Personalized Video Marketing Guide: Strategies & Examples

What Is Personalized Video Marketing?

Simply put, personalized video marketing works like a local health food store where the clerk asks you if you want to add the orange juice you usually get to your order. It's about feeling warm because such gestures make you feel special. In brief, personalised video marketing is about creating video content for each individual user. Audience data, such as browsing behavior, purchase history, location, and demographic information, is used to compose the content so that it holds personal relevance.

Personalized video differs from segmented, dynamic, and interactive video. 

Segmented video divides the audience into groups based on demographics and behavior and offers the same content to every member of the group. 

Dynamic video uses text, images, and different offers that change within a single video, but also works at the group level, not the individual. Interactive videos hold viewers' attention using clickable elements, such as quizzes and choices; however, personalization is still absent in this context. The personalized videos are tailored to each viewer, offering is based on specific behaviors. 

Different levels of personalization depend on how the company interacts with its audience and how deeply it wants to adapt the content.

• Basic level: This level uses elements such as name, job title, and similar information you may have about the user.
• Contextual level: The focus is on user behavior, location, time, device, and similar parameters. This way, the content is more relevant.
• Hyper-personalization: It employs artificial intelligence and real-time analytics. It connects different data sources to create content that is completely tailored to the current needs and preferences of the user.

Why Personalized Video Works

There are several key reasons why creating personalized videos is a highly effective marketing method. Relevance is the key feature.. Users feel that the content is highly focused on their needs. This is followed by emotional connection and trust. Users feel understood and seen. Another reason is enhanced conversion metrics. When content is customized, a potential customer is much more likely to buy a product or sign up for a newsletter. Personalized video enhances user experience while making the brand noticeable. The research has proved that such a marketing strategy results in increased user retention of about 25-35%.

When to avoid using personalized videos

We do not recommend creating personalized videos if the production is expensive and the return on investment isn't high enough. If the message you want to send can be sent to anyone, personalization becomes worthless. On the other hand, certain users might raise concerns over the level of information used for personalization, perceiving an attack on their privacy. If a vast share of content is personalized, users may feel manipulated, resulting in diminished brand credibility and loyalty, which your brand aims to build.

Where Personalized Videos Are Used

Email personalization with video

Whenever you have a new product you're launching, or want to announce some discounts, or simply send updates with useful tips and tricks, use personalized videos. Create personalized eye-catching thumbnails with a play button linking to the video. Also, consider including animated GIF formats of your video as previews, making the email more engaging.

Make sure to watch for the size of the GIF, because larger GIFs can cause deliverability problems, increase the size of the email, and potentially cause spam triggers. The total email size is to be kept at 2 MB. It is recommended that you upload the video to a video platform, ensuring it is public and accessible to all clients.

Quick tip:

Nexrender automates the video creation process in After Effects, which is typically done manually and takes a considerable amount of time. It helps a lot, especially when you need to produce a lot of similar videos and animations.

Sales outreach and ABM personalized videos

For sales outreach and account-based marketing, personalized videos are a crucial way to attract attention and gain trust. One-to-one personalized videos are for hyper-targeted, high-value customers. They require deep, manual personalization. On the other hand, you can scale personalized video creation and use AI and automation to send personalized video messages to many accounts.

Website and in-app personalization

Website and in-app personalization use dynamic blocks and targeting to tailor content for individual users. Dynamic blocks are automatically updated with new information received from “people also viewed”, dynamic hero banners, and calls to action. Targeting uses data to place the audience into specific groups and send them content and offers tailored to them.

SMS and push notifications

SMS and push notifications are also ways to send personalized content. Personalized video is sent as a rich media element through notifications on the user's mobile phone within the app. Some companies also use SMS to send links that lead to personalized videos on video platforms.

Paid ads and retargeting (dynamic creative)

Paid ads and dynamic creative retargeting work together and create personalized ads for users who already interact with your business. They display personalized video ads to users across different platforms. Most often, these are products that the user has recently viewed.

Social media and communities

User activity, preferences, and demographic details are tracked through social media platforms. Then they create personalized content that will be sent to specific audiences.

Customer support and success use cases

You can use personalized videos to welcome new customers. Additionally, you can create tutorials, how-to guides, account updates, and alerts. It would be nice to send users a thank-you video for their feedback or even follow-ups.

How to Create Personalized Videos 

1. Define objective and primary KPI: Clearly define what you want to achieve with the campaign and what key success indicators will track progress.
2. Be sure to check data quality, user consent, and audience segmentation before creating personalized content.
3. Choose personalization variables and tiers: Select the user data and characteristics you will use for different levels of custom video creation.
4. Structure the script: The video should have an engaging flow, from an interesting introduction through user value, evidence, and confirmation, to a clear call to action.
5. Storyboard and template design (modular scenes, placeholders): We recommend using AE to design your video plan using modular scenes and placeholders.
6. Decide whether AI avatars, real people, or animations will perform in the video.
7. Select the video personalization software. Choose Nexrender as the no.1 tool for batch rendering videos with Adobe AE Templates
8. Prepare data for dynamic replacement of elements and provide fallback options.
9. Organize the rendering process, upload the video to the hosting, and track campaign performance.
10. Confirm that the video is accurate to its script, test how it runs on different device types, and ensure it follows general privacy rules. Also, create a QA section that covers these points.
11. Define when and how to send videos to users through automated flows.
12. Analyze results, track KPIs, and make sure to improve your campaign in optimization cycles.

Best Personalized Video Examples

1. Personalized welcome video addressing each user by name

   It's essential to focus on new users of your product or service, and you can do this by creating a welcome video that addresses the person by name. This video can also provide information based on the user’s needs and interests. Check out this excellent example of a personalized welcome video.

2. Unique, personalized video with key details

   Manually personalizing content is slow and demanding. That’s why Torben, founder of Videohebel, developed an automated system for hotels in three steps: first, reservations and guest names are collected daily; next, personalized videos are generated using the cloud video rendering tool, Nexrender; finally, the videos are automatically sent by email. This way, every guest receives a unique video with helpful information.

3. Personalized product promotion videos

   Personalized product promotion videos present the product in an innovative and unique way, thereby increasing the chances of sales. Here is a great example that illustrates this point.

4. User-centric personalized videos

   At the end of each year, many music streaming apps do some kind of year-end review. Spotify does a personalized video about the most listened to songs, artists, and genres. Here's a YouTube short that perfectly showcases the Spotify Wrapped.

   Did you know Spotify uses Nexrender to automate its content marketing? Read more about it here.

5. Thank-you videos or personalised video gift

   These types of videos show how much you value your users, build loyalty, and encourage further reliance on your brand. A thank-you video is used to express gratitude for specific actions, such as a purchase, newsletter sign-up, or after a webinar or an event. Look at this thank you video we found.

FAQ

What types of data can I safely use for personalization?

First-party data refers to data collected directly by the company itself through its website or app. On the other hand, third-party data is collected by another company and sold to other businesses.

For consent to be received, it is crucial to describe in the most basic language what data will be collected and for what purposes. Also, users must check consent boxes by themselves. Let the user withdraw their consent any time they wish.

Also, you need to know about GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation. This is an EU law that protects the data and privacy of EU residents. CCPA, or California Consumer Privacy Act, is US State law that defend California residents’ data.

Can personalized videos hurt performance?

Yes, they can. Over-personalization occurs when you use too much information, making it uncomfortable and even creepy for users. Sometimes the information collected is simply irrelevant and cannot help you build a relationship with users. Furthermore, poor execution of video can further harm business interests. Make sure that your personalized videos are contextual, engaging, and of high quality.

Do I need expensive tools to start creating personalized videos?

Initially, you can start with basic personalization (e.g., names in thumbnails) and scale up with dedicated video personalization platforms like Nexrender to easily create thousands of personalized videos in a short time.

How do I measure the success of personalized videos?

The most important engagement metric of personalized videos involves increased likes, shares, and clicks, higher completion rates, and improved conversion rates. Keep in mind that personalized videos improve your retention rates by 25 to 35%.