Innovate to Elevate

Quick Summary:

B2B video is not usually known to be inspirational, sometimes not even engaging. That’s probably why you are reading this article: You want to know what can be done to elevate your B2B video.

In this article, we present you with 5 ideas on how to get more from your video content. The opportubity is big, but your time is probably short. You don’t want more to do, you just want to get more from what you’re already doing. Great! Why start something new and time-consuming, if it is faster to optimise what you are already doing?

Statistics show that buyers and marketers see the value in video, but often organisations aren’t making the most from their investment in video, nor have the time to do it. The 5 ideas we share in this article address this juxtaposition of “Need” versus “Time”.

Get inspired today and act today. Video is on the move and it’s time for B2B Marketing to capitalise on it.

No time to do what your buyers need…

Does B2B video leave you uninspired, unengaged, and longing for better? You’re not alone.

According to Statista, approximately 48% of US content marketers believe that their companies aren’t leveraging video marketing to its fullest extent.

That’s probably not surprising, if we consider that Hubspot identified around 39% of companies identify a lack of time as the primary obstacle to executing video marketing campaigns.

Do you see the correlation? Lack of time = subpar content quality. Or, in other words, B2B video is having to take shortcuts, leaving audiences wanting for more.

The good news is that 88% of B2B buyers have watched videos to learn about products or services, with 95% of B2B buyers saying that video plays an important role in moving forward with a purchase (as reported in Brightcove’s whitepaper titled (“The Power Of Video In The B2B Buyer’s Journey”). And in another whitepaper (“Using Video To Drive The B2B Customer Journey”) Brightcove reports that 93% of B2B buyers consider video crucial for building trust in a brand.

What does all this mean? It means there is still a huge opportunity to gain, engage, and delight an audience. Not just your current audience, but your competitors’ audiences too. Despite its long and uninterrupted march to the forefront of audience engagement, video is far from exhausted.

So, we have compiled 5 game-changing ideas for your B2B video marketing that will engage, retain, and nurture your prospects and customers.

Consumer media is showing us the way to innovation in B2B video

There is a distinct convergence of consumer media trends and how B2B audiences engage with video. Let’s face it, for far too long there has been a wide chasm between the engaging nature of your social media video feed and the more formal offering of B2B video.

So much so that when we see a great B2B video we exalt and share it with our colleagues and friends on Slack or Whatsapp. Am I right, or am I right?

That’s because consumer media has figured out what we – as human individuals – want. Yes, that’s right – B2B buyers are also human individuals. We expect the same production quality and storytelling (and dare I say a bit of entertainment) from B2B videos as we get from our personal feeds.

That’s not to say B2B should become like Gen Z’s favourite YouTuber, but if we react so positively to this type of video, I would say there is an untapped opportunity for B2B video marketing – no matter what age your target audience is.

Innovation in B2B video marketing provides a competitive advantage and it’s not too late to capitalise on it and stand out. Far from it.

Here are 5 game-changing ideas to elevate your use of video in B2B marketing

  1. The Citizen Content Creator

The Citizen Content Creator is a highly knowledgeable and motivated employee who takes it upon themselves to create and publish content about their work and the company’s service offering. There are many advantages and some disadvantages to this, as we’ve discussed in this article “The Rise (and Fall?) of the B2B Citizen Content Creator”. But when time (and budget) is short and your employees (and customers) want more video content, enabling your Citizen Creators to help with the job is a goldmine. Of course, create some parameters and align content with the brand and its messaging, but don’t ignore this opportunity.

  1. Learn what makes consumer social video so engaging

There is a reason YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. And there is also a reason why most of us spend more time than we care to admit on our social media video feed. Our viewing habits have changed, and consumer media has figured out (or driven) what appeals to us as individuals. Whether you like it or not, the “Hook” works, and valuable content is rewarded with a “Subscribe, Like, and Share”. Value in under 60 seconds (the short-form video format) is not easy to achieve, but the algorithm and your audience will reward you for it if you do. And don’t forget, one video leads to another, and it creates a journey for your audience to travel on. Next stop: Your long-form or other content. Final destination: A Docusign for a new contract.

  1. Let your customers tell a story

Two of our favourite video topics: Storytelling and a happy customer. Which of the following do we trust more: A happy customer or an anonymous corporate video? We’ve all been around long enough to build up a little cynicism when it comes to corporate messaging. That cynicism may be misplaced, but it’s there. Whereas, if one of our peers talks publicly about how much they have benefitted from working with a company, we listen. And when we listen, we remember best if we’re told a story. Before books, stories were used to pass on information from generation to generation. It is intrinsic in our human nature to like stories. So, what does your B2B video look like? Does it lead with storytelling (overtly or subconsciously)? Does it show happy customers? No? You know what you have to do.

  1. Don’t Ignore Video Podcasts

The world of podcasting is in flux. This traditionally audio-only and fan-led sector is growing. From a wide range of podcasts and formats leaders are beginning to emerge. and they are attracting large audiences. Some formats have grown to huge audiences from a humble and non-commercial starting point, while others emerge with celebrity faces at the helm and make an instant impact. Even if you would never class yourself as a “podcast fan”, the likelihood is that you have either watched a podcast episode or seen a social media highlight clip from an episode. The operative word is “watched”, not “listened”, because podcasts are increasingly moving into video and this has driven the emergence to mainstream. Why? Because video is more engaging and memorable than audio-only. There are pros and cons for audio-only and for video-first podcasts. This is not about being against audio podcasts – at all. But video did kill the radio star, as a famous song lyric goes. And podcasts are learning that there is much opportunity in video podcasts.

Corporate podcasts have their own set of challenges, and you should be clear on your strategy, audience preferences, and intentions before venturing into this space. That is not a reason to ignore it altogether though – on the contrary, fate favours the bold.

  1. Repurpose Your Video Content

In the introduction to this article, we saw the statistic about marketers being time poor, while seeing the opportunity to get more from video marketing. Paradoxically, in the vast majority of cases we see marketing teams choosing to start a new project over getting more from an existing one. In our article “Turn Your Webinars Into Content Engines: The Art Of Content Repurposing” we use webinars as an example of how one piece of content and be turned into many other pieces of content, designed with different communications channels in mind. Rather than being the end-point, webinars become a starting point (or “Content Engine”).

The same principle applies to other marketing activities, such as corporate events, customer events, and other activities that feature interesting long-form content. There is a truth in Sales: It is much easier to grow and existing customer than to acquire a new one. This is true also for getting content and audience engagement from long-form video. It is much easier to get more content from an existing piece of long-form video than to create a new one. This elegantly addresses the two aforementioned challenge of being time-poor and looking to capitalise on getting more from video marketing.

How To Get Started

So, there we are. Five practical ideas to change how your organisation approaches video to get more ROI. But how do you get started? Here are a few pointers:

Citizen Content Creation: Read this article and begin identifying whether you already have Citizen Content Creators in your organisation. If you do, collaborate with and enable them to help move the needle on video content creation. Find out what motivates them, whether it’s an innate desire to help or an ambition to build their personal brand. It almost doesn’t matter which one it is. Find a way to incentivise and empower them.

Learning from consumer social video: Next time you are scrolling through your social feed, pay particular attention to which videos you choose to watch and why you watch certain videos longer than others. Instead of “consuming” the content, look at the tactics they employed to get your attention. If it catches your attention, it will likely also catch your peers’ attention. Use these learnings and adopt them in a way that works for your B2B videos

Customer stories: Every company has happy customers, otherwise they would likely not be in business anymore. And every happy customer has a story to tell. If you don’t have any customer testimonial videos, it’s unlikely due to a lack of happy customers. So, the question is this: Have you ever asked your happy customers to share their story on a customer testimonial video? If not, start today. Together with your account management team, identify the happiest customers with the best stories to tell. Approach them together and propose participating in a video testimonial. Their answer may surprise you.

Video podcasts: You don’t have to be a podcaster to create podcast-style videos. Don’t let a lack of podcast experience hold you back. Now is the time to capitalise on the growth area. In it’s simplest form, video podcasts are just conversations captured on video. Of course, there is a little more to it than that, but if you cover-complicate it you may never get started. Even the world’s leading podcasts started small and made mistakes (and learned from them) at the beginning. Take the first step by identifying potential guests to join you for a conversation. And equally important, think about a way to differentiate this form of content from your other, perhaps more corporate, video marketing activities. Video podcasts shouldn’t be the same as your webinars. Find an angle or common interest that is relevant to your organisation and audience, without being overly corporate. Think about when podcasts are consumed, i.e. often outside of work hours. Nobody wants to bring a heavy marketing pitch along for their personal time. But they will listen to and watch valuable, insightful, and interesting (dare we say entertaining) content when they are not at work.

Video Content Repurposing: To get started with this idea, first take stock of which long-form video content you already have and assess which are still relevant and accurate. If you have identified any long-form video content, begin identifying which parts can be stripped out and used for short-form video or other type of content. Read this article about content repurposing as a guide. Of course, this type of repurposing would ideally be part of a wider strategy for a specific campaign or type of messaging, but there is nothing wrong with making a start and get used to the process. If you don’t have any existing long-form content that can be repurposed, you are in luck! Because this allows you to plan your long-form video content with subsequent repurposing in mind. Consider what the long-form content should contain, how it should be structured, and which topics it should cover in order for it to work for you in different content formats later on.

What’s next?

If even just one of these five ideas has provided some inspiration, it is time to act. If you are one of the statistics at the beginning of this article, you will know why it is so important to capitalise on video marketing and you will see the benefit and opportunity of innovating in the area of B2B video marketing.

If you still need help or feel you would benefit from additional expertise to make it work in a timely manner, get in touch with our Video Marketing Team. We will be happy to discuss your challenges, requirements, and create a package that is tailored to you

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