B2B marketers are prioritising using video this year, despite the industry’s ongoing challenge to measure its activity accurately, according to new research by LinkedIn.
The B2B Video Report identified 62% valued video as the most important content, ahead of email (48%), social media creative (36%) and infographics (29%).
There was a particular focus on investing in video this year, with just over a quarter (26%) revealing they plan to invest £300,000 or more in the advertising format.
B2B marketers find video valuable for engagement and lead gen
A huge majority (93%) believed video gives B2B brands access to a more creative storytelling. Some respondents also felt the approach helps build brand awareness (62%) and promote products and services (50%).
It was also found that video appeared to be a valuable lead generation tactic with 77% agreeing that video was a tool that drove a higher volume of leads.
Tom Pepper, head of LinkedIn marketing solutions UK, said: “Video has become one of the most powerful tools in B2B marketers’ arsenal as they turn to even more creative formats to engage professional audiences. B2B video has come a long way from the talking head.”
Oliver Barter, head of content at gyro UK, agreed with Pepper: “When it comes down to it, content has to be engaging to be successful. As video gives more freedom for storytelling and creativity than ever before, it’s great to see B2B marketers turning to it in their droves to engage with professional audiences.”
However, some types of videos were more successful in engagement than others, with the top three videos being product videos (48%), how-to videos (40%) and explanation videos (38%).
There are still challenges surrounding the use of video in B2B
Despite its benefits, the report also outlined a number of struggles surrounding video in B2B marketing. Some 44% of respondents agreed reaching the right audience in the right context was an issue, while an inability to measure results (38%) and lack of transparency with how platforms measure video (38%) were also cited as challenges.
B2B marketers looked for publishers and platforms to overcome these problems, with a majority of 75% of respondents believing they should enhance completion rates, click-through rates and activity of landing page capabilities in order to make targeting via video more effective.
“Even the perfect video could be rendered useless if it’s not shared with the right audience, in the right place and at the right time,” Pepper adds. “With marketers investing heavily in video this year, it’s time they work seamlessly with publishers to overcome these issues and ensure video continues to deliver growth for brands.”
The report surveyed 200 B2B marketers from the UK and Ireland.
