B2B Video Marketing: A Practical Guide For 2024
Video has taken the world of B2B marketing by storm. Viewers can easily find out what they need by searching for video content.
Let's talk about why a business should invest in B2B video marketing, read tips for the best B2B video marketing strategies, and how your business can use Animoto to elevate your video marketing strategy.
What is B2B video marketing?
In the world of B2B video marketing, things can get a bit complicated. Rather than targeting a single person, the focus can be on multiple decision-makers. This juggling act can be tricky between who makes the decisions and who uses the product.
The decision-makers and the end-users aren't usually the same person, meaning you'll have to convince more than one person along the way that your product or service is a good fit for their business.
Decision-makers or B2B buyers purchase products for internal company use. In this case, it's essential to balance addressing pain points and product quality. It is not uncommon for B2B videos to be a bit longer than B2C, as products targeted at companies are usually more complex.
Why should your B2B business invest in video marketing?
Video content marketing is incredibly versatile.
Videos are no longer seen as something for training or internal sales communication; they're a vital tool for any company's bottom line. When it comes to B2B marketing, video is the best way to build trust and impress clients.
Here are some video marketing statistics showing the importance of video in B2B marketing:
- 95% of video marketers say they intend to continually increase their video budget every year.
- 88% of video marketers find a positive return on investment (ROI) from using video.
- 72% of users say they choose video over text when it comes to learning about a new product or service.
Use video marketing to engage with your target audience on social media, educate potential clients, or share customer testimonials. This may help to simplify their decision-making process.
B2B video marketing is more than generating brand awareness; it's crucial in driving conversions and building credibility. B2B videos demonstrate your expertise in a field or on a specific topic.
What are the benefits of B2B video marketing?
Videos convert
Video marketing is a worthwhile investment. Using video in your marketing campaign increases conversions, which results in higher revenue. HubSpot found that simply adding a video to a landing page increased the conversion rate by 80%.
Video boosts email marketing
By simply adding the word “video” in an email subject line, your email’s open rate is likely to increase. Video increases an email click-through rate by 200-300%.
To learn more, read our guide on video email marketing.
Search engines love video
Search engines look for content that engages viewers, and video does precisely that. Using video marketing increases page views and engagement rates.
Video adds credibility
Video marketing gives brands a chance to show their personality, which builds a sense of trust with viewers. Consumers rated video the #1 most helpful form of content when shopping online.
Video increases social shares
The fact is, we live in the age of viral video. Records show that over 92% of mobile video customers end up sharing videos with friends. When it comes to video marketing, using humor or how-to videos can encourage sharing and build trust.
Video increases retention
Video content marketing helps brands increase awareness and engagement. Viewers will quickly scan the text of a message, but the message is more likely to be remembered when it comes in the form of video marketing.
Video enhances other B2B content
B2B video marketing also boosts conversion and engagement rates on other content. For example, a landing page with video content will encourage viewers to check out other pieces. Using video in your marketing strategy is a great hook to get viewers through the door.
Video saves decision-makers time
One of the reasons video content marketing is so popular is that it's easy to digest. Viewers can understand complicated products or services faster than blogs or written text ads. Those decision-makers are looking to understand something and they want to do it easily and quickly. B2B video marketing does just that by streamlining the whole process.
Users love video content
Platforms like YouTube and Facebook have users worldwide spending billions of hours watching video content. B2B video marketing is no different. Whether in finance or ecommerce, video marketing is a great choice for everyone.
Tips to start your B2B video marketing strategy
Start with research
The foundation of marketing is research. Using marketplace, target audience, or brand research helps take the guesswork out of your marketing campaign. Having a data-driven understanding of your B2B video marketing strategy will allow you to better serve your customers.
Get your niche down
For any business, it's crucial to find your target niche. Companies that grow fast become specialists in a specific area, which is the key to their success.
Figuring out how to become an industry expert requires a healthy amount of research. Becoming a specialist makes marketing that much easier–as you know who to focus on, what their needs are, and how to entice them.
Know your target market and buyer personas
The golden rule of marketing: know your target market. You'll be lost if you don't understand your customers’ needs. Knowing things like age, location, pain points, and other factors can help develop buyer personas.
Set clear goals
A marketing campaign with clearly defined goals is much more likely to succeed. Identify what your key success metrics are, build reports to track them, and make sure that the entire team is working towards the same goal.
How to make a B2B marketing video with Animoto
Pick your B2B video marketing template
Animoto's template library is full of video templates to help you get started. Whether you're looking for video templates for social media, email marketing, or possibly something to jumpstart your video marketing strategy, we've got you covered. Position your business as the experts in your field by sharing industry insights with this template:
Add your B2B video clips
Easily upload your B2B video clips directly into Animoto. Access up to 100 million+ images, videos, and graphics in our premium library of licensed media from Getty Images. Finally, drag and drop your media into the project.
Customize your B2B video
Edit your text to customize your message for your audience. Use text and video styles to add unique transitions and animations to your video.
If you’re on a Professional or Professional Plus plan, you can elevate your video even further with Saved Brands. Use your own fonts, colors, and logos to add another level of professionalism.
Send to clients and colleagues for feedback
Getting multiple perspectives and approvals is a best practice, but it can be tricky without the right tools. Instead of sending your B2B video to multiple team members via email, bring all of the feedback in one place!
With the Professional Plus plan, you can use Commenting to collect and respond to feedback all within Animoto. First, you can invite multiple people to leave time-stamped comments on your video via a private feedback link. Once they create a free Animoto account, they can pause your video and leave specific feedback down the second.
This also creates a transparent, collaborative environment that invites debate and discussion among your team. At the end, you can create a video that everyone feels confident in. Read this how-to guide to learn more.
Preview and export your B2B video
Now click the play button in the bottom left-hand corner to preview your B2B video. Share your video on social media, through email marketing campaigns, or directly on your website. Keep in mind that all videos are saved in your account.
5 of the most popular B2B marketing video types
Explainer videos
Explainer videos are a great way to position your business as an expert in your field. Offer knowledge in a particular industry to explain why your business is the expert.
Crowdfunding videos
Crowdfunding videos are unique; companies use them to raise funds to develop their product. Many businesses use B2B marketing videos for crowdfunding to show the product and share the company's future vision.
Launch videos
Launch videos are a special kind of promotional content used by start-ups and young companies to showcase what they offer. These B2B marketing videos help set the tone for how viewers see products or services.
Product demos
Product demonstration videos give serious buyers an in-depth look at a product or service's features and benefits. This type of B2B marketing video is more common when the product price is higher and the decision-making time frame is longer.
Customer testimonial videos
A customer testimonial is a great way to build trust. Potential customers will give your brand more credibility once they hear honest and compelling reviews of your product or service.
How-to videos
The goal of a how-to video is to delight viewers and provide a step-by-step guide to complete some tasks. These how-to videos are great for brands because they build trust and give customers ideas on different uses for a product or service.
How-to videos should include audio and visual elements to help complement what's shared and keep it interesting. Using audio and visual elements helps make your point clear and keeps viewers engaged.
An effective B2B marketing video example
Back in 2014, Slack partnered with the company Sandwich. They worked together to create So Yeah, We Tried Slack. This piece mixes branded entertainment with product demos.
This lighthearted video case study showed precisely how Slack could help businesses communicate more efficiently. It showed how effective Sandwich's employees were when they made the switch to Slack.
For B2B video marketing, partner with Animoto
Animoto's online video editor will take your B2B video marketing strategy to a whole new level. You can create stellar content that viewers will love in just a few minutes. Start making B2B marketing videos today with Animoto.