfirms/