Video is playing an increasingly more important role in our lives than anytime before. According to recent statistics collected by Google, people around the globe collectively watch more than one billion hours of video content on YouTube every single day. The prevalence of accessible video content in our modern society is reshaping the way that we share, learn, connect, and market. 

At the same time, video production has become much more accessible. Recent advances in production technology have allowed for non-professionals to create studio-quality video without a lot of specialized equipment. With this change, we see the customer appetite and expectation for new video content continue to grow for every video application, from entertainment to education, and marketing. 

Possibly one of the simplest reasons why you need to incorporate video content into your marketing mix is that 71% of people watch more videos than they did a year ago and that trend is predicted to continue to grow.

For businesses, it is important to embrace these trends as a catalyst for change in the way that we market products and services online. Video is changing the way that we all communicate with each other and that extends to the way in which businesses share information. 

To best use video content in your B2B organization, we break down the most important ways in which video content can benefit your marketing strategy.

Engage and Retain Customers

Customer engagement and retention has long been one of the most important considerations for any marketing or communication strategy.

The B2B market is unique for a number of reasons. There are normally more stakeholders who are involved in a purchasing decision when compared to a B2C sale. Business stakeholders will likely respond to marketing messages much more critically than a normal consumer. They typically will require more specific information about a product or service before making a purchase decision. 

In this example for TEMPO, a software platform application for mining and aviation fleet maintenance, we were able to break down complex concepts into easy  to understand, engaging segments that are critical to audience needs and explain how the platform works. 

 

Compared to other traditional forms of media, video has the potential to more effectively engage potential customers, explain complex concepts and communicate value. 

Video has consistently been shown to be a more engaging platform than text or audio because of how easy it is to format content to address multiple needs of the consumer. Content can be created to be not only stimulating and entertaining, but also to deliver key messaging to an audience, answering questions they might have about a product or service. 

B2B video also allows you to hook audiences in ways you can’t with other traditional media. Once hooked, the long-term format of most videos increases audience retention and website visit duration. With video being such an engaging platform, it is no wonder that 94% of marketers who use video already plan to continue doing so into the future.

Create Versatile Content

One of the biggest benefits of video marketing is that the content is very versatile and can be deployed for a number of different applications.

Creating content that might be used across several platforms can significantly increase the amount of website traffic and customer conversions that a company gets. Crossposting content will also positively impact the amount of impressions that one piece of content creates. A 2020 study showed that 65% of executives visit the website of a company after viewing a branded YouTube video. This is just one example of how deploying versatile content across many platforms can help to an increase in leads and website traffic. This phenomenon extends into social video sharing platforms, in which marketers are seeing extraordinary results from video marketing campaigns. 

And social media is just one option for using video. It is common now for marketing departments to make the most of their content marketing by creating video versions of written content to expand engagement to a larger audience, thus getting more mileage out of one piece of writing. 

A single video can be used for: 

  • The company website
  • Multiple social media channels
  • Email outreach
  • A trade show booth 

In this sense, it is much more cost effective than other forms of media. Also, long form video can be edited into shorter snippets used to fuel social media, email, and digital advertising campaign efforts.

Stand out from competitors and establish your brand 

With good, consistent, and engaging video content, audiences will develop a unique perspective of a brand. This unique customer relationship is strengthened through consistency, and frequency of content that creates familiarity and builds trust. Audiences will be much more likely to make a return visit to a company’s website if the video content hosted on that website is predictable, consistent and informative. 

Video is the ideal platform to create content that makes you stand out from the competition. Video allows for businesses to create unique content that communicates the personality of your organization in ways that text cannot. One can highlight unique cultural aspects of their organization through testimonials and interviews to show why their company is different. The possibilities for expression in video helps to give audiences a more distinguishing perspective of your company and brand. 

For Canon Medical Health Informatics, we were able to deliver key attributes of their imaging platform along with a brand point of view by creating a master video and then editing it into shorter segments for use across various media. The result was a clear differentiation of Canon HIT from its competitors.   

Use Subject Matter Experts to Build Stronger Relationships

Video allows organizations to share their company’s personality by including key subject matter experts, engaging spokespersons ro customer testimonials. Incorporating these experts will help to engage your audience through an appeal to authority, essentially helping to make your content more credible and persuasive. This can be a very powerful tool in establishing your brand and building trust with your audience, as you open doors to the people behind the product or services you offer. 

As the way that individuals interact with media continues to evolve, it is easy to recognize the increasing use of video as a means of B2B communication. Its benefits as a marketing tool are consistently proven to be too great for any business to ignore. 

Reaching one’s goals for engagement, messaging, and branding opportunities with video is much more attainable than with other forms of media. The return on investment is unmatched as video content can be effectively deployed across more platforms than audio or text alone. 

Nearly 87% of B2B businesses are already sharing some form of video on their website or across social media. What is stopping you from incorporating video into your B2B marketing strategy?

Where do you start? 

Getting started can be a daunting task. If you are considering video as a part of your marketing, we can help. Spend an hour with us and we will walk through a video storytelling framework that will help you shape a master brand video and a video strategy.