Posted By Troy Dreier On September 28, 2010 @ 10:00 am In Video Essentials
We usually focus on reaching consumers with online video on this site, but the business-to-business world can benefit from online video, too. While the videos might look a little different and appeal to a more focused audience, online video can help you do just as good a job reaching and winning customers.
[1]To learn exactly how online video can benefit the B2B world (and why you should care about getting started with it), we spoke to an industry expert. Tom Pick is an online marketing executive with KC Associates [2], a marketing and public relations agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also writes the blog Webbiquity [3], which is focused on B2B marketing.
5 Online Video Benefits for B2B
It Can Explain the Complex
B2B products and services are often more complex than their consumer counterparts, says Pick, and require more explanation. Rather than expecting your buyers to read through pages of text, offer them a video that explains quickly and clearly what you’re offering. Demonstrate the benefits instead of just telling them.[4]
It Can Show How to Use a Product
Most people don’t like reading through dry product manuals, and online video is the perfect remedy, especially with complex B2B products and services. Offer your clients a video that tells them everything they need to know.
It Can Show Your Company’s Personality
In the consumer world, most people know the personality or corporate identity of large companies. Except for frequent clients, that’s not true in the B2B world. Use video to help communicate your company’s image, says Pick.
It Enhances Lead Conversion
Showing video on your site is likely to make new clients trust you more. Pick tells the story of a client that offered a white paper on its website. People had to register to download it, giving their personal information. Not surprisingly, the response rate was low, with only five percent of visitors downloading the paper. That company put a short video on its landing page, which people saw before requesting for the white paper. With the video in place, the percent of people willing to give their contact information nearly doubled.
It Helps with Blogger Outreach
Pick often works with Pitchengine [5], a PR tool for reaching bloggers with social media releases. He finds that attaching multimedia assets to a social pitch makes the subject more appealing to bloggers, since it gives them video to post on their sites. Not only does video help companies get more coverage, but the coverage is more useful since the posted videos communicate the company’s message directly.
