Video Marketing for B2B Businesses
If you work for a company providing products and services in the B2B space it’s difficult to avoid a seemingly endless influx of reports, statistics, and spreadsheets. If you’ve ever felt your eyes glaze over while scrolling through the latest year-over-year comparisons of business activities it is likely you know this universal truth – endless lines of text and figures can get dull very quickly. The solution is simple – breaking up content with assorted media, especially video, is the way to capture and retain engagement for your B2B business in Boston and beyond.
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What is B2B Video Marketing?
As we head into 2022, it’s common knowledge that video is the gold standard in B2C marketing. Developing marketing videos to promote brand awareness, demonstrate products, educate your target audience, and increase engagement should also be the goal of any B2B company. In the United States, people spend an average of 100 minutes per day watching online video content – a massive and still rising increase of over 20% from just two years ago. B2B video production best practices are often similar to the video content produced by B2C businesses, but several key differences must be considered to achieve an impactful ROI on your B2B video marketing budget.
Videos now make up a significant portion of consumer decision-making factors, but those same consumers are the potential clients that consume B2B video marketing. Simply put, this means that the same techniques used to build brand awareness and name recognition can be utilized by marketing content creators to capture attention and then demonstrate what your company has to offer that sets you apart from competitors.
A quality B2B video strategy means creating content that is easily shareable, simple to understand, yet still unique enough to capture and retain the attention of a potential client. Small businesses do not need an inflated marketing budget to achieve these goals, as industry experts recommend that a full 50% of your marketing budget should be applied to creating video content.
Benefits of B2B Video Marketing
As mentioned before, statistics can get dull rather quickly, but the results of a seven-year industry study on video marketing show why all B2B businesses are excited about this type of content. Video is the No.1 form of media used in content strategy, while over 94% of marketing professionals report that videos help their users and prospects get a better handle on their solutions and offerings. From the client reporting side, 72% of those surveyed say that they would prefer to view a video than reading text when learning about new products or services. 79% of the same group said that a brand video has made an impact on their decision to buy a software solution or particular app, while over 90% of those respondents say they would prefer to see more video content when researching B2B products.
Video Marketing Strategy
Like any other marketing tool, creating a strategy begins with defining your goals and determining what methods will help you meet them. Let’s break down B2B video production best practices to help your B2B business leverage this vital marketing tool to achieve success!
Consider your target audience
Think about the characteristics of your most desired customers. What situations or challenges do they need to address? How can your B2B products, services, and solutions help them to reach their goals in the short term and the long term? When you begin your B2B video marketing strategy by thinking about customer personas and characteristics, it will help you to focus on the content that you are creating for those specific segments of the target audience. What similarities do many of your target market share, in terms of the position they hold, the physical location of their business, and other demographic factors? You will begin to see patterns in your research, and this will allow you to segment your desired audience into groups or personas. You should keep these personas in mind when creating content these avatars will find appealing.
Determine the type or types of videos to produce
There are many types of video marketing spots, but B2B video production best practices mean you will likely want to create a video that explains your product, teaches others how to use your product, gives a real-life example of how your product or service has had a positive impact for another business (case study videos), or a webinar.
Create a storyboard
Failure to plan is the same as planning to fail, and B2B video marketing strategy is no exception. Once you’ve decided what type of video you want to produce, create a visual outline of the concept with a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. Write up any scripted dialogue you want to include. If you’re having trouble visualizing a story for your video, look to your existing marketing copy for some inspiration. It is often possible to use the written marketing content you’ve already created to drive the script and communicate your message. Again, B2B shoppers overwhelmingly prefer to watch video content instead of reading text, so you have a better chance of securing engagement when offering your content for consumption in video format!
Collaborate
Address edits with your internal marketing team or decide if you should outsource. Investing in professionally produced video content has a proven ROI that is significantly higher than any other marketing pipeline, which is why so many Boston B2B businesses trust GoingClear to turn your video vision into an effective campaign
Publish your content where it will be most visible
In 2022, that means social media marketing. LinkedIn is the best place to start since business professionals make a habit of scrolling through their feed regularly and sharing videos with their colleagues. Creating a YouTube channel and publishing your videos there will serve the dual purpose of distribution and improving SEO. Many B2B businesses have begun using Twitter and Facebook as the lines between business life and personal life become more blurred with remote work and hybrid work.
Build Your B2B Video Strategy
If you want more tips to design a media marketing strategy using B2B video production best practices, schedule a free audit with GoingClear. We’re here to help!