Commentary
Study: Video Cited As One Of Most Effective B2B Tools
- by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, November 13, 2014
Video is one of the top three most effective content marketing techniques, because B2B decision-makers usually have very little time, the survey of business marketers found. When researching potential purchases, decision-makers often turn to video because they can get quick and understandable information about the product they’re considering.
According to eMarketer’s analysis of the Content Marketing Institute’s survey, businesspeople are looking for three things when researching business purchases: “what a brand or business does, what its competitors do, and what people say about the business.”
More than three quarters of B2B marketers now use video, and 60% rate it as effective, behind only in-person events, rated by 69% as effective, and webinars and webcasts at 64%. About 70% of these marketers say they are creating more content in general than they did a year ago.
Best practices for video are dictated by the very same reason decision-makers like the medium: its brevity. Business videos need to be informational and short. Aim to grab the viewer in the first 20 seconds. Also, the video should focus on a particular business need during a specific stage along the path to purchase, the study found.
The research also found that content marketing is becoming a near-daily practice. About 42% of marketers publish new content daily or several times a week. However, only 21% say they are able to track their ROI for content, which suggests measurement is going to be a key area of focus and innovation for content marketing in the year ahead, including in video.
Not to mention Video SEO and brand positioning as a leader/expert. Video is working across the board for our clients: SEO, email marketing, conversion, inbound, branding, social. Even as an HR/recruiting/retention branding tool. We keep finding new value and uses for it the more we work with varying clients.
This is a great article. It is so true, if your video is stale and out of date, your company or products looks stale and out of date. Ovation Solutions is constantly coming up with new creative ideas to use in our videos. We are creating videos for every facet of an organization.
I agree with all of this. Video certainly adds value to SEO but it also a great way to deliver an engaging message. For instance, professional recruiting videos showcasing a company can really draw in top talent. Engaging customer testimonials can really help sales reps out in the field. Destination marketing videos showcase an area's beauty and atmosphere in a way words would never be able to. At my company, Apple Box Studios www.appleboxstudios.com we have recently expanded our video services to include UVAC (unmanned video aircraft carrier) capabilities. With our UVAC equipment, we are able to capture aerial footage and angles never seen before. Video is going to continue taking over as the leading platform and for obvious reasons besides the ones listed, it's engaging, informational, brief, universal (I just watched a hilarious commercial in Russian about a dog who refused to take direction, but i watched the whole thing because it was great content and with the visuals I knew exactly what was going on) as well as easy to understand. I'm excited to see where video goes within the next few years.