B2B Video Marketing Strategies

B2B Video Marketing Strategies

 

If you’re wondering whether it’s beneficial to incorporate video content in your overall B2B marketing strategy, keep these statistics in mind:

 

  • 92 percent of B2B customers watch videos online
  • 43 percent of that demographic researches services or products for their business through online videos
  • 76 percent of marketing professionals include video marketing as part of their overall digital strategy

All signs point toward video rapidly overtaking text as the most effective means of marketing communications. It’s more convenient and less time consuming for executives and buyers to watch one informative video rather than read multiple pages of text. A professionally produced video is also a great way to humanize your brand and to describe your product or service.

 

So what video marketing strategies can you employ to generate interests and sales leads in your B2B market?

 

Remember you’re targeting people, not businesses. Whatever video content you decide to produce, don’t forget that the goal is to attract people in your market.

 

“A business doesn’t watch and share videos, absorb a product or service message, read a blog post or article in a trade publication or share advice,” notes David Murdico, head of the marketing agency, Supercool Creative. “People do these things on behalf of themselves and their brands and businesses.”

 

Be sure your video marketing strategy aligns with your company’s core values. Video marketing, like any other marketing effort, must align with your business’s key competencies and differentiators. The messaging behind your video content should in no way confuse or distract B2B consumers from the established nature of your brand.

 

Target a defined audience. Who are the buyers and influencers in your target audience? Create videos that directly address the end business consumers’ “pain points” in an entertaining and clever way — with enough flair and imagination that they’ll feel moved to share your video content with others in your target market.

 

“Try interviewing customers to find out why they purchased your solution,” says Phil Donaldson, director of marketing at PropelGrowth, a B2B financial services marketing firm. “Get with Sales and find out what they’re hearing from prospects and customers. Meet your audience where they are with valuable content that enlightens and entertains.”

 

Commit to a budget and invest time for promotion. The best B2B marketing video won’t count for much if you don’t commit to budgeting a campaign around it, in order to get to the right viewers. As David Murdico notes, the goal is to go from “paid” views to “earned” views — which happens when enough people get word of your videos and are so impressed they can’t help but share them across social media platforms.

 

Similarly, your marketing department must be willing to take the time needed to disseminate the video in every appropriate social media and web-based venue it can find. YouTube and Facebook are obvious choices, but the search should extend to specific trade-related online publications — including those requiring paid placement.

 

Optimization is critical. As noted, the video content you produce must address the issues faced by your B2B customers. This should also guide your optimization strategy.

 

What search terms do your customers use when seeking solutions to their problems? Include these terms both in your description of the video and ideally within the video itself. Optimize titles, descriptions and tags so they align with terms your buyers regularly employ in their online searches.

 

Jennifer Alexander at B2B Marketing offers this advice to help boost your video in Google searches: “If you have a video on your website, you can easily link it to your YouTube channel where it will gain even more exposure—you benefit from Meta tagging your video content on YouTube and linking back to your own website to help improve your site’s page rank.”

 

Your video marketing strategy will likely do a better job of resonating with your B2B audience when it’s accompanied by relevant content — for example, as a lead-in to a white paper or article that provides buyers with the supporting information needed to reach a purchasing decision.   

 

By incorporating these five strategies into your video marketing, you will not only be deploying best practices but will also optimize your opportunity for B2B lead generation.

 

Author Bio

Julie Rasco is Director of Marketing for RMG Networks, an industry leader in intelligent visual communications. RMG provides visual solutions to enterprise businesses including 70% of the Fortune 100. Julie has been with RMG since 2013 and has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and sales. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and a Master of Business Administration from Louisiana Tech University.

 

©2015 RMG Networks Holding Corporation

 

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