• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, April 11, 2022

Email teams seeking to move B2B purchasers through the buying process should try video — people prefer it over written content, judging by How Video Influences the B2B Buyer's Journey, a study from Brightcove, conducted by Ascend2.  

Of the buyers polled, 93% say video builds trust in a brand’s ability to deliver on promises. And 97% say they would be more receptive to a sales communication after watching a video, 40% extremely so. 

In contrast, the lowly white paper seems dead. Indeed, B2B customers prefer these content formats: 

• Videos — 70%
• Research reports — 44%
• Webinars — 40%
• Infographics — 32% 
• Blog posts — 28%
• e-Books — 27% 
• White papers — 11% 

B2B buyers say video helps them in the following ways:

• Learning about a product/service — 58%
• Learning how to solve a problem you have — 40%
• Understanding a problem you have — 38% 
• Hearing what other customers think of a product/service — 36%
• Learning about an organization’s team/leadership — 32% 
• Sharing information with other stakeholders — 32% 
• Evaluating core values of another business — 31%

Video can be promoted via search, email, websites and social. 

It’s not just about selling a product upfront: 97% say video is useful in the post-purchase states of their buying journey in these ways: 

• Learning about other products/services offered — 49%  
• Training/onboarding — 49% 
• Sharing information with peers/colleagues who could benefit — 43%
• Communicating with sales/customer service representatives — 39%
• Troubleshooting — 38%
• Receiving customer service updates — 33%

In addition, 81% prefer video over written content when learning to use a product or service.

These include respondents involved in technology (91%), professional services (82%) manufacturers (75%), healthcare & life sciences (72%) and financial services (68%). 

These respondents seem to know what they are talking about — 88% have watched a product demo or review video in the last three months. Specifically, they have seen:

• Product reviews — 39% 
• Product demos — 38%
• Tutorials/training — 33%
• Live videos (webinars, etc.) — 31% 
• Educational videos — 30%
• Brand story videos — 24%
• Industry trend videos — 22% 
• Customer testimonials — 21% 
• Thought leadership interviews — 20% 
• Ads — 17%

Of course, it all depends on the quality of the video and the follow-up. These attributes were deemed most important:

• Speed/load time — 58% 
• Interactivity — 52%
• Device responsiveness — 45%
• Rendering resolution — 44% 
• Accessibility — 42%

Ascend2 surveyed 305 professionals responsible for purchasing decisions at firms with annual revenue of $50 million or more in the U.S. and UK, from February 10-17, 2022.