Almost every marketer knows about the importance of using videos for their B2B marketing strategy; however, most of them aren’t sure where to start. In the post-COVID era, many B2B businesses are facing new challenges and are struggling to drive traffic and generate leads or sales. It’s getting tougher day by day to stand out in the competitive market and convert prospects into buyers.
The behavior of buyers has evolved to a great extent. Today, buyers prefer dedicating their time to self-education to determine whether a product is worth purchasing or not. Therefore, if you haven’t been taking any steps to educate your prospects about your products, then you need to give serious thought to it and start implementing the right step, otherwise, they will start turning to your competitors.
There may be multiple options to educate prospective buyers about your product; however, nothing matches the unrivaled power of video marketing that can easily influence prospective buyers at every stage of their research journey. We’ve seen tons of vital video marketing statistics in 2023 that will answer all your questions and make you realize the importance of video marketing.
It is quite clear from these statistics that the majority of buyers turn to videos to learn more about a specific product or service. Several brands have also stated that video marketing has yielded positive and better results for them compared to other forms of marketing.
However, many have historically seen video marketing as a tool for B2C marketers. Is video marketing really effective at improving B2B lead generation, too?
Why Is Video Marketing Crucial for B2B Marketers?
Every marketing strategy is planned and implemented with the aim of capturing the target audience’s attention. However, many marketers aren’t aware that they should capture their audience’s attention right from the word go. You may wonder why? Well, the global attention span has been shrinking. In fact, the average attention span of an individual has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds since the year 2000.
Then came the pandemic, which caused widespread mental health issues, affecting the concentration level of many. Several businesses saw a rise in demand for video content during the pandemic, and even in the post-COVID era the demand for video content remains to be high. Content creators are of the opinion that videos give them the best chance to convey their brand’s message within a few seconds, which may not be possible with textual content (articles, blog posts, infographics, and so on).
Another advantage of video marketing is that you will be able to show your audience how exactly your product works and how it can be beneficial for their businesses. It helps you showcase your product in a more interactive way.
Videos give your target audience a much better insight into your product, which in turn can build trust, since you are creating videos that speak directly to your target audience and address their pain points. It helps them understand that you are committed to solving their problems and helping them succeed. This will not just help you build a strong relationship with them but will also help you establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
The consumer’s preference for videos has definitely changed the landscape of content marketing and marketers have realized that video marketing can literally quadruple their results – in B2B lead generation as well as B2C.
Creating a B2B Video Marketing Strategy: How to Get Started
It is true that video marketing can improve your B2B lead generation results comprehensively; however, you should not jump into it blindly. Creating a video marketing strategy for your B2B business requires proper planning and understanding. Here are some important points that will help you get started.
#1. Determine What You Want to Achieve
You have to set your goals and objectives before you start creating videos, since it is very important for you to understand what your B2B video marketing strategy is actually trying to achieve. You need to determine whether you are trying to generate leads, boost conversions, or increase brand awareness through your videos. Once you identify your objectives and define your goals, you can just focus on tailoring your videos to meet your requirements.
If you want to generate leads or boost conversions, you can create a video or series of videos that highlight the features and benefits of your product or service. This will help your prospects understand how your product or service can solve their pain points, thereby encouraging them to sign up for a free trial, which can ultimately lead to more sales.
If your objective is to increase brand awareness, you can create a video or series of videos that showcase your company’s culture, ethics, values, mission statement, and what you have achieved so far. Such videos will ensure that prospective buyers get to know your brand. They become confident of what your product or service is capable of and will ultimately build trust with your company.
#2. Know Your Target Audience
At the end of the day, you are creating videos for your target audience, so it is important for you to understand your ideal customer profile. While working on a B2B model, your target audience could be small business owners, mid-level business owners, or bigger companies. Remember, their pain points, needs, and challenges are not the same. Therefore, you should identify your target audience first, then identify their issues, and finally create a video marketing strategy that addresses and resolves those issues.
The common challenges faced by small business owners are related to budgeting and marketing. If your target audience is small business owners or start-up owners, you can create a video that addresses these issues. This will not only build a strong relationship but will also help you establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
If you want to become a solution provider to mid-level or bigger companies, you can create videos that highlight the features and benefits of your product or service. If the videos are effective, they will start seeing you as a reliable and trustworthy solution provider.
#3. Select the Right Video Format that will Best Showcase Your Brand
You should choose the best style of video based on what you are trying to convey in that video.
If your objective is to highlight the features and benefits of your product or service, then you need to create a product demo video, as it will help your target audience understand how exactly your product works, what its benefits are, and how it can address and resolve their pain points.
If your objective is to create brand awareness by introducing your company and your product or service to your prospects, you should create an explainer video as it allows you to use animation to explain complicated concepts in a simple and interesting way.
If your aim is to boost conversions or generate sales, you can create a customer testimonial video. Such videos are a great way to feature your existing customers sharing their satisfaction and positive experiences with your product or service. This will build confidence in other prospective buyers to give your product or service a try.
Creating a B2B Video Marketing Strategy: What are the Different Stages?
Video marketing, or any form of marketing, really, is implemented for three reasons – customer acquisition, customer retention, or to scale user growth, which in turn will ultimately improve your B2B lead generation results. There are five different stages that you need to master in order to achieve your desired results.
Stage 1 – Brand Recognition and Awareness
In the first stage, you need to explain who your company is, why you exist, and who you serve – in a nutshell, you get the opportunity to reveal the foundations of your company’s identity by creating videos with compelling narratives to captivate your target audience.
Brand explainer videos are a great way to entice your prospects to explore your brand and ensure that it creates a lasting impression on them. You can measure the performance of your video ads and gauge their effectiveness through KPIs such as view count, shares, impressions, and so on.
Stage 2 – Generating Curiosity
In this stage, you need to showcase your past success stories to your prospective buyers. Before striking a deal with you, they want to understand more about your product or service and really be sure that your business offering can address their challenges and bring positive outcomes. So, they might want to know about your previous clients and their experience working with you.
It doesn’t stop there – they may also want to know how those companies achieved success by leveraging your product or service. To know more about what you have to offer, they might want access to some of your top-quality content which will allow them to upskill fast.
You can build videos such as testimonials, case studies, product overviews, and so on to cater to their needs at this stage (Stage 2). You can create a compelling case study video, presenting a real-life success story of a buyer who managed to achieve tremendous success using your product or service.
You can also measure the effectiveness of your efforts in this stage by tracking metrics such as view-through rate, watch time sentiment, conversions, and so on.
Stage 3 – Explaining How to Leverage Your Product or Service
If you have managed to get everything right in the first two stages, then in all likelihood, prospective buyers will end up signing up for your product or service. Now, you need to create an impactful video to make their onboarding process simple. A “Welcome” or “Get Started” video should make it easier for them to understand how they can leverage your product or service effectively.
A Welcome video should provide an introduction to your company and it should be presented in such a way that the customers feel welcomed from the moment they join you, thereby creating a positive onboarding experience.
You can make use of metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), user retention, and more to get an insight into the level of customer satisfaction and engagement.
Stage 4 – Highlighting the Best Ways to Leverage Your Product or Service
Once your customers gain a basic understanding of your product or service, they become eager to delve deeper. In this stage, they are eager to find out the most effective way to leverage your product or service that will help them stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends. Creating infographics or educational videos is highly recommended to address the requirements of this stage.
You can track changes in product usage and the number of users added to measure the impact of your videos.
Stage 5 – Highlighting Additional Functionalities to Help Your Customers Scale their Operations
If you want to retain your customer base, then you should give them the opportunity to grow. When it comes to the B2B model, customers are always eager to find out what more you can offer them so that they can scale their operations and take their business to the next level.
In this final stage, you need to create videos that showcase your new product or service. These videos should help them understand how your new product or service can provide value to their business and how it will be beneficial for them.
You can track the effectiveness of these videos by tracking product usage and the number of users added. Tracking the average order value and Net Promoter Score will also help you measure the impact of these videos.
Final Thoughts
If you are working in a B2B business, you need to understand that your prospective buyers aren’t regular consumers who are seeking to use your product for their day-to-day tasks. Your prospects, in all likelihood, are some of the most sophisticated buyers in the marketplace. Therefore, you need to create comprehensive video content to make them take note of your brand and consider your product or service for their business.
B2B video marketing enhances your brand credibility, strengthens the message you are trying to convey, enhances your customers’ onboarding experience, and most importantly makes it easier for your customers to grasp the information related to your product or service. Therefore, it is a no-brainer that marketers should get started with B2B video marketing as it will help them deliver their marketing message to a wider audience, thereby improving their B2B lead generation results.
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