The Guide to make perfect personalized videos

In this guide, we will walk you through the key steps, tools, and tips to create perfect personalized videos. From planning and scripting to editing and distribution, we’ll cover every detail to ensure your customized video resonates with your intended audience.

What is a Personalized Video ?

A personalized video is a custom video that speaks directly to your target audience. Video is personalized to greet your customers by their names, show content tailored to their specific interests, and even share helpful information about their own situation.

In this context, personalized videos brings a unique and innovative approach to your marketing efforts because your brand will create video tailored to fit the viewing experience of your audience. For example, instead of aging a generic video message for all your customers, you will create personalized videos with unique data points that are relevant and engaging for each individual in your target audience.

Generally, personalized videos incorporate viewer-specific data into their content. For example, they can include simple data like names or locations; but also more complex data that may shape the narrative such as past purchases, viewing history, or customer behavior patterns.

What are the types of Personalized Videos ?

Personalized Videos can be found on two different types of video content: hyper-personalized videos and data-driven videos. Whatever kind of personalized video you may use, they are have the same end goal: create a unique and engaging video experience that deeply resonates with each individual viewer.

Hyper-personalized videos

These custom videos involve a deeper level of personalization where a company - and sometimes the viewers themselves - tailors the video content to a particular person.

Data-driven videos

Data-driven videos personalize the scenes and can be customized to fit the needs of a particular segment of customers.

Why Personalized Videos Matter

Personalized videos are effective because they cater to the individual, leading to make him/her feel valued and understood. Indeed, research shows that customized videos can increase engagement and conversion rates significantly.

For instance, a case study carried out by Pirsonal showed that personalized videos had 16 times higher click-to-open rate and 4.5 times more unique click through rate. Also, according to another case study performed by Invideo, personalized videos are between 35% to 116% more effective than generic videos. Here are a few reasons why personalized videos are so impactful.

Enhanced Connection and Communication

These customized videos create a sense of connection and relevance by addressing the viewer directly.

Increased Engagement

Personalized content captures and holds attention better than generic messaging.

Higher Retention Rates

People are more likely to remember a video tailored for them.

Improved Conversion and Sales

When sending video emails, businesses often see a boost in click-through rates and sales when using personalized videos.

When Should You Use Personalized Videos ?

You can use personalized videos effectively when you interact with your existing customers. Indeed, because they mainly rely on customer data, they are great for keeping your current customers happy and engaged.

When you show that you truly value your relationship with your customers and that you understand their needs, you will strengthen your customer relationships and reduce churn. Thus, personalized videos will help you increase customer lifetime value and boost your ROI.

In some cases, like customer onboarding, personalized video messages can be used to explain complex processes in a simple, easy, and engaging manner.

Your team can use personalized videos at every stage of the customer journey :

• customer acquisition
• sales
• onboarding
• customer service
• engagement
• loyalty

Which elements can you personalize in your personalized video content ?

You can personalize several elements to make your videos engaging and relevant to each viewer.

Text

In many cases, personalized videos often start with simple but effective text personalization. For example, beginning a video with "Hi, (First name)" is a straightforward way to capture attention and enhance communication with your audience. Indeed, addressing your customers by their name makes them feel seen as an individual and increase the likelihood that they will watch the whole video.

Besides your customer's name, personalized text can also include plan information, rewards balances, renewal dates, recent purchases, account details, loyalty points, or upcoming renewals. Providing such information can be a powerful way to share important information to your target audience.

Images

You can also personalize images in your video content. For example, you can show your customers their soon-to-arrive purchase. You can include photos of the last destination they visited. or you may even help them imagine their next amazing customer experience. Whatever your end goal, you can personalize images in your videos to help your viewers feel special.

Video-In-Video

When you include personalized footage in your video, you will keep things dynamic while customizing your video message for each viewer.

Voiceovers

Personalizing what people see is certainly impactful, but you shouldn't underestimate the impact of tailoring what they hear. A powerful way to personalize voiceovers is to address your viewers by their names. Hearing their names may create a pleasant surprise for your viewers and capture their attention at the beginning. Moreover, you have several other opportunities to personalize voiceovers. For instance, mentioning the exact number of reward points earned by a customer can highlight the benefits waiting for them and encourage greater customer loyalty.

Languages

If you create videos for a global audience, you must make sure that they speak the same language than the people you target. If you work with a personalized content platform, you must ensure that it offers the following elements :

• support for multiple alphabets and fonts
• compatibility with let-to-right and right-to-left text layouts
• multi-language captioning

Moreover, don't forget the power of emojis since they have a universal appeal. Don't forget to check that your video platform supports emojis to help you add a touch of fun that translates across all cultures.

Interactivity

Interactivity will allow you to completely transform the viewing experience of your audience since it puts the power of customization in their hands. Indeed, each viewer interact uniquely with the same video. Thus, it builds a one-of-a-kind experience at every level. Here are some good ways where the viewers can customize their experience:

• Let your viewers choose : you feature options directly in your video, allowing your users to choose their path directly. A great use of this option would be in customer service because you can offer solutions and explanations via video, while your customers select their scenario or navigate to the information they are looking for.
• Add CTAs online : you can personalize this video by embedding call-to-action (CTAs) links within it. They can lead to a shopping cart, another webpage, or trigger an email for their next action. By using this tactic, your company will naturally enhance engagement and boost sales because you will enable direct purchases from the video.
• Add chapter markers : you may incorporate a menu feature helping your audience navigate between different segments or revisit specific scenes. In particular, this tip is beneficial for instructional videos that your audience can revisit several times.
• Turn your video into a gaming experience : you may turn your video into a game by making clickable elements engaging and dynamic. For example, you can incorporate a moving 50% off coupon that challenges the viewers to catch the deal.
• Offer viewer customization : let people build their own videos easily. This may involve having customizable fields directly within the video player. Or you may incorporate a landing page that lets your users tailor various aspects in real time. The possibilities in this case are endless, from choosing product colors to submitting loan requirements to get a personalized offer on demand.

How To Create the Best Personalized Videos in six steps

Creating personalized videos can be easy and doesn't have to be a complicated process. Your first and main decision is to choose the video platform you will work with. Afterwards, you can follow the next six steps below and follow the process.

Define your purpose

This is the ideation phase, where you answer several questions to define and understand the main goal and purpose of your video. You may ask yourself :

• What do I stand for with this video ?
• What message do I want to send to my viewers ?
• How do I want my brand to be perceived by my audience ?
• Who is my target audience ?
• What action do I want the viewers to take after watching the video ?

If you work with a video creation tool, you can select video templates that align with your main objective: reducing churn, driving sales, or engaging customers. Here are common use cases of personalized videos :

• product recommendations, thank-you messages, or special offers
• personalized lessons or feedback for students
• resolving customer queries or onboarding tutorials
• personal greetings: birthday wishes, anniversary messages, or congratulatory notes

Review your data

Check if you have clean data available to include in your video. Is it accessible and accurate ? Even if the only information you have are names, you still need to build a video that captures your viewers' attention easily.

Define the video logic

At this stage, you determine who sees what. Everyone may get the same opening scene with their name, but what comes up afterwards may depend if you address a loyal customer or a new customer. You can add all types of customization, but you must remember to do what makes sense for your audience and goals.

Produce your video

This includes the following production stages :

• the pre-production stage with the development of a script and a storyboard
• the production stage where you record your video - the video recording can involve animated videos, live action, 2D or 3D
• the post-production stage with video editing

Add personalized data to your video

At this stage, the platform you use will be critical. You may choose batch mode to add your data in advance. Or you may select real-time generation where the latest data is added right before your video is rendered. In any case, the video platform you use should be able to automate this so that you don't have to do this manually.

Distribute and test your video

Like any video campaign, you have to optimize the format for your different strategic platforms where you can send personalized videos. For example, you can send it by email newsletters, your social media platforms, your company's website and landing pages, or messaging apps. You will also test your video to analyse its performance and refine your content if necessary. Here are some key metrics to monitor:

• view count
• engagement rate
• click-through rate
• conversion rate

Can You Use AI For Your Personalized Videos ?

Unsurprisingly, the next level of automation involves the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Ai will allow you to create video content faster. If you sync it with a video personalization platform, you can use AI to create your videos at a scale.

One of the biggest benefits of AI is that it will help you save time and resources. Indeed, you will not need a full production team with extensive video editing or animation expertise. Also, you will not spend months on video creation and/or video editing. With AI, anyone can create a video and edit the finished results.

Once you have your video, you can add personalization and build millions of variations of your video, one for each customer.

Ready to create your first personalized video? Contact Pitchy

Do you want to build personalized videos to engage your customers and boost the sales of your products and services? Then, Pitchy is the right platform that will fulfill your marketing and sales needs. We offer you several video templates and features that will help your company fulfill your marketing goals. If you are interested, feel free to ask for a demo.