Today, there are dozens of viable marketing tools that businesses can use to communicate with and market to other businesses. Some of the most common are email campaigns, paid online ads, webinars, live events, print media, podcasts, or any of the many options available. Another impactful tool for connecting with other businesses is video marketing. However, many companies risk overlooking the power of this method because they don’t know where to begin with a B2B video marketing strategy.
Quick Facts About Video Marketing
- Last year, a Wistia study revealed that more than 4.2 billion videos were played online.
- Many B2B marketers don’t consider video marketing because they don’t think they have enough content for a video to be effective –but your video doesn’t have to be long. In fact, the most effective videos are short, and it appears that the masses prefer it that way. The same study reported that videos that are less than one minute long are the most popular.
- If you’re not taking advantage of video marketing, your competition is. What’s more, they plan to spend more of their marketing resources on their video marketing efforts. Ninety percent of marketers who used short-form video content to market their brands and products in 2022 plan to expand on this marketing technique in 2023.
- The Wistia study revealed that in 2022, 14% of surveyed businesses created their first video as part of their marketing strategy. This year, even more businesses will be joining the ranks of video marketers. If you haven’t taken steps to move into video marketing, you’re likely to get left behind by the competition and the customers.
- A well-planned and appropriately implemented B2B video marketing campaign can significantly drive leads in an otherwise competitive corporate landscape. Setting realistic goals, being smart about allocating resources, and leveraging a diverse selection of marketing technologies can enhance any business’ likelihood of achieving its desired business objectives – even yours.
What Is B2B Video Marketing?
Video marketing involves the intentional creation of content organized and delivered via video format to reach B2B target audiences – other businesses who may use your products or services. B2B video marketing may be distributed through social media, websites or blogs, email, live events, virtual events, and any other platform garnering business traffic. More generally, and when used in B2C marketing campaigns, video marketing is useful in identifying brands, informing audiences, and promoting products all at once, marketing goals that also apply to B2B efforts as well.
B2B video marketing is not a new marketing strategy, but more and more businesses are moving a large portion of their marketing focus to video marketing because of its effectiveness in facilitating corporate engagement and lead generation.
Why You Need a B2B Video Marketing Strategy
A video marketing strategy is very beneficial in increasing traffic, building trust in your brand, harboring long-term relationships with other businesses, and validating your company’s authenticity and authority in your industry. Video marketing affords the opportunity to maintain a transparent presence to your audience, promotes customer engagement, and generates audience retention, which eventually renders customer loyalty.
Once well-planned, initiated, and implemented properly, a solid video marketing campaign can go hand in hand with any of your business’s other marketing outlets. For instance, video marketing helps your social media presence and other marketing platforms your brand has explored, as video products can be embedded virtually anywhere you wish to include them, whether it be your company’s website, your company’s blog, your company’s Facebook page, your company’s email newsletter, YouTube, TikTok, television, and the list goes on and on.
A conscientious and intentional video marketing strategy can not only be successful on its own but can also be a segue into future video marketing campaigns as well as remarketing campaigns where you already have much of the material from the first campaign.
How Do You Create a Video Marketing Strategy?
There are many important steps to creating an influential video marketing strategy for your B2B market, and they are all important. Thus, skipping any of the steps described below is not recommended. Each phase of the process is very important to the overall success of the other steps, and the sequence in which they are performed is essential.
If you don’t engage in the process properly, all subsequent steps will be very difficult to complete. The final product will be subpar and won’t sufficiently represent your company or your efforts. Even worse, it won’t get the return on your investment you were hoping for.
On the other hand, if you begin with the first step, preplanning, everything thereafter will fall into place. Additionally, the process will flow and progress much more smoothly. You will complete a project that you are proud of and can achieve a significant ROI.
Preplanning Is Paramount
The key to successful video marketing in any capacity is proper preplanning of video content so resources are best appropriated to meet the goals of the creator. Unfortunately, this step is too often undervalued. When clients come to us asking why their video marketing campaign didn’t turn out as well as they had hoped, it is often due to poor implementation that is a direct result of a lack of or minimal preplanning.
Pre-production steps are just as important as other steps for creating usable content with a high ROI. Furthermore, working out kinks in the beginning will make everything go much smoother. It can minimize disputes over decisions down the road and maintain a cohesive production, as everyone working on the project will be clear about the objectives of the project. The most important steps in planning your video marketing campaign are described below.
Identify Your Goal, Audience, and Desired Results
This step may require you to identify your target market or intended audience. This will help shape the rest of your project as you define where your video marketing product will best meet your needs and serve the purpose of attaining your goals. For instance, once you identify the audience, it’s easier to determine the platform from which you will distribute your message. That can then help you determine a budget that you can afford and that will cover the scope of the project.
Create a Scheduled Timeline
To keep your project on track, incorporate a schedule into your video marketing strategy planning. Be realistic regarding short-term goals and meet them head-on. Start with the date you’d like to have the project completed and ready for distribution. Mark out the dates you’d like to have each phase of your project complete. Having the entire plan mapped out will make it easier because everyone will be clear as to when they are expected to complete tasks related to the project. This will also keep the project progressing and help keep it within budget.
Concept Development
Brainstorming a concept for a marketing campaign can be overwhelming, but with the previously mentioned decisions made, a concept will be easier to nail down as you determine what type of format your video will be, according to budget, audience, and platform. By defining your audience in the previous step, you will find it easier to create a concept that will be well-received by your target market. One tip is to research current marketing trends and find ideas you like. Use them for inspiration to create something new that will entice and impress your audience.
Make an Outline for Your B2B Video
Also called scripting or storyboarding, this step is when your video starts to take shape. Your concept comes to life with characters, sequencing, a script, setting, location, and more. If you don’t spend time mapping out how your video will play out, you could miss crucial components needed to effectively relay your message and have to redo scenes. Furthermore, it is important to set the tone for your video in advance.
Preparing for Production
Secure and obtain the equipment, actors, props, venue permissions, and other elements your project will need in advance and have them ready to go when production begins. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time to accommodate cancellations, callouts, or set issues. Waiting until the last minute leaves little time for a plan A, much less a plan B. Production companies, actors, set schedules, recording studios, and other video-production-related vendors book months in advance; make sure you secure the materials, media equipment, and personnel you need ahead of schedule.
Plan to Measure Your Results
An effective B2B video marketing strategy isn’t complete without plans for post-launch testing and an analytics evaluation that can identify the success of your marketing campaign. Reports and analytics give you a unique perspective on how well your marketing efforts are performing and can allow you to better your video marketing strategy the next time around.
When data such as website traffic, conversion rates, click-through rates, load time, and ROI is applied to your campaign – whether video or any other type of online marketing method – it allows for data-backed marketing decisions, which will ultimately stretch your marketing budget further.
Begin Writing: How Do You Write a B2B Video Script?
Consider what type of marketing video will best fit your project goals, your budget, and your industry, as well as what your audience will best respond to.
Some examples of types of B2B videos that are popular because they are easy to implement and garner positive results are below.
- Explainer video (how-to video)
- Product demo
- Tutorial on how to use the product or a DIY project that is made easier with the featured product
- Influencer/product review
- Real customer testimony of their experience with the brand or product
- News story (report on an industry-related event or report live from the event)
- Blog post teaser
- Social media challenges or trending patterns (e.g., dances or recipes being passed around)
- Professional or expert presentation review or testimonial supporting the product or brand (the “four out of five dentists agree” method)
- Preview of an upcoming product yet to be released
- A brand video highlighting what the company is about and how they are making a difference in some capacity
- Skit, parody, or comedy sketch
Begin Storyboarding Your B2B Marketing Video
These storyboarding pointers can help you optimize your video marketing strategy and improve results:
Don’t Put Your Audience to Sleep
Try not to make your video boring or easily mutable. For B2B companies, this often means avoiding creating a video of you scrolling through your online products page and reading the text the user can see on the website. Your video should provide value beyond what you’ve already shared on your website.
Make a Good Impression
Get creative, and don’t forget just how impressionable your audience members can be. You’ll need to create content that truly speaks to your most important niches but also encompasses everyone in your target market. Speak generally, but make sure your crucial clients know you value their business.
Maintain a Consistent Voice
Keep a conversational tone but be confident in your message, presenting as an authority on the subject. Make sure not to veer off your brand reputation and values. Maintain a common voice and brand consistency that your audience can rely on. This can establish and build trust and allegiance to your brand.
Reflect a Virtuous Reputation
Maintain professionalism, and never include distasteful images or language that could be offensive. Positivity and light-hearted humor tend to go over better than dark, depressing content. You want to leave your audience with a happy and positive impression of your brand. With any luck, they will retain the information they learned in the video and seek out a B2B relationship with your business.
Be Straightforward
Be informative and intentional with every word or text included in your video. Don’t waste your audience’s time with fluff that doesn’t get to the point. Your audience will appreciate a short and sweet message that they can share with the next person without it being too long.
If you’re stuck or just at a standstill for an idea for your video, try telling a story using real emotion to gain the trust of your audience. Use impactful imagery and audience-appropriate pictures and verbiage.
Don’t Forget the CTA
To maintain the connection with your audience, don’t hide the call to action (CTA). Instead of dragging on the suspense and engaging your viewer, hiding the CTA can have the opposite effect. This can quickly cause your audience to disengage and disconnect without bringing you their business.
Eminent for B2B Video Production Services
Now it’s time to create your B2B video marketing strategy and begin production. If this sounds like something you want to achieve for your business, but marketing practices are not your thing, or your schedule is already packed, let a professional handle your campaign. Eminent SEO’s distinctive marketing flair can help your business shine and meet your video marketing goals.
Learn more about Eminent SEO’s video production services and discover how our proven techniques can become your marketing strategies.
