Vidyard & Visual Selling: Creating a Culture of Video in Business with Tyler Lessard (Episode 113)

Chris Schwager 

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Video Made Simple podcast where we help take the mystery out of video and break through the monotony of day to day communication for marketers, entrepreneurs and clients. Watch and listen to the world's best video strategists, business leaders, and communication experts to supercharge the way you sell market and teach.

[00:00:17] Brenden Kumarasamy: How would the world change for you are an exceptional communicator?
Dr. Greg Schreeuwer: You said it the way you said it, cuz that's the way it needs to be said in the moment.

[00:00:23] Chris Schwager: Open your mind to the potential of video.
Phil Nottingham: It's all about showing rather than telling people.
Sian Jenkins: The whole idea was to create bingeable content.
Chet Lovegren: This guy actually made me a video. He took the time. That's probably the type of support and care I'm gonna get. When I'm paying these people a lot of money for their product.

[00:00:37] Chris Schwager: And lead your business into a world of modern communication.
Kate Robinson: You don't have to spend millions of dollars, your Spielberg production to get an outcome.
Andrew Zbik: Within 24 hours of opening that email we could tell they are watching that full 20 minutes.
Todd Hartley: And video's the most powerful tool for convincing and converting. So we are in the driver's seat.

[00:00:54] Chris Schwager: With practical tips that will help you become a better video market. This is the Video Made Simple podcast.

[00:01:10] Chris Schwager: Hello, video marketing professionals. Welcome to the podcast. It takes the mystery out of producing videos. I'm your host, very, very croaky host Chris Schwager. And I'm joined here with Mr. Southall today. He wouldn't miss it. He wouldn't miss this episode. How are you Brendan?

[00:01:25] Brendan Southall: Yeah, really excited that to see Tyler on our show. It's, it's been a long time and I've watched a lot of his content over the years and I'm very excited that he's come to join us today.

[00:01:34] Chris Schwager: Well, Tyler Lessard is our guest from Ontario, Canada. Who's a Marketing Vice President Chief Video Strategist for Vidyard. He's the leading provider of video marketing, video selling and video analytics solutions for business. He drives Vidyard's global corporate marketing strategy and thought leadership for businesses of all shapes and sizes to help integrate video content into their marketing and sales strategies in a way that generates immediate results.

[00:01:58] He also authored the book, The Visual Sale, which teaches marketers, sellers, and business leaders how to embrace video to grow faster. Ridge films uses video. Oh my God. We use Vidyard on a daily basis, for, for video and sales emails. We love, love, love it. We recommend it to our DIY Video Program clients because it's the fastest way to personalise and send video in email.

[00:02:24] So I can, I just want to, I can't wait. I just wanna get him on the show. So to give us more insights on visual selling, here's our chat with Tyler Lessard.

[00:02:40] Tyler Lessard: You know, Vidyard is a really interesting platform, product, set of tools that's evolved over the last, oh, it's been about 12 years now. Actually I had short hair when I started at Vidyard if you can believe that. but, that's actually, one of our strengths is we have been around a long time. We actually started as a video hosting management and analytics platform, similar to Wistia and Vimeo others that you might know. Our unique difference in the early days, was we really focused on companies who were using video, not so much just for brand building and communications, but using video on their website as a way to educate prospects as part of their demand campaigns and ongoing programs to, try to help nurture leads through the buying process.

[00:03:24] And as such, we focused a lot on analytics and helping marketers understand who's watching their video? How long are they watching them? Being able to get that data back into their marketing and sales systems of record. So you could use that data to get better insights on your customers, much like you would with a PDF document, knowing who downloaded it and, and how, and, and if they actually engaged with it.

[00:03:46] So that was our, our foray into the world of video. We spent a number of years building what I believe to be the best video hosting platform for businesses. And then a couple of years ago, we built a really cool app on top of it that made it easy to your point to make DIY videos. Hit the record button record your webcam or your screen.

[00:04:04] Those videos are immediately ready to be shared out via email or other channels. And that's really caught on as a solution for sales reps, which is where we spend a lot of our time focusing now. So a big ch you know, big differentiator for us is a combination of the analytics. The kind of business grade platform.

[00:04:20] And then the fact that we have solutions for marketing and sales, as well as internal video in one single platform.

[00:04:26] Chris Schwager: We're a little bit behind here in Australia. There's a lot of people still doing traditional selling. One of the common misconceptions about creating videos. Is it around education? Can you expand?

[00:04:38] Tyler Lessard: Well, you're absolutely right. We've seen over the last few years. Video has evolved from almost like this premium content medium for brand and social media and higher end produced content. to now moving into being more of an educational content medium, a way for us to deliver our, our most important messages.

[00:04:55] And this has actually been triggered more so by audience expectations than anything else, right in today's world. More and more people want to self-serve, right? We know from all the analyst firms that, you know, 80% plus of the buying journey happens by people on their own time, on the internet, engaging in content.

[00:05:16] And if we're not providing video content as a part of that experience, we're missing a huge opportunity because it's the one medium where, I mean, as we all know, right. That we can show, not just tell what it is that we do. we can make ourselves more memorable. We can make our messages more memorable, but maybe most importantly, that we can real create an emotional connection with that audience.

[00:05:37] And so more and more, we're seeing it being used as that way to educate people when they're trying to learn on their own time. Whether it's early in the buying process or heck it could be very late when they wanna see an on-demand demo about a very specific capability. So I think this is a big area of growth for video, and we're seeing a combination of produced content as well as DIY content to help people through that journey with things that, really help them understand what it is that they're, trying to learn and to do so again, in a way that keeps that connection flowing.

[00:06:06] Chris Schwager: Visual selling, what is it?

[00:06:08] Tyler Lessard: Is there any other way? Is there any other way? It's funny, you know, I, I talk to, to sales reps and sales leaders all the time. Now, as this is a big focus area of us, you know, often those conversations start this way. They say, well, you know, why would I add video into, into the mix of how I message with my clients?

[00:06:26] And of course, you know, I ask them, I say, well, you know, for meetings when you can't be there in person, I mean, what do you do now? Do you, do you do a phone call or do you, do you do a video meeting? I say, well, of course I do a video meeting, right? It's way better. They can see me. We can, you know, get to know each other.

[00:06:40] I can explain things better. Then I say, well, during all those down moments, when you're not in a live meeting with them and you have information to share, maybe you're reaching out to them to, you know, answer a question. Maybe you're trying to explain an idea. Maybe you're prospecting and trying to get their attention.

[00:06:54] Today, you're probably sending emails to do that, right? Yeah, of course we are. Well, Why wouldn't you use the video? Oh, right. Like I do that instead of a live meeting, but offline. Why not? Why I may not send a video. And usually, you know what? It comes down to the fact that they just didn't realize it was a capability, that it was possible to record a video and send it.

[00:07:14] Like it used to be so much work to do that. You'd record a video somehow. You'd have this like 300 megabyte file. You'd have to upload it somewhere, right? It just didn't fit with our day to day. Just send an email. But the tools are now there, where you can go, hit record, record my video, send it right. You're not dealing with files. You're not dealing with uploads. It's literally as simple as that. So once they catch onto that and they go, wow! You're right. Like when I'm emailing a prospect to get their attention, why wouldn't I include a little video that I

[00:07:42] Chris Schwager: Let's go, let's go deep in that because like the functional way it's used, I guess, because I think there'd be so many of our audience I'm sure are still going. Oh, what's he talking about? And, you know, still very confused because we, we, after 20 years in business, still have to explain that you don't attach videos to emails anymore. Right? Like , that's, I mean, especially not with the sizes they are these days.

[00:08:03] So just take me through, because a lot of the plugin is amazing. Like I'm using it like multiple times a day. It is, it is really a game changer for our business right now. How does, how does it all work? And, and does it work, I guess, uniformly across any, email platform?

[00:08:20] Tyler Lessard: Yeah. Yeah. So, you can sign up for Vidyard, you know, as the tool of choice, there are others out there, but I'm fairly partial to Vidyard for many reasons and you can sign up for free.

[00:08:30] So right now, as you're listening, feel free to go to vidyard.com, sign up and you got an account. once you've got that, you've got a nice little web based interface, but you can also install our plugin for Google Chrome. We also have an edge plugin and, once you're ready to go, it's literally as easy as you click the little video button, say, I wanna record a new video.

[00:08:52] It will ask you if you wanna record your webcam, your screen, or both. Choose your favorite and start recording. as soon as you're done, the great thing is the video is now immediately ready to be shared with a custom link and a custom thumbnail image. So you say copy link or copy, link and thumbnail. Paste into your email and send it.

[00:09:13] And so it really is that simple. And, and part of the real power though, is not just dropping the link in an email, but also that thumbnail image, because when that gets through to your prospect, your customer, your colleague, your friend, they're gonna see when they open the email, they're gonna see that thumbnail image.

[00:09:30] With the little play button they're gonna see your face. They're gonna see whatever it is. That's gonna capture their attention. You're gonna be holding up a whiteboard that says, hi Louise! Right? And, there's lots of things you can do with that. So

[00:09:43] Chris Schwager: That's your trick, by the way, that was your trick. I'm pretty sure you guys came up with that. We've just gone and marketed the shit out of it, basically at this end.

[00:09:50] Tyler Lessard: You know, I, I think. Yeah, I think we've drove the, purchase of at least $20,000 worth of $1 whiteboards. Yeah. of, people doing that. Yes. but, but, but it is an interesting thing, right? Cause when you're using, let's say you're using these videos for sales prospecting, so that's a very common use case.

[00:10:08] In that case, you're sending an email, you tease them with a great subject line. They open it and all of a sudden they see this nice big thumbnail image. They see your face, but if you include something in that thumbnail image that proves to them that you made this video, just for them, their expectations go through the roof, they go, wait a minute. Did this person really make me a video? Cuz to them it still seems like magic. And so that little whiteboard that says hi Louise, or maybe you did a screen share, where your face is on the screen, but also their website is

[00:10:36] Chris Schwager: That's right. That's a good trick

[00:10:38] Tyler Lessard: or their LinkedIn profile, right? Yes. Yes. any of those things where they'll see that thumbnail and they'll go, this person made this just for me.

[00:10:46] I'm super curious. I'm gonna click this and see what it's about. And you've got that 30 to 60 seconds to go, Hey, this is me, right. I'm here to help. I'm reaching out because of a, B and C. And, I'd love to have a conversation and it just works wonders. But to your point, it's very simple. Record. Drop the link and the thumbnail image in...

[00:11:05] Chris Schwager: yeah.

[00:11:06] Tyler Lessard: When they click on it, the magic happens.

[00:11:07] Chris Schwager: Last week's guest gave me a, a screenshot of my LinkedIn profile and he. The video message was, ah, Good day Chris, just checking in because I've been sick the last couple of days. And I just wanted to check in to let you know, my, my voice is a bit croaky right now. And if this is okay, we'll continue, but I'm happy to reschedule. And there was nothing about my LinkedIn profile and I was going when I spoke to him, I said, what's the deal like you shared this video and all you showed is my LinkedIn profile. I was like, yeah. That's just to get your attention and make sure you watch the video. And I'm like, that is so smart, but I would've liked you to review my LinkedIn profile, but Hey, that's okay as well. But yeah, like, so how important is this? Right? Like, this is so fundamental.

[00:11:50] If you can't get them to watch the video. It's all a waste of time. Right. So how important is things like subject lines? The, the, context of the, the copy in the inmail, as well as the thumbnail, like working in harmony with each other, not just in one off one, one on, one emails, but also. In the broader, email marketing, like EDMS and what have you?

[00:12:13] Tyler Lessard: Well, it's like with anything, you have to create that curiosity right up front.

[00:12:18] You have to create that urgency to act, and motivate them to engage in your message. And the neat thing is when you are sending out a video, whether it's a one-to-one video as, a prospector, or maybe it is a one to many email that you're sending as a marketing team and including a nice big video as your call to action, you have different ways in which you can inspire people or create that curiosity for them to engage and watch. It's very different from download this PDF or read this blog post, right? Downloading and reading as calls to action. They, I don't know. It's, they're very active processes that people go, that sounds like a lot of work.

[00:12:58] Chris Schwager: Yeah.

[00:13:00] Tyler Lessard: But when you're, but when you say, Hey, sit back, relax and watch this one minute video.

[00:13:05] Chris Schwager: Yes.

[00:13:06] Tyler Lessard: Right. It's like, oh, this sounds great. Right? Like way better. I can, I can passively consume this. It's a little bit different. Right. And so there's all these new things you can do. You can say in your subject line right now, you can tease out the fact that there's a video for them. My subject line might just be Louise made you this video.

[00:13:23] You go that, like, if that doesn't pique curiosity, I don't know what will, or, you know, something along those lines of, you know, 32nd intro just for you, right? There's little ways you can play with it right in your subject line. But then as you move into the body of the email, yes, you gotta have a nice catchy open.

[00:13:41] Like you always do. You have that nice video thumbnail image, but you always gotta remember the purpose of your copy around the thumbnail image is not to get that big conversion it's to get them to watch the video. Right? So you shape everything around, getting them to watch that video. Cuz if you can get them to click play, you got 'em right.

[00:14:00] They're gonna they're they you're literally getting FaceTime with them. They get to hear you. They get to see you. They get to know you, they get to trust you. So there's all these little things you can do to say, all right, all I need to do is get them to click play. So what am I gonna. Well, first of all, my thumbnail image is gonna be interesting.

[00:14:16] It might be their LinkedIn profile, or if I'm gonna talk about how I got a croaky throat, I might pick up, pull up a picture of a frog and you're gonna be like, what's going on with this frog. And then I can, you know, deliver my message. So the thumbnail image is of course really important. The copy to introduce the video, right.

[00:14:30] It can't just be a thumbnail. They're gonna be like, I don't know what this is. So there's gotta be those one to two sentence teaser. But again, you can really lean into the fact that, Hey, I made you this video, this. 29, second video to quickly introduce myself. And I wanted to show you one really interesting thing, dot, dot dot.

[00:14:46] Right? And here's the last, the last tip. This is a super pro tip super pro tip here. If you're prospecting, usually after like the video thumbnail, you're gonna write a sentence. Like, can we find 15 minutes to talk about this? Or can we book 30 minutes for a short meeting? Take that out. Cause you know what happens, people see that they don't even watch the video.

[00:15:08] They're like, I'm not gonna book a meeting with you. I'm not gonna spend any more time. But change that last sentence. Go, is the problem I shared in the video something you might be experiencing too? Question mark. And that's it. Right? You're creating that curiosity to go. I gotta watch this thing. I gotta watch this one minute video and see what's going on here.

[00:15:27] Then your main call to action is in there. So all these things fire and you go not surprised a lot of reps get two to three times higher response rates when sending these videos, cuz they connect with people, they and inspire them to respond.

[00:15:38] Chris Schwager: I'm pretty sure you've wrote the playbook on this and we've just been rehashing it. Like it's like, it's our idea for the last like three years, Brandon, I saw you kind of nodding eagerly when he was talking about, you know, grabbing attention. I mean, tell us about you the. Tell Tyler about the, the video prop walkthrough.

[00:15:58] Brendan Southall: Yeah. In, in our proposals now, cuz you know, historically we had the problem, everybody just going straight to the price and not having any idea around the scope of what we're offering and how it could help them. So yeah. So now we embed a, a video which is a personalised walkthrough. It starts with me with the, you. The image of their logo and the background here on, on my TV. So hopefully that's enough to, to capture their attention, but I've got some IDs now. so yeah, so that just really just walks them through what we're offering. And so everyone is clear. It can be shared. It can be watched when they wanna watch it. And it's yeah, it's, it's changed our conversion rate massively. So it's yes, I'm, I'm an advocate.

[00:16:39] Chris Schwager: That and the reply to enquiry video. We've been doing that with amazing results. Yes. Amazing results. And what's been funny is I tried to clone that same process for, people that inquired via LinkedIn ads, the conversion wasn't the same. And then I changed one word in the subject line. From hi, I'm Chris made this video. Like they, I have no idea who Chris is and what, whatever the hell they don't even remember making the enquiry because it's like a, an autofill form on LinkedIn. But then I put DIY into the subject line, just, just an insert DIY video instead of video. And then people started to actually do stuff. the, yeah. Do stuff. The rest is all the same. Exactly the same, but just changing that one word.

[00:17:25] Tyler. Tell us about your book, man, cuz anyone that writes a book on in awe. I, I wanna know how, how did that come about? What's it all about? Tell me.

[00:17:36] Tyler Lessard: You could appreciate, it was interesting writing a book when you're the video guy. So I had to get over that hurdle first of like, you know, I gotta get this into written word. How can I do this without visuals and emotion? but it was a really great experience. And, and honestly, I had the opportunity to spend seven, eight years in this business, working with so many different companies, working with so many different users, understanding what was working for them in terms of using video for marketing.

[00:18:02] Using video for selling, creating a culture of video within their companies. And so I was able to just bring a lot of those ideas together into this book. And I co-authored it with a great friend of mine, Marcus Sheridan, who brought a different perspective. though of course, a lot of our ideas, intersect very closely.

[00:18:20] So the book walks through all these great ways in which you can use video from your first marketing. All the way through to, you know, closing and supporting and renewing customers with a boatload of great examples of other businesses of what they've done and how they've done it. And what I'm most proud of is that this, the examples they're not. You know, it's not, Coca-Cola spending $500,000 on an ad, right? This is about companies doing in many cases, DIY video, in some cases doing, you know, produced content with agency partners, but always with a focus on, how do I generate more leads? How do I help move them through the sales process faster?

[00:19:06] And they're all B2B organizations who are using it in those ways. so they're very tangible examples for a lot of us, things that we can all do without needing big budgets. we just need the inspiration. We need the ideas and to think carefully about, you know, again, how does this work in conjunction with my business goals, not just creating videos for the sake of it, if you will.

[00:19:27] Chris Schwager: And that book's called The Visual Sale. So check it out. We'll be back in a moment with Tyler Lessard.

[00:19:35] Are your DIY videos holding you back? Are they? Nowadays video is everything. And there's a more streamlined way to present yourself professionally on video rather than a crappy quality webcam. And you can do it from the convenience of your desk.

[00:19:49] It's called the DIY Video Program. The DIY Video Program allows you to create course content, send personalised sales video and emails using Vidyard. Of course, record regular video updates for social media and look and sound amazing in every video interaction with a single push of a button anywhere in the world.

[00:20:08] Professional lights, sound, camera, teleprompter, all the skills you need to supercharge how you sell, market, and teach. Learn more and go to ridgefilms.com.au/diy.

[00:20:21] Tyler. I've got a little segue question here. We send, people that click on the video in the email. They go to the generic Vidyard landing page, cuz we -- tell a little secret.

[00:20:36] We haven't, we haven't actually paid for anything yet. We've been using this. it's so good. It's so good. I had a client the other day say why, why would you still have the Vidyard branding on there? Why wouldn't you pay? And like that, that just seems silly to me. I don't even have to come to you now because I know about how this works because I've used Vidyard.

[00:20:56] I say, oh. Great because we love Vidyard. We want to promote them. Like, they're awesome. but how do we get better connected with you guys? Because, you know, we did the whole Wistia Fest thing and we're like, you know, we call it sort of in bed with Misty. If you like, we have partners, you know, we're always flogging Wistia, and look all the other apps too.

[00:21:16] Like it's just a matter of time before we get to everybody, because they all really have a, a beautiful, purpose in, in. You know, business these days, how does a business like us get close to a business like you?

[00:21:29] Tyler Lessard: Yeah. I mean, you've, you you've found the right guy. we , we have a full fledged partner program that we work with, you know, folks of, you know, different types of agencies, you know, production partners, DIY video enablers. sales training partners. And, yeah, we have a team, a dedicated team supporting that, in both, you know, helping make sure we're aligning our messages, that you've got the right technology and you're up to speed on what we're doing. but also in terms of, you know, supporting lead flow and referrals, as well as we sell opportunities, things like that. So yeah, that's absolutely, something that we do and we should talk,

[00:22:04] Chris Schwager: Well, I'm happy with that, that like, yeah, exactly. Look, here's a, a, question, I'm gonna try and bend slightly, but, why should marketers focus more on creating video themselves these days than relying on agencies or video production companies to support them?

[00:22:26] Tyler Lessard: So I fundamentally believe, and, and I think most people will as well, that video is, in many ways, the most powerful way to deliver your different, important messages when you are trying to, you know, create that bond with your audience, trying to get a really important idea through to them, whether you're educating them on a concept, or introducing your products and services.

[00:22:51] And so we need to get behind this idea of if we, if we do believe that that video is the best way to, to connect with people. It needs to become part of our nature of how we deliver our content. We can't keep saying, yeah, I'd love to make a video. Let's just write an article or put up some bullet points, you know, because the video is too hard or it's too expensive, right?

[00:23:15] If you keep saying that it's never going to change and frankly, going back, you know, a number of years, we used to say the same thing about writing blog posts. We'd say, oh my gosh, writing a blog post is too much. It's too hard. I'm gonna hire an agency to do it. Well, most B2B companies have in-house blog writers now because it just became such an important and critical part of how we deliver our messages.

[00:23:35] And I think video is very much the same. We talk about it a lot in the visual sale. Creating this culture of video and saying, you need to be able to put your best foot forward. You need to be able to meet your audience where they are, and they expect multimedia content. You need to be able to create it consistently. And to do that, you need to be able to have the in-house capability to, to do DIY video.

[00:23:55] Now, the, the great thing, though, for those that, that intimidates is that audience expectations have changed, right. They no longer expect Hollywood videos. In fact, they often prefer transparent, simple, authentic DIY style videos over heavily produced content.

[00:24:16] It's a bit of a get out of jail free card for us marketing teams, where we can say, Hey, people are actually more resonating with this authentic content. We can create it ourselves and they're not gonna judge us, right? Us all being at home, doing Zoom calls with our kitchens in the background, had a big impact on business culture.

[00:24:34] People are okay with it. So let's be human. Let's be simple. Let's be honest. and we can create content like that and we can do it DIY. So the, you know, everything adds up.

[00:24:45] Chris Schwager: You're an exception. You are an exception though. I mean, in this case, because, well, actually let's say we're all exceptions, right? Because how good do the three of us look, if you're on the YouTube channel, check us out. Right. Tyler looks fantastic. He's taken some care and love, with his lining and his background, kids', paintings. It's very, on brand. It's beautiful.

[00:25:05] but you know, my wife had this criti criticism, you know, she gets dressed up, dolled up for all of the video calls, right. Head to toe, down to the shoes. She, she believes in, you know, professional appearance, professional attitude, professional video. Right. And she gets on calls where there's CEOs with hoodies and vaping in the middle of bloody video calls, right? Like, will that type of, sort of leeway say, oh, it's okay. You know, we're all getting used to this. Will that last forever? Or do you believe it will be a fight at some point over quality and, and people getting this level of, you know, of care taken in their, in their video presentations, particularly sales, video presentations. What's the commentary on that?

[00:25:51] Tyler Lessard: Yeah. Well, I think, there is still obviously this, this bar that we need to set with respect to, you know, respecting our audience, respecting their interest, respecting their time.

[00:26:03] and you know, making sure we are presenting ourselves in way that are appropriate in these scenarios. And so I will. I will be the first to say that vaping in your videos is probably not the best foot forward with respect to how your audience is going to, react to you. however, that doesn't mean again, that we need to, you know, take everything to the nines and be, you know, a hundred percent professional and buttoned up and buy new lights and all these kinds of things.

[00:26:31] There's absolutely this middle ground. and the one really important thing that, you know, I firmly believe, and, and I want you all to, to keep in mind, is that content quality trumps production quality. And frankly in anything that we do, but that reigns even more true when we talk about things like educational content, whether it's a one-to-one video I'm sending you or something we're making as a marketing team and sharing with our audience.

[00:26:55] Content quality comes first. And if the content is good, right? If you've thought through the messaging, if you've done your editing down to make sure I'm getting it and the shortest amount of time with the highest impact possible, you still need a reasonable amount of like, again don't if they can't see you. Because it's too dark.

[00:27:14] Yeah. Your message. Isn't gonna get hurt, but if you can hit those, those basic minimums of making sure the production quality meets a certain bar, just focus on your content quality and you'll be just fine. And when it comes to the production quality, what most of us again, need to remember is we're doing DIY video.

[00:27:31] Yes. The camera quality is important, but lighting and audio to me are more important. If they can hear you crisply. And you've got decent lighting on you. Good lighting can make a bad camera look great. And vice versa, bad lighting can make an amazing camera look back. And so if you have decent lighting, decent microphone, okay.

[00:27:53] Camera, you know, put the vape pen away, make the bed in the background and make some great content that your audience will love and will resonate and move on.

[00:28:04] Chris Schwager: You got me critic. You got me thinking shit. I should probably move my crappy water down. Like shit should get that outta shot. One of my, one of my 50 cameras here is gonna be picking that up. Um.

[00:28:15] So tell me what now that things are easing here in Australia, there's probably more and more people now starting to think. Oh, okay. Let's go and meet face to face. Let's do lunch. Let's get back into the swing of things now. where what's the future, I guess for B2B sales using video. Do you think?

[00:28:32] Tyler Lessard: Yeah.

[00:28:32] Chris Schwager: Is it just gonna grow and grow? is this gonna get bigger?

[00:28:35] Tyler Lessard: Yeah, I, I mean, I think it will, I, I'm very confident it will. And I, I do believe absolutely that we will see the resurgence of in-person meetings happening. I don't think it's going to happen at nearly the rate it used to because all of us are enabled now.

[00:28:51] More or less by default to be able to do virtual right. video conferencing tools have evolved to the point where we don't swear at them every five minutes because they actually work now, which is great. So the tools are there that enable us to do 90% of our selling virtually. which means we can, you know, divert those travel funds or things like that, or the, the productivity losses by being on the road.

[00:29:14] so I, I do think people will still meet in person, but I think it'll happen very, much less than it used to. And I think all of those, you know, down moments now that again, we all have cameras in our laptops, you know, we have webcams, whatever they happen to be because we're doing video conferencing already, the idea of recording and sending a video message will just become more and more natural.

[00:29:33] And we'll say, yeah, you know what, when I'm not out there in person, I figure this video thing out. I have to, for my video calls anyway. Let's start trying this out as a day to day communication mode with my customers. And honestly, I think it will become, commonplace. I think it will be something that'll be a lot more natural and integrated into business.

[00:29:53] and the tools that are out there, including ones like Vidyard, they're helping with that, right. They have one click, right from Gmail or mm-hmm or outlook there's plugins for all the different sales tools. Just one click from where you are record and send. So as it continues, be easier and easier as we all get a little bit more comfortable and confident on camera.

[00:30:12] I, yeah, I fully believe this is just a part of the future of, of how we communicate and that, more and more we'll see these complement not replace, but complement, email communication as an asynchronous mode of delivering our messages.

[00:30:24] Chris Schwager: Well, Vidyard has been known to release amazing yearly reports for video trends and analytics. I'm curious to know from you, Tyler. How to, how does it help Vidyard, and prospects, I guess, learn about the information and, but does it, does it make a difference for you guys?

[00:30:40] Tyler Lessard: Yeah, I mean, we, we produce an annual benchmark report, which looks at all of our first party data of users across our platform. What kinds of videos are they creating? What sort of trends are we seeing? those help our customers. They help us understand, some of those nuances, for example, this year, compared to the previous, we saw significant surge in the number of DIY video or user- generated videos created through Vidyard, compared to produced videos that were uploaded and shared in the platform. Right? It's very clear that this trend of, user generated videos is on the rise. you know, we felt it, we sort of saw it in a lot of the data, but when you actually look at the year over year trends, you start to get a good handle on it.

[00:31:22] Some of the other interesting things we see though, is we cut the data by things like industry and company size. And we find markets like financial services have had a huge shift in the use of user generated or DIY videos over the last two years compared to previously, where they were a laggard in the use of video.

[00:31:40] Chris Schwager: Hmm.

[00:31:41] Tyler Lessard: And again, it's a good, interesting indication where some of those markets that were traditionally more field sales or reps that were typically in person with their clients, now that they're primarily remote, video has become a first class citizen in those companies. So it's interesting to see some of those nuances of how and where video is being used and, some of the benchmarks for different companies. And, yeah, we, we try to make sure that people have access to that information just so they can understand where they stand, where the market's going.

[00:32:07] Chris Schwager: And there's been a loosening here, particularly with, financial planners here in Australia, where they're able to present their entire plans to their clients via video, like no written documentation to support it. Just, the whole it's called video S SOA statements of advice. Right? So that, that is an opportunity for everybody.

[00:32:30] VI it's a great marriage, a video and, Vidyard and, the DIY Video Program, cuz we're, we're seeing these guys, you know, charging thousands of dollars for their plans in their, that don't feel comfortable going out with crappy webcams, you know? but their preference now is, well let's do more video, whereas pre COVID, it was like, we demand to meet you face to face. Now it's we demand to meet you via video. Right. So they're just seeing efficiencies like, like crazy, you know, just because they're, they're now able to, to do this, which has just been unreal. Um

[00:33:06] what are the most relevant discoveries that marketers, business leaders, need to be aware of? When, they get into the world of video?

[00:33:17] Tyler Lessard: I think the biggest thing is to dispel your previous conceptions of like, what does video mean for us in a business? Right? Like, like we go into it with a lot of preconceived notions or, or, or past ideas. Right. And we often think, okay, video equals big budget ads, or, you know, these kind of big, you know, about me projects or things like that.

[00:33:41] And, and I think that to be successful with it, we need to start with a bit of a fresh mind today because to your point. The use of new types of video, the expectations of our audiences are very different. And so I encourage, you know, anybody out there to just pause and stop and think, where do I need to deliver important messages in my marketing and sales programs?

[00:34:03] What ideas are complicated that we need to be able to explain clearly and visually, you know, where is it that we need to inject personality, where we need to inject some emotion where we need to have our people front and center and how can we use video to bring those things to life. And when you start there and you start with the what are the messages that are most important and how can I use this? It changes the dynamic and you stop thinking about, oh, this is what video is, how can I use it? And you go, these are my most important messages. Let's use video to deliver those. And now let's figure out how to do it. And once you figure out the DIY approach, it unlocks so much for you and you, so you almost start to get addicted to it and you go, why would I do it any other way now?

[00:34:46] and, and that is part of the culture, right? That's part of the creating this culture of video where you find this is just the, the better way to deliver these important messages. Let's find a way to make that repeatable and efficient. So I think that's the biggest thing for me.

[00:35:00] Chris Schwager: You're nailing the responses, mate. You've done this before. Brendan's nodding his head because he knows I'm outta questions and Brendan, I want your, if you've got any more, now's the time to --

[00:35:11] Brendan Southall: One last little question, Tyler. we have a lot of clients come to us and their common knowledge is they want to use video for brand awareness and lead generation. And that's all great, but they often, yeah. Just don't know what else it can do for their business in terms of nurturing and educating, convincing, and converting. So, is there a nice, quick and easy way to tell them video is more? Where, where do we start?

[00:35:39] Tyler Lessard: Well, you can just send them a copy of The Visual Sale, the latest book by Tyler Lessard, in, in, in all sincerity, right? It's that is part of the reason we wrote the book, cuz it's just like, you mean you go, oh my goodness. Right? It's just opening my mind to all these different ideas. Why video works in these other cases and, and tactically, how could we do it? so yeah, I think just, you know, do your best to share some of those ideas and every once in a while be sending them videos that represent those different stages, right. I hear that often where people go, oh, I loved that video and you go. Are you doing those kinds of videos? And they say, no, you go, well, I bet your prospects would love them too. Right. And you can just sort of learn through that osmosis of, of being exposed to it. So, yeah, be disciplined about that. And, you know, again, just keep sharing ideas and inspiring them.

[00:36:27] Chris Schwager: We had Phil Nottingham from Wistia on a couple of years ago and talk to, he, he said the words we eat our own dog food. You know, they practice what they preach and, and for us, very similar, the first interaction they have with us is a video reply. They get to see the studio, the seat, they see everything, they get a real perspective on the potential and, and, and it does immediately open their eyes to like, oh, okay. These guys are able to do this quickly. Like, how can I do the same? Right. do you guys eat your own dog food? .

[00:36:57] Tyler Lessard: Oh, well, we drink our own champagne as we would say. , or in Canada might be, we eat our own protein, I think is, common phrase. but I mean, absolutely we, the biggest thing for us, you know, in the early days we focused on, on producing a lot of video content for our marketing programs.

[00:37:16] And part of that was for us to learn along the way too, so we could pass those on to our customers. But the biggest thing over the last few years has been empowering, enabling, and. supporting literally everybody in the business, using video in different ways, right? Like our finance team sends out video based updates, weekly or monthly to folks in different teams to walk them through, you know, their forecast versus actual spend things like that.

[00:37:43] They make videos to walk you through, how to actually submit your expense reports properly. Stop making the common mistakes, right? Our people and HR team, they make their own videos to onboard new employees, to introduce them to resources, to even train them on different products. And of course our sales and marketing teams use it both externally and internally.

[00:38:02] So that's been a really exciting and, and frankly, liberating experience over the last few years, seeing everybody across the business start to be, dare I say, video creators. it's, it's been really, really powerful and I love my favorite or when I get videos from yeah folks like in ops and in finance people, you wouldn't normally expect to be making videos and, and, and sometimes they're really good and I'm like, I'm so proud.

[00:38:28] I'm so proud to see our controller made this video and she even added in this great joke in the middle. And she like cut in a meme and you're like, this is it right where my controller's adding a meme in a video. We've we, we we've made it folks right? So it's, it's really great to be doing that.

[00:38:43] Chris Schwager: We, we get the same joy out of our DIY clients when we do an in store for, for people and they get all their studio and everything's all set up and, you know, we haven't even trained them necessarily yet, but gone home and looked at my feed on my phone and here they are already posted the video on, on LinkedIn or whatever. And it's like, you go get it man. Good on you.

[00:39:01] Tyler Lessard: They grew up so fast.

[00:39:02] Chris Schwager: They grew up for my, my babies.

[00:39:05] Tyler, it's been absolutely awesome mate, to have you on the show. I just was like, so excited to finally get you cuz my, my team of, I said, get him, get him on the show. And we tried for like six months to, to get you. So thank you so much for, for your time. Great content out of this, episode. And, and it's something that we'll definitely be plugging into our DIY Video Program to give people some extra knowledge around Vidyard. and, as we expand it more and more into the, to the DIY program, um.

[00:39:36] If you wanna learn more about The Visual Sale, the wonderful book that Tyler's written, Tyler and his LinkedIn profile or Vidyard, then have a look at the show notes for details, and you'll have all the information that you need right there. Tyler, thank you again.

[00:39:51] Tyler Lessard: Thank you. It's absolutely my pleasure. Huge fan of what you all are doing. So. Happy to be here.

[00:39:55] Chris Schwager: We'll definitely pick the conversation up around the, the program. So I'm, I'm definitely keen to see how we can work together, closer.

[00:40:05] If you can't see it, they won't know that you or your business exists. Thanks for tuning in. This is all for episode of a Video Made Simple Podcast and I see it next week when hopefully I'm a little bit less croaky. Got some sweet honey in my voice. I'll stop talking. Bye bye.