Video is one of the most effective ways to drive sales for marketers. According to Email Monks, emails with videos drive a staggering 280% higher return than the ones without. In fact, according to a report by the Aberdeen Group, 67% of organizations use video to create brand awareness, 60% use video to drive conversions and 53% use video to nurture leads.
So, how can B2B marketers leverage this trend to grow their business?
In this blog, I’ll show you 6 ways you can attract more B2B leads with your video content.
1. Explainer Videos
Explainer videos are a great way to attract and engage top-of-the-funnel (TOFU) audience. They help clarify the problem solved by your product or service and how your business can be beneficial to your customers.
While creating explainer videos, it’s not only important to focus on building brand awareness but also engage your buyer personas and answer their questions. If your explainer video is unable to clearly identify and address the primary pain-point of your potential customers, they will quickly drop off no matter how attractive your video. It’s essential to do keyword research to identify the topics and trends that will engage your audience and choose the subject of your explainer video. Tap into relevant LinkedIn groups to understand what your target audience talks about most of the time.
Your explainer video should be brief and answer the B2B researcher’s questions, persuading them to continue consuming your content. Here’s an example of how Unroll.me does it. The first half of the video explains the pain-point their tool solves (clearing your inbox of unnecessary subscription emails) for its potential customers and the second half shows how their product addresses it.
2. Whiteboard Series
Whiteboard videos are similar to explainer videos but allow you to explore a single topic in depth. While an explainer video might give a quick overview of what your product or service does, whiteboard videos will enable you to talk about a specific benefit or feature of your solution or even a customer problem in greater detail. For example, if your target audience is small business owners, then you can create whiteboard videos about the various issues they face around hiring, sales, marketing, incorporation, and payments.
In fact, whiteboard videos can also be a part of your broader education-based marketing strategy. The Whiteboard Friday video series by Rand Fishkin and the Moz Team is an excellent example of how to use video marketing to educate B2B target audience and increase brand awareness. Inspired by their success, Vidyard has launched Chalk Talk.
3. Webinars
Just as ebooks and white papers allow you to establish authority and position yourself as an industry expert, you can also use videos as a rich source of expert opinions, useful insights, and concise facts.
Webinars provide a great way to use live videos to connect with your audience. They allow you to cover a wide range of topics, that are relevant to your leads, in depth. By occasionally inviting guest speakers, you can not only build a credible reputation for your business but also convert leads into paying customers.
Since webinars are mostly episodic in nature (like podcasts), they motivate visitors & leads to keep returning to you for more valuable insights. Over time, you’ll have also built a library of informative video content that can be repurposed into other forms (such as slideshows, infographics, articles) for distribution on various channels.
4. How-To Videos
Although there are tons of blog posts and online tutorials about how to do things, there’s nothing that beats the convenience of a how-to video that actually shows you how to solve your problem, in a step-by-step manner.
A how-to video that provides clear instructions on how to overcome challenges can be particularly efficient at converting leads. For example, you can gate your video content behind a landing page or a blog post and add lead generation forms to it using a video platform.
5. Testimonial & Case Study Videos
A testimonial video is a powerful way to reassure your leads that you are the best choice, much more convincing than a simple quote or a written testimonial. It enables you to demonstrate your company’s values by showcasing good examples. This not only adds credibility to your business but also helps you stand apart from your competitors.
With testimonial videos, you don’t really need to come up with anything super-creative. All you need to do is record some of your customers talking about how fantastic your product/service is and how they use it in their daily life.
Similarly, you can also create case study videos that you link to in your sales emails to show how your business has helped your customers. Happy customers are the best brand advocates for any business, and a positive personal story will have a significant impact on how B2B researchers perceive your product/service.
6. Product Demo
A product demo is useful especially for B2B products & services, whose value may not be apparent. Most of the time, we rely on our website to do all the talking. However, many visitors are skeptical of signing up for new or unknown services unless they know what to expect on the other side.
Product demos provide a great way to clearly show what your product does and how it solves customer pain-points. You can even create demos for specific use cases and features that simplify the use of your product or service. Once they see your product in action, leads are more likely to sign up for your free trial. In fact, you can even add a lead capture form right at the end of your demo video.
Live product demos are also efficient at converting leads. Your target customers are looking for a solution for their problems, and are evaluating various tools & platforms. If your product is more straightforward to use and offers more features, then your product demo can help you prove that you are the best choice.
Wrapping Up
Video content is a powerful tool to educate your audience and tell engaging stories. It is exceptionally versatile and aids decision-making at every stage of the sales cycle—whether it is short videos shared across social platforms, interactive videos that improve conversion or case studies that emphasize the credibility of your business. The key is to share informative videos that resonate with your target audience. The right video can get executives, managers, and salespeople excited about your business and convert more leads into paying customers.
Do you have video on your list of strategies to incorporate in 2018? What types of videos have created the most success for your business? I’d love to hear about your experiences in the comments.