Rehumanize Your Business

Accelerate sales and improve customer experience

Every day, most working professionals entrust their most important messages to a form of communication that doesn't build trust, provide differentiation, or communicate clearly enough. It's easy to point to the sheer volume of emails, text messages, voicemails, and even social messaging as the problem that reduces our reply rates and diminishes our effectiveness. But the faceless nature of that communication is also to blame.

Rehumanize Your Business explains how to dramatically improve relationships and results with your customers, prospects, employees, and recruits by adding personal videos to emails, text messages, and social messages. It explains the what, why, and how behind this new movement toward simple, authentic videos—and when to replace some of your plain, typed-out communication with webcam and smartphone recordings.

• Restore face-to-face communication for clarity and connection

• Add a personal, human touch to your emails and other messages

• Meet people who’ve sent thousands of videos

• Learn to implement your own video habit in an easy, time-saving way
• Boost your replies, appointments, conversion, referrals, and results dramatically

If you’re ready to influence, teach, sell, or serve in a more personal way, Rehumanize Your Business is your guide.

Acknowledgments xiii

About the Authors xv

Introduction xvii

Part 1 Why It’s Time to Rehumanize Your Business

Chapter 1 The New Way to Communicate, Connect, and Convert 3

A Simple Video Makes a Big Difference 6

Video for Relationships, Not Just for Marketing 11

It’s Like We’ve Already Met 13

Video Makes You More Familiar and Approachable 14

The Numbers: Video Email versus Traditional Email 15

The Stats, Claims, and Hype to Ignore 20

The One Question to Ask Yourself 22

Chapter 2 Email: The Indispensable, Broken Tool 23

“You’ve Got Mail” 23

Alternatives to Email 25

The Indispensable Tool 27

The Problem of (Over)crafting Your Emails 28

So, Emojis? 30

Repairing Email 31

Chapter 3 Video: The Personal, Rehumanizing Tool 32

Relationships Are the Whole Point 32

Millennia of Human Brain Training 34

Our Faces Speak the Same Language 36

The Eyes Have It 38

Talking with Your Hands 39

The Warmth of Your Smile 41

Outsmarting Our Mental Shortcuts 42

Chapter 4 Six Signs This New Approach Is for You and Your Business 46

Sign 1: You Teach, Train, Sell, or Serve 47

Sign 2: You Drive Opportunities Toward Face-to-Face Meetings 48

Sign 3: You Want to Improve Customer Experience 49

Sign 4: You Risk Disintermediation by Web Apps, Tools, and Automations 51

Sign 5: You Benefit from Word of Mouth 52

Sign 6: You Win More Opportunities Face to Face 54

Six Signs That You Need Personal Video 55

Part 2 When to Rehumanize with Video

Chapter 5 Nine Stories of Sales Acceleration and Better Customer Experience 59

Author Dan Pink and Professor Dan Smith 61

The Most Important Sound in Any Language 62

Leadership, Video, and the Handwritten Note 65

Appreciation You Can Feel 66

More Sales Replies and Fewer Support Replies 68

Even More Success in Customer Success 70

The First Salesperson to Send 10,000 Videos 73

A Sales Team That’s Sent 10,000 Videos 74

Personal Touch, Faster Conversion, and More Referrals 76

It’s Not About the Video 77

Chapter 6 Ten Times to Use Video Instead of Plain, Typed-Out Text 78

Top 10 Times Video Says It Better 78

When Not to Send Video 95

Part 3 How to Record and Send Videos

Chapter 7 Sending Video in Emails, Text Messages, and Social Messages 99

Three Ways to Send Video in Email 99

Screen Recording 107

Sending Videos by Text Messages 108

Sending Videos in Social Messages 110

Delivery, Filters, and Firewalls 112

The Video Viewing Experience 114

Face to Face in Any Channel 115

Chapter 8 Why You’re Not Sending Video and How to Get Comfortable on Camera 116

Why We Stop “Doing Video” Before We Even Start 117

You Look (and Sound) Great 118

You Know What to Say 121

Your Process Results From Execution 126

Seven Tips for Better Videos 128

You’re Not Alone 130

Chapter 9 The Salesperson’s Guide to Video Cameras 132

Video Camera Tips 133

Video Setup Tips 140

The Right Tool for the Right Job 144

Part 4 Improving Video Results

Chapter 10 How to Get More Opens, Plays, and Replies 147

Top Reasons for Video Email Underperformance 147

How to Get More Email Opens 150

How to Get More Video Plays 153

How to Keep People Engaged in Your Videos 154

How to Increase Your Reply Rate 155

Tips for Prospecting with Video 158

Chapter 11 So, You Sent a Video . . . Now What? 163

How Tracking Helps You Follow Up More Effectively 164

What to Do If Your Video Email Didn’t Get Opened 164

What to Do If Your Video Didn’t Get Played 166

What to Do If You Didn’t Get a Reply 169

Multiple Views, Latent Demand, and Long-Term Follow-Up 171

Now What? That’s What! 174

Chapter 12 Where Rehumanization Is Now and Where It’s Headed 175

More Effective and More Satisfying Work 176

The Soft Edge 178

The State of the Movement 179

Measuring More Than Opens, Plays, and Replies 182

Your Next Steps 183

Rehumanize Your Communication and Your Business 185

Notes 186

Index 193

ETHAN BEUTE is VP of Marketing at BombBomb. He's collected and told personal video success stories in hundreds of blog posts, in dozens of webinars, podcasts, and stage presentations, and in countless conversations. He led marketing inside local television stations in Chicago, Grand Rapids, and Colorado Springs.

STEPHEN PACINELLI is the CMO at BombBomb. For nearly a decade, he's implemented personal video within multiple sales teams. Pacinelli was a National Sales Manager, Vice President of Events, and National Speaker for Realtor.com. He's delivered presentations to more than 1,000 audiences.

ARE YOUR EMAILS LESS EFFECTIVE THAN they were just a few years ago? Do you struggle for replies and responses? Do your text messages get misread or misunderstood? It's time to stop relying on faceless digital communication and get face to face again. Rehumanize Your Business is a hands-on guide to adding simple webcam and smartphone videos into your communication mix in order to build trust, save time, and get your message across. . . the first time and without ambiguity.

In our rush to adopt high-tech communications that simply target and hunt, we've forgotten the power of building personal relationships. Time and distance make it impossible to always meet face to face but there is a solution for truly connecting. Authors Stephen Pacinelli and Ethan Beute—two experts in business communication—show how to add personal videos to your emails, text messages, and social media messages. The videos they recommend are not for marketing but rather for relationships. This type of video is conversational, authentic, and imperfect. It connects with people to help make sales and service more meaningful and compelling.

Rehumanize Your Business is filled with practical and proven strategies, tips, and stories to help you put in place a winning video process.

It knocks down the technical aspects of making a video and provides simple guidance on recording and sending, cameras and equipment, psychological factors, and much more. The authors also reveal advanced follow-up strategies and opine on the future of this dynamic movement.

Managers, sales reps, marketers, and everyone else working in a professional capacity benefit from better relationships. To help you be seen, be heard, and be understood, Rehumanize Your Business gets you face to face at scale with personal and relatable videos.

PRAISE FOR Rehumanize Your Business

"These days we're all in sales. No matter what work we do, much of it involves persuading, influencing, convincing, and cajoling others. Video as taught in this book can help you blend the efficiency of digital communication with the warmth of your face, voice, and personal touch. Give it a read to sell more effectively."Daniel H. Pink | Author of To Sell Is Human and When

"Connecting is super-important in our industry, and video makes it easier. After seeing your face and hearing your voice in video emails, people feel like they know you before you've ever met. It's an instant connection—and this book is an essential tool to help you make that happen."Adam Contos | CEO at RE/MAX

"To create powerful humanizing experiences that your customers and future customers would love, you must be authentic. We can and must do better than expected—and personal videos as prescribed in this book can help. Read this and get ready to challenge the status quo."Sangram Vajre | Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder at Terminus and author of Account-Based Marketing

"Video is no longer bound by the traditional factors of creation, distribution, or accessibility. Brands must learn a new possibility for video across the entire customer journey and how to elevate the medium with a one-to-one, human-to-human approach. This book will help."Mathew Sweezey | Principal of Marketing Insights at Salesforce and author of Marketing Automation for Dummies

"We're better in person and we win through relationships. That's why video is so important and why I train all my clients on it. If you want proven strategies to get face to face and close more deals, you want this book."Tom Ferry | #1 real estate coach and New York Times bestselling author