Business to consumer video marketing has been a staple in marketing campaigns for years.  Consumer brands have not been shy about using Youtube, Vine, Vimeo and other video platforms to reach customers with innovative and often creative brand storytelling.  There are multitudes of commercial Vines out there that attest to this.

But what about B2B video marketing?  Are companies doing it? Is it working? Where are they doing it?

B2B video marketing has been a little bit slower to the punch.  However, it is gaining momentum, and plenty of professionals have reported that they’ve had success in using this to reach and convert their business audiences.

Where to Use B2B Video Marketing                              

YouTube may seem like the most enticing video platform to use for any video marketing effort.  It’s the second most used search engine in the world.  It has billions of users every day. It can generate traffic to your site.

All true.

However, YouTube is not your business partner.  They aren’t going to do you any favors.  Their job is to get people to keep on watching videos, not to click away after watching yours, navigate to your site and become a happily converted client. 

When you use YouTube to reach your B2B audience, they will see a barrage of suggested “related videos”, some or all of which may be your competitor’s videos.  At the very least, they’ll be unrelated and distract your audience, or entice them into watching other videos.

Unless your website is very new, or has very low traffic, your website is just as good a place as any to host your video marketing campaign. 

Of course you can also upload it to your company Facebook page, as well as Instagram or Vine (if it’s 6 seconds or less).  Still, the best chances of your video leading to a conversion are through your own company website.

How to Use B2B Video Marketing

In a recent study conducted by Demand metric, one of top issues B2B video marketers faced was the demand for compelling quality content.  This challenge is one that seems to plague marketers across the board, whether the medium is video, content or social media. 

It’s no secret that producing a continual stream of compelling content, especially video content, can be daunting.  Even if you think you have created a video marketing masterpiece, chances are it still won’t go viral.

When you think about it, the same tips and tricks that are used for creating compelling written content can be used for video marketing.  Such as:

Re-purposing content

Remember that great blog post about inbound links that got a whole bunch of views and comments?  Make it into an informative interesting video.

Inspire your audience

Let’s say you’re marketing employee insurance and benefit packages to a company.  Instead of creating a video that spells out the various advantages, create inspiring visuals through hypothetical stories to illustrate how insurance benefits can affect multiple lives. 

Perhaps an employee gets in an accident and can’t work for a few months. That employee’s family has just been saved months of struggle thanks to that insurance.  Perhaps an employee struggles with an addiction. Integrate content like this video from 12 Keys Recovery, and you have an inspiring video that could otherwise be another dry, dull insurance video.

Be funny – but be sincerely funny

If you are going to use humor, make sure it’s actually funny and not corny or staged.  Humor works wonders when it’s done right, even for the B2B audience.

Why to Use B2B Video Marketing

As it turns out, 69 percent of those surveyed by Demand Metrics said conversion was not their priority or purpose for video marketing.  The top three reasons for video marketing were:

• Spreading brand awareness
• Increased lead generation
• Increased online engagement 
• These top three video marketing purposes were followed by:
• Educating audience/B2B clients
• Nurturing leads
• Increasing website traffic/views

If your video marketing campaign hasn’t’ been all that successful, consider the primary goal. If it was created with the sole purpose of driving conversions, then perhaps you need to re-purpose it.  Or maybe you just have it in the wrong place, or maybe it lacks the right hook to draw viewers in.  

Whatever the case may be, budgets and campaign plans for B2B video marketing are on the rise for all B2B marketing professionals. In order to keep stride with your competitors, give careful consideration and attention to your video marketing strategies.