The Ultimate Guide to B2B Video Marketing
The Ultimate Guide to B2B Video Marketing
Intrigued by how B2B video marketing can elevate your brand?
In this post, we’ll be talking you through what B2B video is, why it matters, and how you can create your next B2B video marketing strategy to get everybody talking about your brand. Let’s jump right in!
So, what is B2B video?
If you don’t know already, B2B video marketing is the use of video content by businesses in an effort to market their products or services to other businesses instead of individual customers.
For example, businesses can use animations to simplify complex products, product advertisements to highlight key features, and mini-documentaries to build credibility. Additionally, brand videos can be utilised to humanise your company, while training videos can help customers get the most out of your products and services.
How does B2B video marketing differ from B2C?
There are many ways in which marketing your business to another differs from marketing to an individual consumer. In B2B marketing, your prospective client or customer is:
- Focused on fulfilling the needs of the business rather than their personal needs
- Part of a wider decision-making process featuring multiple people
- Often required to demonstrate the logic in their buying process
- Not always the person making the final decision, but one who is conducting the initial research process
- Working with a buying process that could involve many decision points and protracted timelines
Why does B2B video marketing matter?
In a world where logic and rationality may seem to be the order of the day, you may be forgiven for assuming that video simply isn’t the right tool for marketing B2B businesses. Yet, things are rapidly changing. A study by LinkedIn showed that 62% of B2B marketers polled believe that video should be the primary platform for any creators.
So, what exactly do B2B marketers see as the benefit of video? Here are the top 10 reasons our own clients have given us for using video in their marketing strategies and campaigns:
1. Video helps you cut through the noise
According to Invesp, video advertising has the highest Click-Through Rate of all digital advertising, supporting the idea that it achieves a better standout in a crowded marketplace. It’s also been found to be 600 times more effective at creating initial leads than print or direct mail advertising.
2. Video on your website increases traffic
This is largely because the Google algorithm (other search engines are available!) favours websites with well-curated video, so your business may appear higher up the search rankings if your site contains video. It’s not just traffic to your website that is enhanced by having video – conversions can be improved by up to 80% on landing pages with video compared to those without.
3. A picture paints a thousand words
Tests with video viewers have found that around 95% of the message is retained. It also helps to conceptualise more complex or technical products and services. For example, a 2,000-word document explaining your business proposition could be summarised in a two-minute video.
4. Video can support different stages in the buying process
Well-commissioned video has the potential to be used at different points within the purchase decision process. ‘Hero’ content, a well-crafted business or brand video that connects with your audience, could help you stand out at the beginning of the search process. Case study videos may prove invaluable as the client seeks internal support or sign-off for their decision.
5. Other communication channels are super-charged by video
Just the mere mention of video in the subject line of your email could increase email open rates as well as CTR. Campaign Monitor reported that the open rates for email campaigns with video are improved by 6%, and CTR is improved by up to 65%.
6. Video brings your case study to life
Most B2B marketers and salespeople will understand the importance of case studies, and many are now using video to take prospective clients straight into the world of existing clients. While discussing rational decision-making in the B2B world, case study videos can convey the emotion involved when meeting business needs.
7. You can unleash your creativity
In B2B, we often shy away from the emotional in favour of the logical and rational. Just because we’re dealing with a structured, commercially-based buying process doesn’t mean we can’t channel creativity to bring the brand or business to life. Having video may well improve website traffic or email CTRs, but having engaging video makes that more likely to succeed.
8. Video helps build trust and improve transparency
A video that shows how your product or service works can help improve trust with prospective customers – the idea that seeing is believing is born out in the stats around landing pages better converting when they have video. Showing how you do something can also help create transparency – especially when you may have to convey difficult messages.
9. Tailored video hits home
Tailoring your video content to different buying personas and audiences will help demonstrate that you understand their needs. And doing so needn’t be expensive if you build your requirements into your video brief from the beginning. It could be as simple as a different voiceover, a change of scene, or an alternative graphic that turns a video aimed at one industry to target another.
10. Video gives your salespeople another tool in the toolbox
Whether an initial email to open conversations, part of a sales presentation, or an added extra in the follow-up process, the multiple benefits of the latest video trends mean that it can help make life easier for your sales team and ultimately help them seal the deal.
Considerations of B2B Video Marketing
Now that you know how beneficial B2B video marketing can be for your organisation, it’s time to pay attention to a few considerations you’ll have to keep in mind before getting stuck in.
- Time
If you have your eye on creating a high-quality, effective B2B video, you can expect it to take some time. From planning and scripting to shooting and editing, B2B videos shouldn’t be rushed, which is something to consider if your business operates on tight deadlines.
- Engagement
Let’s face it – B2B audiences don’t always have the time or interest to watch video content, especially when they don’t seem relevant. Keeping videos concise, valuable, and engaging can be tricky, but our team is up for the job.
- Distribution
Keep your distribution techniques in mind. Your video must be placed in front of the right audiences, so choosing the right channels and networks is vital.
How to create a B2B video marketing strategy
If you want to get into B2B video marketing, take a look at our step-by-step guide below to discover how you can create your very own strategy!
Step 1: Set your goals
When creating a B2B video marketing strategy, the first thing to do is to define objectives, ensuring you’re clear with what you want to achieve with your video marketing project. For example, you may want to boost brand awareness, customer retention, or engagement.
When setting your goals, make sure they are SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Realistic and manageable goals like these can help you stay on track instead of leaving you feeling disappointed by not being able to complete wildly ambitious targets.
Here is an example of a SMART goal: Increase brand awareness by 20%, measured by social media mentions, website visits, and video views, within three months after releasing three targeted explainer videos.
Step 2: Understand your audience
The next step in creating your B2B video marketing strategy is understanding your target consumers.
To do this, conduct market research to understand their pain points and decision-making processes. From this, you can develop buyer personas and effectively target your campaigns.
Step 3: Choose your video type
You should choose a B2B video that aligns with your goals. For example, while case studies can build trust, explainer videos can be fantastic for brand awareness.
Furthermore, once you have your video types sorted, you can start getting to grips with your video topics and when you will unleash them to your audience.
Step 4: Plan for production
In this stage of the B2B marketing video process, you must decide where and when to produce your content, all while keeping your budget in mind. You must also decide who will be featured in your video and You must also decide who will be featured in your video and what they will wear for filming.
Step 5: Film the video
Here comes the fun part! We can film your video while following your script and storyboard and keeping your key goals in mind. You can leave this part to us – and let us make everything spick and spam in the editing stage at our studio!
Step 6: Distribute your video
Where you publish your B2B video marketing content will really depend on your target audience. Think – does your audience like going on social media? Or do they prefer visiting your website or checking out their emails? This is a key consideration and can heavily impact how effective your video is.
Step 7: Promote your B2B marketing video
Next, take full advantage of what your video has to offer by shouting about it! You could leverage paid advertising on popular platforms or even collaborate with influencers to spread the word.
Step 8: Measure your success
Finally, there’s no point in creating your B2B marketing video if you’re not going to track how successful it is. You can track key metrics from views to conversation rates and use analytics tools like Google Analytics to gain insights into your video performance.
Once this data is at your fingertips, you can start working out what you can improve!
Some quality B2B video marketing examples
We know you’re dying to see what good B2B video marketing looks like in action, so check out some of our work below!
- B2B Product Demo
- B2B Technology Explainer
- B2B Farming Company Video
[https://www.reel-film.co.uk/our-work/ungloves-product-video]
This product demo video we developed for Unigloves highlights the product’s key features and benefits. By implementing high-quality visuals and close-up shots, we were able to celebrate the product’s details to make it as appealing and easy-to-understand as possible.
[https://www.reel-film.co.uk/our-work/tilsatec-educational-film]
The explainer B2B video we created for Tilsatec is particularly effective due to our team’s use of 3D animation, which gives it the power to break down complex concepts into easily digestible visuals. This makes it ideal for B2B audiences to grasp the technology’s benefits to drive informed decision-making.
[https://www.reel-film.co.uk/our-work/kiwa-agri-food-company-video]
Our company video for Kiwa Agri Food tells a compelling story about the organisation’s role in the agriculture and food industry, blending appealing visuals with expert commentary and interviews for added authority. The humanisation of the brand may be impactful for building trust with potential B2B clients.
Interested in our B2B video marketing services?
If you’re intrigued by the benefits you stand to gain from implementing B2B video marketing into your current business strategy, please get in touch today to start a conversation about your needs.
Our team has plenty of experience producing B2B video content and can’t wait to get stuck into your project! We can help you with a range of video production services, regardless of the sector you work in.
If you’re still wondering how video can help boost your B2B marketing, we leave you with this final quote:
“Business decision makers LOVE online video because it gives them the most amount of information in the shortest amount of time.”
- Robert Weiss, Use YouTube Video Marketing to Generate Leads, Awareness & Customers
