How I Use Video to Build Trust and Accelerate My Sales Cycle

As a salesperson, no matter how long your sales cycle, one of the most important things that you need to build with your buyer is trust. Actually, I’d argue that you will never get a deal done without it. If someone doesn’t trust that you have their best intentions in mind, that you can help them solve their challenges, and that you are an expert in your field, they will not buy from you. Period.

On LinkedIn today, you tend to see a lot of articles being written about spammy sales tactics, cold calling ineffectiveness, outbound sales fails etc. Why is that? 

As buyers become more sophisticated and well-researched, maintaining trust throughout your sales funnel is more important than ever. Spammy tactics and spray-and-pray messaging evaporates trust and kills your credibility as a salesperson, and it is nearly impossible to recover from that first impression. The bottom line here is this: modern buyers have higher expectations of the customer experience – they want salespeople to focus on adding value and being helpful, not pitchslapping or trying to force a deal.

In my experience, strategically leveraging video in your sales process is a game-changing way to build trust, establish authenticity, and strengthen relationships with your buyers.

After sending hundreds of videos to prospects and existing customers, I’ve found that video moves the needle for me in three key areas.

1. Speed of execution
2. Intelligence through analytics
3. Increased context and personalization

Read on and check out the videos below to see how these three benefits come into play:

When Should I Use Video In My Sales Process?

I’ve experimented with customer-facing videos while running full cycle enterprise deals for PostBeyond. There are definitely nuances to maximizing the effectiveness of your videos, depending on your relationship with the buyer and how far they are along in the sales cycle. Here is a breakdown of how I think about using video across the funnel:

How Do I Make My Videos Feel Authentic?

Video is a new medium for most salespeople, and if you aren’t comfortable on camera it is natural to be a bit hesitant to get started. I’m willing to bet that once you do though, you won’t look back. I view video selling as the next evolution of social selling, so here are some tactics and tips to help you get in the groove:

Want more tips? Check out Lesson 3 in the Video Selling Institute: “Best Practices for Creating Videos for Sales”.

This All Sounds Great, But What’s The ROI?

Just like the hesitations I’ve heard towards embracing social selling, you may be thinking:

“My buyers are old-school – sending them videos will freak them out or make them feel uncomfortable. This medium won’t resonate with them.”

Believe me – if you focus on being thoughtful, adding value and going the extra mile to personalize your content, the responses will be overwhelmingly positive no matter who your buyer is. Here is one success story from a customer in an older demographic working in a very highly regulated industry:

Do you have questions or ideas on how to improve on the tactics I’ve shared above? Please share in the comments – I’d love to hear your feedback.

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Cool Design Elements That Turn Your Website into Nightmare if Overused

Let’s be honest, everybody wants to own a modern and stylish website that will quickly catch an eye of your potential clients or customers and be the best in their deal. Needless to say, it is an understandable desire. Seeing that today I’m going to tell you about several cool options that one can use to make their site more qualitative and entertaining but not only this… Actually launching a stylish website is a real must-have for today, as such step gives one a quick chance to develop their business and become their own boss.

That is why now you can find a plenty of various recent features that different companies propose to use to set up a cool site. Still, remember that measure is a treasure and keep in mind that sometimes even the most gorgeous and inimitable options or design elements may easily turn your online project into a real nightmare, when they are overused. But do not worry, as I’m here to assist you on the way to your dream and today I will show you 5 things that one should use wisely. Are you ready to meet this helpful list? I’m sure you are, as you are on this page right now. Thus, let’s start!

1 Background Images

Without a doubt, background image WordPress designs are a cool thing that both brings a charming design to your online project and shows your best products to its guests. That is why this feature is pretty popular today. What should you know about it? Well, first of all such images should have a great quality, as if they are don’t your website will look unprofessional. Secondly, these photographs shouldn’t have many details for your visitors to focus on the site’s subject. And here we go to the most important point: background images shouldn’t be overused. Actually, such step will definitely make any website uncomfortable for its guests and we all know that comfort plus beauty is an undeniable formula of success. What is more, I suggest you not to use extremely bright pictures if you would like to post some text on this place of your page. To continue it will not only create a diversion but also can make your text unreadable.

2 Background Videos

What is more, one may get the same problem with background videos when they are overused. In addition, there will be too much motion for those customers that would like to focus on the subject of your online project. Here you can see a winning example of website with the option in question.

Check it out on TemplateMonster

3 Cool Banners

Yep, banners are useful! They quickly attract the attention of your potential customers and tell them a lot of info about your products / services, (e.g. special offers, new items, discounts, etc.) so worthy banners are always in trend. Still, just imagine how your website will look when it has a lot of banners. All in all, people will be bored with a huge amount of advertisement (even if it will be the most advantageous one) and they certainly won’t like such project. To continue, don’t make your banners too big and never use such awful thing as clickbait.

Check it out on TemplateMonster

4 Newsletter Pop-up

To make a long story short, it is a powerful and flexible plugin, which is popular because it gives one a possibility to make lightbox pop-ups that help them to get more newsletter subscribers. Consequently, such step will also help you to promote different products, show new media or deliver special offers to the guests of your online project. I’m sure you have seen this problem a million times while surfing through the web space: some of the website owners overuse the feature, so their customers see the window that proposes them to subscribe 5 or even 10 times per day… Unquestionable it is an irritating thing that will not help one to increase their audience. Moreover, it also makes people unsubscribe, even if they wanted to get the letters from your site before.

5 Counters

As you may know, counters are another popular feature that is used for many websites. What can I tell you about it? Yes, that’s right: do not overuse it. Believe me you don’t need to put counters everywhere, so just make a stand-alone section for them. As a result, people will see the numerals they are interested at and will not look aside at the same time. To illustrate, below is another screenshot of a modern website template, which shows the best way of using counters (made by TemplateMonster and powered by WordPress):

Check it out on TemplateMonster

As you can see there are a lot of popular and helpful features that can literally turn your online project into a nightmare when they are overused. Thus, do not try to get all the trendy options that you will put everywhere. Be sure, it is always better to use 3 – 5 modern options that are appropriate then 10 features that will definitely overload your long-awaited website. To sum everything up, remember about comfort! Not sure if your site is good enough for its users? Well, just log out of your admin panel, enter your page as a client and try to buy something or find some needed information.

Doing this you will see all the disadvantages of your online project and realize that nobody likes stylish features that disturb their work. Found some minuses? Oh, don’t be upset, as now you know about them, so you can easily fix the situation and increase the popularity of your online business. Just stay unique and remember that there is nothing impossible for a modern person!

To finish with, what do you think about the features mentioned in this post? Maybe you have already seen the descried problem as an owner of a website or its guest and now have your opinion to share? For these simple reasons, don’t hesitate to leave all your thoughts and questions in the comments below this post, as I am always happy to hear from you!

Original post: Cool Design Elements That Turn Your Website into Nightmare if Overused

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5 Overlooked Ways to Make Your Site Stand Out Online

If you run a blog or business site of any kind, there’s a good chance you have tried hundreds of ways to make your site stand out online. The problem is that everyone else is trying to do the same, so there are very few – if any – original ideas out there to bring your site to the masses.

Despite this, there are some promotional ideas that go overlooked by most site owners. In some cases, this is because they cost too much time and money, or require too much effort. Others are simply more traditional techniques that get pushed to the sidelines in favor of the latest new tool or platform.
Whatever the reason, there are ways to get your site noticed that others aren’t using. Let’s take a look at some of these techniques and how you can use them.

5 Overlooked Approaches to Site Promotion

Any promotional approach depends on how much time you have and what resources you have available. Nonetheless, there should be something for everyone to try among the following five ideas.

1 – Video marketing

Vlogging is an art in its own right, but that doesn’t mean that video as a medium is mutually exclusive from blogging. In fact, video ads or clips can be an extremely effective way of bringing new visitors to your site.

Even if you only have a smartphone and a few minutes to spare, try recording a video that discusses the subjects in a recent article. Offer short insights that compel the viewer to dig deeper and read the full piece via links in the video or its description field.

2 –Build a brand

Contrary to popular belief, brands aren’t just for global companies with billions to spend on creative advertising. If you think about your favorite bloggers in any niche, the chances are you associate them with certain character traits and qualities. These writers become a trusted resource because they have built a brand around their work. With a little planning and the right marketing tools, you can do the same. Small things like consistent colors, fonts, a tag line, memorable contact details, and a clear mission statement will make you stand out in a crowded field. Take some time to brainstorm what makes your site uniquely compelling for readers and review your promotional channels to make sure every one of them consistently reflects those qualities.

3 – Reach out to readers personally

Writers often focus on the anonymous audience; unidentified readers who arrive at their blog via search engines, social media, and the many other platforms we use to move around the web. In reality, the most loyal and valuable readers are likely to be those we already know. Have you ever reached out to individuals in your contact list to briefly explain why you wrote an article that you know will help them? That combination of targeted writing and personal outreach is a powerful way to re-connect with contacts and win new readers. Yes, it takes more time than posting to your social profiles, but that’s one of the reasons so few site owners take advantage of this simple idea. And why you should!

4 – Write companion content

When you have your own home on the Internet, it’s hard to think about writing anywhere else. After all, the goal is to build an audience around your core content, right? Not entirely.
As discussed in point 2, building your brand is a bigger prize than attracting a short spike in traffic to your site. By writing shorter versions of your longer articles or companion pieces that introduce related ideas, you can tap into existing audiences on platforms like Medium, Linkedin, and Quora. These can also be linked to original articles on your site, providing a new stream of traffic in the short term and developing a wider audience your work in the long term.

5 – Add articles to your e-mail signature

Most of us send out scores of e-mails every day. Even so, very few see this as an opportunity to promote a link or raise awareness. By their very nature, e-mail signatures are supposed to be informative. Adding a short note about your latest writing gives contacts a chance to dig deeper into your ideas, just as they would with a social media profile or direct website link.

The key is to make sure that your chosen link is intriguing but not intrusive. It should attract the eye and pique interest, rather than demand attention or distract from your original message. In most cases this will only add a trickle of traffic, but over time some of those visitors could turn into your most dedicated readers.

These ideas are by no means exhaustive. If you try one and don’t see a sudden influx of traffic, don’t give up! Continue to adapt the technique to your own style and find new forums in which your latest ideas can be shared and discussed.

As you add more and more untapped areas to your promotional strategy, traffic will build and your site will become a trusted resource.

Paul Faust is SVP of Business Development and a partner in RingBoost, the nation’s premier provider of custom phone numbers and other marketing tools.

Original post: 5 Overlooked Ways to Make Your Site Stand Out Online

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Facebook Ads Manager vs Power Editor – The Ultimate Comparison

RJGM Power Team Update

Meet the Team, Vidyard Style: David Halk

Meet the Team is our monthly chance to introduce you to the fabulous, quirky, talented people that work at Vidyard, using our favorite medium — video! For this episode, we heard from David Halk, Solutions Consultant extraordinaire. Find out what brought him to the world of startup technology, and who his favorite wrestler is in this new video:

What Didn’t Make the Cut

Dave had way more to say than just why being a vet or lawyer wasn’t for him, so here are a few answers that didn’t make the cut:

What brought you to Vidyard?

What brought me to Vidyard was predominantly the culture of the company. It’s a fun company full of fun people. It’s fast moving and it’s very exciting to work here. I can’t wait to see where everything goes in the future!

What’s your favourite place to eat in Kitchener, and why?

Jimmy’s Lunch. It’s on Victoria and it’s the last authentic diner in this area. There’s only one thing to eat at Jimmy’s so you should get the breakfast because it’s all you get. There isn’t really a menu.

What’s the secret to an incredible lawn?

I have spent a lot of time experimenting with gardening and landscaping and I have found the secret: it’s hiring someone else to do it for you.

 

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How Video is Reviving Culture for Remote Employees

Workers around the country are packing up, purloining potted desk succulents, and trading their work desks for the ones at home. Today, 63% of workers are remote (for at least one day per week) according to The New York Times, up from 34% in 2005. 

There are a number of reasons behind this shift. Sure, communication technology makes it possible, but workers are also demanding more flexibility while companies are finding less value in paying for high-priced real estate. Together, they’re agreeing on a new contract for work-life balance but, without everyone in the same building, they’re also finding that it’s harder than ever to maintain their office culture.

Remote workers bring home new challenges

Remote working offers both advantages and disadvantages. The Harvard Business Review reported that when the travel website Ctrip allowed workers to telecommute, the company not only saved $1,900 per month per worker, but those employees also “started earlier, took shorter breaks, and worked until the end of the day.” With no commute or line-of-sight supervision, employees had time to handle personal matters and were overall more productive. But, precisely because of that self-focus, company cohesion also suffered, and in Ctrip’s case, many employees felt isolated and opted to return to onsite work.

Without the chit-chat around the water cooler, life can be stressful. According to a study by the International Labour Organization, 40% of remote workers reported high levels of stress compared to only 25% of their onsite colleagues. It can also lead to less cooperation: According to Fast Company, “company culture doesn’t necessarily translate virtually” and remote peers are more prone to disagreement. The cost of cohesion has been enough to convince very large companies like Yahoo!, Aetna, and most recently, IBM, to reverse their remote worker policies. IBM, in particular, cited a desire to “improve collaboration and accelerate the pace of work.”

Yet, as remote working marches on, companies will have to find a solution to the remote culture challenge, and some are discovering it in the use of inter-office video.

Video killed the never-ending email thread

The next big internal communications wave is video, and it’s being used to revitalize remote company culture. Much of what leads to remote worker isolation in the first place is that all the classic inter-office communication channels like email, message apps, text, and phone calls cull down people’s personalities. When so much of our communication is nonverbal, video brings it all streaming back.

Check out this example that I sent around to our entire team, across the globe, when we launched a recent content asset, our video in business benchmark report:

When peers can see the smiles, gestures, winks, grins, yawns, and scoffs of their peers, they bond. And when video is even easier than composing an email, people can share more unfiltered thoughts and pipe more personality across the airwaves.  

Some executives have realized this and are encouraging video from the top-down. Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite, a social media software with offices in eight countries, has chosen to use recorded videos for communicating real-time thoughts to the company. “These quick smartphone videos are the best way I’ve found to deliver that,” Holmes told Fast Company. Even here at Vidyard, our CEO Michael Litt shares monthly video selfie updates (although he’s eager to try virtual reality for a remote work experience, too!) that are informal and brimming with personality. He’s constantly on the road, but we barely notice it (sorry Michael) because we’re always hearing him and seeing his mug.

Here’s a recent example he sent the team:

Other companies are encouraging peer-to-peer video messages where co-workers can connect with each other on a daily basis. Virgin Pulse, an HR software firm with ten offices around the world and hundreds of employees working remotely, finds that using apps like FaceTime and other video chat tools help remote employees feel included, reports Fast Company. And across the country, we’re seeing workers utilize Vidyard’s own free video sharing tool ViewedIt for sharing peer-to-peer thoughts, employee onboarding, capturing meetings, sharing weekly stand-ups, working through problems, product feedback, and in lieu of long-winded emails.

As companies become more and more global, even staying in touch across different offices and different countries can become a challenge. While formal company updates are always shared, it’s the smaller moments full of personality that often contribute more to building a great remote culture. With our second office opening up across the country in Vancouver, we’ve been putting this into play. Here’s the first video we received from the Vancouver team to give us a not-so-formal tour of their digs:

The result of all this video is that remote employees have exposure to the personalities of the people they work with and can build those core bonds and a cohesive culture that makes companies successful.

The future of work may be remote, but with the use of video, your culture doesn’t have to feel like it.

Want to light the video spark at your company? Download ViewedIt to capture and share videos with one click.

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