Businesses are always looking for ways to make customers happy, from offering promotions to running a great service level call center. Over the last few years, personalized video marketing has taken off as a popular, effective way to draw in both new and returning customers.
If you’ve been considering this for your own marketing strategy, now is an excellent time to do put it into action. This guide explains the concept, some common applications, and a few things to consider when creating your own video-focused marketing materials.
What is personalized video marketing?
As the name suggests, this is a marketing message aimed at a specific user or group of users. It draws information on customers from the data you collect on them; sources include site analytics, customer surveys, and browsing or purchase history.
Businesses can extract this data and add it to videos to create unique marketing materials. There are a few ways of doing this, such as inserting a name or even customer photos into an existing piece of content. You can also take a broader approach, such as addressing a common concern for a wide audience.
Why do I need to consider personalized video marketing?
When done right, personalized video marketing can offer a better return on investment than other marketing methods. 75% of customers are more likely to buy from a company that deploys some kind of personalized content, whether this is personal details or product recommendations.
It’s also important to consider the impact of video content online. 87% of video marketers have reported that video offers a positive ROI. This reflects a greater affection for video content when browsing online.
Personalized video marketing brings together these two ideas to great effect. People like videos, and people like marketing tailored to their interests; combining these in the right way is likely to have a great impact on your marketing strategy. In light of this, it makes sense for businesses to explore personalized video marketing in greater detail.
What does personalized video marketing actually look like?
Personalized video marketing can take several forms; with uses in both B2C and B2B marketing. In the latter case, it can be very helpful in creating an engaging buyer experience.
One of the most obvious marketing moves is a unique call to action, sent via email. You might want a customer to buy a product or service from you, or attend an event you’re hosting. Personalizing a video (whilst offering compelling reasons to act) is an effective way to inspire action from potential customers. It helps them feel appreciated, and highlights that you acknowledge the relationship they’ve built with you.
However, personalized marketing doesn’t have to be explicitly sales-focussed. You may want to use this marketing format to invite preliminary discussions, or just give people a good feeling with regards to your brand. Consider ending a video with some contact details, or sending a personalized message of goodwill on a special occasion. Birthdays and holidays are great times to do this.
This video from a travel agency is a great example of a softer marketing approach. It offers personal details that resonate with the people watching it, as well as engaging visuals to help sell its services. It finishes with a clear call to action, and an incentive to work with this business specifically.
Personalized Video Example for a Travel Agency
You can also use personalized videos like these on your own website. A good place to add these kinds of videos is on your site’s landing page. You can show different videos to different people, depending on whether they’re a new or returning customer.
For instance, if someone is visiting your site for the first time you might want to highlight features or products you’re especially proud of. Returning customers come with their own opportunities; you can draw attention to products they looked at (or related products they may find attractive). You may want to entice them with some kind of targeted offer, which a video can help make more attractive.
Social media is another great platform for personalized video marketing. It can also give broad exposure to solutions for common problems, like how to unmute microphone during calls. However, videos on these platforms have fairly specific recipes for success.
It’s best to create visual-led content for social media; this is because many people watch videos without sound on these platforms. Furthermore, it’s best to keep these videos on the short side and ensure there’s a clear call to action in each one.
Is personalized video expensive to create?
There are many different approaches to creating this kind of content. You can use static images and simple animation, or elaborate live-action performances.
The more ambitious your video, the more time and resources you must pour into it. Remember that a cheaply produced live-action video can do more harm than good if the production quality is low.
If a big project doesn’t sound appealing, don’t worry. The key to success here isn’t complex setpieces; it’s nailing the details that resonate with customers, such as names and prior purchasing history. A video that clearly conveys this prior knowledge is likely to win the conversions you need.
Focus on making a video that can stand on its own merits. Setting aside personalization, it should be visually exciting for anyone who watches it. A video you can re-use many times is an excellent strategy for improving sales effectiveness.
Try to get a broader sense of marketing messages that will resonate with people, too. While each video will be unique, there’s likely to be at least some overlap.
Make sure you can easily integrate customer details, and that you can do so multiple times in each video. If you choose to make a live-action video, try to integrate customer details subtly. This will help the customer feel like the video is just for them, and makes the overall video far more impactful.
It’s worth taking inspiration from your in-house testing strategy, and seeing how colleagues respond to your video before a wider release. This can help you determine if your broader marketing approach is hitting its target.
Solved: Personalized Video Marketing
Personalized video marketing is an exciting new frontier for the marketing industry. While it requires a touch of investment, it also offers clear financial and reputational benefits. Businesses looking to attract new customers (or improve relations with existing ones) should definitely consider personalized video marketing as part of their broader marketing strategy.
