Can video for B2B make the difference in your marketing strategy?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how much is a video worth? Using video for B2B marketing is highly valuable yet creating great content is not that easy. But don't despair, the following eight tips will help you craft quality video for B2B that gets high rates of engagement and generate more sales.
Tell a Story
Everyone loves a good story; it's in our nature. Avoid the dry facts and figures or risk losing an audience whose attention span is already severely taxed. You want viewers to quickly grasp what your company does and how it can help solve their problem. So sell the sizzle and not the steak. Focus on benefits and not features by telling a compelling story.
Emotion Trumps Logic
Although B2B and B2C marketing are decidedly different, they do share some commonality. Both practices seek to influence the opinions of human beings. Buyers of B2B products may be companies, but it's people that make purchasing decisions. The fact is that people do not make logical buying decisions. Logic may be used after the fact to justify a decision, but rational thought rarely wins out in making a determined choice.
Make Videos for Different Stages of the Buyer Journey
Buyers are looking for different information, depending on where they are in their journey. In the initial stages, short videos that are focused and to the point are more appropriate. Toward the end of a buyer's decision process, longer videos with customer testimonials and use-cases help guide viewers to the next stage.
Use Video for B2B as a Virtual Salesperson
Video for B2B is a great medium to explain, educate and demonstrate your product to potential purchasers. Buyers at each stage of the purchasing cycle typically have similar questions and concerns that can be effectively addressed through video. Longer videos can be divided into shorter segments that address specific concerns and move prospects onwards to the next stage.
Have Clearly Defined Goals
All videos are not created equal. Each one should have a clearly defined business goal against which its success can be judged. This goal will help determine the type of content to include in the video and how it should be shared. Videos that drive brand awareness can be freely shared while those created to generate leads may work better if they're gated.
Create a Landing Page With a Solid Offer
Lead-generation videos should have their own dedicated landing page the sole purpose of which is to convert visitors. Landing pages are unique in that they provide guests with only two choices; to perform the desired action or hit the "back button." Providing more options has been proven to result in fewer conversions, so keep it simple. A strong and compelling call-to-action increases the odds that visitors provide their highly desired contact information. In return, the content provided must be equally compelling.
Properly Placing the Call-to-Action Is Key
Video analytics is helpful in determining how long people are watching your video. In turn, this can help identify where to place your call-to-action (CTA). Ideally, it should be within the most viewed portion of the video. Generally speaking that place is going to be within the first 30 seconds. Although this is a good rule of thumb when creating a video, it's best to confirm this using analytics after the video has been posted and received sufficient traffic.
Use a Custom Thumbnail With a Smiling Human Face
Good practice dictates NOT automatically loading a video when the page loads. So the video thumbnail is what visitors will be the first thing they see. Research has revealed that video thumbnails with smiling human faces tend to convert better than other images.
Creating video content isn't easy and requires a decent budget. However, the potential is far greater than that of written content. Video for B2B is still in its infancy and B2B marketers who embrace it stand to gain first to market advantage.
As an example, this is actually a great B2B video on how to create B2B videos.
Creating effective B2B Video content from Progressive Content on Vimeo.
Stephen Jeske is a growth marketer, entrepreneur and editor of Growth Hacking Digest. You can connect with him on Twitter @stephenjeske.
