Video Marketing in B2B: Why It Pays Off and What You Should Know

Introduction

Video marketing has rapidly become an essential strategy for B2B companies and marketers. With the exponential rise of video consumption across digital platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, using video in your B2B marketing mix can significantly improve brand awareness, generate more qualified leads, and drive higher conversion rates.

In this comprehensive 2000 word guide, we’ll explore in depth why video works so exceptionally well for B2B brands, outline the multitude of benefits it offers, and provide tips on developing an effective end-to-end B2B video marketing strategy. Let’s dive in.

Why Should Your B2B Business Invest in Video Marketing?

With online video quickly dominating content consumption patterns, there are several compelling reasons why savvy B2B marketers are making video a central part of their overall marketing strategy and budgets.

Video Viewing Statistics Show Massive Engagement Potential

• 90% of customers say videos help them make buying decisions [source]
• 72% of businesses say video has improved their conversion rate [source]
• Companies using video enjoy 41% more web traffic [source]
• Landing pages with videos have conversion rates up to 80% higher [source]

With numbers like these demonstrating how impactful video can be, B2B brands simply can’t ignore video marketing if they want to engage audiences and drive conversions in today’s digital landscape.

Benefits of B2B Video Marketing

Let’s explore some of the data-backed reasons why video works so well:

Video dramatically improves search rankings

Google and other search engines are aggressively favouring pages with video in search results. One study by Wyzowl found that pages with video rank on average 53 times higher than those without. This is because video increases time spent on page, lowering bounce rates. Signals like this tell Google and Bing that your content is engaging and valuable, improving SEO rankings. [1]

Video massively improves demand generation

Product demo videos, customer testimonials, case studies, and video ads help thoroughly educate potential customers on your B2B offerings. Video content converts buyers at a much higher rate than text or images alone. In one study, adding video to landing pages increased conversion rates by 80%. [2]

Video enhances account-based marketing (ABM)

Video messages personalised for key decision makers stand out and humanise your B2B brand much better than emails or ads alone. Short videos work extremely well for one-to-one ABM outreach campaigns. [3]

Other benefits of video for B2B brands include:

• Video adds credibility and trust to your brand
• Video increases social media shares and visibility
• Video improves learning retention for complex B2B topics
• Video enhances and reinforces other B2B content types

In summary, video marketing should absolutely be a top priority for any serious B2B marketer looking to increase brand awareness, generate more qualified leads, and ultimately drive sales growth.

 

How to Create an Effective B2B Video Marketing Strategy

Now that we’ve covered why video is so impactful, let’s explore how to create a successful B2B video marketing strategy step-by-step:

1. Set Clear Goals for Your Video Marketing

First, take the time to identify what you want to achieve from your video content. Is the goal to increase brand awareness? Generate more sales leads? Educate customers? Promote a specific product? Drive traffic to your website?

Having clear objectives will inform who you should target with your videos and what types of video content you should produce. Aligning videos to specific goals also makes measuring ROI easier.

2. Decide on a Video Production and Promotion Budget

Next, determine what budget you can allocate for video production and promotion. Factoring in potential costs like video creation software, hiring a video production team, social media ad spend, and more will help define the scope of what is feasible.

Even lean video budgets can produce quality B2B marketing videos with some creativity. But ideally allocate enough to promote your content and get it in front of the right audiences.

3. Choose Video Types and Map to Your Sales Funnel

With goals set and budget defined, decide what types of video content align to each stage of your sales funnel. Some options to consider:

Top of Funnel Awareness Stage

• Explainer or introductory product videos
• Video blog posts or FAQs
• Brand storytelling videos

Middle Funnel Consideration Stage

• Customer case study videos
• Testimonial videos from customers
• Video panels of industry experts

Bottom Funnel Decision Stage

• Product demo videos
• Pricing and implementation videos
• Onboarding and support videos

Mapping video content types to your sales funnel ensures you’re educating and moving buyers through each stage. [4]

Select Video Publishing Platforms and Channels

Next, determine where you will publish and distribute your video content. Key platforms to consider include:

• YouTube – The #2 search engines. Optimised video pages here can drive discovery.
• Social Media – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook all enable video posts.
• Email Marketing – Embed video in drip campaigns and newsletters.
• Your Website – Publish videos on blog, product pages, and more.

Promoting videos on the right channels aligning to your sales funnel is critical for visibility. Develop a video content calendar to organise an ongoing publishing strategy across platforms.

Create High Quality B2B Marketing Videos

With your video strategy defined, it’s time to start creating videos! Here are some best practices to follow:

• • Work with an experienced video team if needed

• Use screen recordings to demo products
• Create a compelling, benefit-focused script
• Ensure high-quality audio, lighting, and editing
• Optimise keyword targeting in titles, descriptions, captions

Keep videos short and impactful. Studies show engagement drops significantly after 1-2 minutes.

Publish Your Video Content

Upload finalised videos to selected platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, or social channels. Optimise each video page with keywords, clickable links, and calls to action in titles, descriptions, captions, and end screens.

Promote Your B2B Marketing Videos

Simply publishing a video is not enough – you must extensively promote it to drive views. Some tactics include:

• Share natively on social media channels
• Embed videos on website pages and blog content
• Promote videos in email, newsletters, and nurture campaigns
• Run paid video ads on platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook
• Promote at in-person events, webinars, and conferences

Without promotion, even the best video content will struggle to attract audiences. Leverage both owned and paid channels to maximise reach.

Track and Measure the Success of Your Videos

The final critical step is to continually analyse video marketing metrics to optimise efforts and prove ROI. Key data points to track include:

• Video views
• View completion rates
• Traffic driven to website
• Leads and sales generated
• Social engagement
• Audience retention

Analyse this data, learn what resonates, and use those insights to refine your future video strategy and content.

Strategic Considerations for Effective B2B Video Marketing

Beyond the overarching video marketing steps covered above, here are some additional strategic factors B2B brands should keep in mind:

Select an Intuitive Video Creation Tool

Choose a video software that makes it easy and efficient for your team to create videos at scale. Options like Animoto, Promo, or Biteable require no technical skills. Look for templates, brand customization, and collaboration capabilities.

Clearly Define Your Target Audiences and Buyer Personas

Who are you trying to reach with video? The more precisely you can define your target audiences, jobs, challenges, and motivations, the better. Tailor video messaging and creative to align with distinct buyer personas. [5]

Carefully Select Video Platforms and Channels

Assess each major platform – YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc – and decide which makes the most sense for reaching your target audiences. Align channels to stages in the sales funnel. Promote brand videos on YouTube and LinkedIn, while sharing educational content on niche industry forums.

Keep Videos Concise and Compelling

Strive for videos under 2 minutes, with compelling hooks that capture attention in the first 10 seconds. Use strong calls to action and avoid long talking head videos. Quickly communicating your key messages is crucial for engagement.

Optimise Titles and Thumbnails for Clicks

Leverage emotional keywords, questions, and superior graphic design to create irresistible video titles and thumbnails. This drives massive click throughs from search and social platforms.

In summary, tailoring videos to resonate with each of your core buyer personas, while aligning content and promotion to your sales funnel, is the key to B2B video marketing success.

 

 

The Best Types of B2B Marketing Videos to Produce

Let’s explore some of the most effective video types B2B brands should prioritize:

Customer Testimonial Videos

Credible customers explaining how your product or service solved their problems is incredibly convincing. Gathering compelling testimonial videos can make or break conversion rates.

Case Study Videos Demonstrating Results

Hard numbers and metrics showing how you’ve driven ROI for customers is powerful social proof. Produce before-and-after case study videos to showcase success stories.

Explanatory Product Demo Videos

Self-guided product tour and demo videos allow you to thoroughly explain key features and value propositions on your terms. These build interest and consideration.

Brand Storytelling Videos

Even B2B buyers connect with stories focused on purpose, people, and culture. Brand videos make companies relatable while highlighting strengths.

Prioritising these impactful video types that align to your sales cycle is the smart play for lead generation. But don’t ignore the power of educational how-to videos, behind-the-scenes company culture videos, animated explainer videos, live product announcements, and more.

Test a variety of video content tailored to your products, services, and brand personality. Expand types that gain traction and double down on what works.

 

 

Conclusion

As this comprehensive guide outlines, video marketing should be an essential component of any B2B marketing strategy in 2023 and beyond. Following video best practices tailored to your specific goals, audiences, brand, and budget is the key to maximising success.

With strategic video content mapped to each stage of your sales funnel and extensive promotion across paid and owned channels, B2B video marketing can pay major dividends for your business through substantially increased brand awareness, higher lead conversion rates, and ultimately sales growth.

If you’re looking to take your B2B marketing to the next level, it’s time to make professional, high-quality video creation and distribution a top priority.

FAQ

What are the benefits of video marketing for B2B companies?

Some key benefits of B2B video marketing include improved SEO rankings, higher conversion rates, enhanced brand awareness, increased social engagement, and supporting account-based marketing campaigns. Videos help educate buyers and build trust.

What types of videos should B2B companies create?

Top videos for B2B include explainer and product demo videos, customer testimonials, case studies, thought leadership interviews, tutorials, behind-the-scenes company culture videos, live product demos, and more.

Where should B2B companies share their marketing videos?

Effective places to publish B2B videos include on the company website, YouTube, social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, paid ads, email marketing campaigns, webinars, and trade events.

How can B2B brands track the success of their video marketing?

Key video marketing metrics to track include video views, completion rates, website traffic, leads and sales generated, and social engagement. This data helps optimise future video efforts.

What makes an effective B2B video marketing strategy?

A strategic B2B video marketing approach includes setting goals, budgeting properly, aligning video types to the sales funnel, promoting extensively, and continually analysing performance.

How long should B2B marketing videos be?

B2B videos should generally be kept short and impactful, ideally under 2 minutes long. Completion rates drop significantly after 1-2 minutes. Focus on concise messaging.

What are some tips for creating compelling B2B videos?

Tips include focusing on problem-solving, using strong calls to action, getting high production quality, letting company experts be spokespeople, optimising titles and thumbnails, and promoting videos across multiple channels.

What types of videos resonate most with B2B buyers?

Customer testimonials, case studies, product demos, and brand storytelling videos tend to perform well in B2B. Educational, how-to videos also provide value.

How can I measure the ROI of video marketing?

Track metrics like views, conversions, lead generation, traffic, and sales. Survey customers on how videos impacted purchase decisions. Look at site analytics before and after adding video.

What budget do I need for effective B2B video marketing?

It’s possible to produce quality video content even on a modest budget. But ideally invest enough to get professional production and promotion to maximise impact. Start small and test different approaches.

Sources

• com – How To Create Your B2B Video Marketing Strategy
• com – An Introduction to B2B Video Marketing
• com – The Ultimate Guide to Account-Based Marketing
• com – The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing
• com – The Complete Guide to B2B Video Marketing
• com – SEO in Account-Based Marketing: A Must