George B. ThomasIf you’re focused on great online communication then personalized one-to-one videos should be your go-to way to connect. It is easily the closest to face to face communication one can have in this ever-increasing digital world.
A while back, I wrote an article 6 Valuable 1-to-1 Personalized Video Tips for Digital Communicators that got the conversation started. I’ve also created a course on 1:1 personalized video over at Sprocket Talk in the VIP+ members area. This course is ever growing with new tips, tricks, and how-to videos to help you crush it as an online communicator.
However, in an effort to help all who follow Impulse Creative and who might read this article, I wanted to share seven more actionable and valuable one-to-one personalized video communication lessons.
You can see the seven video conversations we are going to have below as well as enjoy some of the videos along the way. Feel free to read them all or jump around as you see fit.
1:1 Personalize Video Lessons
- 1-to-1 Videos: Make Them Feel Special
- 1-to-1 Reverse Personalization
- 1-to-1 Personalized Video: Breaking Patterns
- A/B Testing Your 1-to-1 Personalized Videos
- Build a 1:1 Video Process
- Create a 1:1 Email Video Recipe
- Be Authentic in Your 1:1 Videos
Ready to take your 1:1 personalized videos to the next level?
Then let’s get into the good stuff.
1:1 Videos: Make Them, “The Viewer,” Feel Special
When it comes to creating 1-to-1 personalized videos, one thing to always keep in mind is this: The video is not for you. You are not creating this video to make you feel good.
As a matter of fact, you should flip that goal’s focus.
Work on making the human watching your video feel great about their situation or themselves.
In the real world, there are tons of ways you can make others feel great about themselves.
Making Others Feel Special
To make others feel special, you can do things like:
✔️ Stop what you’re doing and look directly into their eyes when they’re talking.
✔️ Recognize when they’re feeling down on themselves and say, “I think you’re awesome, and I hope you know it!”
✔️ Praise them for a job well done—especially if it’s a tiny victory that others might not think to acknowledge.
✔️ Tell them you believe they can achieve their dream or goal and why.
There are a ton of other things you can do to make others feel special, but does this work when creating 1-to-1 videos?
Yes! Many techniques to making people feel special can translate into your one-to-one videos.
Let’s take our earlier examples and see what we can come up with.
Stop what you’re doing and look directly into their eyes when they’re talking.
This is actually a great tip. By the way, by creating your 1-to-1 video you are already doing this. The perception of video is that it is hard and takes time.
When you take the time to create a video that is for them, it is signaling that you stopped everything for them.
Now, as far as looking in their eyes portion of this, make sure you are looking at the camera lens when creating your video.
No matter how heartfelt your message is to them if you are looking at yourself on a mobile screen or worse yet, your desktop preview monitor area, your message will have less of a connective, feel-good quality.
Recognize when they’re feeling down on themselves and say, “I think you’re awesome, and I hope you know it!”
As you create your video for them, you may not know that they are down but you can assume through helping other folks that they may feel stressed or lost when it comes to the problem they are trying to solve.
Let them know that they are awesome, smart, headed in the right direction. Embrace and say you understand that they might be stressed or lost but, in the near future, because they are awesome and you are there to help, everything is going to be okay.
Praise them for a job well done—especially if it’s a tiny victory that others might not think to acknowledge.
In your one-to-one videos, one of the things you should be doing is providing helpful content for the prospect, lead or customer, to read, listen to, or even watch.
If you’re doing this, you are on the right track.
But, have you ever praised them for actually going to the pages, the videos, the podcast episodes you assigned them?
Trust me when I tell you that their coworkers or employers won’t say anything to them about it. Heck, they may not even know about the information you sent over.
However, if your follow up message is praising them because they have accomplished what you gave them, they are immediately going to feel good about themselves.
Of course, for you to achieve this in the best manner possible, you want some type of lead intelligence tool so you can see they visited the page or watched that video.
Don’t praise them if they did not go or do what you asked them to do. If you do, you will have digital egg on your face.
Tell them you believe they can achieve their dream or goal and why.
By telling someone you believe in their dream or goal you're letting them know that they are not on an island by themselves.
They know they have a partner in crime. A ride or die when it comes to achieving their dreams and goals.
This will boost their level of self belief and therefore make them feel special deep in their core.
So you see, real world ways to make people feel special does translate into business style one-to-one personalized videos.
Why does this ring true?
Because personal videos are the most human way to communicate other than real world, face-to-face communication.
So figure out a list of ways that you want to leverage to make the humans you will be working with feel special. To be honest, a ton of new ideas are only one Google search away.
Simply search how to make people feel special and you will have an arsenal of ideas at your fingertips to make your prospects, leads, and customers feel special and because of that, connect with you at a deeper level than before.
Great 1:1 Personalized Videos Use Reverse Personalization
What does it mean to personalize a video?
If you ask this question to most people, they will respond with things like:
Using someone's name in the video.
Writing their names on a whiteboard or Chalkboard
Creating a custom thumbnail for the video specific to them or their problem.
And of course, all of these are correct.
The problem with most 1-to-1 videos is that is where it stops. ⛔
Many professionals who are creating or will be creating personalized videos will do these few things and call it a day.
While these video will still be effective, there is a way that you can totally up the level of your 1-to-1 personalized videos.
That’s by simply using reversed personalization.
What Is Reversed Personalization?
So, what is reversed personalization? Great question!
Reversed personalization is using your one-to-one videos to not only set yourself up for success but your entire team or important portions of your team.
A great real world example of reversed personalization is the Domino's pizza app. 🍕🍕
How many of you have seen that Pete or Jenny just created your pizza with love? 💛
Or maybe you saw that Ruben or Rebecca just put your pizza in the oven.
Why Is Reversed Personalization Important
Why is this important? Again, great question!
Why is Dominoes giving names to the process your pizza is going through?
Because, it humanizes the brand! It is no longer a set of hidden steps, but a group of people working on something you want as a team for you.
What a huge difference in perception!
In your one-to-one videos you want to leverage reverse personalization to humanize your brand as well. Makes sure the steps of your process are given a name.
In my case, if someone wanted to buy a service from us at Impulse Creative I could say, "Let me get you in touch with sales so they can sell you something."
Or I can say, "Let me connect you with Jackie. She is our growth strategist and totally geeks out on helping companies like yours grow to their full potential. To be honest, she is amazing."
Now that is setting up Jackie for success.
Another thing that happens subconsciously when you reverse personalize your one-to-one videos is you are delivering a little bit of how your prospect, lead, or customer, feels about you, to the next person in line.
You see, they already know, like and trust you.
You just said Jackie was awesome.
You’re awesome, they now start to think Jackie is awesome, they like you, they like Jackie, they want to get to know Jackie like you do, you are positioning Jackie to be a trusted part of the team working for what they want.
Of course, in your case, it might not be Jackie.
No matter what you are doing, or selling, break down the processes and the job titles involved and use human names for them. Leverage reverse personalization in your one-to-one personalized videos to humanize your brand and set your entire team up for success.
Amazing 1:1 Personalized Videos Break Patterns
Humans have evolved with the keen ability to detect motion and change in their environment.
That was a particularly helpful trait for our ancestors, who were hopefully able to use their peripheral vision to detect lions, tigers, and bears, OH MY preparing to attack them.
Although most of us are no longer fending off animal attacks, the evolutionary gift we inherited from our ancestors remains.
We’re really good at detecting a change in our environments.
We’re not so good, however, with sameness.
You see, we acclimate to our surroundings quickly.
Therefore, in order to maintain or regain the attention of the human on the other side of our 1-to-1 personalized video, we must frequently “break the pattern.”
You see, once we let our viewer settle into a routine their brain begins to function on autopilot and suppresses interesting information of the outside world.
By the way, that outside world is us the creator of the video!
Breaking the routine from time to time is good and keeps challenging the brain of the viewer, helping to keep their attention.
You see, they the viewer have to re-evaluate what is happening with what they are watching and this makes their brain operate at a heightened ability.
Creating your 1-to-1 videos in a way that break typical patterns is a great way to creates intrigue.
As you set out to create your 1-to-1 video, your goal should be to gain trust. However, many of us fall into the trap that trust equals comfort or vice-versa.
This is simply not true.
Yes, we want to build trust but, we don't want the viewer to get too comfortable.
If you think about life, it is in discomfort that most of us have large growth spurts or life-changing epiphanies.
On the flipside, comfortable equals predictable and predictable equals boring.
No one ever has said, "I wish someone would send me a boring and predictable video I could watch today."
You might be wondering, what are a couple of ways I can break the patterns that might be happening in my personalized 1-to-1 videos.
Breaking Patterns In Your 1:1 Videos
First, challenge assumptions.
This means the viewers assumption as well as yours.
Many personalized 1-to-1 videos are someone sitting at a desk in front of a computer telling the viewer their point of view. Or, how their products, service, or process can change their life.
If we're completely honest here, most 1-to-1 videos being produced today might be called preachy versus teachy.
Stop and challenge the viewer's assumption. Stop and challenge yours. How can change up what you are doing or how you're doing it?
Next, try rephrasing the problem!
Many times when we have a problem we can only see it from one direction. By hearing it rephrased or from a different direction, we now have a new view, our perception and perspective have been altered.
Being able to alter someone's perception and perspective via video content is super powerful for any sales, marketing, or service professional.
You can also ask a question to break the pattern.
This goes almost hand in hand with challenge assumptions but, ask a few questions along the way in your 1-to-1 videos. With this tip, it is a lot easier to break that "preachy" cycle you may find yourself in.
Be careful however, use the tool of questions sparingly to the viewer may get question fatigue and not engage at all.
Use motion to break the pattern.
Watch most 1-to-1 personalized videos and you will see a person standing in the frame of the camera.
In the same spot for the entire video.
I like to use some post-editing to add motion to my videos but, if you are trying to keep it simple, just move from one side of the screen to the other every few minutes as you deliver your messages.
Or, you can go from you talking to them fullscreen to showing the screen to even a 1/3 2/3 view with some easy post-editing in a tool like Wistia's Soapbox.
At the end of the day, if you use these tips, your viewer will thank you, engage with your content more, and maybe, just maybe have a totally different point of view on your 1-to-1 personalized video topic no matter what it is.
- Challenge assumptions
- Rephrasing the problem
- Ask questions
- Use motion
Always Be A/B Testing Your 1:1 Personalized Videos
I have to ask you, are all of your 1-to-1 videos the same for all of your prospects, leads, and customers?
Is it a script that you use over and over again and just replace the “their name here” section?
If so, you may be doing your 1-to-1 videos, and yourself, a major disservice.
You see, like everything else in marketing, sales, or heck even your entire business, you should always be changing up what you do.
In the one-to-one videos you are creating, this means you should always be testing what you are saying.
Test what you’re showing.
Test how you’re doing it.
It might be the stories you tell or the way you tell the stories.
It might be the questions you ask or the order in which you ask the questions.
It might even be the color or font choice of the lower third that slides in during your personalized videos.
To be honest, there are hundreds of verbal and visual variations that you could A/B test in your one-to-one personalized videos.
Testing All 1:1 Video Variables For Success
Think of it this way.
Does a comedian work on their comedy bits?
Do they diligently work on them and hone them to the very best they can be to get the most laughter from the audience?
Of course they do.
The bit when it was first thought of, first written down was probably not as amazing as the joke you end up hearing on their Netflix show.
They had to A/B test variables like words, speed, timing, and so much more.
Do you think that great communicators like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Abraham Lincoln just birthed their amazing speeches the first time they wrote them down?
Of course not.
They had to work and rework the word to get the exact meaning and feeling they wanted to achieve from their audiences.
When it comes to your one-to-one videos, you want the people, your audience to understand you.
You want them to have a feeling as you deliver your message.
Feelings are important when it comes to marketing, connecting, trusting, and selling.
Therefore, you need to work on the words you will say, the speed that you will say them, the timing of the words being said.
If you want your personalized one-to-one videos to be the best they can be, you are always A/B testing them.
You are always changing and tweaking your videos until they are 1-to-1 personalized video works of art that move, inspire, and help the humans that you are sending them to.
Focusing on A/B testing your personalized video helps you can become a better communicator and therefore allows you to help more people solve the problems they have or purchasing the products they need.
Build A 1:1 Personalized Video Process
To truly use 1-to-1 personalized videos you need to remove all barriers that might get in your way.
If the process to create, edit, or send them to your prospects, leads, and customers is difficult, it just won't get done.
So, how do you build a 1-to-1 video process that streamlines every action you need to take?
That’s a great question so let’s dig in.
The first thing you should focus on is to keep it, your video creation process simple.
Many 1-to-1 video software solutions have kept that in mind as they built their software.
Most are a simple click from your browser, selecting to share the screen or not, and you are on your way.
After recording, most are uploaded to a hosting solution where you can then copy the thumbnail and URL into your email.
However other software or ways of creating one-to-one videos can be a bit more complex.
You need to figure out what you are comfortable with as well as what functionality you need to make the right choice.
Don’t let yourself get bogged down in complex solutions!
Keep it simple… you didn’t think I was going to call you stupid did you?? 😊
1:1 Personalized Videos: Make the Repeatable
At the end of the day, you want to spend more time hitting the send button than editing and tweaking your video.
Another great way to keep it simple is have your camera, mic, backdrop always stay the same.
A dedicated personal 1-to-1 recording area or booth if available really helps simplify as there is no tear down or setup of equipment.
This leans into our next one-to-one video tip, make it easily repeatable.
➡️ Make sure you can change out your visual customization quickly.
➡️ Make sure you are comfortable.
➡️ Make sure you are in a noise free space that allows you to do 1-to-1 personalized videos in bulk.
Focus on being able to hit those record and send buttons as often as possible.
If your gear, software, and space is setup correctly, you can churn out personal videos like a candy factory churns out their tasty morsels.
1:1 Videos Make them Measurable
Last but not least, make your personal videos measurable.
What should you be looking at for personal video measurement?
First, you want to be able to see that your prospect, lead, or customer opened the email.
Second, you want to be able to measure the fact that they clicked on your video in the email.
The thumbnail of your videos is a hot place to A/B test to see how you can get more folks clicking into your videos if you see they are not.
Who knows, if you were that sombrero in your thumbnails it might create intrigue and therefore a higher click-through.
Next, you want to be able to see how much of the video they watched and if they rewind or watch sections several times over.
This will let you know that:
- They have watched the full video and know about everything you shared as well as
- If there was a confusing or very relevant part of what you shared.
You will also want to know if they clicked on any of your value add links in the email.
That way, you understand if they are continuing to self educate and deepen their trust for your brand.
Last but not least, try to keep track of 1-to-1 personal video emails that have more replies than others.
At the end of the day your goal with your one-to-one videos should be more human to human interactions and the human on the other side hitting reply shows you that they are engaged and want to keep moving forward.
Make sure you are focused on keeping your 1-to-1 personalized videos, simple to create, easily repeatable, and measuring the success and failure rates of all your digital communication efforts.
Video Email Recipe for Your 1:1 Personalized Videos
You've hit record, visually customized your 1-to-1 personal video, used their name, and now, it you are ready to create and send out your email.
STOP!
Don’t fall prey to what we’ve seen hundreds of others do.
Do not continue to write those book length emails and just add a video to them.
You see, because you are creating amazing 1-to-1 videos that focus on introductions, adding value, and solving vs selling, the video is your hero.
So, treat it like it is and create an email recipe you can use over and over again to create emails your prospects, leads, and customers, actually enjoy opening.
So, you might be wondering, what email recipe do we use for our 1-to-1 personal videos?
Great question!
Build Your Own Email Video Recipe
Ingredient number one is a textual intro.
In this intro, you will of course use their first name.
Hello, Jimmy!
Then the rest of the intro is to set the stage, add context and intro the talking points of your video.
It might go a little something like this.
Hello, Jimmy!
I wanted to touch base with you after our conversation at the lunch and learn on Tuesday.
I really enjoyed our conversation and it was a pleasure meeting you.
You had a couple questions as we were leaving so I figured I would send the answers your way. I don’t know about your but, I hate long rambling emails so I created this video to answer those questions as well as share a tidbit or two about me and how I help folks like yourself.
Enjoy.
Next, add in your video. When adding in your video, make sure to embed the creative, customized thumbnail not just a link. This will make your email more visually stimulating as well as the thumbnail will make the recipient want to click and watch the video.
After that, add in your add value links. This should be a short paragraph with three or four bulleted items. Make sure to link the bulleted items to the pages, videos, or podcast, you are sharing to add value to the conversations.
Pro Tip: If at all possible, do not use raw URLs but hyperlink the bullet point text items to make it visually pleasing as well as easy understood boy the reader.
There is a huge difference in looking at:
Why We Podcast - and You Should Too! versus
https://www.impulsecreative.com/blog/why-we-podcast-and-you-should-too
Next, after you add value section, is your outro.
This is your exit, your handoff.
This should be a paragraph or two at most.
In the outro make sure you thank them for watching the video,
Mention the add value links and their importance.
And finally, let them know if they have any questions to feel free and hit the reply button or give you a call.
It might go something like this.
Thanks Jimmy for taking the time to watch the video I sent you. I hope it answered your questions fully. If not, make sure you check out the links I sent with this email as it dives even deeper into your questions.
If you have any further questions or want to pick my brain some more, hit reply or just give me a call at 330-232- …
You didn’t think I was going to give you all my phone number did you? 😂
There it is.
The perfect starter email recipes for your personalized 1-to-1 video emails.
Now, go create your own amazing recipe or use ours to start sending amazing emails with 1-to-1 videos your prospects, leads, and customers, will love!
Be Authentic in Your 1:1 Personalized Videos
So many people fear the camera. They fear it so much that they don’t think they can be themselves.
This is just not true.
If you want a video to fail, just put on a mask or a persona!
Your viewer will see right through it.
If you want your personalized video to succeed simple be authentic.
What does that mean to you?
Only you can answer that to be honest.
Do you want to be funny or serious? Do you want to be professional or relaxed?
There are so many human traits you can pick from. Simply pick three or four of them and make sure you take them into account every time you hit the record button.
For me, I’m focused on four things.
- Be happy!
- Be helpful!
- Be humble!
- Be human!
These four items are my compass keeping me headed in the right direction for every video I create and send.
What will yours be?
If you want to learn more about creating amazing personalized 1:1 videos, head over to Sprocket Talk to enjoy the ever growing personalized video course or, go read about the other six tips you could start implementing into your personalized video strategy today.
GIFs via Giphy
Dream big photo by Randy Tarampi on Unsplash
Video photo by Miss Zhang on Unsplash
Break patterns photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
Stop photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash