Morgan Ingram on using personalized video in email outreach. Less than 3% of reps send video, and the ones who do often use cheesy whiteboard animations. Handwritten, unedited videos perform better. Call out that it's a weird video in your email to boost clicks and replies, especially with cybersecurity buyers who avoid clicking links.
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Now, I do want to call out one thing, because this is also what we'll do as salespeople. We opened up by saying what percentage of reps were using video?
3%.
Less than 3%. But at the same time, we'll get away from a whiteboard because everyone's doing it.
So. Yeah, so, so. So no salt. I'll talk about this one. So from every video that's been sent out in the less than 3%, it's typically a whiteboard. And in feedback I've gotten from other executives and when I brought them on muffins with Morgan because. Because we look through their inbox and their emails, and so I asked about the whiteboard consistently, and everyone's like, ah, it's cheesy. I don't like it. I won't click on the video if I see a whiteboard. So that was my own insight, because I used to think the whiteboard was fire. I was like, yeah, it's a smart idea. But from that feedback, I was like, all right, let's shift. Because if the buyer is saying that they don't want to click the video from the whiteboard, then I might think it's fire, but that doesn't really matter. So that's the main reason why I made that shift.
There's one thing that I've noticed there too. I'm sure you've seen this. You can tell when it's an edited whiteboard versus an actual whiteboard.
Yep.
Right. So this is an example again, of sales killing sales. Someone starts using a whiteboard. So what did these companies do? Rightfully? So they made it possible to make the whiteboard is editable the right word. Like where you could customize. Right. Like it was just auto pulling things in so you could tell it wasn't real versus if it was my goddamn chicken scratch. You know, it's a real writing there, right? The authenticity in these videos is everything. So that's really, really important here. So then now. Okay, someone. All right, so actually Jeremy asked a question. Jeremy, do you want to ask this one real quick? This is good.
Yeah. Thanks, Katie. I appreciate it. And thanks, Morgan, for what you're providing. So I guess you know, to use your own original thinking in writing that open email script in the second paragraph. I saw what you wrote there. It was interesting. It sort of struck my fancy as to, you know, is calling out the video as different or odd, ensuring that your audience that you're sending it to, your prospect going to open it up, Is there going to be a greater click rate by calling it out first versus just doing it without, you know, doing it more subtly without saying that? Or is there a method to that description in the second paragraph?
There is a method. So. Well, there's two things. Number one is in that paragraph.
The.
Reason that we switch it to that and the reason I was also coaching people on it is because the call to action in the email was like, hey, are you free for 30 minutes? Or even? Would you be able to learn anymore? Right. But that's a call to action where you could see that and be like, well, all right, you just want my time, so I'm not going to watch the video. The whole goal is I want you to watch the video. Why would I have a call to action inside of the email saying, 30 minutes when you haven't watched the video yet?
Right, sure.
That's like at the end of the movie trailer saying, hey, this is who's gonna be in the movie. I'd be like, cool, I don't need to watch this anymore. Like, I already know who's in the movie. Right.
Cliff Notes version.
Right? Exactly. And then number two is this was because I trained a lot of people in the cybersecurity space in it, and they just do not like clicking videos in email. They're like, no, I don't want to do it. So that paragraph gives them an option to reply to be like, hey, I don't want to watch this video. It is a little bit odd to me. However, I'm open to hearing you out. What do you got? So now I got a response, which is one of the hardest things when it comes to outbound. So we're having that as a prompt to be like, if you don't want to watch the video, that's fine. Reply to us. Then we can engage with you from there. We can email, I can call you whatever you feel the most comfortable with. But I'm using that as another touch point. And we found that we did see an uptick in the clicks and the replies because we basically had a disclaimer in the beginning saying, hey, this, this is. You're already thinking it, so I'm gonna call it out. Yeah, this. I know this is weird, right? And they're like, oh, yeah, this is weird, but I wanna stand out. Which you're going to appreciate because you're like, all right, at least someone's trying to stand out. Which we know has been an ongoing theme where people are saying, oh, too much automation, no one cares. So I'm saying, no, I care here. This is why I'm doing this video. Which led to more engagement.
Thanks for that.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I would agree that, like, being human, apologize for the dog barking at 32 seconds. Right? Please ignore my wife walking in the background at 1 minute 10. Like, if you want to skip everything but the good stuff, jump to 17 seconds. Like, we've seen engagement increase too, from time stamping of, like, letting them know when things happen within the video. Because again, if it's like a three minute video, even like a one minute video from someone you don't know, why would I watch this? Right? And Morgan, I hope people caught this. The call to action. You cannot have conflicting calls to action. Reply to this email conflicts with watching the video. They won't do it and you won't get either of the things that you want. Let me know when you're available and watch the video. Too conflicting. Watch this. Click this.
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