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Dec 19, 2019 Felipe Torres

How To Use Video For Social Selling

Using video for social selling is no longer something restricted to B2C markets. Most of us have seen more videos popping up on our LinkedIn feed and those connections are onto something. Wordstream found that 59% of executives would rather watch a video than read text. And LinkedIn claim that video campaigns have an amazing 50% view rate.

The video trend reflects what many salespeople already know - it’s much easier to engage with prospects when they can see the person behind the name.

Using video in social selling works best when it’s authentic and employee-drive. In fact, who content that's created and shared by your company’s technical experts is the most trusted (Edeleman’s Trust Barometer 2019).  At 67%, it outperforms that of CEOs (47%) and journalistic content (36%).

But authentic video is just one aspect of effective social selling. Viral videos that generate leads (not just views) should link to an overall content strategy.

 

Strategic Social Selling: The Best Videos For Each Stage Of The Sales Funnel Fly-Wheel

 

Nowadays the traditional sales funnel is outdated and there's a move towards the ‘flywheel’ approach coined by Hubspot. Sales, marketing and customer services all need to feed-in and feed-back at each stage. This helps build the force of authentic, quality content, drives momentum and removes friction to sales.

Check out our Tribe Leader’, Sarah’s video sketch for a quick summary::

 

 

As you can see, content still needs to be carefully aligned to each stage of the buyer’s journey.

 

Attract

74% of buyers choose the sales rep that was first to add value and insight according to Corporate Visions. To attract prospects create videos with educational value and industry insights, such as: 

How-to/explainers:

Help guide prospects through pain points they have on a daily basis. You should aim for short “high level” videos (without losing the "informative"). Videos by sales and customer-facing employees work best here as they deal with the issues day-in and day-out.

Thought leadership “opinion-based” videos

Video is a perfect medium for opinions on topical or contentious areas from your most trusted source - your technical experts. But you don’t need to limit it to your own employees - reach out to your network and ask to interview them on film.

‘Behind-the-scenes’ videos

There's a role for both sales and marketing in this space. Many of the most authentic videos are created from employees “off the cuff”. Yet professionally produced videos that showcase snippets from many employees work great too.

Add useful videos to LinkedIn connection requests

Why not add video introductions to your connection requests, to give the person more insight into the real you ? Doing so could drastically increase your click-through rate by 200-300% (Digital Information World).

Engage

89% of B2B buyers stated that winning vendors “provided content that made it easier to show ROI and/or build a business case for the purchase”. 2017 B2B Buyer’s Survey Report by DemandGen

Now’s  the time to provide even more value and in-depth video content to guide prospects through the buying process. Content should balance:

  • Helping prospects decide that your solution will provide ROI/a business case
  • Showing that you’re best-placed to provide it

Just remember the 60-30-10 rule: only 10% of your social posts should be self-promotional.

Testimonials

Social proof is a powerful tool and video testimonials are much more authentic than any text. Make sure your customers focus on the specifics of why you're great.

Case studies

Tell your customer’s story from their point of view, including their initial pain points through to the results (and the statistics to back this up). You’ll subtly reveal your product or service benefits and in a much more relatable way!

Product or service demos

Product demonstrations are the power tools of selling. They allow a prospective customer to see, feel, and hear how their lives and business will be different if they buy the product.”

Sale Force’s Geoffrey Jones’ on inc.com

So many businesses hide case studies behind a sign-up form, too scared of losing leads. Yet today’s consumer demands transparency, so don’t be scared to share video demos on social media. You should be excited by it! Just look at the number of views that YouTube demos get.:

InMails

Why not include videos in your InMails to give more insight into you and how you can help your prospect?

Delight

The most successful companies know the power of word-of-mouth and repeat business on social. Luckily, social media makes it much easier to reconnect and offer repeated value to customers.

In-depth video demonstrations

It’s usually much easier to demonstrate how to solve intricate, specific issues via video. 

Interview customers for thought leadership

Doing so doesn’t just attract prospects - it flatters (and delights) your customers!

Top tips for creating shareable videos

You don’t need a large marketing budget to create videos that get lots of likes and comments. In fact, in Gadget Hack’s The Best Video Apps for Your iPhone,  they range from $2.99 to £14.99.

Not every video can be edited into amazing footage, so here’s a few top tips:

  • Plan what you want to say before (but don’t overly script it)
  • Reduce background noise
  • Add subtitles (there’s free software for this)
  • Keep the sun behind you if you’re outside
  • Avoid conflicts between natural and artificial light e.g. standing by a window
  • Remember the rule of thirds: Imagine the shot is divided into 9 equal parts. Lead people to the main focal point by placing it along the intersecting points.

 

As you can see, video can be used effectively at any stage of the buyer’s journey and is not just restricted to sales or marketing. And the most effective videos on LinkedIn and YouTube aren’t actually ‘selling’ at all, but supporting and helping their buyers and customers at every step. 

 

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About Tribal Impact

Tribal Impact is a B2B Social Selling and Employee Branding Agency.

We're a team of social media strategists, trainers, coaches, content creators and data analysts who are passionate about helping our B2B customers develop and scale their social selling and employee advocacy programs.

Learn more about us here.

Published by Felipe Torres December 19, 2019
Felipe Torres