How to improve your business with video personalisation
Adobe Communications Team
11-18-2022
As a marketing leader, you know how powerful personalisation can be. Maybe you’ve dabbled in video personalisation before but think it’s part of some far-off future for marketing. The thing is, personalisation isn’t a distant possibility — it’s a present reality for marketers.
Video is the most popular type of content marketing right now, so it just makes sense to blend video with your other personalisation efforts. Personalised videos are a surefire way to reach existing and potential customers in a unique way and add value to your business.
Are you taking full advantage of personalised videos or are they on the back burner because you aren’t sure how to implement them?
Brands can’t afford to be behind the times and that’s why your marketing team needs personalised videos ASAP. Check out our guide to learn what personalised video is, why it’s so important and how your brand can add personalised video to its content mix.
A personalised video is video content made for a specific person. It’s usually a one-on-one video that functions like a pre-recorded conversation.
Keep in mind that personalisation isn’t just about adding the person’s name to the beginning of the video or the video thumbnail. Sure, using someone’s name is technically personalisation — but that’s too simple. A truly personalised video is tailored specifically to the person watching it and speaks to them directly.
In practice, video personalisation might look like:
A screen recording of you going through a client’s website or content
A review of your client's social media content
Using a photo or a video of your client in the video
Personalised videos should make it obvious that the content is for the receiver and no one else. If you can copy-paste the video and use it for another client, it isn’t truly a personalised video.
Personalised video is more common in account-based marketing (ABM), where you’re building a personal connection with specific B2B buyers. It’s tough to do personalised video for B2C, but it’s still possible. For example, Cadbury allowed its Facebook followers to create personalised videos for each other — all they needed was the recipient’s name and profile photo to create a magical experience.
Benefits of video personalisation
Personalised videos seem like more work, which is why so many brands put them off. But when you invest in video personalisation, it makes your brand stand out from others. This isn’t a new-fangled idea, either. Personalised videos have real, measurable results for your brand. Businesses invest in personalised videos for these four reasons.
Customers want to feel special and they’re much more likely to engage with correspondence that’s clearly just for them. In fact, personalised videos can boost email open rates and easily set your marketing content apart from your competitors.
It’s no surprise that 93% of brands say personalisation improves their conversion rates. Personalised videos bring more potential customers into your sales funnel, which sprinkles personalised content into their experience to encourage purchases.
3. Richer customer experience
Customers want to engage with brands through video content. Approximately two-thirds of consumers want to learn about brands through video and personalised video makes that experience even better. Personalisation enriches the customer experience by giving each customer a unique experience meant just for them. In an era where brands bombard shoppers with generic messages, this is a breath of fresh air for your customers.
4. Building relationships and loyalty
Personalised videos show that you care about buyers as individuals. While personalised videos alone might not win you a big contract, they certainly can help you foster a deeper connection with potential customers. That’s a key ingredient for long-term loyalty, so don’t skimp on video personalisation.
How to create personalised videos
Personalised videos are cool, but it’s not always clear how to make them. Creating unique videos for every customer can be a challenge for small businesses and enterprises alike. That’s why most companies use a specific solution for personalised videos. There are plenty of video marketing platforms that will help you to automate the video personalisation process and send personalised correspondence to all of your customers.
You can follow these five steps to start personalising your videos.
1. Identify your goals and target audience
First, identify what you want to get out of your personalisation efforts. Why are you doing this? Who do you want to target?
For example, if you want to nurture leads you’ll need a different strategy than if you chose to deepen loyalty with existing customers. Identifying your target audience helps you to know what kind of data you need to collect so you personalise correctly.
2. Choose a solution
If you don’t already have video personalisation software, now is the time to select one that best fits your needs. Ideally, go with a solution that allows you to automate the video personalisation process. Without this feature, you’ll spend way too much time filming, editing and adjusting videos for each customer. Adobe Target is a helpful solution for personalising, testing and optimising this content at scale.
3. Collect data
You’ll need customer data to accurately personalise your videos. The more involved the level of personalisation, the more data you’ll need. If you already have the data, figure out what you need to collect — or how to get the data if you don’t have it.
For example, if you want to personalise messages to a lead, you might need to know their:
Name
Title
Company
In some cases, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re using the right data before sending it to the customer. The last thing you want to do is mess up someone’s name or company, so conduct a quick Google search before you click “send.”
4. Plan out videos
Producing a video on the fly can lead to errors — and it could even cause you to mix up different contacts. Instead, plan out the entire video so you know what you’re going to say to the recipient.
When in doubt, plan a script or outline for each call. You don’t want to sound robotic or over-rehearsed. If you fall into the trap of sounding scripted, go with a bullet-point outline instead.
5. Record, edit and send
The final step is to produce the video. The specifics of the production depend on the type of video you create, the solution you use and the goal of the video.
and personalised video makes that experience even better.
Types of personalised videos
Setting up your video personalisation process is just the beginning. You can create so many types of personalised videos for your customers. They’re all a little different, so here’s a breakdown of the most common video types and how to film them.
Selfie-style
This is a video where the subject talks directly into their phone or laptop camera. It’s a quick, easy way to film dozens of authentic-looking videos in a day.
Traditional video
You can produce these videos using a professional camera like a DSLR. Use traditional filmmaking techniques to make incredibly impressive personalised videos that will wow an important client or customer. It’s tough to do these at scale, but it’s possible if you include snippets that can be easily personalised, like a screen where you add the customer or company name.
Screen share
This is a recording of your computer screen with audio recorded on top of it. It’s simple to do and great for explainers, presentations and customer support.
Template video
For template videos, you use a stock background or image and combine it with personalised text. This is a common type of personalised video that’s easy to generate at scale. You can make it even more personalised by using photos from the customer or images that are more relevant to them, such as their company logo.
Hybrid
Sometimes the most effective video combines multiple types in one. For example, a popular hybrid is a mix of selfie video and screen-share explainer video.
Besides different types of personalised videos, there are also varying levels of personalisation that you can create in videos:
Hyper-personalised. This is a video made specifically for one person, where your employee speaks directly to the camera. You can use this for outreach, technical support or any other situation where a one-to-one response is appropriate.
Segmented personalisation. This is a level above one-to-one conversations. Segmented personalisation allows you to create a personalised experience for a larger group of people. If you have a group of customers who all bought the same product, you can send them a personalised video about that product. Or if they joined your email list, you can send everyone a welcome message.
Personalised recommendations. This is a great workaround that allows even small businesses to create personalised videos. With personalised recommendations, you can recommend a playlist of non-personalised videos that you put together for a specific user. To make this even more effective, you can always film a short personalised introduction video for the playlist.
Ways to use personalised video
Once you’ve put in the effort to start personalising video, your team will need to decide how to use and share your personalised videos. You’re free to be as creative as you want, but these five examples are common ways to use personalised video.
1. Video emails
You can immediately increase the appeal of an email by adding a personalised video to the message body. This is great for company updates, sales offers or lead nurturing.
2. Brand loyalty videos
Use your customer data to help people celebrate their birthday or anniversary with your company. You can also send “year in review” videos to customers every December to thank them for their loyalty.
3. Invitations
If you want more people to attend your next event, send a personalised video inviting them to it personally. Potential attendees are more likely to respond to a personalised event invitation, so put in the time to invite people by name if you can.
4. Social media campaign
You can create an entire social media campaign with personalised videos. Produce videos highlighting your most loyal customers or generate funny videos with memes for your followers.
5. Personalised customer support
If a customer has a complicated issue, you can send them a screen-share explainer video that solves their problem directly. This personal approach to customer service is a great way to boost customer satisfaction and show that you really care.
Getting started with video personalisation
Personalised videos increase engagement and enrich the customer experience. When you’re ready to get started, identify your goals first. From there, your team needs to choose a personalisation solution, collect customer data, plan your videos and share them with customers.
