We’re excited. Today we are proud to officially announce the release of Switch Merge, a new product. Think of it as “mail merge” for video. And it’s nothing short of sensational for clients who want to leverage video and deliver a personalized message to their customers, prospects and clients. By creating personalized videos, Switch Merge breaks through the noise, lets you stand out from the crowd and connect with viewers one-on-one.
How Switch Merge Works
Have you ever used mail merge or a marketing automation system to personalize email? Switch Merge is the same idea, but for video. We start by building a custom video – we call it a template video. Then, variable fields are added to the visuals based on the personal information contained in your company’s CRM. Switch Merge then embeds the appropriate data, associated with the recipient email address, into the template video. Voila hundreds, maybe thousands…heck even hundreds of thousands of unique, personalized videos are created and sent to your contacts. You deliver the personalized video through your marketing automation provider with a personalized subject line and splash screen.
Switch Merge is designed to provide what today’s businesses need to connect with their audiences. Switch Merge is personalized, automated, trackable and scalable.
How Companies Can Use Switch Merge
Any email communication or marketing effort where personalization will help build a one-to-one relationship is a great candidate for a Switch Merge video.
Loyalty programs: They are growing rapidly whether you are coffee chain, grocery store or gym. Personalize your offers by sending a Switch Merge video.
Internal communications: Speak to your employees more directly and cultivate a greater connection between the company, its policies, and each employee’s individual role to play at work by delivering a Switch Merge video.
Billing: Bring financial statements to life by showing customers a personalized bill or receipt in the form of a Switch Merge video.
Education and fundraising: Reach out to prospective students and donors in a more personalized manner to demonstrate that your organization goes that extra mile.
Sales and prospecting: Here at Switch Video we apply Switch Merge to our own videos to reach new prospects at HP. We took what we knew about our HP prospects from Salesforce and created personalized videos for scores of people. In our video the variables we personalized were name, logo of a competitor, and logos of relevant clients we have worked with. You can watch an example of this video below.
The Move from Mass Marketing to Personalization
Instinctively, we know it feels good to be recognized, welcomed and treated as an individual. Currently, we are seeing this idea reflected in a seismic shift away from mass marketing toward a one-on-one, relationship-building approach to marketing. When you personalize video content to the individual level, there’s a much higher chance the audience will engage with it. Research suggests 61% of people feel more positive about a brand when marketing messages are personalized. The writing is on the wall and companies like Marketo, who recently acquired Insightera, are making moves to embrace this trend toward personalization.
These days companies know their buyer, e-mail repeatedly, leave voicemails, send relevant materials and are offering great products and services. By personalizing videos, Switch Merge helps companies be heard offering their customers a unique experience.
Why Video?
There are loads of reasons to choose video and you likely know some of them. Video is effective. It can generate traffic to your website. Once at your site, video is used to persuade consumers to stay longer, spending more time interacting with your brand. For any social media campaign or SEO exercise, video is one of the best tools to have in your repertoire.
Video is peerless when it comes to potential reach. Youtube is now the world’s number two search engine. It garners more than 1 billion unique visitors per month.
It appeals to our visual and auditory senses to create the powerful and emotional stories that people love to connect with and share. The success stories about videos that go viral are legendary.
And trends suggest video will continue to be the medium of choice for years to come. By 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic, according to Cisco. You would be hard pressed to find any study, statistic or indicator that doesn’t suggest rapid growth of online video content.
Imagine using the powerful data in your organization’s CRM along with your automated e-mail marketing program to deliver personalized videos to customers, prospects, and clients. By providing viewers with the opportunity to feel a part of the video narrative, Switch Merge leverages what is unique about each of member of your audience to your brand’s advantage. Break through the noise and connect with your audience using Switch Merge.
To learn more about Switch Merge sign up for a brief consultation.
