They Ask, You Answer, 2nd Edition

47 Personalized Video for Email A More Human Approach to Direct Digital Communication

I would be remiss if we launched the revised version of They Ask, You Answer without talking about an incredibly important trend that’s affecting sales teams and how we use email all over the world — using personalized video.

But before we dive into the actual practice, let’s pause a moment to analyze the state of sales emails for a second. Studies have shown that fewer than 20 percent of sales emails are ever opened.

That’s bad. Very bad.

In fact, this number should be the bane of every sales manager’s existence. But that’s the thing about sales emails — and email in general. There are three major problems with the medium:

• First, too often, people don’t open their emails.
• Second, in many cases, if they do open them, they don’t actually read them.
• Finally, if someone does happen to open an email and read it, she may misunderstand its contents or the true intent behind it.

Although there is no perfect solution to these three issues, one that can certainly help overcome is the use of video, instead of text, as your means of email communication. Over the past few years, many companies — Vidyard, Wistia, and others — have produced incredibly effective, and often free, video email tools that even the most nontechnical person can learn to use within minutes.

By using these tools to create personalized video messages for use in email, you will open doors that prospects previously would not have ...