“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 and Customers

As a marketing professional or business executive, you are probably well aware of the astounding statistics which support incorporating video as part of an overall B2B marketing strategy. It is a highly preferred form of presenting information and incredibly effective at engaging with prospects and customers.

But something seems to be nagging at you about whether video can really be used for communicating with business associates, or if it is most useful in a B2C setting. It feels like the content and approach should be different from what you use for consumer communications, but is that backed up by facts?

There is solid proof that video works just as well for B2B marketing as it does for B2C. In fact, a LinkedIn study found that 62% of B2B marketers see video as a priority format. Microsoft’s professional social network polled 202 B2B digital marketers in the U.K. and Ireland between February and March 2018. Key results included:

• 93% agreed that video allows B2B brands to embrace creative storytelling opportunities.

• 62% said it helps build brand awareness.

• 77% said they were getting more leads, and 78% said they were of higher quality.

LinkedIn seems to be an especially effective forum for B2B video content. 68% said they would be more likely to watch a B2B video on the site if it was relevant to their job title, and three-quarters of respondents even put out a call for publishers and platforms to “make their video targeting capabilities more effective.”

If your response to all these positive stats is one of incredulity, you might need to rethink your B2B video marketing strategy. “We tried and it failed,” you’re thinking. Or you feel overwhelmed by the task of producing the level of content required to run a consistent and effective B2B marketing campaign. Instead of writing B2B video off completely, it is time for a deeper look.

Reasons Your B2B Video Strategy Might Be Failing

“Stop thinking of ‘video marketing’ as this separate entity that is optional for your business. Video is an effective form of communication that needs to be integrated into each and every aspect of your existing marketing efforts.”

~ James Wedmore, The 7 Video Marketing Success Principles Everyone Should Know

If B2B video is working well for other B2B content marketers but not for your company, it might be time to review your strategy. Let’s take a look at some possible reasons your B2B video strategy might be failing:

• Poor Production Values: If you are trying to convince a business professional to invest a large amount of money into your company, your approach needs to be at a higher level than that used to motivate a consumer to make a purchase. Your company must be seen as professional, competent and knowledgeable, so your production values must reflect that image. Invest in quality video strategists, copywriters, videographers and production teams who can present your company in the best light possible.

• Unclear or Boring Content: If you think consumers are quick to abandon a video they feel is of no value, business professionals are even more guarded with their time. If the video does not present the information they need to know in a clear and concise format, they will quickly move on.

• Irrelevance: How much time in your videos is spent talking about how great your company is, or trying to sell your product or service without really explaining why others should do business with you? Focus on answering the customer's number one question - what's in it for me? Find out what your clients want to know, and demonstrate how your company can help their business grow. Show, don't tell.

• Lack of Responsiveness to Business Needs: Most businesses have a few primary directives: grow, sell, make money, build a reputation for excellence... Some might add in social factors such as saving the planet or helping humanity in some way. If you are not explaining how your business can help your prospects meet their goals, they are probably not watching your video.

• Not Being Seen: Even the most perfect video can be rendered pointless if it is not seen by your target audience. You need to make sure your videos are displayed on the right channels, appear in search engine results, and you're using other distribution channels - such as your website, email marketing and social platforms - to draw in even more potential viewers.

• Consistency and Strategy: Perhaps the biggest reason for failure is that you have not developed a consistent B2B video marketing strategy. You might just produce videos one at a time, without an end goal in mind. There needs to be some clear thought given upfront to developing a long-term strategy, where each component builds on the last.

Innovative B2B Video Content Marketing Trends

"Video has become one of the most powerful tools in a B2B marketer's arsenal as they turn to even more creative formats to engage professional audiences. B2B video has come a long way from the talking head.”

~ Tom Pepper, head of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions UK

B2B video has indeed come a long way from the “talking head” format, and is capitalising on some surprising trends to catch the attention of busy business professionals:

• Experiential: Take your business audience on experiential journeys that can prove to be “the next best thing to being there.” In business, for example, you can provide a virtual tour of the facilities, follow the production process to show how your products are built differently, or show the inner workings of your software or creative team to demonstrate how your company helps its clients.

• Responsive: In place of just talking about your company in your videos, why not ask your customers about what they would like to see or hear? Perhaps you might get some great ideas that you have not even considered before. They could take your marketing in new directions as you explore various aspects of a customer-centric video philosophy.

• Clear Direction: Video has the double-edged sword of being effective and possibly boring at the same time. Watching a well-produced video might have a positive effect, but if a video does not capture their attention immediately viewers have a tendency to get bored and leave. One way around this is to create an exciting series highlighting a specific topic. Each video might last only a minute or two, and provide a brief preview of what to expect in the next. Then release them slowly, and put on a marketing blitz through e-mail and social media each time a new video is added.

• Humour: Business doesn’t have to be dull and boring. Adding a little personality to your videos can go a long way toward creating engagement. Light business humour can include the use of animation or cartoons to demonstrate a topic, “danger” situations where your product or service saves the day, or humorous answers to frequently asked questions.

• Answer FAQs: Perhaps the one most significant barrier to trying a new business partner is uncertainty. Video documentation can make a compelling argument for utilising your product or technology. This might include interviews with satisfied customers or how-to videos of your product working efficiently at a customer’s location.

• Problem Solving: Video can also be used to help clients solve problems by providing "how-to" examples and tutorials. Take a look at the YouTube channel for Adobe Creative Cloud. Adobe wants its users to garner the best possible results from its software and bolster its position as the industry standard for creative software. Their YouTube channel is full of content that helps create more stunning pieces, while also building a solution-sharing community of users.

• LinkedIn Video Engagement: LinkedIn is a powerful mechanism for business communications, so it makes the perfect location for your B2B marketing videos. Chief Marketer reports that 84% of business marketers who created videos for LinkedIn found the channel to be a highly effective strategy for generating results.

• YouTube SEO: YouTube B2B marketing is effective for lead generation, but there are additional SEO steps you can take to ensure that your videos are found in search engine results. These include adding keywords in your video file and in the video title, optimising keywords in the video description, keyword tags, video categories, custom thumbnail images, subtitles, closed captions, and end screens.

• Build a Community: Another great use of YouTube video channels is the ability to create a community around specific topics. If you offer computer software, for example, one series of videos might focus on the IT tips surrounding your product while another could strictly talk about using the software more efficiently to obtain better business results.

• Leverage Industry Influencers: You might not automatically think of using social media influencers for business to business marketing purposes, but they are an effective way of communicating your message to an entirely new audience. Find bloggers or online columnists in your industry with synergistic opinions, read their information carefully, and then develop a strategy to have them review your product or service via video.

B2B Video Examples That Built Business

Some powerful examples of using video for B2B lead generation and B2B sales include:

• Zendesk: Zendesk is a cloud-based customer services company which wanted to make it known that their service helps improve relationships between customers and companies. Instead of going with a long-version brand video, the company produced a series of extremely short, quirky video snippets around the theme of, “Relationships are hard.” This can be effective if your message can be boiled down to one theme which can be explored in a variety of videos on platforms like YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.

• Maersk: Maersk uses video to demonstrate its worldwide container shipping capabilities. In just over a minute, the company effectively manages to present images of giant ships gracefully cutting through the water, but also introduces viewers to some employees who talk about the personal fulfilment they receive from their jobs.

• Deloitte: Renowned accounting firm and business accountant Deloitte uses a brand-centric "It is what we do that makes a difference” approach to highlight its company values and employee ethics. It explains the internal culture, while still presenting an earnest promise to future clients. As with Maersk, featuring employees provides reassurance of commitment to potential customers, but the call to action might also be to aid recruitment.

1827 Marketing features a broad global network of award-winning creatives, writers, designers, videographers, animators, and more talented professionals who can help your company create beautifully modern B2B video marketing campaigns. Our platform, talent network and expertise give clients the tools to create campaigns and experiences that deliver results.