Vidyard Launches Desktop Apps as Adoption of User-Generated Videos in Sales Accelerates

As more businesses embrace the shift to remote work and reduced travel, a growing number of sales teams are turning to user-generated videos to connect with customers and share ideas when they can’t be there in person. To support this growing need, Vidyard, the video platform for business, today announced the launch of its free Vidyard Desktop Apps for Mac and Windows to enable any business professional to record and share custom HD videos directly from their desktops. The latest offering works seamlessly with Vidyard’s existing browser extensions for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, as well as its mobile apps for iOS and Android.

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“Sales people in almost every industry have had to rethink their approach to connecting with customers”

Through the new desktop apps, users can capture high-definition webcam videos and screen recordings with up to 4k resolution. In addition to custom video messages and video emails, users can record walkthroughs of PowerPoint presentations, documents, web-based applications, and more. Videos can be customized with animated GIF thumbnail images and immediately shared via Gmail, Outlook, LinkedIn, Facebook, Salesforce, HubSpot, and a variety of other applications and services.

“Sales people in almost every industry have had to rethink their approach to connecting with customers,” said Tyler Lessard, vice president of marketing at Vidyard. “The ability to record and share custom videos to connect with new prospects and clearly show value has become vital for many sellers in the digital-first age. The Vidyard Desktop App is an important extension to our product offerings to ensure every sales rep can make video a seamless part of how they sell.”

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Forrester Research Finds that User-Generated Video Tools Are Here to Stay

The use of video is certainly not new for most businesses, but the room for growth and adoption is booming. The recent report, The Forrester Tech Tide^TM: Sales Technologies, Q1 2021, examined a range of sales technologies and their ability to help organizations win, serve and retain customers. The report found that 61% of respondents said that they plan to invest, or already have invested, in user-generated video tools. The report found that user-generated video is an area to invest in, noting it has the ability to be used across the entire customer lifecycle in business-to-business (B2B) sales. With the lion’s share of B2B buying and selling occurring in remote and digital settings, Forrester predicts asynchronous video messages will be an essential arrow in the seller’s quiver in 2021 and beyond.

Sales Teams Realize Significant ROI from User Generated Video

Many sales teams leveraging user-generated video are already seeing a significant ROI. Corporate Traveler, the U.S. corporate travel division of Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), embraced video in 2020 to boost sales productivity and enhance customer experience. After the sales team at Corporate Traveler implemented Vidyard’s tools, they found that while it usually took 40 phone calls or 100 emails to get a sales meeting booked, it now takes just 15 videos to achieve that same result. Meanwhile, their Customer Success team has seen a 75% response rate when using creative video messages to re-engage past clients.

“Corporate travel is a very competitive market. It’s hard to stand out in a person’s inbox,” said Alex Campione, director of sales enablement at Corporate Traveler. “We pride ourselves on our dedicated service model and on building long-term relationships with our clients. Personal video for sales fits perfectly with that value. We can show off who we are in a personal way and stand out from the crowd. Video has made prospecting so much easier, and our customers appreciate the added human touch.”

Additionally, identity verification company Jumio has leveraged video in a variety of ways to transform the way they sell and collaborate. With employees, partners and enterprise customers scattered across the globe, Jumio wanted to keep in touch while maintaining a human connection. Jumio quickly found how effective Vidyard was for keeping in touch with customers. While emails typically had an open rate of 20-25%, by integrating videos into emails that number shot up to 48%. The team also expanded its use of video, including its CEO using video as a primary medium for communicating with customers and employees.

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