Video is definitely the top choice for marketing and growing a business right now.
It’s never been easier to create eye-catching, entertaining and interesting videos thanks to everyone having a camera in their pocket—their smartphone. Additionally, social media platforms and websites are now geared toward delivering more video content than ever before.
Why is video so important for marketing now?
Because a person will retain 95% of the message when they watch it in a video, But if they read the same information in an article, they’ll only recall 10%.
This is a massive opportunity to connect with your customer base and really shouldn’t be missed!
Video Campaigns That Catch The Eye
There are plenty of ways to do video campaigns on social media and on your website. In the B2B marketing world, these five are the ones that really see great engagement and continuing ROI:
1. How-To Videos
The explainer video is the gold standard of this form of marketing.
It’s perfect for providing valuable information to your target market and building your reputation as a thought leader in your industry.
The obvious place to start is on topics that directly relate to your business, services or products. From there, you can expand your tutorials to topics that are more broadly related to your business.
A great example of this is the huge tutorial video library that Adobe offers to users who have bought their creative apps like Lightroom or Premiere Pro. The videos explain how to use specific features within the programs, as well as giving more general tips and guides on styles of photography, editing, and other relevant topics.
2. Product News
Keeping your customers up to date with changes to your products or services in video format is another good option for B2B marketing.
Remember that stat about viewers retaining 95% of the information in a video? Telling your customers in a video about product updates is always going to be more effective than sending out a typed email. Just remember to keep the visuals powerful and the video to the point.
3. Case Studies
In the B2B world, your customer base is usually smaller and the sales cycle is a lot longer than in the B2C world. This means that you have ample time to show potential customers just what your offering can do for them.
Case studies provide the strongest proof that your products or services really work in the real world.
A compelling way to do case study videos is through interviews with the main stakeholders. If you can get the customer on camera and talking about their experience, your video will have the most impact. Be sure to include stats and concrete evidence you can about how your offering improved the way the customer operates, you could also consider corporate gifting.
4. FAQs
Covering the FAQs your business receives from your target audience in videos is another great evergreen digital marketing campaign idea.
Again, you can start with the questions that are specific to your business and what you offer in terms of a service or a product. Then, you can expand to covering questions that relate to your industry. These videos can include animations, voice over, talking head interviews—there are so many options.
Hootsuite does these FAQ videos well on their YouTube channel, covering a whole range of topics related to social media. They cover questions like which metrics are important to measure through to specific questions on how the platform work.
5. Highlighting Employees
If you want to bring a human element to your business marketing then showing off your employees is a great way to go.
Your target audience will get to meet the people who will bring them the service or product they’re considering purchasing. It also looks really good for your business if your employees are willing to get on camera and talk about how great it is to work for the company.
It’s always best to have some kind of angle for these videos. You don’t want to just have an interview with an employee, asking them to say something nice about the company and interesting about themselves. Rather show them working on a particular product update or how they’re involved in providing the service or growing the business.
Tips For Better Videos
Now that you know what kind of videos work well in the B2B world, it’s time to look at some general rules for making the best videos. These are true for all of the above types of videos:
- Keep Them Concise – Many people aim for shorter videos, but it’s actually better to aim for concise. Each video you create should be as long as it needs to be to get the information across. You don’t need to worry about hitting a certain time limit (unless the platform has a limit) but rather make sure you aren’t wasting time in the video and dragging it on unnecessarily.
- Aim To Entertain And Educate – Any content you put out should be of interest to your target audience, and this is just as true for video content. You should always be looking for that balance of entertainment value and providing information. When we say entertainment value, we don’t mean it needs to be funny, it just needs to catch the attention of your target audience in some way. A documentary on nature can be entertaining without being laugh-out-loud funny.
- Read Your Viewer Comments – You may find yourself amazed at how much information you can get out of the comments on your videos. Viewers will give you feedback on your videos and your business in general, which can be invaluable for making future videos and for gaining loyal customers. It’s also good to engage with any comments, even if it’s just to like the comment and say thank you.
Conclusion
Video campaigns are an essential part of B2B marketing. If they’re not yet part of your digital marketing plan, they should be. They’re the best way to get your message across and ensure it’s retained.