4 Types of Sales Videos: The Salesperson Toolbox

Through the lifecycle of the client, there are four different kinds of sales videos to use. Once you understand what they are, you’ll know which to use as your prospects move through your funnel.

Pro Notes for Creating Great Sales Videos

Four Types of Sales Videos

• Selfie or Webcam Video
  • Important notes: Selfie Video
• Screen Share Video
  • Important notes: Screen share video
• Personalized Marketing Video
  • Important notes: Personalized Marketing Video
• Playlist or Curated Video
  • Important notes: Playlist or Curated Video
• How long should your marketing videos be?

Pro Notes for Creating Great Sales Videos

Before we dive into the four kinds of sales videos you can create, let’s look at some of the fundamental rules and tools you need to know to create great videos.

• Sound – Perhaps most importantly, be sure to use a headset mic or a lapel mic to capture your voice. The tinny, built-in mics from your laptop or smartphone are likely to annoy your viewers. 
• Light – For some types of videos, like screenshare, this isn’t important, but if you or someone else is going to be on screen, you need good lighting. Either choose a great location, like light coming through a window into your face, or purchase a ring light that’s attached to your laptop, camera, or phone. Make sure you’re not backlit with a bright light source coming in behind you.
• GIF – Use a gif as the video thumbnail. It acts as a short preview and gives a dynamic aspect to your message.
• Graphics – Include your logo or even some nice opening or closing graphics, Your video software should make it easy.
• Personal – If it’s a personal message, use their name in the video. It can be even more powerful to use a white board or chalkboard with their name on it in your hand.
• Notes – If the message has several points to make, jot some notes. This might be as simple as the date and time of the appointment you’re confirming or more elaborate like the detailed responses to objections that have been raised.
• CTA – End your video with a call-to-action (CTA). It might be to book an appointment or to reply with questions, but give them something to do at the end of the video.
• Write it out – It’s also important to write it out in the body of the message. Even if it’s just the highlights, some people won’t watch the video or will have the sound off. Give them the option of reading or watching.
• Breathe – Don’t rush too quickly through your speech. Try to speak normally and naturally.

Four Types of Sales Videos

Once you know the four types and an understanding of which one goes where, you’ll be able to create great videos quickly for every stage of the sales funnel.

Selfie or Webcam Video

This is the most intimate. It’s a one-on-one video with you speaking directly to the camera. Since you’re making a video for one person (typically) you can use it as if you were leaving a voicemail or speaking to them directly.

These videos are great for introductions, cold prospecting, relationship building, and appointment confirmation.

This type of video is a powerful relationship builder. We’ve recently been through a time of social distancing, closed offices, and no sales travel. A selfie video puts a face to a voice and messages.

A webcam video is the next best thing to being there.

Be sure to include a call-to-action (CTA). Tell them what you’d like them to do next.

Important notes: Selfie Video

• Plan ahead – Write down notes and even rehearse. Make sure you get all of your points into the message by planning what to say.
• Good lighting – Make sure the lighting is good as we talk about above.
• No nostrils or foreheads – Have the camera aimed at your face. We’ve all seen those videos where someone left the laptop on the table and spoke down to it. We’re looking up their nose the whole time.
• Background – Choose a background that’s either relevant to your audience or is neutral, like a brick wall.

Screen Share Video

This is exactly what it sounds like, a video that records you sharing your computer screen with someone else. Very often, your face is not on the video, but some programs allow you to put a thumbnail of your face on the screen. 

The screen share video is perfect for technology explanations, demo videos, product walkthroughs, objections, and introduction of a product.

The advantage of a screen share recording is that they’re pretty simple. You have your computer screen up and you record yourself talking about it.

Some salespeople use screen shares for their initial introduction. They’ll pull up the prospect’s LinkedIn profile or other personal website and talk about why they’re the perfect person to purchase a good or service. 

The thumbnail should be something recognizable if possible. The person’s online profile is perfect. Otherwise, for example, if you’re demonstrating a software, show them what they’re going to see. 

These videos are also great for teaching. If you’re trying to teach a complex topic, you can use all the tools in your computer and multiple screens to show the recipient what you need them to know.

Important notes: Screen share video

• Sound – This is where a great microphone and a quiet background are important.
• Plan ahead – Have everything ready for your demonstration. Put tabs in the order you’re going to need them.
• Look first – Make sure there aren’t any embarrassing tabs or images. If the computer window you’re demonstrating in collapses, is the wallpaper on your computer something will embarrass you or get you fired?
• Cursor – We’re often using our cursor to demonstrate what’s on the screen. Adjust your cursor so it’s large enough to be seen easily during your demonstration.
• Notifications – Turn off notifications so your email isn’t popping up and Skype isn’t ringing off the hook.

Personalized Marketing Video

The personalized marketing video are videos created to be personalized inside a largely pre-prepared video. They might include a space to include a photo of the sales rep or the prospect’s LinkedIn profile. It’s all prerecorded, but it feels personal

To make it feel more personal, you can pause the video you’re sharing and highlight the important points that the prospect is or should be interested in.

This allows the sales team to create personalized videos that are designed to feel 100% customized. Since you don’t even need to record your voice, you can create these videos very quickly for dozens of people at a time. 

This is a great job for a VA, PA, or intern. They can include the still images or screenshots that make the video personalized and send it out.

Personalized marketing videos are perfect for moving the lead through the funnel, engagement with multiple prospects (each getting a personalized video), and in-depth explanations that don’t warrant a 100% custom video.

Important notes: Personalized Marketing Video

• Personal – Use a whiteboard to put the person’s name at the start of the video and in the thumbnail.
• Right video – Be sure whatever video you use, it’s relevant to the client’s stage in the sales funnel.
• Everyone – Since you’re often creating only 5-second snippets that are personal, you can create these messages at scale. In fact, you can use this type of message for prospecting since all you need is a first name.
• CTA – Include a link to your calendar so the prospect can make an appointment for a one-on-one demonstration.

Playlist or Curated Video

Very often, the marketing department has spent thousands of dollars creating videos that can be used to demonstrate your brand. When these videos are done well, they’re complete and interesting. 

By gathering videos that relate to your prospects, you can create a video that feels personal, even though it’s mass-distributed. These videos are ideal for explanation videos, large scale marketing, and reducing time-per-prospect when marketing.

It would start with an introduction of who you are and then go into the videos you want them to see. It ends with a call-to-action, such as booking an appointment, that gives the prospect a way to move the process forward. 

This is a little different from the personalized video in that you’re not really personalizing it. You’re creating something that can be sent out “as-is” en masse.

Important notes: Playlist or Curated Video

• Make it feel personal – Even though it’s going out to everyone, give the impression that you made this video just for them. This might make the intro a little less formal so it feels like something you tossed off just before hitting send. 
• Choose the right videos – Make sure that the videos you choose are really relevant to your prospects. If they aren’t well chosen, it will be clear you don’t know who they are.
• Don’t go crazy – It might feel great to you to make a 30-minute video of all the marketing videos you have, but no one will watch it. Keep it under a couple of minutes and it will be great.

How long should your marketing videos be?

There’s a lot of debate, but the answer is “as short as possible.”

Without rushing through the information, you should make your videos as short as you can. We live in a world where Tik Tok is hugely popular and they just increased their video limit to 60 seconds. Everyone watches videos on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and other places where all the action, usually a hilarious cat antic, happens in less than 10 seconds.

Make sure your videos realistically fit into this mindset. Try not to ramble. Be concise. Be informative. 

That said, don’t rush. A breathless video that fits 45 seconds worth of information into 25 seconds will only make your prospects nauseous.

Break it up if you need to. Often the best way to present longer concepts is to break it into several videos, either all delivered in a single message, or as a video series. 

Go with your gut and what you like. Since you’re probably at least mildly interested in whatever you’re selling, how long are the videos you’re willing to sit through?

Once you get started, follow the metrics. If your prospects are jumping out after 30 seconds, you know you have 30 seconds to say what you need to.