Did you know that 73% of B2B marketers place video marketing above other tactics, including written content, direct mail and events? So why do 76% of B2B companies still not have a video presence on Google?
According to a new study by B2B Marketing Magazine and ITN Productions, although the benefits of video content are clear for B2B brands, 60% of marketers note a skills gap in producing effective content.
Well we are here to help your B2B business get ahead with powerful video content…
Get B2B emotional
Just because you’re targeting B2B doesn’t mean you can’t get as emotional as your B2C colleagues. In a study by Motisa, on average B2B customers are significantly more emotionally connected to their vendors and service providers than consumers.
We created a video for high tech satellite brand, Airbus which packed an emotional punch without losing the logical reasons to connect with this brand. The key here was to look beyond the technology to the impact that the company’s systems had on users and the planet.
Airbus Defence and Space: Picture the Future from Hurricane Media on Vimeo.
B2B marketers need to show buyers that there are professional and personal rewards from their products. B2B decision-makers are 50% more likely to buy when they see some benefits to themselves such as career progression or taking pride in their work.
Significantly they are 8x more likely to pay premium for comparable products and services when they see a personal value of this kind.
A montage of your company’s activities over a set period of time can be an effective way to show what you do. Here’s an example from a film for Connaught, which was designed to inspire its audience and show the impact the company has on people’s lives.
Use humour
B2B is of course a serious business, but even the most earnest of decision-makers likes a joke (they’re only human after all). Just as in consumer marketing, humour can be tricky to get right, and you need to ensure it fits with your brand values and you’ve got your tone and storytelling pitch perfect.
Software company, Hubspot, uses humour effectively to encourage their newsletter signups to reconsider unsubscribing.
Even financial services can be funny. When one of our clients, Creditcall wanted to promote a significant change in the US market (from swipe cards to chip and pin), we took an alternative approach which would engage their niche audience.
Talking heads and testimonials
Advocacy marketing (or allowing your client’s to tell your audience how great you are) is a must for B2B brands, and video amplifies the power of a written testimonial.
Testimonials and talking heads make effective promotional videos for your website, and for your sales team to use.
Part of a series, this video for GoToMeeting puts a twist on a testimonial. It allows a customer to tell his own brand story and then shows GoTo in action, illustrating how it helps this business. This combination is both dynamic and engaging.
B2B gets animated
Animation is an effective tool to help you describe a new B2B product or service, espeically if the benefits are had to represent in the real world. Motion graphics can give you more freedom to tell stories about your brand by createing characters, new worlds or new visual references.
Here is one of our B2B explainer animations, a 2-minute motion graphics sequence for Practice Web, which uses characters, product information and icons to describe their new product in an informative and fresh way.
Event videos
Conferences and exhibitions are an important part of the B2B marketing mix, and increasingly, brands are using video content at events to encourage footfall and cut through. A striking video can be used to promote your presence before and during events and become a talking point itself. Take our 3D video for CPME, where visitors to the stand brought colleagues back to the stand to watch the video.
Short-form videos for B2B
Can you use Vine or Instagram video if you’re a B2B brand? As part of an integrated content plan, it could be another effective way to speak to your customers.
GE are often namechecked as rocking B2B Vine – and with good reason. The brand asked its followers to create #6secondscience Vines gaining 50,000 followers, and subsequently produced a Vine combination of the crowdsourced ideas.
“How tos” can be effective for B2B Vines – we created 6s tips for the video marketing industry:
Key take-aways
1. With 73% of B2B missing out on the opportunities of video marketing, get in there now.
2. Put your customer at the heart of all you do
3. Remember your customers are business-minded, but they’re still human – emotion and logic must balance
4. Take time to think laterally and use the power of video to tell your story differently
5. Create clear objectives and set KPIs to make sure you know what’s working – this is especially important if you’re new to video to prove the medium’s worth in the boardroom.
6. Don’t forget about marketing your video – using your own channels, earned and paid media, and video SEO.
So, are you ready for the B2B video challenge?
With our vast experience of B2B marketing, we want to help your business take on the challenge of video. Sign up to our newsletter today to be the first to receive our upcoming white paper on video marketing for B2B.
- Give us a ring: 01179 240773
- Drop us a line: info@hurricanemedia.co.uk
- Tweet us: @hurricanemedia
By Jon Mowat