[Download 100%] – How to Use B2B Video Marketing Effectively?

Video marketing is a power-driven tool for your B2B business. If you are harnessing its power, kudos to it, but if you are not, here are some ways to effectively implement B2B video marketing in your digital marketing plans.

Implement B2B Video Marketing Plans

Is video marketing effective in the B2B world? Of course, it is. Here are some statistics to prove this:

• 86% of businesses today are investing in video marketing. It is a phenomenal growth considering only 61% of businesses were using this tool in 2016.
• 99% of marketing experts believe that video marketing is a tool they will continue to use in the future.
• 87% of businesses have reported receiving a positive return on investment from this tool. For comparison, this number was only 33% in 2015.

The existence of such marketing data proves beyond any doubt that the B2B industry benefits dramatically from using video marketing as a tool. However, some businesses are still hesitant to use video marketing; some feel that it is an expensive affair, while others are not too convinced with the results. Either way, failure to implement video marketing can be a lost opportunity to leverage the potential of this revolutionary tool.

Read this article to learn how you can use B2B video marketing effectively for your business.

1. Goal-setting and strategizing

The first step is to set goals and plan the entire strategy to get the ball rolling. While goal-setting, ensure that it takes into account the overall marketing goals. It is important to identify the stage in the sales-to-funnel that you wish to target. The strategy should seamlessly integrate with all your other marketing tools and not be an alternative to other tools.

2. Harness the power of video marketing to tell your brand story

One of the futuristic ways to take advantage of the tool’s immense potential as an engaging medium is to narrate your story. Talk about your mission, vision, and values. Communicate what you intend and aim to achieve in your business. Since the B2B market is ruled by specific parameters and is not as generic as a B2C market, it is essential to strike the right chord with prospective customers. Use the power of video marketing to do so as it is a visual medium where you incorporate powerful elements to drive the best results. This medium can be used effectively to showcase your industry-specific knowledge and establish your supremacy industry-wide.

3. Create customer personas

The advantage of creating customer personas is that it helps create very focused content. Doing so helps define the audience or the segment very specifically & explicitly. Creating such focused content improves the effectiveness of your video strategy. Creating an audience profile or persona involves researching the audience, identifying their areas of interest, making a list of similarities, and segmenting your target audience. The similar features of the target audience help create the audience personas.

4. Matching the video type with the targeted stage of your sales funnel.

A typical B2B sales funnel consists of awareness, interest, evaluation, engagement, and commitment. You need to create a video that matches one of the stages of this funnel. In the awareness stage, it could be a brand narrative or story, while in the engagement stage, it could be about addressing an industry-related matter and providing answers and solutions. Here are some types of videos that you can create–

• Tutorials are videos that are informative and tell the customer about your products and services and how to use them.
• Explainer videos help customers understand what the business is all about and how to resolve generic industry-specific issues.
• Webinars are videos that are educational by nature and provide learning opportunities to your listeners, followers, and customers.
• Case studies are a type of video where you discuss cases addressing issues and problems, and discuss the way out. It is a way to add value to your customer’s know-how.

5. Focus on the video content

Now that the goal setting is done, strategies planned, personas created, video type selected, and the sales funnel stage decided, it is time to focus on the content. There are certain things that you need to focus on when creating the content:

• Create a detailed video script before you begin creating your content. It will help you stay on the right track and save your time and effort.
• Ensure that the video content syncs with the written textual content on your site, marketing brochures, etc.
• Use an optimized video editor, paid or free, to create an impressive video. The three best editors that you can use for creating effective B2B videos are:
  • InVideo – one of the most popular online video editors, it comes with a free plan and helps create professional-looking videos within minutes. You can pick from over 4000 ready-to-use templates and themes to create videos from scratch.
  • iMovie is known for its intuitive interface and is easy to work with, especially for Mac users.
  • Movie Maker 10 – this tool has been created for Windows and makes the user’s work easy when working on a desktop.

6. The medium where the videos will be published

Since this is about B2B marketing, you need to be cautious about the medium that you choose to publish the videos. For example, these videos can be put up on the homepage of the brand website. Many B2B businesses use Facebook or LinkedIn to showcase their videos. Ensure that you add subtitles so that the message is conveyed even if the viewer watches the video with the sound switched off. While choosing the medium, research well to learn which virtual platforms your customers are most active on – for example, your potential customers may be more active on YouTube than on FB or LinkedIn. Therefore, it is a sensible decision to publish the videos on YouTube instead of other platforms.

Conclusion

Video marketing has become an inevitable tool for digital marketers in the B2B niche. It is crucial for businesses to realize the essence of video marketing fast and follow the techniques mentioned here to optimize this versatile weapon in their marketing ammunition.