• by Ray Schultz , June 13, 2018

Are you using video in your email? Less than of all B2B brands do, according to the 2018 Video In Business Benchmark Report, a study by Vidyard. But usage is on the rise.

In general, firms that publish videos are prolific — generating 33 per month — and have libraries with 377.

The high-tech and professional services field is the most active.

Websites are the leading distribution channel, used by 86% of the content providers. Next is social media (77%) landing pages (60%) and email (46%). But that email percentage is up from 36% last year. At the same time, the use of videos in live sales presentations jumped from 36% to 46%.  

Email is most likely to be used for demos, product videos and explainers. Websites have a slightly different order, with products at the top, followed by demos and explainers.

Most B2B videos — 89% — are viewed on desktops, vs. 11% on mobile devices.  

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the top days, each generating 18% of the views. The worst days are Sunday with 7% and Saturday with 8%.

It may pay to identify those weekend video viewers — it will be easier to grab their attention.

The best months for videos are August, October and November, each contributing 11% of the view. The December-February period scores in the low single digits.

Video analytics are being used at the intermediate or advanced stage by 36%, compared with 13% that fail to deploy analytics. Those using advanced analytics are twice as likely to report improved returns on their video investment.

Overall, the top video formats are:

Product videos — 63%

Demos — 59%

Explainer videos — 54% 

Webinars — 45%

How-to/educational videos — 42%

The findings are based on first-party data collected on the Vidyard video platform from more than 600 businesses and over 250,000 videos over a 12 month period. Some findings in the report are based on the firm’s 2017 study.