Video is becoming an increasingly important component of marketing today.
Everywhere, businesses are wising up to the power of video, for connecting and engaging with their target audiences.
This is happening in the business-to-business (B2B) world too.
In it’s 2020 B2B Content Marketing Report, the Content Marketing Institute reported that 71% of B2B marketers had used video content in the last 12 months.
In B2B sales and marketing, the deal sizes are larger, the sales process is longer and there’s often many stakeholders and decision makers involved in a purchase decision.
As such, the way video is used in B2B marketing is significantly different too.
In this blog post, we’ll look at some ways B2B marketers can make use of video in their campaigns. Without further ado, let’s jump in.
One of the most important ways video can be used in B2B marketing is building confidence and trust for your brand. So what do we mean by this?
Video is a highly engaging medium.
Through video, a business can showcase itself – who they are (an intro video), what they do, their track record, their accomplishments and their people – sharing their story in a way that lets users connect with their brand on a deeper level.
When done right, video is highly effective in building trust and confidence for your brand.
For B2B brands, this is especially important since potential customers will often deliberate long and hard whether to do business with you or not. Building a foundation of trust and confidence goes a long way in helping to clinch those business deals.
Building trust and confidence through video with HubSpot
The video gives a great first impression for those doing a review of HubSpot and alternatives. And it might trigger visitors to try out the software.
The right video content at the right stage of the sales process can help to speed up sales cycles.
How, you may ask, does video do that?
Using video in the sales process with Drift
It’s simple. Many times, during the typical B2B sales process, your prospect will have a lot of questions. After all, they’re wrestling with finding a solution to their business needs and there’s a lot of factors for them to consider.
Maybe, they don’t quite understand what they need.
But they are unlikely to reach out to you to ask questions. Studies have shown the average B2B buyer is 57 per cent through the purchase decision before reaching out to a sales reps.
That means the content you have prepared on your website needs to do the talking for you.
In this case, a video showcasing how your product has solved similar challenges for other clients might push them forward in the sales process. Or perhaps, they have a lot of questions on product features. In which case, having a library of product videos might help to answer their questions.
When it comes to informing, educating and answering questions your prospects may have, video is an incredibly effective medium.
In addition, the use of case studies and testimonial videos in the B2B sales process can often help reassure your prospects and get them to saying ‘yes’ that much faster.
B2B products and solutions are often complex in nature. This is especially so for new technology products or products in the enterprise space.
This results in sales people having to explain what their product does to prospects again and again. Sometimes, this is with mixed results.
So what’s the solution for this?
That’s where explainer videos can come in and help.
Explainer videos are highly effective for showcasing complex B2B products and solutions, turning difficult concepts into visual stories that are easier to understand. What’s more, according to Unbounce, explainer videos can help to keep your prospect’s attention and increase online conversion rates.
Today’s social media landscape is more crowded than ever, flooding our news feed with content from all corners of the Internet.
This begs the question: “How do you stand out amidst all the noise?”
According to a recent study, video is one of the most effective ways to break through the clutter and be seen and heard on social media is through video.
83 per cent of marketers say video is becoming more important, with social media one of the top places where video content is used. Furthermore, in a separate study, 66 percent of millennials reported engaging with a brand after viewing a video on social media.
For B2B brands trying to increase their visibility on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, video can definitely help to enhance their social media campaigns. Here’s a great guide published by StableWP on how to run top of the funnel Linkedin ads campaigns.
What’s more, video content for social media doesn’t always have to be polished corporate or product videos. They can also be behind-the-scenes looks at the people behind the brand or video footage from recent trade shows and conferences.
If you’re looking for a cost effective way to produce online videos for your brand (without the big ticket costs), do check out our OFFEO’s online video maker tools!
One of the great aspects of video is its power at building an audience. More people are consuming video content on platforms such as YouTube. According to Alexa, YouTube audiences spend an average of 11m 24s per day on the platform.
This means there’s a great opportunity for B2B brands to publish great content and attract the right audiences. So which brands come to mind when it comes to video?
One of the most prominent business personalities on YouTube and social media these days is Gary Vaynerchuck. The media mogul has come a long way, parlaying early success from his Wine Library vlog into today’s multi media empire.
Besides the personal branding success of Gary Vaynerchuck, there are many other B2B brands building audiences through video content. An example is Slidebean – an AI-powered presentation maker targeted at startups.
According to Slidebean’s CEO, their YouTube channel has been a big success. In 2019, it saw over 1 million organic views, a 10x increase over 2018. In 2019 alone, the channel added over 30,000 subscribers, highlighting how online audiences are hungry for good content from B2B brands.
The video webinar had become a staple in the modern marketing tech stack– and for good reason. Put simply, video webinars are highly effective at selling business and technology products and services to larger groups at a time.
No time to do a live webinar? These days, many marketers are using on-demand webinars to capture leads and nurture their prospects instead.
Another aspect of video that is fast becoming popular is the live stream.
There are many ways B2B brands are leveraging live streaming today. For one, event live streams are becoming increasingly common, allowing brands to bring the immediateness of a live event to a wider audience online.
In 2019, LinkedIn also introduced live streaming for a select group of users, following in the example of Facebook and Instagram. While live streaming is still not commonly used on LinkedIn, there’s every chance it will grow in popularity as most users catch on to the organic reach of LinkedIn live video.
Video content looks set to increase in importance for B2B brands in the years to come.
More than ever, marketers need to make video an integral part of their sales and marketing process. Organisations who take the steps to do so will enjoy the benefits such as wider reach, higher engagement and stronger audiences.
What are your thoughts about the importance of video content for B2B companies? Reach out and share with us your thoughts today!
This is a guest post by Donald Chan, founder at IMPACT! Brand Communications, a leading Singapore content marketing agency for Technology and B2B brands, as well as MarTech Wise, an online community sharing reviews and insights on the best marketing tools.
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