9 Amazing Video Marketing Tips for B2B Brands
Mobile video ad spending in the U.S. is projected to increase to $9.26 billion in 2024, more than twice the amount spent in 2019 — and for good reason.
As time progresses, customers prefer consuming information in the form of video. And businesses are jumping on board to give their customers what they want - particularly in the form of explainer videos.
If you’re a B2B brand interested in enhancing your video marketing efforts, you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, we’ll share nine of our best video marketing tips for B2B brands.
And without further ado, here are our nine best tips:
Craft Videos Around the B2B Buyer's Journey
77% of B2B buyers say that their latest purchase was either very complex or very difficult to make.
Why? Because oftentimes B2B buying decisions involve six to 10 decision-makers, each with their own independent research and opinions.
They also have increasingly more options to consider between products, suppliers, services, and new technologies. And in order to make a purchase, most if not all decision-makers must be on board.
With all of these dynamics, it’s no surprise that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for B2B buyers to make purchases.
The solution? Tailor your videos to the B2B buyer’s journey.
In order for B2B buyers to finalize a purchase, you have to successfully meet them in each step of the buyer’s journey.
Those steps include:
- Problem identification: What problem do they have?
- Solution exploration: How can you help them solve their problem?
- Requirements building: What do they need the purchase to do?
- Supplier selection: Does the purchase do what they want it to do?
- Validation: How can you ensure that purchasing with you is the right decision?
- Consensus creation: How can they get everyone on board to make the purchase?
For instance, a product demo would work well during the ‘solution exploration’ stage. A positive customer testimonial video would work great during the ‘validation’ stage.
The trick to a successful buyer’s journey is to help customers navigate through the purchase process as easily and painlessly as possible.
Create a Promotional Strategy
Think of video as an essential component of marketing. If it’s essential, it would make sense that it would need its own video marketing strategy, right?
When planning out your video marketing, you’ll need two strategies:
- Video content strategy
- Promo strategy.
Video Content Strategy
When it comes to video, B2C videos usually have more room for light-heartedness, creativity, and fun. But, B2B videos are usually professional and educational.
To make B2B videos engaging, you’ll need to sharpen your storytelling skills. For instance, Slack, a business communication platform, got one of its B2B clients to record a testimonial video about how Slack is improving business communication.
We’ll explore a few other video content ideas in a bit.
Using chatbots for your video marketing can increase personalization, also, if you showcase messages via chatbot on your video marketing platform can increase engagement.
Promotional Strategy
Once you’re clear about your video content strategy, you’ll need to develop promotional tactics to make sure your target audience sees these videos.
Here are some quick promo strategy ideas!
- Run paid video ads on social media and make sure they’re unforgettable
- Embed videos in email campaigns
- Make sure the videos are optimized for desktops and mobile devices
- Embed videos in blog posts and website pages
- Share videos on social media pages
- To monetize your video content, you can also integrate your videos with an OTT platform like Uscreen for a Netflix-style experience
Apart from the above, you should also ensure that your videos are optimized for video search, social media search, and SEO search.
Once you’ve got both strategies ready, create a posting calendar, assign responsibilities to your team, and get rolling! A template marketing calendar can help organize your team around the schedule.
Post Videos Consistently
This one piggybacks on our previous point: Make sure you’re posting videos consistently. Whether that's posting one video a day or three videos a week, make sure your schedule is predictable for your target audience.
One way to do that is by having themed posting days. For instance, ‘Testimonial Tuesdays’ would focus on testimonial videos, while something like ‘Tutorial Thursdays’ would focus on product demos and tutorials.
It’s also important to schedule at least some of your posts in advance, so you don’t have to manually post them each time.
Posting consistently is sage advice that never gets old. Show up for your audience consistently, and they’ll show up for you.
Post Your Teasers on YouTube
Being a B2B brand, you may be hosting your videos using a premium hosting service provider, but it's also advisable to post your video teasers on YouTube.
Starting a YouTube Channel and posting short clips is one of the best ways to gain greater visibility. YouTube viewers are projected to increase to 1.86 billion in 2021, up from 1.47 billion in 2017.
Here are some ways to grow your YouTube channel:
- Host giveaways — viewers must follow your channel to be entered
- Post video teasers
- Collaborate with popular YouTube influencers
- Create a video series
- Share your YouTube videos on Facebook
- Post an intro trailer at the top of your channel
- Run YouTube ads
- Engage with your viewers — respond to all comments and participate in YouTube’s community
Record Short and Engaging Videos
One of the best ways to create engaging videos is by keeping them short and concise. With the average attention span steadily decreasing, a lengthy video can put off viewers.
When recording videos, try to stick to just under two minutes or edit them down to less than two minutes. Videos under two minutes have the highest engagement rates.
However, if your video needs to be long, captivate your viewers with eye-catching and valuable content. This could mean gripping storytelling, educational content, or using powerful images or digital animation.
Once you’ve posted several videos, keep an eye on your video ROI to make sure your videos are successful. These metrics will give you insight as to which videos have the highest views and engagement rates.
Showcase Your Brand
B2B buyers are interested in what your brand’s about. What’s your mission? How can you help them? Why should they choose to buy from you?
Here are some ways to showcase your brand in videos:
Promo videos
Record promo videos highlighting your products and services. Demonstrate how to use your products and services, who they’d work best for, and feature their main benefits.
This also works great if you sell highly technical products like Nlyte does for its data center infrastructure solutions.
Company values
Record videos highlighting your company values and mission. Draw on emotion when possible and showcase your business’s soul. Who are you helping? What causes are you involved in?
For instance, do you run an annual cancer fundraiser? Does your company prioritize hiring a diverse team? Does your company offer free counseling for employees?
An example of this in play can be seen on Genbook’s Youtube channel. Genbook is an online appointment booking software, and when the pandemic hit, the company rolled out a campaign to support its clients in a unique way.
Here’s the video (hosted on YouTube) that details the campaign and urges people to contribute:
Behind the Scenes
Oftentimes, what happens behind the scenes (BTS) of a company says more about who they are. B2B buyers are often curious about the ins and outs of your company — they don’t just want to see the shiny exterior. They want to know how you function behind closed doors.
This is where BTS videos really shine. Can you show buyers how you make your products? Can you show them how your team makes decisions?
Other BTS video ideas:
- Record a day in the life of a CEO at your company
- Share a day in the life of your team
- Update customers on new projects and advancements
- Show off your company’s unique personality
Show How Others Use Your Brand
Social proof is essential when trying to convince a buyer to make a purchase. Buyers want to know how other buyers use your brand. What do they love about your brand? How has your brand helped them?
This is when testimonials (positive customer reviews) and case studies (detailed studies of how your organization helps customers) work well.
Earlybird features customer testimonial videos on its homepage in order to demonstrate social proof.
And BetterUp features case studies as resources on its website.
When buyers see raving fans and in-depth studies showcasing how your brand has helped other buyers, they’re more inclined to give you a chance. In fact, 94% of consumers said that positive reviews make them more likely to use a business.
Solve Pain Points
Another great tip is recording videos that solve customer pain points. These videos are great for answering questions and concerns that buyers have. These types of videos will get you backlinks naturally to further bolster your website’s domain authority.
Additionally, these videos may be the deciding factor that influences buyers to choose your company over a competitor. Why? Because they feel more confident knowing that you care about what makes them tick.
A great way to solve pain points is by recording support videos and explainer videos.
Take SwagBucks as an example. The company explains how its system works on the homepage.
Additionally, Frevvo explains how its low code workflow automation tool works on the products page.
You can also record FAQ videos to answer commonly asked questions or live videos to answer questions directly from buyers in real-time.
Set Yourself up for Success
And finally, set yourself up for success by using efficient tools that help you record better videos.
For instance, plan your video messaging ahead of time by using scripts.
In your scripts include:
- An introduction
- A summary about the main points you’ll cover
- Your main points
- A conclusion
- A call to action
It's also important to use a trusted, ad-free video platform that lets you customize your videos and keep track of important metrics. With this in mind, we recommend StoryXpress.
Businesses love StoryXpress because you can:
- Create and edit videos on the spot
- Customize your videos according to your brand guidelines
- Upload your logo to each video
- Record your screen, face, and audio
- Communicate with your team, customers, and new recruits
Final Note
There’s more where that came from, but these nine amazing video marketing tips will set your B2B brand up for success.
Need more help? We’d love to help you make incredible videos. Request a demo today to find out more.