There are great opportunities for B2B marketers seeking to leverage the power of video, but there are challenges too. Lucy Fisher reports
The use of video for marketing is nothing new, but it’s only in recent years that Internet speeds and access to production equipment have made it a viable channel for the majority of business brands. As a result, the amount of video available on the web is growing exponentially. Yet, according to industry experts, we’re still at a relatively early stage in terms of understanding how best to harness the medium effectively for B2B marketing purposes.
“I’m surprised at how little some B2B organisations use video. It’s great for early-stage educational content and can really resonate,” says Tim Barker, VP marketing and strategy, EMEA, at Salesforce. “People expect there to be a huge cost attached but the main expense is in not having a clear vision of what you’re trying to achieve.”
This brings us to six key challenges B2B marketers face when trying to integrate this increasingly important medium into their marketing strategies.
1. Clarifying your strategy
The UK B2B Council at the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently released a toolkit about using video for content marketing. Chris Probert, project manager at the IAB, says while B2B marketers are likely to be allocating more budget to video, there is frequently a lack of understanding in terms of how best to define a strategy. “You have to ask yourself whether you’re using video to build a brand or as part of a direct response strategy,” he says. “It goes back to the bottom line: Are you using video to complement a wider campaign, sell a product or show a human face?” Experts agree, before you go any further, you have to be clear about your objectives.es.
2. Planning video distribution
It’s important to implement a plan for promoting your video, especially when we consider the sheer volume of content available on the web today. “With 48 hours of video uploaded on YouTube every minute, simply releasing a video will not guarantee it will receive views,” warns Richard Robinson, leader – business & retail markets at Google. His advice is to incorporate a social sharing element to the video. This involves uploading content to key social channels, such as YouTube, Slideshare, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. It may also be beneficial to engage with influential bloggers in order to tap into their reach.
3. Tracking and measurement
Today’s digital marketing techniques enable granular tracking and measurement, and it’s important to leverage such technologies in order to assess your video’s effectiveness and, if necessary, amend your strategy. After all, the CEO is going to want to know how effective your latest campaign was – especially if it involved significant time and investment. “Initially [the use of this medium] was as simple as placing a corporate video on the company site, but now it’s about driving people towards measurement and engagement,” points out Lisa Arthur, CMO at Aprimo.
“Remember that people have different content preferences. You must track how your customers want to engage,” she adds. Such an assessment can be made with the help of free tools such as Google Analytics and YouTube Insight, which can provide data such as view counts and demographics. Alternatively you can opt for a paid-for package from the likes of Nielsen or ComScore. It all depends on your budget and how advanced you want to get with your metrics. But don’t just focus on numbers of views above all else, warns Daniel Bausor, managing director at Famous4Communications. “You need to consider a balance of different metrics based upon what you’re trying to achieve,” he says.
4. Integration with other media
The best campaigns involve many media working alongside one another. Various delivery mechanisms should be specifically chosen with the stages of the B2B buying cycle and the preferences of the target audience in mind. According to Jon Westbrook, marketing director at video content company The Peloton, “Video should be a part of the content solution and not the whole.” Moreover, when it comes to effective integration, there is a word of warning from John Bottom, head of communications and content at Base One. “In general is best for the top-of-the-funnel, issue-based content,” he says. “But when it comes to the latter part of the buying cycle, the importance of face-to-face grows. To talk about the benefits for one specific company, you can’t neglect the human element.” It’s also worth noting that when Base One and B2B Marketing analysed this year’s Buyersphere Report (www.b2bmarketing.net/buyersphere11) – which looks at changes in buyer behaviour – one key finding was that buyers regarded the influence of online events (often streamed via video) to be significantly lower than that of physical events, which were perceived as one of the most influential channels.
5. SEO for video
Online video can be a real boost to your search strategy as it is often easier to rank more highly with video than with text – in part because audiences are time-poor and frequently opt for video over pages of text. “Given the competition with keywords online, with video you find it’s easier to rank highly,” explains Mathew Sweezey, European sales director at Pardot. But of course this only applies if you know the right steps to take. This may sound simple but it is too frequently overlooked. The use of plenty of keyword tags, meta-tags, and an effective title helps to ensure your video will rank more highly. Bausor also recommends making the ‘embed video code’ available to broaden the video’s reach. The embed code is the information written in HTML that allows you to place video content on a web page.
6. Avoiding misconceptions
So there is a lack of knowledge, and perhaps confidence, regarding how best to use video within the B2B marketplace. But don’t let misconceptions put you off. “Marketers are getting caught up with concerns about perceived costs and long production cycles, which makes many companies revert to their comfort zone in terms of content development,” says Robinson. Yet the cost of producing video has significantly reduced in recent years. What’s more, there are sometimes advantages to the more casual, low-cost production techniques, such as producing short video clips via a smartphone or flipcam. “If we go back five years, there was an expectation that video should be slick, shiny and corporate,” says Bottom. “But now the quick and easy video has become more acceptable.” It could be perfect for the small, funky start-up tech company, he says, looking to showcase its skills quickly and casually. This will depend on brand values.
Looking ahead, it seems inevitable that the use of video for B2B marketing purposes will become more prevalent. According to Probert, events, in particular, will see more integration with digital, whether this takes the form of live video streamed from an event, or the ability to scan a QR (quick response) code in order to find out more about an exhibitor. Robinson says video is increasingly the preferred way for senior decision makers to consume content. “On YouTube alone, we see over 1.5 million business related searches,” he says. “And research shows that almost 50 per cent of UK business IT buyers view videos as part of the buying process, with two-thirds of C-level executives viewing a business-related video at least once a week.”
The demand for the content is there.
Video marketing: Top tips
• Consider your objectives. Is the video primarily promotional or educational?
• Content is king. Video enables you to tell a story in a visual way. Don’t make it too long.
• Don’t assume your video will attract viewers. You need a robust SEO and distribution strategy.
• Focus on a variety of metrics – not just the number of views.
• Remember that badly planned and executed video is detrimental to your brand.
• Video needs to form part of a carefully chosen media mix. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
• Don’t assume that video has to be slick, corporate, or cost the earth.
• Think in terms of channel preferences. Many choose video over face-to-face when they are short of time.
• To extend the conversation, try to include a call-to-action, such as a personalised URL.
