2017 STATE OF VIDEO MARKETING
GROWING PREFERENCE FOR VIDEO CONTENT RESULTS IN STARRING ROLE THROUGHOUT ENTIRE BUYING JOURNEY
Online video will account for 74% of all web traffic this year, according to KPCB, leaving some to dub 2017 as the “year of video marketing.” But instead of simply jumping on the bandwagon and creating one-off videos just for the sake of having video content, B2B marketers are leveraging video in more strategic ways to address specific pain points for target audiences and specific stages of the buying journey.
As part of this expanded strategy, progressive B2B companies have taken a step back from solely relying on video as top-of-funnel assets and are getting more creative with their videos to engage with key decision makers throughout the entire engagement cycle.
This special report will dive deep into the current state of video marketing, and will showcase real-world use case examples of how B2B companies such as Terminus, Fuze and Lenovo are making video an integral part of their sales and marketing strategies.
The report will also provide prescriptive insights from industry leaders on how B2B companies can better harness the power of video in sales enablement, as well as to support relative initiatives around personalization and measurement.
“Video is playing an increasingly important role all the way through the buyer’s journey. It’s about engaging customers in a new, interesting way to drive conversions for marketing teams.”
-Tyler Lessard, Vidyard
B2B SALES TEAMS LEVERAGE VIDEOS IN EMAIL OUTREACH TO PROSPECTS
Video marketing strategies have expanded to sales, where teams are using videos to drive initial engagement with target prospects on a personal level, as well as in nurture campaigns.
For example, sales teams at Terminus and Lenovo are sending “selfie videos” that speak directly to the recipient, highlighting their interests and pain points.
“Rather than sending a responsive text within an email to a customer or channel partner, the sales rep creates a selfie video talking or replying to show them how to do something,” said Mike Ballard, Sr. Manager of Digital Marketing at Lenovo, which is currently piloting this idea via a Google Chrome plug in.
Terminus has already seen success with sales selfie videos. For example, for one sales rep, 55% of opportunities created were influenced by these selfie videos. The company uses Vidyard’s Viewedit — which also has its own video library that sales can access to pick and choose which videos to send.
Check out this personalized video example from Terminus that relates to a prospect’s interests:
In addition, Demand Gen Report’s 2017 Lead Nurturing & Acceleration Survey found that 66% of marketers use video in their nurture campaigns. Companies such as Fuze turn to case study videos to showcase customers in action and what problems they solved.
“We follow a simple look at the buyer’s journey of breaking content down between awareness, consideration and purchase decision,” said Amanda Maksymiw, Content Marketing Director at Fuze. “In each of those stages, we have several video assets that we’re pushing out through email.”
MARKETERS SHIFT TO AUDIENCE-CENTRIC CONTENT, UNLOCK INTERACTIVE OPPORTUNITIES
Whether it’s an explainer video or customer testimonial, experts suggest B2B marketers shift their focus to the customer’s paint point or challenge within their video content, as opposed to why the recipient should buy their product, or how their product helped solve other customers’ needs.
“Most B2B marketers overlook the need to think holistically about their prospect and customer information needs,” said Heidi Cohen, Chief Content Officer at Actionable Marketing Guide. “As a result, they miss major marketing opportunities to use these videos for content, product, sales and customer service. Marketers have to put themselves in their prospect or customer’s shoes to give them the information they need without sales or promotion. Otherwise, viewers will abandon the content.”
Personalizing video content with the recipients’ paint points and interests in mind can be a gateway into a new video content format B2B marketers are incorporating: interactive videos.
Interactive videos can include a CTA within the video — during or towards the end — giving the viewers the ability to take immediate action, such as view a related (and relevant) piece of content or fill out a form to request a demo right within the video itself.
In addition to CTAs, interactive videos can enable more two-way conversations through questions within the video and with using overlay annotations to drive related actions during the video playback, as seen in this VSP video example from SnapApp:
“People love the play button and will go into a zombie state watching them. We have a good opportunity to seize that as marketers and extend [the viewing journey].”
-Mike Ballard, Lenovo
Ballard added that a video must be more than just a one-time experience. “How can we use this as an interactive tool; one that can change itself to what the viewer wants? He said. People love the play button and will go into a zombie state watching them. We have a good opportunity to seize that as marketers and extend [the viewing journey].”
3 TIPS FOR USING VIDEO TO DRIVE REAL RESULTS
Video can be a great way to drive better results at every stage of the buyer’s journey. But to ensure you get the biggest bang for your buck, it’s important to develop a video strategy that ensures you’re approaching production, distribution, optimization and measurement in a way that will help you have the greatest impact. Developing a strategy doesn’t need to be a cumbersome task, below are three tips to help you get started on your journey.
DEVELOP A BASIC VIDEO CONTENT PLAN
Most marketers think of video as one-off additions to major campaigns, but they’re forgetting all of the video’s other uses.
DRIVE INBOUND AND SEO WITH VIDEO
Put those videos to work on your own website! Use video content and audio transcriptions to boost SEO and inbound traffic.
TRACK AND MEASURE EVERYTHING YOU CAN
If you’ve gotten this far, it’s time to start measuring your effort and optimizing your content to align with your business goals.
To learn more about the latest video marketing best practices, or to discover new ideas for how to use video across your marketing teams, check out the Video Marketing Chalk Talk series for practical tips on using video strategically to drive real results.
Conclusion
Personalizing the experience to cater to the recipients’ pain points and challenges is the key to generate better retention rates — just make sure to have some fun and let your company’s personality shine through.
