If video isn’t currently a part of your marketing mix, it’s time to make it your new BFF!
Video marketing has quickly stolen the spotlight as one of the most effective and fastest-growing channels. It increases the ability of marketing teams to support and interact with individuals within almost all areas of the buyer’s journey, leading to higher engagement among prospects, increased pipeline growth, faster customer lifecycles, and, in turn, improved marketing performance.
Why video?
DemandGen CEO David Lewis recently wrote about the nuts and bolts involved in producing your own videos in-house, but I’m going to focus on the value of video as an essential component of your B2B marketing strategy.
Video has the ability to appeal to individuals in a way that few other digital marketing tactics can compete with. A well-defined video strategy can elicit emotion, better convey messages, and empower prospects and decision makers to take action. In other words, a short video can effortlessly tell a story in a way that’s compelling and easy to digest.
But, don’t just take my word for it. Here are some mind-blowing stats that simply can’t be ignored:
- Emails with video get 2-3 times higher click-through rates
- Landing pages with embedded video can boost conversion rates by 80%
- Product videos help prospects make purchasing decisions, according to 90% of customers
- Watching a video is preferred to reading an article or blog post, according to 59% of company decision makers
Much of the success of video marketing can be attributed to the fact that it gives viewers the freedom to consume video content when and where they’d like. Videos are easily accessible on all devices and can be distributed through a variety of video-sharing platforms like YouTube or Vimeo, or shared on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. Plus, who doesn’t like watching a well-produced, attention-grabbing video these days?
Add video to your strategy for even greater results
In addition to the fact that video marketing has been proven to be highly effective, it can also be used strategically to achieve specific marketing goals. Based on your content strategy and objectives, video can help support all stages of the sales process, and it can be a pivotal element that drives conversions from acquisition to expansion and everywhere in between.
Looking at the DemandGen Framework™, or any similar marketing funnel, it should be evident that video can support growth and movement at any and every stage:
Depending on the type of video content you choose to produce, you’ll have the ability to generate product/company awareness, aid lead gen and demand gen activities, create more sales-ready opportunities, and even support customer success and retention.
Below are a few examples of the types of videos you can develop to support each stage of the funnel:
- Top of funnel: Thought leadership videos and video content that is more informational or educational in nature can be used to demonstrate the expertise your company has within a particular industry or among a certain range of topics. These have great potential when it comes to generating awareness around your business and can lead to substantial top-of-funnel growth.
High-level videos that describe what your company does and how you can provide value to clients can also produce initial inquiries and interest. DemandGen created this video, for example, in order to better outline our service offerings and establish our brand.
- Middle of funnel: More sales-driven video content like client testimonials or detailed product/service-related videos can support middle-of-funnel growth, while nurturing leads as they move closer to evaluation of your products or services. These kinds of videos instill confidence in prospects as they move down the pipeline, from MQL to SQL and so on.
- Bottom of funnel: Lastly, product demos and explainer videos can help close opportunities and even promote customer expansion, leading to renewals and potential adoption of new features or offerings.
Start with a strategy
The first step in adopting video marketing is to design a strategy. Some of the many things to consider include:
- The intent and goals of your videos
- How video content will be produced and who will manage the content creation and production processes (i.e. in-house or outsourced)
- How much budget and internal bandwidth can be allocated to production
- Which metrics are most important and what type of reporting and analytics structure will be in place
- Which tools will support production and promotion
Create and share your videos
Once you’ve produced your video content, the next step is to distribute it. Determine which videos are ideal for embedding on your site or within your resource hub, and which videos might be more suitable for including in emails. This is something you’ll also want to consider ahead of time during the initial planning. And, of course, share them on your social media channels for an even wider reach.
Find out what’s working and what isn’t
Finally, you’ll want to ensure you gather performance insights. By reviewing the analytics of your video program, you’ll be able to discover which types of content are resonating most with your audience. Tracking this performance data will allow you to refine and perfect your video strategy moving forward.
Go ahead, let video marketing and your pipeline be best friends
Video content can be discovered on a wide variety of devices and platforms, making it easier than ever to reach a massive audience. And with such a wide variety of video content types and topics, the possibilities are endless!
With video expected to claim more than 80% of all web traffic by 2019, there’s no reason not to take the plunge.
For more information on adding video to your marketing mix, check out this episode of DemandGen Radio with Tyler Lessard of Vidyard.
As a Marketing Associate, Justin Chormicle manages DemandGen’s social media, leads the company’s video marketing strategy, and supports many other demand generation efforts that help connect tomorrow’s Marketing Heroes with the support and knowledge they need to get started on their digital marketing journey.
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