With 70 per cent of B2B buyers now watching videos on their path to purchase, the case for investing in video is clear, more so now than ever, as potentially more people will be working remotely.
The benefits of video content are now widely known. Companies that use video marketing grow their revenue 49 per cent faster than those that don’t (Aberdeen Group).
Almost half of B2B buyers watch more than 30 minutes of video content while researching a product or service. And 70 per cent of B2B marketers say that video is the most effective medium for driving conversions.
Once the preserve of global brands who splash out on lavish productions to ‘wow’ their customers, video production costs have dramatically fallen, enabling businesses a range of possibilities to engage customers at all stages of the sales and marketing process and we’re not talking about bland product demos or one-dimensional customer testimonials! These are attention‐grabbing, high-performance videos that engage audiences, boost conversion rates and drive company revenue.
It should come as no surprise therefore that a study from Google shows that the number of B2B buyers using video has doubled in recent years, with 70 per cent now watching videos on their path to purchase. It is estimated that video will make up 82% of all web traffic by 2021.
The key is to make engaging videos that resonate with target audiences and addresses a genuine audience need. Don’t use video for the sake of it. Create video content that feeds naturally into your existing marketing strategy and contributes to clear business objectives.
Take an ‘audience first’ approach. If you want customers to spend time watching your videos, you must appeal directly to their specific wants, needs and desires. Too many B2B brands are creating video for the sake of appearances. They churn out mediocre content because they feel they must, only for it to sit on their website or YouTube pages gathering dust.
Creating shareable thought leadership content around key messages is an effective tactic for using video that supports existing and proven marketing initiatives. Typically, this will involve taking the messages and ideas that are working in your past or existing campaigns and exploring them using creative video formats. This can help to amplify and expand the reach of these messages.
The secret to effective video is about distilling what you want your video to be about down into a single sentence that explains why your target audience will want to watch it, regardless of whether it’s a product explainer, a Q&A interview or a short clip for social media.