Hippo Video is now offering personalized video to Outreach customers. The integration helps sales reps include video into their sales process, which in turn increases conversion rates and accelerates the sales cycle. Sales reps can create, share, and track personalized video content embedded in Outreach sequences, templates, snippets, and one-to-one emails. Heatmap analytics track user interaction. Hippo Video also supports a video library.
Videos
can be created for each objective across the full sales cycle, allowing sales
and marketing to send targeted videos for each stage. For example, reps
can send introductory videos to establish rapport with the prospect and later
send a product demo once the prospect has shown interest.
“Videos
will go a long way in establishing a personal connection and trust with the
recipient as against insipid text-heavy emails,” said Hippo Video CEO Karthi
Mariappan.
Hippo Video claims a 300% lift in response rates from embedded videos. Other firms, such as Vidyard, have found similar lift rates from personalized videos.
Users
can also add actionable calls to action (CTAs) within videos, which are then
embedded within sequenced emails in Outreach. CTAs include meeting links,
custom polls, annotations, and lead gen forms. CTAs can be inserted in
the middle or at the end of the video.
Integration
is described as straightforward:
Sign up for Hippo Video;
Install the Hippo Video Chrome extension;
Turn on Hippo Video in Outreach.
Reps
can then record personalized videos via their webcam and embed them within
email templates, snippets, and direct emails.
By seamlessly integrating videos in your sales outreach, your prospects are sure to experience highly personalized, engaging content that will humanize the entire sales process, which would have otherwise been possible only within a face-to-face meeting.
[The] Sales process is spontaneous. Therefore, integrating sales with video to build a relationship of trust with the prospect should not leave you flustered. Tracking their interaction [and] qualifying them should be reasonably straightforward as well.
Santhoshi Natarajan, Hippo Video Content Strategist
Prospect
behavior is also tracked, allowing reps to prioritize their follow-ups based on
views and watch interaction percentage, providing additional intent metrics
beyond email open and response rates.
Videos
may be analyzed by viewing and drop off points. “When a prospect drops
off the video at a certain point, it’s perhaps time [to] rework your message or
focus on a different pain point,” said Natarajan. “This feature is an
added layer on top of your existing metrics and will help you prioritize the
prospect who is at the bottom of the sales funnel.”
Hippo Video is a freemium offering. The free edition provides unlimited hosting but limits bandwidth to 100 GB per month and does not support video emails. The Pro version ($29 / user / month) provides integrations with Outreach, Gmail, Outlook, and HubSpot. Other features include professional video editing, custom branding, video cloning, in-video CTAs, contact imports from CRM, and SEO.
Josh Allen, CRO of conversational marketing vendor Drift, doesn’t believe in Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs). Chat Qualified Leads (CQLs) are more valuable, argues Allen. CQLs are “the best leads that we have in the business.” CQLs show immediate intent as they capture prospects as they come to the website and interact with either a chatbot or sales rep. This moment is when they are “at their point of highest intent” and ready to engage with the company.
Allen said that CQLs are the highest converting lead source at Drift. They are often driven by outbound marketing campaigns and events. Chat conversations can also be driven by B2B social sites such as executive articles on LinkedIn.
“Because we’re able to engage when they are really trying to learn and are most interested in what Drift has to offer, there is a high conversion rate.”
Drift is a leader in conversational intelligence, a quickly developing market for chatbots, which support sales, marketing, and customer support. Drift also offers chat enabled video.
Before Christmas, video platform Vidyard closed on a $15 million financing facility with the BMO Technology & Innovation Banking Group. Vidyard has raised $75.7 million in debt and equity financing to date (see Crunchbase Pro chart on the bottom) and was recently ranked number 39 on Deloitte’s Canada Fast 50.
The
funds will “help Vidyard remain focused on innovation and product development
while financing strategic M&A & Global Expansion activities so that the
company can continue growing, scaling, and providing customers with the most
robust user experience possible.”
Vidyard has partnered with a wide set of sales engagement platforms, including Outreach, SalesLoft, ConnectLeader, Groove, XANT, and VanillaSoft. Other partners include Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Eloqua, Drift, Outlook, and MailChimp. Partners have cited a 2 to 3X improvement in open and click-through rates due to personalized videos embedded in emails. Reps can quickly record a one-to-one video or embed a marketing video.
“Vidyard
continues to make a global impact and is currently serving more than 50 million
videos per day. With the accelerating trend of the world’s most
innovative businesses turning to video to power their marketing, sales, and
internal communications strategies–tomorrow, that number is on a trajectory to
exceed 1 billion,” said CEO Michael Litt. “We’re excited to be working
with BMO’s Technology & Innovation Banking Group to help finance strategies
intended to support our journey in becoming the dominant video platform
provider that the world’s most successful businesses rely on.”
Vidyard customers include Honeywell, LinkedIn, Citibank, and Sharp. A recent study of 218 B2B sales and marketing professionals found the top five uses of video within an organization are brand awareness (67%), lead generation (63%), customer education (63%), buyer education (58%), and sales enablement (54%). Website distribution was the most common channel (79%), followed by email (67%), LinkedIn (63%), YouTube (60%), and landing pages (59%). 40% of respondents indicated that sales reps were deploying one-to-one videos. Heinz Marketing and Vidyard conducted the survey.
So congratulations to CEO Manny Medina and the team at Outreach. The Sales engagement firm has been going head-to-head with SalesLoft to become the leading vendor in its category.
Outreach is based in Seattle and reached unicorn status earlier this year, a rather impressive feat for a five-year old company that doesn’t rent scooters. It is on track to hit 450 employees by the end of the year and has doubled its revenue growth each year since 2016.
Outreach has 3,500 customers including Adobe, DocuSign and eBay.
One area of rapid growth is in its Galaxy partner ecosystem. New partners include Seismic, BombBomb, and Sendoso. The Seismic integration allows reps to insert Seismic content into emails and multi-recipient sequences via a Seismic icon. Reps are notified when prospects view content, allowing them to “transition the prospect into a high-priority, more personalized Sequence.” Sales reps can also send follow-up content after a successful demo or meeting and modify messaging based upon which Seismic content is resonating.
BombBomb supports personalized videos which are inserted into
sequences. When a recipient watches the
video, reps can trigger an urgent call task or place the viewer into a
high-touch sequence. Recorded videos and
screen captures are also supported. BombBomb is priced at $29.99 per seat per
month with volume discounts.
Sendoso supports sequences which include e-gift or direct mail steps. Reps can also setup triggers when e-gift links are activated or direct mail items received. For example, I recently attended a trade show and received a box of mini-cupcakes afterwards with an accompanying note from the Sendoso sales rep.
Drift, which has quickly established itself as a leader in the chatbot space, is upping the ante by integrating video and chat. Users will be able to share and record videos via a Chrome extension or mobile app. Recorded videos can then be dropped into emails and sent to customers or prospects.
Videos
are “private and secure” with single sign-on functionality from Okta, OneLogin,
and Microsoft Azure. Users can restrict viewing to a specific email or
email list and “everyone else will have to request permission, just like you
would with a Google Doc.”
Drift
suggests three sales use cases for video: as a conversation starter, as a
second chance to refine a message after a call, and as a group selling tool
(team share).
Drift
Video provides real-time desktop and mobile notifications when viewed. Users
can immediately start a conversation while somebody is viewing their video “so
you can reach out and say hello or follow-up at the perfect time.”
It
is the immediate notification element which Drift claims to be its product
differentiation.
“There are a few good software products out there that make it easy to capture and share videos. But we took a look around the market and noticed one big thing missing: none of those products create a better buying experience because they don’t actually help you start conversations with potential customers. You still have to make a video, send an email, and hope to get a response. But with Drift Video, you can get a notification in real-time while someone is watching your video and then hop right in and say hello.”
Drift Website
“Since
starting Drift, we’ve said there are two mega-trends that would shape the
future of B2B sales and marketing: messaging and video,” said CEO David Cancel.
“Over the last few years we’ve built an industry-leading messaging
platform used by over 150,000 businesses, and now we’re expanding our
Conversational Marketing platform by adding video.”
Video
is driving global IP demand. According to Cisco, one million minutes of
video will be crossing the Internet every second by 2020 and 82% of all
Internet traffic will be video by 2021.
Drift
video is available today as part of the Drift offering. There is no
surcharge for video functionality for up to ten videos per month with a chat
option embedded into the video. For $12 per seat per month or $120 per
annum, reps are provided with a Pro license which includes unlimited HD quality
video sharing and storage. Only the Pro version restricts video sharing.
Future
features include Team Analytics, Book Meetings from Video, and integrations
with Salesforce, Pardot, and Marketo.
“We’ve
spent the last year working on Drift Video and it was one of the main reasons
for raising our Series C in April 2018,” stated Cancel. “In looking at
the market over that time, we saw that while there are many products that make
it easy to create and share videos, none of them were built to help to start
conversations and create a better buying experience. After a private beta
with some great early customers, that’s what we’re bringing to market today
with Drift Video.”
Drift
has integrated video in its own sales process with 50% of Drift revenue
“influenced by video in the selling process.”
“Video
is the greatest conversation starter in B2B buying,” said Alexa Nguyen in a
Drift video. “In a world of faceless phone calls and emails, video has
helped us build trust, and video has helped us close more deals.”
Video is another way for salespeople to engage with their prospects outside of the norm. Prospects are constantly bombarded with emails and phone calls asking for their attention. But it’s hard to cut through that noise because they don’t trust easily. In order to build that trust, you need to build a personal connection. And all personal connections start with a conversation. Video allows people to be personal, show that they’re human, and help build that connection that might be lost through text in an email.
Lacey Berrien, Drift’s PR Senior Manager
According
to research from Forrester and Boston Consulting Group, 75% of B2B transactions
have little or no sales interaction. Thus, video offers a valuable
channel through which sales reps can avoid being disintermediated. However,
sales reps could push this functionality too far. While chat
functionality sounds like the next step for video, reps should be careful not
to step over the line from personable to creepy.
When
prospects view an email, most understand that the act of opening an email
triggers a notification to the sender, but they don’t expect that the viewing
of a video will be treated as a real-time permission for a call or chat. Immediately
reaching out to customers and prospects may be viewed as a non-permissioned
extension of an asynchronous communication into synchronous. Drift does
not discuss GDPR in the announcement, but this seems to cross the boundary into
non-permissioned communications and the release of personally identifiable
information (“John@B2BProspect.com
is viewing your video. Call immediately”). The video privacy
permissions are focused on the seller (ensuring they aren’t shared with
others), but there does not seem to be any functionality to limit the “call me
back” immediacy of the service. If anything, the immediate messaging will
drive down the open rate of all embedded video and kill its efficacy.
When
I raised this concern to Drift, they offered a best practice to address this
issue. Lacey Berrien, Drift’s PR Senior Manager, suggested that sales
reps could either wait for the contact to initiate the chat or use a message
such as “Thanks for watching my video! I’m here if you have any
questions.” This approach makes sense. By utilizing a generic
message that sounds automated, it feels less invasive. This may be a
situation where a generic message may be welcome as it serves as an invitation
to chat while a personalized message may be off-putting.
The user can take one of two roads — proactively engage with the video viewer while they’re watching via the chat functionality OR not engage at all and allow the video viewer to chat with them at their own discretion…Other customers have gone the route of not messaging and just offering the viewer another channel to engage with them outside of email or a phone call. Buyers have all of the power. And the ultimate goal is to meet them where they are…and to always be available to help.
Lacey Berrien, Drift’s PR Senior Manager
There
appears to be a Gresham’s
Law of MarTech (“Bad money drives out good”); an effective channel or
marketing tool quickly becomes overused or misused, resulting in lowered
efficacy. Embedded video could quickly convert a golden channel into
chaff through overuse and perceived creepiness. What makes embedded video
so compelling today is its ability to personalize and deliver a relevant
message on a 1:1 basis. If embedded video overwhelms prospects or is seen
as inviting immediate, unwanted contact, it will kill the golden goose. A
softer touch is likely the best practice. If viewers maintain the control
and opt into contact, then it will enhance the value of a video by providing a
Call to Action that the prospect controls.
Vidyard announced six additional sales platforms for its GoVideo platform: Outreach, EveryoneSocial, Reply.io, 366 Degrees, ConnectLeader, and FunnelAmplified. Previously announced partners include SalesLoft, InsideSales, HubSpot, Marketo, Eloqua, Drift, and Salesforce. Vidyard supports over 40 sales and marketing solutions.
Integrated video helps personalize a message and increases open and clickthrough rates.
Outreach and ConnectLeader offer Sales Engagement platforms with personalized videos being integrated into email steps. Outreach sales reps can include personal video within their sequences and monitor video engagement.
Link Encoding
provides website or content viewing intelligence related to Outreach sequences.
For example, the new plug-ins help Vidyard “record and send videos within
your Outreach email. And when your prospect views the video, that
activity triggers your next task so you can immediately take action to convert
at the highest level.”
“Sales is
becoming more personal every day. You must use the right channel for the
right engagement for the right prospect and customer, and we’re finding video
to be a key channel in engaging buyers,” said Outreach CEO Manny Medina.
“Vidyard has been tightly integrated with ConnectLeader, which transforms your videos into lead generation machines,” wrote ConnectLeader. Features include camera recording, screen recording, and video uploading of previously saved content in Vidyard.
Reply.io is an email-centric platform with contact management, drip campaigns, reply recommendations, email validation, and reply prioritization. The joint solution “lets users personalize sales drip campaigns, create personal intro videos or product demos, add them to email sequences in Reply.io, and automate one-to-one email engagement at scale.”
EveryoneSocial provides social selling tools for sales, marketing, communications, and recruitment teams. Users can select pre-recorded videos from a library or record custom videos and share with prospects and connections.
366 Degrees and Vidyard support SMB marketing with dynamic content, multi-channel marketing campaigns, and campaign metrics. Video can be integrated into newsletters, promotions, social media, and landing pages.
“With the
changing behaviours of today’s buyers and the availability of new technologies,
sales development is becoming a sophisticated business function that takes a
strategic approach to identifying and developing new sales opportunities based
a wide range of buying signals and sales engagement techniques,” blogged
Vidyard VP of Marketing Tyler Lessard. “On average, SDRs use six
different tools. And the days of SDR teams inheriting tech from the
broader sales and marketing teams—such as customer relationship management
(CRM), email automation, and social listening—and adapting them to meet their
unique requirements for scalable sales prospecting are quickly coming to an
end.”