Mastering the Art of B2B Video Marketing
Get More Traction With Your B2B Video Marketing Program
Video content is integral to your B2B marketing strategy, having far-reaching impact. It enhances SEO, engages audiences on social media platforms, and effectively prolongs user engagement on your website. Recent statistics from Google indicate that a remarkable 70% of B2B buyers incorporate video content into their process for finding and choosing products to buy. According to Brightcove and Ascend2, this figure climbs even higher to 95%. Whichever source we choose to believe, video content is integral to the B2B sales process.
So, how do you go about creating a marketing video? It’s clear that not all videos are the same, and not all video budgets produce the results you’d expect. What’s needed to go from “I know I need this to generate leads” to a successful video marketing strategy? Let’s dig in! We’ll discuss:
- Picking resonant topics for your videos
- Scripting tips
- Optimizing for search
- Where to post videos to improve marketing results
How Do You Plan Video Messaging?
How do you plan video marketing in general? The first step to a successful video strategy is understanding what keeps your audience up at night. As a B2B marketing agency, we go through an exercise to identify only, trigger, and switch messages for our clients. We map out messages that “only” the company/product offers, messages that “trigger” a prospect to search for a solution, and messages that will motivate someone to “switch” to a new provider – you! Armed with this knowledge, you can create video content that speaks directly to specific audience segments with much more relevance and persuasion power, addressing their unique needs and pain points. Whether the video is deployed on social media, a company website, in a targeted email campaign, or all three, this approach ensures that the messaging is more likely to make the phone ring.
How Do You Create Just the Right Video Script?
Now that you know the topic for your video, it’s time to create your script and storyboard. Here are some tips:
- The 2-3 minute time window gets the best results for B2B tutorial videos.
- Quick, impactful messages are more likely to resonate with audiences, fostering better engagement and increasing the likelihood of conveying key ideas.
- Write your script as if you are speaking directly to your audience. This will help to engage them and make your message more relatable.
- Adapting content to suit today’s shorter attention spans is paramount in maintaining relevance and effectiveness in a noisy digital landscape.
- Don’t be afraid to make changes to your script and storyboard as you go along. Iteration is key to creating a successful video.
- Plan the camera angles and shots for each scene to effectively convey your message and enhance the storytelling.
Here’s a suggestion: one client had created a 30-minute maintenance tutorial for a popular product, but the average percentage viewed was only 19%. We suggested cutting it into smaller how-to videos that ranged from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. This change increased the average percentage viewed to 70%. Video content should be designed with the user experience in mind, often consisting of concise segments. There’s a place for longer webinar-type presentations, but don’t overlook the impact of short hits as well.
How Do You Publish and Promote Your B2B Video?
As you create new videos, embed them in your website to increase time spent on site–a key signal to search engines that your content is valued. More frequent posting will be good for SEO, but YouTube will also recommend your videos with more frequency the more you post. To maintain a strong online presence, consistency on your YouTube channel is imperative. Furthermore, optimize your video content for search engines to enhance discoverability. Put keywords in the description and include captioning. If videos are optimized, they will be found more frequently in search results.
One of our clients went through the process of optimizing existing videos on YouTube to wonderful effect. In the 60 days before the optimization, their videos had an average of 95 views. In the 60 days following the adjustments, those same videos had 185 views, and in the following 60 days their views had grown to 247. Over time and across multiple videos, the results of search optimization will be dramatic.
Instead of trying to be on every platform – YouTube, TikTok, Instagram — if you don’t have the resources to adequately cover them all, focus on maintaining a strong presence on the platforms where your audience is most active. This allows you to dedicate more resources to creating high-quality content and engaging with your audience in a way that has impact.
Look at engagement metrics such as views, likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates on different platforms. This will give you insights into which platforms are driving the most engagement for your videos.
Incorporating videos on website landing pages can have a significant impact on lead conversions. Studies indicate that using videos on landing pages can improve conversions by an impressive 86%. Videos can effectively communicate key messages, demonstrate product features, and engage visitors on an emotional level, ultimately influencing their decision-making process.
We launched a new landing page for a client whose Google Paid Search Ad results had plateaued. The original landing page was very text-heavy; the new page featured more bulleted lists, scannable content and a video. The experiment proved to be a success in optimizing the campaign for higher conversion rates. This multimedia-focused landing page boosted the conversion rate from 1.8% to 5%. The cost per lead also shrank from $153 to $64!
Beyond digital platforms, the use of video has also proven to be a successful addition to more traditional media strategies. Our clients who include a video in their news releases see a much higher rate of pickup and tend to draw the increased attention of editors, resulting in new product stories rather than a simple cut-paste of the news release. Some trade publishers draw attention to the videos when they publish coverage. In a few cases, the video was the primary way the coverage was promoted.
Ready to elevate your marketing strategy with the power of video? Contact Goldstein Group Communications today to learn how we can help you create compelling video content that captivates your B2B audience and drives results. Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, engage your audience, or drive conversions, our team of experts is here to guide you every step of the way.
