Tips For Using B2B Video Marketing To Fuel Sales in 2023
Video marketing is at an all-time high in the business world, and for good reason. With 33.2 million new businesses launching in 2022 in the US, we can anticipate an increase in this number as we roll into 2023. So, how can video marketing help those new businesses make their mark and, ultimately, make more sales?
Our B2B video marketing tips are modernized to help you make the most sales you can in 2023.
What is B2B?
B2B Video Marketing - B2B in search bar
Before we get started and tell you how to maximize your marketing video’s potential, we need to first determine whether your business is B2B or B2C.
What Does B2B Mean? B2B vs. B2C
B2B means business-to-business. This often covers businesses like designers, copywriters, and, sometimes, accountants. To be a B2B company, your audience is other businesses rather than consumers.
A B2C means business-to-consumer. If the company’s targeted audience doesn’t revolve around other businesses, then it’s a B2C company. Makeup brands, gaming brands, and hairdressers, for example, are B2C companies.
The key lies in the audience. Ultimately, if the business aims to help other businesses, it’s classed as B2B (business-to-business). If, however, the company is retail and serves consumers outside of the business world, it’s classed as B2C (business-to-consumer).
Remember, too, that there’s a difference between product-based and service-based businesses. Both B2B and B2C businesses can be product-based or service-based, as well as both. This categorization helps you understand your audience and mimic this in your marketing methods.
What Is Video Marketing?
Video marketing is when a business uses videos to promote and sell their brand, services, or products.
Humans are highly impacted by things they can see. We’re visual creatures, and video is one of the best methods to inform, educate, inspire, motivate, and — ultimately — sell your offers.
Other marketing methods include written content, like blog posts and articles, audible content, like podcasts, and search engine marketing, to name a few.
There are many other forms of marketing that you can invest your time, effort, and money into. It usually depends on your audience and what resonates most with them. With that in mind, video marketing is one of the best options because it resonates with every audience type.
But what makes video marketing so good?
Benefits of Video Marketing
Video marketing is one of the best forms of marketing because it appeals to everyone. On top of that, there are many further benefits to investing your time, effort, and money into video marketing. So let’s explore the potential of solid video marketing, step by step:
Videos Ask to Be Watched, and They Get Their Wish in Abundance
We live in a world where video is being prioritized. Take TikTok, for instance. The video platform generated a monumental $1.56 billion in revenue in 2022. This platform was built for video and only video. In 2020, the video racked up 700 million active users.
B2B Video Marketing - TikTok
In 2021, this number increased to 1 billion active users. This, if nothing else, demonstrates the hunger for video content in the digital world. Consider YouTube, too. The social platform is the second most popular website in the world. Again, a platform that exclusively produces video content, YouTube’s growing success shows that the digital world welcomes, embraces, and demands video content.
This means that if you decide to master video content, you’re giving your audience what they want. You’re meeting a demand that only seems to be growing.
2. Videos Are Linked to Increased Conversion Rates
This is one of the best benefits as a B2B owner. Adding videos to your products or services page can actually increase your conversion rate by 144%. Visually seeing your product or service in operation can convey the benefits of your offer in real-time, resulting in higher levels of trust, which equals more sales.
3. Videos Help Build Relationships and Trust
B2B Video Marketing - Handshake
When someone can see something in real-time with no bells and whistles, they know the reality of the product and how it fits into their life. This then results in higher levels of trust, which increases the likelihood of making a sale. You can also build relationships by showing who you are as a brand owner. People buy from people, not robots.
4. Google and Other Search Engines Are Fans of Video Content
Finally, if you’re looking to optimize your website and appear in search results, publishing video content should be high on your priority list. Ensure your video content is optimized well, and Google will reward you for your efforts by ranking you higher in the search engine results page (SERP).
Video Marketing Tips for 2023
Now that you’re aware of the benefits of video marketing for a B2B brand, it’s important to know how to maximize your video marketing clips so they can reach their fullest potential and you can make more sales.
Build Your Brand by Sharing Your Own Experiences
Share your own experiences in daily life with the product or service. Show how it works, what it does, and how it helps your audience in real-time.
Tours of your workspace, the product/service broken down in detail, and/or a time-lapse from beginning to end are well-consumed video clips that showcase your brand and culture.
2. Focus on EVOKING Emotions
Before you start filming, it’s crucial to determine how you want the viewer to feel during and after watching your clip. Have a clear idea of the emotion you want to evoke, whether it's joy, sadness, or fear. Empathy is essential with any and every form of marketing. This needs to be at the front and center of your video marketing strategy.
3. Have a Strategy, a Goal, and KPIs
This video marketing tip links to the previous one, but it deserves its own point as it’s fundamental to getting your video marketing right. Don’t post videos for the sake of it. You need to have an underlying strategy that defines everything about it. Ask yourself: what’s the point in this video? What am I trying to achieve? What will this video do to propel my business forward?
B2B Video Marketing - Press play on video
You also need to decide on specific goals for each video. You can’t measure the impact of your videos unless you have decided what success criteria you have to meet for them to be effective. So, your goals need to be determined before publishing.
Finally, you need to understand how to measure the video's impact. This is where your key performance indicators (KPIs) come into play. This means digging into data, but unless you’re going to monitor the data, you’ll never know how your videos perform. If this goes unnoticed, you won’t know how to improve and optimize your video marketing strategy.
4. Make Sure Production Is Top Notch
With 81% of marketers planning to include video content in their marketing strategy over the next several years, and 500 hours of video uploaded every hour to YouTube alone, internet users are getting well versed in video production. There are thousands of filters and editing apps, so anything less than top-notch will be seen as unprofessional. This will lose trust, and your brand’s reputation will suffer as a result.
5. Don’t Forget The Buyer’s Journey.
The consumer’s journey is fundamental to content production. When creating marketing videos, you need to determine where the buyer is in the cycle:
The awareness stage
The consideration stage
The decision stage
The angle you take in your videos will be shaped by where your buyer currently is in their journey. Plan out the journey in advance, ensuring each video is tailored to their state of mind, helping them flow from one stage to the other until they press the ‘buy now’ button.
Is Video Marketing Worth It?
Video marketing is worth the effort, time, and money. If done right, video marketing can enhance your sales figures, build trust, and show the real benefits of your B2B product or service.
It’s important to know how to measure the data, set goals for each video, and understand the customer’s process of the buyer’s journey. When these elements are mastered, production is at a high level, and the emotional response is planned, you’ll see a positive return on investment (ROI) for your video marketing efforts.
Bonus fact: Did you know that you can add videos into your online publications to further engage your audience with your content? Now you know!
(Author: Torrey Tayenaka - Sparkhouse (corporate video production agency)
