Top 10 Benefits of Video in B2B Marketing

There are many ways in which marketing your business to another differs from marketing to an individual consumer. In B2B marketing, your prospective client or customer is:

• Focused on fulfilling the needs of the business rather than their personal needs
• Part of a wider decision-making process – on average between 1 to 6 people may be involved in making a business decision
• Often required to demonstrate the logic in their buying process
• Not always the person making the final decision but one who is conducting the initial research process
• Working with a buying process that could involve many decision points and protracted timelines

In the world of B2C, video marketing is a fast-growing industry; 25% of businesses are now publishing video content on a weekly basis and 80% of marketers say they would use it more if budget, time and resource barriers were removed. Engaging, exciting, brand-centric video marks the competitive ground for many consumer campaigns.

In a world where logic and rationality may seem to be the order of the day, you may be forgiven for assuming that video simply isn’t the right tool for marketing B2B businesses. Yet, things are rapidly changing. A study by LinkedIn showed that two thirds (62%) of B2B marketers polled believe that video should be the primary platform of any creators.

So, what exactly is it that B2B marketers are seeing as the benefit of video? Here are the top 10 reasons our own clients have given us for using video in their marketing strategies and campaigns:

1. Video helps you cut through the noise.

According to Invesp, video advertising has the highest click-through-rate (CTR) of all digital advertising supporting the idea that it achieves better standout in a crowded marketplace. It’s also been found to be 600 times more effective at creating initial leads than print or direct mail advertising.

2. Video on your website increases traffic

This is in large part because the Google algorithm (other search engines are available!) favours websites with well curated video and so your business may will appear higher up the search rankings if your site contains video. It’s not just traffic to your website that is improved by having video – conversions can be improved by up to 80% on landing pages with video compared to those without.

3. A picture paints a thousand words

Tests with video viewers have found that around 95% of the message is retained. It also helps to conceptualise more complex or technical products and services. What may be a 2,000-word document that explains your business proposition could well be summed-up in a 2-minute video.

4. Video can support different stages in the buying process

Well commissioned video has the potential to be used at different points within the purchase decision process. ‘Hero’ content, a well-crafted business or brand video, could help you standout at the beginning of the search process. Case study videos may prove invaluable as the client looks to get internal support or sign-off for their decision.

5. Other communication channels are super-charged by video

Just the mere mention of video in the subject line of your email could increase email open rates as well as CTR. Campaign Monitor reported that the open rates for email campaigns with video are improved by 6% and CTR is improved by up to 65%.
 

6. Video brings your case study to life

Most B2B marketers and salespeople will understand the importance of case studies and many are now using video to take prospective clients straight into the world of existing clients. Whilst we talk about rational decision-making in the B2B world, case study videos are able to convey the emotion involved when business needs are met. Read more about the benefits of case study videos in this excellent blog by Entrepreneur.
 

7. You can unleash your creativity

Often in B2B we shy away from the emotional in favour of the logical and rational. Just because we’re dealing with a structured, commercially-based buying process, doesn’t mean that we can’t channel creativity to bring the brand or business to life. Having video may well improve website traffic or email CTRs but having engaging video makes that more likely to succeed. Here’s a fun example of the way in which Slack showed their brand personality through a customer case-study video.
 

8. Video helps build trust and improve transparency

A video that shows how your product or service works can help to improve trust with prospective customers – the idea that seeing is believing is born out in the stats around landing pages better converting when they have video. Showing how you do something can also help to create transparency – especially at times when you may have to convey difficult messages.
 

9. Tailored video hits home

Tailoring your video content to different buying personas and audiences will help demonstrate that you understand their needs. And doing so needn’t be expensive if you build your requirements into your video brief from the beginning. It could be as simple as a different voice over, a change of scene or an alternative graphic that turns a video aimed at one industry to target another.
 

10. Video gives your salespeople another tool in the toolbox

Whether an initial email to open conversations, part of a sales presentation or an added extra in the follow-up process, the multiple benefits of video mean that it can help make life easier for your sales team, and ultimately to help them seal the deal.

If you’re still wondering how video can help boost your B2B marketing, we leave you with this final quote: