B2B Online Video Marketing; Planning to Execution Best Practices for Lead Generation

0
118

Share on LinkedIn

Name a memorable ad in the past. Chances are, it’s a television ad. Why? Because nothing beats the power of a message that combines the senses of sight and sound. That brings us to a discussion of video marketing for B2B. Depending on what you read, most research shows that white papers are still the most authoritative content asset, but video marketing continues to grow. With B2B video marketing, it’s not about the number of viewers your video gets, but is that video reaching your target prospects.

According to a recent B2B survey from the Content Marketing Institute:

  • About 46% of people say they’d be more likely to seek out information about a product or service after seeing it in an online video.
  • Video is now the sixth most popular content marketing tactic, as 70% of B2B marketers use some form of online video with their overall strategies.
  • YouTube averages 4 billion hits each day, and 61% of B2B marketers leverage YouTube to extend the reach of their messaging and brands.
  • On average, mobile viewers watch videos that are three times longer those on PCs and laptops.

Also:

  • A Forbes study: Three-quarters (75%) of executives surveyed said they watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly; more than half (52%) watch work-related videos on YouTube at least weekly.

The statistics are evident; B2B usage is on the rise. NuSpark Marketing has helped a number of B2B firms execute visually creative video strategies. Like any content development plan, you first need to define what your customer’s pain points are before scripting your video.

Why Video

  • Great for product or service demonstrations, especially for a complicated solution that needs video to explain key features and benefits
  • Personality communication. In a cluttered word of online written content, a video can introduce you or your firm as a real person or company with personality. Buyers buy from companies they trust; what better way than visually showcasing your credibility
  • Videos capture attention of your prospects, and if produced right, hold their attention, which can lead to increased engagement and conversion.
  • Videos rank high in search results for appropriate keywords. If your headline is memorable and compelling, prospects will notice your helpful videos and engage with them

Video and the Sales Funnel

Many times it’s best to plan a video strategy to target all levels of buyers within the funnel. For example:

  • Top of funnel prospects: Consider an overview video to introduce your firm and explain the benefits of your products or solutions; how you solve pain points.
  • Mid funnel prospects: Explain complex solutions in a simple compelling manner. This is where demonstrations and simple solution examples come into play.
  • Bottom funnel prospects: Here’s where you can utilize video testimonials as proof of your solutions and results

Cisco is a leader in video marketing for their products; below is a sample content plan for their videos.

cisco2

B2B Video Marketing Best Practices

Planning: The steps involved with planning a video that will contribute to eliciting a positive response from your prospects.

  • Determine goals: sales; leads; brand building; product demonstration; education. Focus on your corporate value proposition
  • Determine audience: target the key buyer or influencer; speak the buyer’s language when targeting your personas
  • Determine message focus and tone: metrics, process, features, benefits
  • Determine offers: downloads, demos, trials, etc. Match offers with target audience. Test offers with lead capture strategy.
  • Determine format: animated, whiteboard, talking head, interview, presentation, demo, case study
  • Determine tone: professional, creative, humorous, serious, technical, informal
  • Determine video elements: music, voiceover, subtitles, length (for advertising- stay within 30 seconds, for longer form, 3-5 minutes is best, but depends on the format and goals) 60 seconds is best for mobile.

Implementation

  • Preparation of script and storyboard: Strong introduction, set up business challenge, showcase solution, call-to-action
  • Distribution strategy: website for engagement; landing page for conversion; YouTube channel; Vimeo and video syndication, Brightcove, email. A multi-media strategy works best.
  • Analytics, hosting, and feature add-ons: Viewbix, Wistia, to name two I like.
  • SEO: title tags with keywords; meta description, video site map, thumbnail image, links, sharable with social links. Regarding YouTube descriptions:Promotion: Give viewers key benefits for viewing; Optimize sharing due to message tone (interesting, humorous, surprising, unusual…a hook). However you deploy, mention “video” in your promotion to increase action
    • Write a creative and informative description about your video.
    • Your primary keywords should be near the beginning as only 25-30 characters are visible in YouTube search results. Include a link to your website, blog, and any other social channels.
    • Put the URL at the beginning of your description so that the user will see the link at all times.
  • Conversion Optimization: Strong call-to-action (leads, downloads, next steps). Make sure offer and URL is included with all videos.
  • Measure: Event tracking with Google Analytics; YouTube analytics, Tagged links on channels of distribution, click rates, video views, social media shares and comments, Leads generated, ROI reporting

Other Tips

  • Include a transcript of your video within your website for SEO
  • Accompany the video with a related white paper as CTA
  • Focus on educational value; but adding some humor or uniqueness can be effective
  • Video needs to be part of a comprehensive content strategy; white papers, case studies, ebooks, blogs
  • The first 15 seconds of the video is critical to hold someone’s attention
  • Take advantage of YouTube overlay messaging if you do Adwords. When users click the overlay they can be sent to website or landing page
  • Create a 30 second version of a video and use it as a remarketing tactic. YouTube has a remarketing option; those who visit your site and be remarketed to on YouTube with a video ad.
  • Utilize within marketing automation; as part of drip campaigns and lead nurturing; lead score engaged viewers
  • Responsive design; make sure website and landing page provides optimal mobile experience.
Video Landing Page

For driving leads with video, a video landing page that features your video, landing page copy that has strong benefit and CTA language, offer and lead capture form should be the primary hub for your campaign. The traffic driver sources (social, email, display, PPC, etc.) should direct all campaign traffic to the video landing page. Staying light on copy will reinforce prospects to view your video for offer details or benefit statements. Offering prospects a white paper or case study in exchange for an email address is best practice to generate leads with content. Videos that persuade free trials and demos are equally essential. The better the offer; the better the response rate.

YouTube Targeting

Advertising on YouTube will be a post for the future, but if you do wish to advertise your solution on YouTube there are many options to consider, whether they be in-search ads (targeting keyword searches on YouTube) or in-stream ads, as pre-rolls to other content. There are many ways to target a B2B audience on YouTube; below is an example of this:

youtube targeting

Remember to keep advertised videos 15-30 seconds, and take advantage of overlays for better CTA

Summary

Video is impactful when planned and executed properly. Each element of this post could be its own white paper itself, but I wanted to give a high level overview of video marketing best practices for B2B. Video is exciting, compelling, and doesn’t have to be costly. The videos NuSpark Marketing does for its clients are very reasonably priced. If you’d like to speak to me about video strategy and execution, please give me a call 610-604-0639.

How as video marketing worked for you?

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Paul Mosenson
Owner of NuSpark Marketing Helps B2B and B2C companies market themselves through integrated tactics, (traditional advertising, internet advertising, SEO, social media), conversions, and sales through lead nurturing/marketing automation.

ADD YOUR COMMENT

Please use comments to add value to the discussion. Maximum one link to an educational blog post or article. We will NOT PUBLISH brief comments like "good post," comments that mainly promote links, or comments with links to companies, products, or services.

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here