Personalized ‘Thank You’ Video Email: Why and How to Send

Sending a follow up thank you email has been a standard practice for a long time in sales. While a good sales pitch is a major part of closing a deal, the follow up communication thanking your prospects gives it the perfect finishing touch. Your gratitude makes a positive impact on the client and sets the tone for the professional relationship that you build. While the advantages of a follow up thank you email is well known, plain text-based appreciation notes are losing sheen. 

In the modern day business landscape of hyper-personalization, your written thank you mail doesn’t stand out in the clutter of appreciation mails your clients receive on a daily basis. Being personal is all about letting them see you show your appreciation for their time, and that means sending a quick video email. A twenty second snippet of you personally taking your time to say thank you has a stronger impact than a lifeless text-based email.  

In this article we’ll take a look at how a personalized thank you video after a sales meeting can help you leave a lasting impression and how you can make one like a pro today. 

Why you should send a personalized Thank You video email?

In the age of information and email overload, the conventional ways of communication, such as text-based email or even a phone call, haves lesser value than before. As people are increasingly being trapped within digital walls, they’re missing the human touch in all interactions. Furthermore, increased personalization of products and services has gotten people habituated to having things tailored to their liking. This is where personalized videos come in to fill the void in business communication. 

Personalization doesn’t just involve adding a person’s name to the video’s title;, it is a video that is made specifically for them and has a message only they can relate to. It could be as simple as, “Hey Steve, thanks for your time! I’m looking forward to our next call. It was good to hear all the challenges you are facing at the moment. I was particularly intrigued by that anecdote you shared towards the end of the call. I would be delighted to work with you in the future!”

The personal thank you video adds a distinctive element that reflects you and humanizes the interaction. The other ways in which it works for you is as follows: 

1. It is a quick reminder of your discussion

The human brain can only retain so much information while switching between tasks. When it comes to sales meetings, there’s so much detail involved that it’s easy to forget the highlights. To secure a deal, it is ideal to close it as early as possible while your prospects still retain most of the information. The best way to do that is to leave a lasting impression with a video message and fill the gap in the sales process. Briefly emphasizing the keywords in your thank you video message can serve as memory bookmarks for sections of your sales meeting.

2. It can add additional value

If you feel that the prospect wasn’t fully convinced or showed signs of lingering doubts in the sales meeting, the follow up video message is a good opportunity to make things clear. You can always add a few quick lines for clarification or bring it up in the video and address the issue in the subsequent meeting.

3. It improves business communication

Any communication without seeing the other person’s face and mannerisms doesn’t leave a lasting impression. Face-to-face interaction has been the gold standard in sales when it comes to customers, especially with big deals. The advent of technology and instant communication took away the human element and reduced people to a list of numbers and names in the registry. While in-person meetings will always remain the best form of interaction, video calling and messaging comes second. Sending videos performs the all-important task of building the human connection and improves your communication. 

4. It makes an emotional impact

Antonio Damasio, a neuroscience professor at the University of Southern California makes the case that emotions are a necessary ingredient to all decisions we make. Unforgettable impressions are formed as a direct consequence of how strongly we feel about meeting the other person. A simple thank you for your time email video shows gratitude that stokes positive emotions in your prospects that makes them favor you and your deal. 

Elements of a great Thank You video

As far as sending a thank you note goes, a simple, no-strings-attached video is enough to do the job. However if you wish to leave a lasting impression on the prospects, there are several elements that need work. Here’s how you create a great professional thank you email video: 

1. Personalize it to the individual

As discussed in detail earlier, personalization is the key to making a great thank you video. Everybody loves feeling special and making a video just for them is the sure way to capture their attention. Tools such as Hippo video enable you to create highly personalized videos at scale on the go. If you have a pool of prospects then the Humanize AI feature of the platform will help you create hundreds of personalized videos for individual prospects with their names and contextual information.

However when you’re targeting more important people, you can refine your approach to hyper personalization. Before you record a video, research your high-value prospect on the company profile or LinkedIn to learn details that might help. For example, if they’re an outdoor enthusiast you can weave that into the conversation or wear your favorite hiking jacket in the video. The key to getting it right is subtlety; if the prospect’s an astronomy enthusiast, a small telescope in the back is a great prop to pique their interest. 

2. Show politeness in the video

Plan your thank you message ahead of time. Get the words rights and practice on the tone of delivery. If you are naturally energetic and enthusiastic in your speech then maintain the same tone while being polite. Even after landing the deal, avoid boastful language and keep it simple. 

3. Make it about the “thank you”

The focus of your message must be the thank you! To start the videos make a note in bullet points about all the things you plan to say to set the tone for why you are being thankful. Keep the message concise with your gratitude being the highlight of the clip. Use positive words that express thanks and try to avoid deviating from the topic.

4. Maintain a tone that shows your genuine personality

While personalization is one side of the equation, honesty is the other side. Most people can spot a fake thank you from a mile away, so try not to overdo it and keep the message genuine. It is often the case that people come across as disingenuous when trying to be overly perfect. Being genuine has little to do with perfection and more to do with relatability. Therefore avoid spending too much time on the perfect take or the perfect delivery and go with what comes naturally. 

5. Pay attention to your body language

When it comes to communication about 90% is nonverbal! That involves your mannerisms, smile, eye contact, posture and gestures in the video. Avoid behaviors and postures that make you come across as deceptive or dishonest. Closed body language such as folded arms or hunched over posture can throw your prospects off. Speak with an open body language with the arms open and the palms visible. Smile often and look into the lens of the camera while recording your video.

6. Set a time limit

Ideally your thank you video should be no longer than 1 or 2 minutes. There’s enough room in that to get your point across without putting too much strain on their time and attention on a busy day. Your prospect is more likely to open your video the shorter it is, however if you must include more information in the follow up video then break it up into multiple parts and include links to additional resources if necessary. 

7. Keep it simple

Nothing says personal than an honest, from the heart snippet, shot as realistically as possible. Ditch the production-heavy elements and make a relatable video with all the inexpensive gear you have. There are lots of inexpensive tools such as selfie sticks, tripods and video editing tools which add a little bit of a professional touch to the mobile phone video. Set up at a location with good lighting or invest in a small ring light to churn out great videos right from your desk. 

Here’s how Hippo Video helps you create outstanding Thank you videos

Hippo Video is a versatile video platform  that lets you create highly personalized videos for your sales process at every stage.

1. Record videos anywhere, anytime

With Hippo you can create thank you videos on the go. If you already have a longer video recorded on your phone or camera, all you have to do is import and edit the video to desired length. The platform also lets you record video from your mobile device or webcam to create a quick thank you video. Further, you can also create videos from GIFs and photos or seamlessly integrate with other tools you are already using. The platform integrates with popular sales tools such as LinkedIn, Salesloft, Hubspot, Outreach and others so you won’t have to juggle tools or tabs.

2. Edit videos like a pro

Hippo allows you to create professional quality videos with minimal efforts using intuitive tools on the platform. Import or record a video and get to work trimming clips, cropping, stitching, adding emojis or setting the start and end points. The tool is designed for fast editing without any prior knowledge of the functions. Even the newbie on the team can start editing like a pro with features such as green screen, blur, annotations, text overlay and voice-over capabilities.

3. Use pre-built templates

Create multiple videos in record time with a wide range of pre-built templates. With Hippo you won’t have to create a fresh video for every new prospect, instead you can pick a template to quickly put together the content and save time. You can also use the Template Builder to make a video with a preset intro and outro and sandwich your personalized video. The same templates can be used later for multiple prospects in the niche and scale your efforts.

4. Add interactive elements

Create engaging, interactive video experiences with a custom viewing path, forms, polls, CTAs, and more. Videos are no longer meant to be linear and monotonous; people love to interact with the content and even direct where it goes. With Hippo you can embed interactive features into the video to make it more engaging for all. Customized viewing paths allow your prospects to select the part of the content they’re interested in viewing while polls and CTAs get them moving to take action.

5. Accelerate and automate video creation using video workflows

With Hippo you can optimize your sales workflows by using the template builder. Video flows enable you to easily sandwich personalized videos to existing templates and create email campaigns at scale. Record just one video and personalize it to hundreds of prospects in no-time embedding their names and information into the videos generated by AI.

Closing Thoughts

As the world gets cluttered with text based emails, the new way to stand out to your prospects is by sending thank you video emails throughout the sales process. A simple and highly personalized thank you video makes your prospect feel special. The positive emotions generated throughout the various stages of selling are essential to building a long-term relationship with your customers. By following some of the simple methods outlined in the article you will be able to create winning thank you videos for all your prospects. 

With a tool like Hippo you have the option to create hundreds of personalized videos at scale to suit campaigns of any sizes. Book a demo today to learn all about creating outstanding Thank You video emails!