6 Valuable 1-to-1 Personalized Video Tips for Digital Communicators

Or, maybe you are wondering how marketing can use the 1-to-1 video strategy as well.

Again, we got you covered in this video where we share four 1-to-1 personalized marketing tips for your business.

Okay, now that you know what sales and marketing videos are and why they are important to your business, let's talk about why video is quickly becoming the digital communicators most valuable tool?

Video makes it way easier to:

• Humanize your brand
• Disarm your leads
• Educate your consumers
• Simplify the complex
• Evoke emotion

As a digital communicator all of the above items are super impactful to you and your company.

A way to truly leverage those items is to create amazingly effective one-to-one personalized videos in every step of your business.

No matter if sales, marketing, service, HR or beyond.

No matter if employee, manager, or CEO.

Everyone should be using 1-to-1 videos internally and externally to communicate like a pro.

In this article, we are going to cover six tips that will help you communicate like a pro in your one-to-one videos moving forward.

Feel free to use one or all of these tips the next time you create your personalized video messages moving forward.

The six tips we cover in this article are:

• Better 1-to-1 Personalized Videos By Start With A Story
• Introduce Yourself for more Human 1-to-1 Personalized Videos
• How-to Customize Your 1-to-1 Personalized Video
• 1-to-1 Videos That Connect The Heart & Mind
• Solving vs Selling a 1-to-1 Personalized Video Master Skill 
• Keeping Your 1-to-1 Personalized Video End In Mind

You can read this entire article or flip to the part that connects with you most.

Use this article as a resource that you can come back to time and again.

With that said, let’s get into the good stuff!

Better 1-to-1 Personalized Videos By Start With A Story

Business storytelling can be a powerful tool for you to leverage when creating your 1-to-1 personalized videos.

Connecting and using a purposeful story is key to your success.

You can't just tell any old story and think that it's going to be effective in helping you or your potential consumer.

It has to have purpose and context to the conversation you're trying to have with the human on the other side of the screen.

So, you might be wondering how do I know if it's purposeful?

That's a great question and the perfect place to start.

For the story to be purposeful, rather than focusing on what you want to get out of telling the story, you must shift your focus to how you are going to serve that person with the story you are about to tell.

Serve them up a journey that they actually want to go on.

Give them a welcoming starting line that they won't run away from but instead eagerly lean in to.

You don't want to come out of the gate with something like:

Hi Richard, here are the facts, the data, the percentages, the math.

Wanna Buy?

Let's be honest, most people don't emotionally connect with the data and it's even a turn off for some. Instead, drill down into why it's important or the changes you've seen because of it.

Now "IT" of course being the hero of the story.

The hero can easily be a product, service, person or even process. Heck, you can turn almost anything into the hero. Having a hero in your story, helps you add purpose and direction to the information you want to provide.

A quick word to the wise, when building your story, don't aim for their wallet or their head.

Aim for their heart.

An easy way to build out a great story for your personalized 1-to-1 videos is to follow this simple 3 step process.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Emotional Core

First, find the emotional core of your message.

When you focus on emotional content bonded with information, that information is more likely to become memorable and actionable.

If it's memorable and actionable, it's more valuable!

 And we humans more times than not cling to value when we find it.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Powerful Storytelling

The second step in utilizing the power of storytelling for your 1-to-1 videos is that you must absolutely be authentic.

Be you!

Today's digital consumers have a sensitive radar when it comes to those trying to manipulate or take advantage of them.

In other words, our BS meters are on point.

Always put the potential consumer first!  Not you or your business. And yes, you should have this mindset even before they’re a paying customer.

This builds reciprocity as you move forward in the business relationship.

Emotion, check. Reciprocity, Check. Looks like we're headed in the direction of a win, win opportunity!

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Timing is Everything

The third thing to think about when it comes to powerful business storytelling is that timing is everything. There are right and wrong times for every story in your business storytelling toolbelt.

As well as a perfect length of time in which to tell your stories.

Trust me when I tell you that you can kill even the best of business opportunities by not knowing if the prospect, lead, or customer is ready for the length of the message you are about to share.

Or if the story you are about to tell and the perceived value of it are aligned with the human watching. 

Make sure you have the buy-in for that 10-minute story before you set sail on your journey. If not, be prepared to whittle it down to 5-minutes or have a backup story ready in your back pocket.

Pro Tip: Creativity & Collecting are your secret weapons when building business stories.

Always be looking for, and collecting, new story ideas and once you have those ideas, find ways to add creativity to them.

The humans watching your videos will thank you!

Remember that at the end of it all, you want them to become the emotional owners of the stories you are telling in your 1-to-1 personalized videos.

That way, they are primed for action and you're the one they remember.

Introduce Yourself for more Human 1-to-1 Personalized Videos

At first glance, your 1-to-1 personalized video introduction may appear trivial.

How we introduce ourselves to new people or new audiences may seem like a passing moment with little long-term relevance. After all, we probably will have hours, days, or even months to get to know someone more fully.

It’s easy to fall into the trap that those few seconds at the start of a relationship aka your video could seem unimportant or even useless.

But that is hardly the case. Introductions matter!

Especially 1-to-1 personalized video introductions.

So why do properly formatted introductions matter?

A well-crafted introduction really has four superpowers that can be leveraged for your 1-to-1 personalized videos.

• Introductions set the tone.
• Introductions establish trust.
• Introductions signal power or the absence of power.
• Introductions signal approachability.

Great introductions reveal respect and the origin of that word tells it all:

Introduction: to look at, to regard, or to consider.

Your video watcher is most likely trying to consider your product or service as an option for their business if they are watching your video. They for sure are looking at you and diagnosing if you are believable, trustworthy, or a person of value to them and their decision-making process.

Unfortunately, that old saying that one doesn’t get a second chance to make a first impression now has evidence to back it up. So we have to hit our personalized 1-to-1 video intros out of the park.

You see, studies show that when meeting new people, we as humans “thin slice,” a term coined by Professor from Oregon State University and later used by author Malcolm Gladwell in the book, Blink.

So what is thin-slicing?

Thin-slicing is a term used in psychology and philosophy to describe the ability to find patterns in events based only on "thin slices", or narrow windows of experience.

The term means making very quick decisions about the state, characteristics or details of an individual or situation with minimal amounts of information.

Even more important is the fact that we or they, the watcher may not be aware they are doing it.

As a creator of 1-to-1 personalized videos, you don’t want your audience too thin slice you.

So, how can we create introductions in a way that make it almost virtually impossible to get thin sliced?

Great question.

There’s an easy process you can follow to create amazing introductions. 

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Introductions Matter

First, make sure you pay attention to how you start.

There is a huge difference between hello, hi, howdy, or any other variation.

Do you want your message to come across as business-focused or position you as a leader? 

Then most definitely use hello.

But, if you are trying to be more approachable, use hi or howdy.

Make sure you follow that up with your name.

Again, using your full name versus just your first name makes a world of difference.

Hello, I’m George B. Thomas is way different than Hi, I’m George.

Now, if you want to follow the more thought-leader business type of introduction, you would follow your introduction with your title and place of employment or ownership.

Like this: Hello, I’m George B. Thomas Inbound Evangelist at Impulse Creative & Sprocket Talk.com.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: What’s In It For Them

And finally, finish it off with what you do to help them. Your viewer comes to the table already wondering, what’s in it for me? That's WIIFM.

For example in my case for a business or thought leader style intro, I would go with something like:

Hello, I’m George B. Thomas Inbound Evangelist at Impulse Creative & Sprocket Talk.com and I help HubSpot users like you demystify HubSpot and get more out of the sales, marketing, and service, tools.

On the flip side, if I wanted to give off a more approachable or friend feel to my introduction, It might go a little something like this:

Hi, I’m George and I love HubSpot and have 21 certifications. In other words, I’m a big nerd.

Either introduction has its proper place and time of use. 

But, Make sure you’re diagnosing what type of introduction your viewer needs.

What that introduction needs to accomplish.

And finally, make sure you have your introduction formatted in a way that your prospect, lead, or customer knows exactly how they should feel and interact with you moving forward.

Customize Your 1-to-1 Personalized Video

Many people are fanatics when it comes to customizing things.

Everything from pimping your ride to bedazzling your jacket or purse or even monogramming your towels or robes.

People want to feel like “it” no matter what “it” is ... is theirs. They want to put their stamp on it.

But maybe even more importantly, they want people to see that it is theirs.

Look around the world and you will see that people are visually customizing almost everything.

So, it only makes sense that people would cling to videos that are visually customized and have their personal stamp on it.

This is why taking time to customize your 1-to-1 videos visually for each human you are about to send a video to is so important. 

There are several ways you can visually customize your personal videos. Each of these will depend on how much customizing you want to do during shooting your video vs editing your video.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: LED Marquee or Sign

The first way you can add visual customization is by purchasing a LED Marquee or sign with adjustable letters that can sit on a shelf behind you in your video.

This could be customized with their name and a short message to them. Their eyes will be drawn to their name and automatically read the message as you talk to them.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Spell Their Name

The second way you could customize their video is by getter wood or plastic letters and simply having their name or Hello, and their name on your desk or in front of your laptop depending on how you are shooting your videos.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Whiteboard or Chalkboard

The third way you could visually customize their video is to use a small whiteboard or chalkboard that is easily changeable video after video.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Top & Bottom Video Bars

The fourth way you could customize their videos is to add top and bottom bars with again a short message containing their name or pertinent information to your call that fits for them.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Lower Third Graphics

The fifth way you could visually customize your 1-to-1 videos is to create a lower-third graphic that can easily slide in or out of frame as needed during the video.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Branded Graphics

The sixth way you could customize your 1-to-1 video is to use their logo and brand colors to make them feel at “home” while watching your video.

Ninja Tip: Create shirts with the name of your prospect, lead, or customer and wear them in your video. 🤯

Wait, what?!

That my friends would be a lot of shirts. Can your closet handle that tip? Maybe skip that last tip. Let’s move on.

You can use any of these ways to visually customize your videos or use a variation of a couple.

You want your video to be customized enough to grab their attention but not be visually overwhelming or distracting. Remember, with these 1-to-1 videos, your message should be the meat of the meal and your visual customizations the salt and pepper or other condiments.

The key to successfully visually customizing your 1-to-1 videos is to do it but not to overdo it. 

1-to-1 Videos That Connect The Heart & Mind of Your Consumer

It takes logic to win the sale, but love to win them for life.

All of us have a deep emotional need for intimacy and understanding in this cold, cold world.

We crave meaningful human contact.

That's why we still go out and shop in stores and go to the movies!

I mean with Amazon & Netflix, there really is no need to leave the house yet we do. Why, because we crave something that those solutions just don’t quite fill.

So in a world like this, how do we use 1-to-1 personalized videos to connect with the brain and the heart and fill that void?

Let's break this down into two logical pieces.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Logistical Side of Selling

First, let's chat about 1-to1 videos and the mind.

To embrace the mind portion of the human you are engaged with, be prepared to share some statistics.

Make sure these statistics are relevant and of course are real.

You really have to lean into the mathematical side of the conversation to get the logical brain working.

You might share things like:

87% of online marketers use video content or that video on a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more. 

You might even dive into something a little fun and unknown like:

Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.

That’s why I am sending you this 1-to-1 video instead of a long email Jimmy!

But, when you share statistics in your videos, you may want two add two important things to them. One verbally state the source and visually show the stat.

Doing both of these will keep your viewers BS meter at bay.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Emotional Side of Selling

Now, moving on to the emotional side of selling.

Well, it’s actually not selling at all. 

It is having the ability to lead with empathy.

What is empathy? It is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Or, as my dad use to put it … Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins. I know it’s a bit strange but at the root of it, it makes sense.

Put yourself in their shoes, in their position.

Understand the fears they have, the questions they need to be answered, the roadblocks they perceive to be in their way.

And once there, start guiding them to safety with the words, articles, and videos, you share with them moving forward.

If you have been in their position share your story.

If you have helped others navigate from where they are, share their stories. But as you tell your stories or the stories of others, make sure they are rooted in emotions.

You might say things like:

John when I was in your shoes, I was scared to death. Want to know what helped me remove the fear and get to where you are trying to get to?

Notice, I used the word scared and fear combined with a question pointing to their aspirational point. This pulls them into you, into the feelings, into the journey.

And you, have effectively used your 1-to-1 personal video to communicate with and connect their mind and heart together.

Solving vs Selling a 1-to-1 Personalized Video Master Skill

Hopefully, you know the importance of building a closer relationship with your prospects, leads, and customers. By combining expertise, convenience, and practical know-how, you can quickly become their go-to person for advice.

They will come to you over and over again because you are a problem solver vs a product or service seller.

Why? Because they know, like, and trust you.

The fun part about this 1-to-1 personalized video tip is that the more you solve the more they want to buy. Therefore you end up selling more in the long run.

You see, It becomes a win, win situation for you and the prospect, lead, or current customer.

So, how can you focus on making sure you have a mindset of solving over one of selling in your 1-to-1 personalized videos?

There are several things you can bake into your 1-to-1 personalized videos to achieve your desired solving vs selling results.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Focus on Value

Focusing on discussions like business impact, outcomes and capabilities show your willingness to dive into the trenches with them.

Use educational pieces of content to add value as well as bring your prospect, lead, or customer up to speed with the product, service, or process.

These pieces of content can be links in your email but you should reference them verbally in your video as well.

As a bonus “value add”, make sure you share how you have used the product and or service with historical customers facing the same problems as them.

If you feel like the timing is right, you can also talk about 2 or 3 supplement services or products that might help impact their business even more or in a faster way.

That last tip usually works better towards the end of the funnel right before they are ready to make a decision. 

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Answer Questions

Make sure you take the time to answer your customer's questions first.

Yes, even those hard ones that no one else likes to address.

Don’t try to set the question to the side and dive into some script you usually follow.

Once their questions are answered, there will be plenty of time to dive back into that script.

The only difference is with their questions answered, their minds will be more willing to listen to what you have to say.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Respond to Their Needs

Sometimes the conversation goes past questions.

Maybe they want some case studies, some references, heck maybe they just want some direction that is out of the typical box you play in.

Either way, focus on and respond to their specific needs.

When you do this in combination with answering their questions, you are effectively looked at as being on the same side.

Let’s be honest, It’s way easier to have a conversation, market to, or even sell to a human if they feel like you are on their side.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Support Their Aspirations

Get in their corner. If you have seen the movie Water Boy you will understand what I mean when I say:

You Can Do It!

Let them know you are in their corner.

You are a trusted partner who will be with them for the long haul.

Let them know you believe in them and what they are trying to achieve. Make sure they know you will be there to help them make the right decisions. To get where they want to get or fix what they want to fix in the future.

If you can remember to leverage focusing on value, answer their questions, respond to their needs, and support their aspirations, then you and your 1-to1 videos will be solving machines that your prospects, leads, and customers fall in love with over and over again.

Keeping Your 1-to-1 Personalized Video End In Mind

You may be wondering, is goal setting important for my 1-to-1 personalized videos?

Well, setting goals is one of the most important things you can do if you want to achieve things in your personal or business life, and yes, the same holds true with your personalized 1-to-1 videos.

If you want the viewer to achieve something, you have to lead the way.

To lead the way you need to know where you’re going in the first place.

This is why you need a goal or goal destination aka keeping the end in mind in place before you take your prospect, lead, or customer on their video journey.

You might be wondering, what exactly does a goal destination do to make your personalized 1-to-1 videos better?

Great question.

There are several ways that this will optimize your videos.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Goal Destination

First, having a goal destination for the viewer will help keep your message succinct.

This does two very important things.

One, it keeps you from rambling on and on at the end of your video. Once you reach your destination, you know it’s time to hit the stop recording button and send your video on its way.

Trust me when I tell you, there is nothing worse than watching a video of someone rambling on and on. Heck, that doesn’t only suck for videos, it just sucks in general.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Cut the Fluff

The second thing that happens by having a goal destination in mind is that it helps you cut any unneeded fluff that may be occurring currently at the beginning of your personalized video strategy.

When you know where you are trying to get to with your video, you can hit the road running. So cut the fluff!

Another great byproduct of beginning with the end in mind is that it helps you track your progress as you craft and create your video message.

1-to-1 Personal Videos: Track your Progress

Just like a runner knows when to fall into a comfortable stride or start to sprint to the finish line, having a goal destination allows you to have a great cadence as your video progresses.

When you deliver a human who is looking for education or help of any kind of video that has an amazing cadence, cuts the fluff, and doesn’t bore them by rambling on forever, you are delivering a power-packed piece of conversational content they will appreciate and enjoy.

Go Forth & Communicate Like a Pro with your One-to-One Videos!

At this point you should be a one-to-one personal video ninja.

In closing, as you create your videos moving forward, make sure you are focused on being a happy, helpful, humble, human as well as following the tips you’ve just learned.

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