How to Create B2B Videos That Stand Out
Video has been part of digital marketing since the early days of the internet, and it only continues to get more and more relevant. In fact, marketers feel better about their video ROI than ever before, and people now watch twice as much video overall as they did in 2018.
Naturally, this presents both challenges and opportunities for B2B marketers. On one hand, the audience for marketing videos has never been bigger. On the other, competition is getting more intense in virtually every B2B field.
With that in mind, you need to find a way to create unique B2B videos that make your brand stand out from the rest of the content your audience is seeing. In this article, we’ll cover some of the most effective strategies for leveling up your video marketing and moving more leads into your sales funnel.
Why Video Marketing Is Essential for B2B in 2022
As mentioned above, video marketing is getting more and more common every year. From TV commercials to YouTube ads before videos and Instagram ads on your feed, you probably see numerous marketing videos every day without a second thought.
Marketing stats only confirm the increasing importance of video for B2B marketing. Companies that use video marketing grow 49% faster than those that don’t, and nearly three-quarters of B2B marketers agree that video has a positive impact on their ROI.
Regardless of the niche you work in, video marketing needs to be a key part of your strategy in 2022 and beyond. You can’t afford to neglect video while your top competitors are continually refining their video content for maximum engagement.
Benefits of B2B Video Marketing
Video marketing opens up a wide range of opportunities that aren’t available with traditional text content. With that in mind, the benefits of B2B video marketing depend on the way you leverage the video format. For example, a video testimonial could be much more compelling than the same story told through text.
In general, video marketing is lucrative because it allows you to meet audiences where they are. The average consumer spends nearly 20 hours per week watching videos, which is even more time than they spend on all social media combined. You wouldn’t ignore social media, so don’t make the same mistake with video marketing.
Creating more video content can also help your brand’s SEO presence. Interesting videos are one of the best ways to keep visitors on your site, which will improve your credibility on Google and other search engines.
Furthermore, you don’t need a Hollywood budget to craft an effective marketing video. Overproduced content can actually turn viewers off by appearing too forced or inauthentic. You obviously want your videos to look professional, but don’t worry about matching the production value of an Apple or Amazon commercial.
How to Create a Winning B2B Video Content Creation Strategy
Before you can start creating videos,
Before you can start creating videos, you first need to come up with a clear video marketing strategy. At this stage, you’ll come up with some ideas for content direction and identify the types of videos you want to create. Consider utilizing a versatile video editor to bring your ideas to life and ensure your content aligns with your overall strategy.
Keep in mind that different videos need to respond to different kinds of leads. For example, someone who has never heard of your company should see a different ad from another person who has already made several purchases. It’s crucial to develop videos for each part of the sales funnel and match each video to the right audience.
1. Top of the Funnel
The top of the funnel is all about getting viewers interested. Don’t worry about making the sale immediately. Instead, just give them enough to generate some curiosity and keep them thinking about your brand.
This step should be more about your brand image and style than testimonials, product details, or other specifics. Feel free to experiment with humor and try out new strategies — the most important thing is that they don’t forget you after seeing the video.
2. Middle of the Funnel
By the time a lead gets to the middle of the funnel, they’re already aware of your brand and products. The next step is to let them know what makes you unique and why they should consider buying from you instead of a competitor.
While you still shouldn’t use too much detail, it’s OK to go into a little more depth here compared to the top of the funnel. Product guides, demonstrations, how-to tutorials, and other videos are perfect for the middle of the funnel.
3. Bottom of the Funnel
Your brand ultimately makes money at the bottom of the funnel. In fact, it doesn’t matter how many leads you bring into the funnel if you can’t convert any of them at the end of the process. These leads have plenty of information, so they just need one last push to be convinced to go ahead with their first purchase.
Testimonials are a classic example of bottom-of-the-funnel content. Nothing extraneous here — just real customers talking about your product and the difference it made for them. While you still need some branding, style should take a back seat to the content of your videos.
How to Create B2B Videos That Stand Out
Now that you have a basic B2B video marketing strategy in mind, you can start to think about how to approach the videos themselves. Let’s go over some of the most effective tactics for B2B video marketing.
1. Keep It Simple
One of the most common mistakes in video marketing is to do too much rather than too little. It might be tempting to put together a 10-minute video, but the truth is that most customers aren’t going to stick around for that long.
Just over 60% of customers will watch an entire one-minute video, but you shouldn’t expect much more than that. Try to condense each video to a clear, simple topic that you can cover in one or two minutes. Anything beyond that is more likely to push viewers away than it is to keep them interested.
2. Mix It Up
B2B vendors often stick to one type of video in an effort to minimize costs and complexity. This is a common tactic for smaller companies that may not have the marketing bandwidth to build more complex videos.
While some businesses have more resources than others, creating different types of videos is a great investment. You need to mix it up in order to keep your audience’s attention. As stated earlier, you should be leveraging videos at each stage of the sales funnel.
3. Focus on the Opening
As a video editor, it’s easy to be a perfectionist for every single frame. However, the first few seconds of your video will have the strongest impact on its overall success.
If a one-minute video starts slow, most people will keep scrolling. That said, they will probably watch the whole thing if it catches their attention for the first five or ten seconds.
While every part of your video is important, you should always prioritize the opening sequence above everything else. Try to come up with something that will pull a new viewer in and motivate them to keep watching.
How to Use Social Video for B2B
Social media is one of the best ways to leverage video content. You can post videos on a long list of social media channels, but there are five key platforms to consider for B2B marketing:
- YouTube
- TikTok
Companies of all sizes are using these channels to promote their videos. Nearly 90% of video marketers plan to use YouTube in 2022, with 65% or more also planning to use LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook.
Regardless of the channel, video is the perfect type of content for social media marketing. Videos are much more eye-catching than text ads, and they also have unmatched potential for sharing. Remember that every social share increases the reach of your ad at no additional cost.
Still, there are key differences in video marketing on each social channel. For example, LinkedIn is better for long-form content such as interviews and explainers. Your Twitter audience may not have the same patience for a long video.
Every audience is different, so make sure to take advantage of the tests and reports provided by different social media platforms. These tools help marketers track their campaign performance and continue finding new ways to improve.
Oktopost offers seamless cross-channel social media marketing automation as well as a robust analytic suite. You can publish videos and other content on all channels from a single dashboard and leverage social listening to identify your audience’s preferences and trends.
Final Thoughts
You might think that video content is too expensive or too inefficient to produce, but it can be an incredible investment for companies of all sizes. Strong videos can take you to the next level and generate more engagement on social media.
If you’re looking to build better video campaigns, Oktopost will help you drive conversions and optimize your video marketing ROI. Schedule a demo today to learn more about what Oktopost could do for your business.
