B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring, in fact it definitely shouldn’t be. Just because it isn’t always glamorous products being sold, over the years the world of B2B marketing has somehow decided people want to see boring content.
This is definitely not true.
No matter what is being advertised, people are investing precious time out of their lives to watch your content. Just because you’re not selling a sexy pair of new trainers it doesn’t mean people are happy to be bored. People don’t like wasting time! Once this idea is at the core of your video marketing plan, you’ll realise that producing dull and unengaging videos, no matter the audience, just makes no sense.
Yet, even though audiences don’t like to be bored, we often think it is acceptable to produce boring content because it is ‘professional’.
Being professional is not the same as being bored.
Even if this were the case, then any old rubbish presented to potential clients would make them sign up immediately. As all of us who have had the heartache of a failed marketing campaign know, this is not the case. There is a reason that those with the best marketing content rise to the top and that’s because the audience are captivated by the content. If the content is boring, the audience isn’t captivated and it’s bye-bye successful marketing campaign.
As the digital world has come upon us, more and more mavericks have broken free from the shackles of boredom and dared to create marketing content people might actually want to see. With the delivery of video content never being so easy, our available excuses for producing boring content have diminished. We can no longer blame the 55 people at the TV agency that have sucked all life out of our idea over the course of 6 months. We can now simply think of an idea, make it happen and deliver it straight to our audience.
So I say, let’s look to those mavericks who dared to turn their back on boredom and go forward to produce interesting and engaging video content. Let them inspire us to show that B2B video marketing is much more effective when it is engaging.
How To Make Video Marketing Effective
Ok, I’ve gone on quite a bit already about how B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring. But what should it be and how can it be effective? Much like B2C marketing, there are plenty of digital marketing platforms and tools which are crying out for great B2B content. I’d even go further and say there are opportunities available that aren’t to B2C marketers (LinkedIn is the prime example of this). So the key here is to imagine your video popping up on social media. Even if this isn’t the main outlet for the content, the principles are so important. If you can make your content instantly attractive, filled with engaging elements AND visually unique to your brand, you’ll please your audience no matter how they are watching.
This classic B2B promotional video from Risual, is a prime example of the anti-boredom mavericks I previously mentioned. Now is the perfect time to build on what they started and get engaging content out there to your clients.
Ok, I know I said you don’t have to use your video on social media, but you’d be a fool not to. Right now, video is by far the best performing type of content across social.
Let’s talk social media algorithms.
You may think this is just your agency’s excuse for not delivering results, however, they are real things. Each platform is set up in its own distinct way to promote the types of content and information that they prefer. Although they all have their unique quirks, many principles apply across them all. The main one we need to know for this, is that visual content outperforms any other kind of content. Yes, you’ve guessed it, video is the ultimate visual content. All platforms now realise that users consume more content this way AND they all want their platforms to re-create the success of Youtube.
By merely publishing video content onto social media, you are already getting a helping hand from the platforms themselves. Especially when we’ve already established you are tailoring your content to be appealing to a social audience, the owners of Facebook and the likes will be rolling out the red carpet for you.
Integrating Video Content Into Your Marketing Strategy
We’ve established that boring is a no go, the imaginary social media viewer is our target audience and that the social platforms will love us forever for giving them quality video content. But how does this fit into the old way of doing things?
The first thing to say here is, don’t be afraid to produce content that is a bit outside of your comfort zone.
Social media is proving over and over again that they will boost your content if people are watching it and engaging with it. This basically means, if you give them quality videos that are highly watchable, they’ll return the favour by giving you a bigger audience.
This doesn’t matter whether it is B2C or B2B. If you distance yourself from the classic dull corporate video and open your mind to the idea that smiling in a corporate video is fully acceptable you’ll be duly rewarded. Because you know what? You’ll be beaming from ear to ear once you see the results.
Concero here played a blinder in finding the perfect mix between being informative and being engaging. This informal and unique approach by no means sacrifices professionalism, it just adds a whole lot of visual excitement.
You may think doing all this just for social media is a little limited. If that’s the case, here are some lovely reasons to put up on the office whiteboard to argue otherwise.
“Integrating video into your existing marketing efforts will boost them no end.”
Marcus Johnson, This Blog Article (Now).
Embedding video into your email newsletters and landing pages is proven to increase click through rates. Including explainer videos on your website instead of long blocks of text is a more efficient way of sharing information. On top of this, online ads produce a much higher return on investment if they include video content.
That list of information is more than enough to keep your marketing presentation stocked with box ticking stats to convince everyone in the office video is the way to go. But it is about more than just this. Embracing video content means embracing a brand identity where you are removing the barriers of communication with your customers. Messages aren’t lost in endless bodies of text or jargon-ridden corporate overviews. It’s your idea beamed straight to your clients and customers through the magic of video.
This first act of defiance may be creating a video for LinkedIn where the director talks about something other than sales growth for 15 minutes. But this first step will start the ball rolling, more marketing content will be produced in this style and eventually your whole brand image will change. Yes, you’ll still be respected and your clients, customers and investors will get all the important information they need. But the distance between you and them will narrow and the tight relations we all look for with our stakeholders will be stronger than ever.
If you’re feeling bold and want to develop your business’ video marketing strategy just drop us a message. As well as being pretty clued up when it comes to holding a camera, we’re actually not too bad to chat to. If you have an initial idea or not, let us know what you want to achieve and we’ll join you in making it a visual reality.
