Developing a B2B video strategy in today’s market comes with a set of formidable challenges. Businesses face fierce competition not only from their industry rivals but also in vying for attention on crowded digital platforms where user engagement is unpredictable.
Customer expectations have evolved; they now demand not only informative but also highly engaging, well-produced content that can be consumed quickly.
Additionally, the constant influx of new technologies and platforms forces companies to continuously adapt their strategies. All these factors combine to make crafting an effective B2B video strategy a complex task that requires innovation, clarity, and a deep understanding of the target audience’s evolving needs and behaviors.
To simplify this endeavor, we’ve put together this guide to building or enhancing your B2B video strategy. Through these seven simple steps, your business can enhance its video marketing efforts, forging stronger connections with potential clients and thereby propelling sales and trust to new heights!
Table of Contents
Factors contributing to ineffective B2B video strategies
Various factors can undermine the efficacy of video strategies. Identifying these factors is the first step towards creating more engaging and successful content. Below, we explore critical elements that often contribute to the ineffectiveness of B2B video strategies.
- Inadequate understanding of the target audience: Companies may rely too much on broad demographic data, neglecting in-depth insights into their audience’s psyche and specific obstacles, leading to content that doesn’t resonate.
- Neglecting messaging and scriptwriting: B2B marketing videos often highlight product specifics and tangible advantages, but they can overlook the power of emotional resonance and narrative, which influence decision-makers significantly.
- Limited distribution efforts: A B2B company’s video distribution might be confined to a set selection of platforms, without being updated and fine-tuned for expanded reach and user engagement. It may also lack channel-specific content tailoring.
- Disjointed communication across platforms: Video content is sometimes created without considering a unified marketing strategy, causing discrepancies in brand communication.
- Rigidity in strategy: If a B2B video marketing strategy is inflexible and unresponsive to feedback or evolving data, it can be detrimental in the face of cutthroat competition that demands adaptability.
- Subpar engagement and lead management: After publishing their videos, companies often fail to implement strategies to foster lead development or engage with interested audiences, missing out on potential conversions.
- Compromised production quality: In an effort to reduce expenses, some businesses sacrifice the quality of their video production, potentially tarnishing their brand’s image by showing a lack of professionalism or meticulousness.
- Overvaluing superficial metrics: There is a tendency to concentrate on metrics such as view counts or likes which, while important in their own way, may not translate into meaningful business results like lead generation or sales increases.
To address these shortcomings, B2B organizations should consider a comprehensive approach to their B2B video strategy by:
- Engaging directly with their audience, conducting thorough market analysis, and crafting detailed buyer personas to gain a deeper understanding of their needs.
- Incorporating elements of storytelling and emotional connections into their video content to captivate viewers.
- Tailoring content for a diverse range of distribution channels while ensuring the message is consistent and integrated across all marketing touchpoints.
- Continuously revising and fine-tuning the strategy in light of new analytics and audience feedback to ensure its ongoing pertinence and efficiency.
B2B video strategies that cover these points tend are likely to be more effective and goal-congruent, especially with the help of professional video production services that significantly enhance the quality and impact of your content.
For example, our clients—who are largely B2B businesses—benefit from our technical skills, creative insights, and storytelling expertise, as well as our deep understanding of their industry standards and audience expectations. All of this combined enables us to deliver impactful customized videos that get results.
Our 7-step guide below covers these points, demonstrating how to go about it systematically.
Crafting a B2B video strategy in 7 steps
This guide breaks down building a video strategy into 7 key steps. Give it a try for video marketing that’s faster, easier, and more productive, to captivate your target audience and amplify your sales efforts effectively.
Learn about B2C vs. B2B video strategies and requirements in our blog.
Step 1: Establishing objectives and measurements
Start out by pinpointing the desired outcomes of your video marketing initiative. Typical objectives range from enhancing brand recognition and lead generation to customer education and sales promotion.
- Example goal: Achieve a 30% rise in trial registrations for your software solution during the second quarter.
- Metrics: Measure success through indicators such as sign-up numbers, view counts, conversion rates, and engagement levels (including likes, comments, and shares).
Step 2: Identifying your audience
Pinpoint and learn more about your desired audience, from the type of content that appeals to them to the business challenges they are working to resolve. This knowledge can shape video messaging, style, chosen platforms, and marketing approaches.
- Example audience: IT leaders and Chief Technology Officers within small to medium enterprises in North America, seeking scalable software options.
- Tools: Employ tools like audience surveys, one-on-one interviews, and analysis of social media behavior to collect insights about your prospective viewers. Develop detailed buyer personas to refine your video content for maximum impact.
Step 3: Shaping the narrative
Identify narratives that will engage your audience. IT and software topics carry inherent complexity; your challenge is to distill these into appealing and understandable stories that can be introduced to your target audience strategically.
- Storytelling example: To explain the benefits of a novel cloud management system, illustrate a typical day for an IT manager both before and after integrating your software. Showcase the challenges faced and how your solution alleviates these challenges. You could decide to show this in the form of an explainer video.
Step 4: Determining platforms and video formats
As you work out your B2B video strategy, it’s essential to select appropriate video formats and distribution channels that align with your marketing objectives and what you’re showcasing. Different video styles have their unique advantages and target distinct stages in the buyer’s journey.
- Platforms: Considering a target demographic of B2B decision-makers and their content preferences, LinkedIn, YouTube, and X could be the top choices: LinkedIn is optimal for B2B interaction, ideal for explainer and company videos catering to professionals in search of industry knowledge and connections. YouTube is ideal for extensive visual content such as demo and pitch videos, where extended viewer engagement is beneficial. X delivers effectively for succinct updates and tidbits of information, assisting in keeping your presence active and engaging with the audience.
Some video types:
- Explainer videos: Opt for these to introduce fresh concepts or new product attributes. They’re instrumental in educating prospect customers about the significance and utilization of your product—ideal for initial marketing engagement stages.
- Demos: Best for displaying specific features or illustrating the operation of your product. These videos appeal to mid-journey potential customers already acquainted with your product who want to see its functionality, nudging them towards a purchasing decision.
- Sales pitch videos: Direct and concise, these are most effective when directly addressing consumer requirements and marketing your product as the answer. Deploy these for late-stage marketing tactics with the aim of persuading and converting viewers.
- Customer testimonials: These videos leverage real customer experiences to build trust and credibility. By showcasing authentic feedback and success stories, they serve as powerful endorsements, influencing potential customers at critical decision-making stages by providing relatable proof of value.
- Corporate videos: These are fundamental for establishing brand credibility and identity. Employ them to convey your company’s ethos, culture, and the people at its core. They play a significant role in long-term brand strategy and fostering connections with prospective loyal clients.
| Pre-production Discovery and strategy: Organize meetings where the brand and video production teams can delve into the business’s attributes, unique selling points (USPs), brand personality, and the goals for the video project. This stage is vital to tailor the video content to complement the business strategy effectively. Scriptwriting and storyboarding: Craft a script that clearly delivers the intended message, paired with a storyboard that visually plots the narrative. This process includes iterations based on feedback to ensure that the storyline harmonizes with the brand’s expectations and marketing objectives. Style frames and design: Develop design or style frames that preview the visual style and ambiance of the video. This step sets the visual direction and confirms consistency with the brand’s visual identity. Production Animation or filming: depending on whether the video is live-action or an animated explainer, this phase is dedicated to actualizing the storyboard. For animation, this involves character creation and animation, whereas live-action focuses on filming, optimizing lighting, angles, and actor performances. Voice-over and music: Choose appropriate voice talent and background music to elevate the narrative. The chosen voice-over tone and music style should mirror the brand’s persona and the emotional tone of the content. Post-production Editing and sound mixing: Merge video clips or animation frames, adjust the pacing and flow, and mix the audio to assure clarity and connection. Incorporate sound effects as needed to enhance the viewer’s experience. VFX and color grading: if necessary, implement visual effects (VFX) to enrich the video’s visual appeal and ensure engagement. Color grading adjusts the video’s color palette to maintain a consistent look that aligns with brand colors or sets the intended mood. Quality control: Conduct a final review to catch any errors or technical flaws. Input from the client is crucial at this stage, guaranteeing that the final product adheres to or surpasses their expectations. Collaboration Throughout each of these stages, maintaining a collaborative approach between the production and client teams is crucial. Regular updates, feedback sessions, and approvals are necessary to keep the project in sync with the client’s vision and goals. This cooperative effort not only helps in crafting content that authentically represents the brand but also builds a trustworthy and collaborative partnership, essential for the successful project outcomes. Following this detailed production process ensures the creation of customized video content that is not only high-quality and aligned with the brand, but also tailored to meet specific marketing purposes. |
A thorough video production process from inception to completion is crucial, as is robust collaboration between the production team and the client—something our video production team ensures every time.
Step 6: Analyzing success and optimization
Objective: Use metrics defined in step 1 to measure the campaign’s success and identify areas for improvement.
Tools: Google Analytics, social media analytics, and video platform insights offer data on viewer behavior, engagement, and conversion.
Example of optimization: If an explainer video on a new solution generates high views but low conversion, consider A/B testing different calls-to-action (CTAs) to find what motivates your audience to take the next step.
Step 7: Maximize visibility through SEO and video tagging
Objective: Boost the discoverability of your video on search engines and various platforms through savvy SEO tactics and meticulous video tagging.
SEO best practices:
- Keyword research: Identify the keywords your potential users rely on when searching for software solutions akin to yours. Incorporate these critical keywords into your video’s title, description, and the tags section to enhance its searchability.
- Strategic video tagging: Embrace a mix of precise and wider-ranging tags that resonate with your industry, potential use cases, and the specific problems your software intends to solve. This strategic tagging aids platforms in correctly classifying your video, thus increasing the chances of your content being recommended to the right audience.
Execution in scenario
Here’s an example of how a B2B business could follow this 7-step strategy:
An IT/software solutions company decides to roll out a series of customized videos to highlight its new cloud management platform. The goal is to increase platform trials by showcasing ease of use, cost efficiency, and improved security features.
- Setting goals and metrics: The company aims to boost their software trial downloads by 40% in the next quarter, measuring success through conversion rates, trial sign-ups, and video engagement metrics like views, likes, shares, and comments.
- Knowing your audience: Targeting IT managers and small business owners concerned about cybersecurity on a budget, the company tailors content using customer surveys and LinkedIn analytics to create specific buyer personas.
- Deciding on messaging: The company selects the information and messaging they want to put forth through their video strategy. They select a key story to tell: A small business’ data breach ordeal, highlighting the peace of mind and protection their cybersecurity software could have provided.
- Selecting platforms and video types: LinkedIn and YouTube are chosen for their appeal to professionals and capacity for detailed explainer videos, with A/B testing on LinkedIn to refine engagement strategies. Some video types:
- Brand video: This high-level video introduces the company’s mission, values, and how its solutions empower businesses.
- Explainer videos: A series of videos break down complex software features into digestible chunks, demonstrating the value to potential customers.
- Demo videos: Detailed walkthroughs show the software in action, helping viewers understand its practical application and ease of integration.
- Continual learning and iterating: By regularly reviewing performance metrics, the team refines their approach, explores various video formats, and adapts their strategy to maintain engagement and drive software adoption among targeted small to mid-sized businesses.
- Production process: The process involves strategically selecting unique selling points to highlight, drafting a relatable script, creating an animated video that simplifies the software’s benefits, and ensuring post-production enhances brand recognition through consistent color schemes and clear editing.
- Analyzing success and optimization: Monitoring engagement and conversions post-launch, the team adjusts LinkedIn CTAs to improve trial sign-ups and assesses video performance for ongoing improvements.
- Utilize SEO and video tagging: Keyword research guides SEO optimization of video titles, descriptions, and tags on the company website, YouTube and LinkedIn, improving search visibility and engagement with terms relevant to cybersecurity for small businesses.
By following this strategic framework—setting clear goals, understanding the audience, crafting meaningful stories, selecting the appropriate platforms, and evaluating success to continuously optimize—the company can effectively leverage video content to engage its target audience, driving awareness and conversions.
Conclusion
For B2B companies, video marketing is a powerful way to make complex solutions easy to connect with and understand—with the right planning, production, and distribution.
A strategic approach that blends the insights shared in this blog with your unique brand and goals will help you tap into new opportunities for sales and business growth.
Focusing on clear goals, understanding your audience, storytelling, choosing the right platforms, and leveraging analytics for continuous improvement can make customized video content a potent tool for attracting leads and boosting sales.
Reach out to explore how our expert video production services can transform your B2B marketing strategies. Let’s collaborate to craft compelling videos that make a memorable impact!
