B2B marketing videos: what are the most effective formats?

Summary

Video is a formidable tool for B2B because of its communicative effectiveness and the closeness it establishes with the various recipients, especially when it comes to one-to-one communications.

But what are the types of B2B marketing videos on which to build a winning strategy? In this article we’ll look at the 7 most important ones:

• Brand videos and company news
• Product and service demos
• Customer testimonials and expert Interviews
• Educational videos
• Live video
• Video recap

What are the most effective video formats to include in your B2B marketing strategy?

In a previous article, we focused on sales videos: one-to-one communications that are built to facilitate the sales process. We also told you why it’s crucial to include them in your strategy, especially for B2B.

Then we moved on to analyze the main benefits of using video for sales. Now we will move into an even more operational realm. In this post, we will share the 6 most effective types of videos for B2B marketing to include in your strategies!

Brand video and company news

First, when making contact on the B2B side, it’s good to know how to present yourself. You can do it in many ways. But our advice is to always focus on high quality content (both narrative and technical).

Of course, you have to be very clear: create a profile of your company that describes who you are and what you do in a concise and effective way. Even more important is knowing how to build a logical, original, and engaging narrative around your identity.

In short, it’s a matter of storytelling: and video is the king of content for digital storytelling.

Be careful, however, to avoid generalizations: always ask yourself how your brand and your company are different from the competition, and let it emerge. Make sure you don’t get too loud or self-congratulatory. Bluster risks becoming a boomerang… especially in B2B!

Try to find your own authentic voice. And understand who you’re addressing (and we’ll come back to this when we’ll talk about personalization).

Another key word to keep in mind is transparency. Don’t be afraid to share updates about your company, your goals, results, new hires, corporate restructuring, re-branding, upcoming events, and so on. Of course, try not to turn this into a cold, boring list of information!

Product and service demos

Before selling a product or service, it’s critical to explain how it works.

Again, it’s a matter of finding the right balance between an informative and authoritative tone (which is necessary) and a more pleasant and informal tone (which is essential in order to maintain interest).

There is no universally valid recipe: it all depends on the brand identity, the type of product, and – again – the type of recipient. For sure, a good strategy that is valid for everyone is to take advantage of customer testimonials. We’ll talk about this in the next point.

Customer testimonials and expert interviews

If B2B is also about people, there’s nothing more effective than talking about those people, putting them at the center of your B2B marketing videos, and making them the ambassadors of your brand and your products.

The methods can be different; and the choice always depends on the objectives you have in mind. Here are two different types of videos that you can create.

First of all, there are testimonial videos. At the center of testimonial videos are customers who have already experienced products or services and who, therefore, put their faces to it, recounting their experience and providing their feedback.

This is a classic format, one that has been tried and tested many times – for example – even in television commercials. But thanks to digital technology, it has become much more widespread, extending to all areas of B2B.

An important caveat here: it’s not enough to put testimonials in front of a camera and improvise–they must be authentic and realistic. Build these speeches with a script in mind, starting with a problem the customer faced and ending with the solution provided by your company’s products or services.

The second type, also a classic, is interviews with industry experts. In this case, you will use the lever of authority.

A couple of tips: first of all, the starting point is choosing the right people (again, it’s a matter of target audience), then make sure that these interviews have a wider informative value than simply promoting your products. Remember that breadth and variety of viewpoints always pays off…and this ties in with our next point.

Educational videos

Beyond the single sale, the real objective to be achieved here is loyalty, therefore the conquest of a lasting relationship based on trust.

This is a long process, but one where educational videos fit in perfectly. Here, the primary objective is not to sell, but to educate, inform, and provide useful knowledge. To put it another way: to transfer value.

A recommendation for this type of video: try to be as specific as possible. For example, if you’re a logistics software company, don’t use a video to talk about the history of software or general technology trends, but show how users can solve a problem with your software.

Live videos

Let’s open this point with these important statistics:

• 80% of audiences prefer watching a live video over reading a post on a company blog (livestream.com).
• The engagement rate of a live video is, on average, 6 times higher than that of a recorded video. (99firms.com).
• In addition, the average viewing duration of a live video is 3 times longer than a recorded video (livestream.com).

The surge in the importance of live video is certainly due to the difficult period of the pandemic, from which we still have not yet emerged. But – and this is important to point out – it’s a trend that’s here to stay.

As far as B2B marketing is concerned, live video is an ideal tool for creating a deep and close connection with your customers.

A word of advice: pay close attention to the technical aspects. A shaky connection, low quality images, or poorly defined audio can drastically decrease the effectiveness of your communication.

Video recaps (after events or conferences)

Here, in conclusion, is a perfect example of how you can mix the traditional “physical” and digital sides today. And when the mix is successful, the two elements reinforce each other.

We’re talking about recap videos, videos you can send to selected recipients at the end of events, conferences, and meetings.

It’s about building a narrative based on the highlights of these events, perfect for bringing out certain key points, but also to bring back memories of particularly motivating and inspiring passages. Classically, they’re distributed via email.

In short, it’s always a question of balance: between authoritativeness and proximity; between being useful and being pleasant; between information and emotion; between the logic of one’s brand voice and the ability to adapt it to the individuals that you’re addressing.

Babelee

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