Alex ran through the data one more time. It looked pretty clear. 

Individuals who trialed CXL's courses, and were active during the first few weeks (but especially the first few days), were by far the most successful cohort. 

The only question was…. How could he get more of his trials to activate and engage right off the bat? 

He had heard about personal video and teams using it to engage with prospects and customers, so he decided to give it a test.

How CXL used personal video to unlock trial activation

Alex noted, “The hypothesis is that we can convert new trials more effectively, by sending a personalized video to them within 24 hours of starting a trial. I tested this hypothesis out by sending personalized welcome videos to 50% of an audience over the course of a couple of weeks. We concluded that the variant/test audience was 18% more likely to convert than our control audience”.

A sample welcome video would look like this:

Not only does the video call out Monika by name and give her a warm welcome, but the video has a convenient reminder for them to log in with the “Start Learning” CTA (Call-to-Action) button. A genius little approach that got them great results.

Once the CXL team started seeing the results with trial conversions, they quickly started to use it for other areas of the business too.

Brainwave #1: Using personal video to win with webinars

After their initial success with welcome videos, the CXL team had a brainwave.

"We thought, what if we used the same approach, but in our webinar funnel?"

Have you ever gotten 100 registrations to a webinar but only 10 people show up? Or what about you get 100 people to show up but then they go dark after the webinar?

Webinars are tough, and building relationships when things are purely one-sided (you talking at them) can be hard. 

That’s why sending personal videos to welcome people after they register or follow-up with them after the webinar is a great way to improve your webinar success.

Here is a sample video from Alex to a new registrant: 

This is a great way to improve attendance and engagement.

If you don’t have the time to thank each attendee individually (which will always yield the best results), you can also use Bonjoro’s Roll-Up feature to send a video to all the registrants at once.

It's a neat way to send a roundup and next steps video, that feels way more personal and relevant than an automated email follow-up.

>> Psst...Looking to convert more webinar attendees to sales after they show up too? We have a video funnel for just that <<

But all of this effort wouldn't be worth it without some stellar engagement would it? Here is a screenshot of Alex’s video-email results:

An average of 65% opens, 34% click-through on the landing page CTA, and 26% response rate is pretty remarkable.

Average email open rates for text-based emails are closer to 20% with 2% CTR 😴.

Brainwave #2: Celebrating customer milestones with video

The minidegrees and marketing courses offered by CXL are extensive.

As such, they often take between 6-12 months to complete. When customers put that much time and energy into something, it’s a fantastic feeling to get personally congratulated.

Thinking about this journey led the CXL team to their next great idea with personal video, to congratulate customers around key milestones. Here's another great example from their team:

If you are running a membership site or have courses, here's some places you can include personal video in your own customer journey:

• If a customer is stuck on a module

• If a customer completes an important module or does well on a test

• If a customer is a good fit for a new course based on a past course purchase

• If a customer has been with you for 6 months, 12 months etc.

Get creative with it! Just remember that investing in your customers and their experience is one of the best ROIs you will ever get. 

Alex’s advice for using personal video yourself

When asked about his top pieces of advice for people new to personal video, this is what Alex said:

1. Begin the video with a wave and a big smile (make sure to turn on GIF vs. static image in the settings) 

2. Start manually by focusing on human to human connection. Automate and scale once you've seen success.

3. Hop into your email tool/marketing automation and see where you're sending generic drip sequences. That's the best way to generate ideas on swapping out an old email with a personalized video message.

Unleash sky-high customer activation with a free trial of Bonjoro 👇

If you've been inspired by the team at CXL, why not try something similar yourself?

Get yourself a free 14 day trial of Bonjoro, and use personal video to engage and activate your own customers.