What does it take to create a worthwhile how-to or educational video? Considerable budget and time to plan, shoot and edit, for starters. But this investment can leave c-suite executives questioning the ultimate return from such an endeavor, especially for B2B organizations.
However, we are increasingly observing that B2B and video are a great match. B2B buyers often research their purchases online before vendor contact is ever made. If you can target your customers online and bring them directly to a dynamic and interactive presentation, you have an opportunity to create confidence in your brand like never before.
Since it’s rare for B2B videos to go viral—earning millions of views and critical acclaim—how can we prove and extend their worth? Here are some tips.
How to prove the value of video
As video continues to boom, metrics for quantifying success have expanded beyond views and time watched (although these benchmarks are still important).
Measure the push
So you made your video and posted it to YouTube. You’re done, right? Not quite. A video sitting on your YouTube channel, website or blog is a static entity. You’ll have to do some legwork to get your masterpiece out there and start seeing results.
Identify the best ways to push out the video to your unique audience, from email blasts to social media. This is especially important for B2B companies. Understanding your target audience’s channel preferences and focusing on these platforms (they may not be the newest and flashiest!) for distribution can help you get in front of the right audience more efficiently.
Plus, you’ll have additional solid metrics that you can measure against, including click-through rates and post engagement.
Get creative with conversions
As the importance of video has continued to skyrocket, new features have been added to popular platforms to make them even more useful for marketers. Interactive elements like clickable CTAs, email collection forms and chapter links can be measured and optimized. You can run A/B tests on video length, the position of the elements and the elements themselves to find a winning formula for your business.
Think of it as an investment in SEO
Content is an ever-important factor in influencing search rankings. Video content provides a dynamic experience for users. And since YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, you’ll want to make sure your video description and tags contain relevant keywords.
You can also use SEO research to inform your video topic. Incorporate keywords that your customers frequently use related to your unique product or service and start ranking for topics where you know the subject matter best.
Extend your investment
If you’re putting ample time and effort into creating your videos, it’s important that they work as hard as they can for as long as they can.
Make it evergreen
Create a video that will remain relevant for several months or even years. This means taking out references to the date or year, asking those featured in the video to dress conservatively and considering toned-down branding if you’re aware of a potential impending logo or style change.
Creating long-lasting videos is particularly important for B2B audiences, since the buying cycle is typically longer. Showing your higher-ups that your video has a long shelf life shows that you’re stretching dollars.
Reap the benefits of repurposing
Our collective attention span is shrinking. Today’s video preferences reflect this decrease, with short-form videos seeing 2.5 times more engagement than their long-form counterparts. Therefore, there is infinite value in creating a video that can be cut into shorter segments. These snippets can be used across LinkedIn, Instagram Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and more, promoting your full video or acting as a piece of social-first content.
These short-form videos can be a powerful tool for B2B organizations to break down complex subjects or services into bite-sized pieces for prospective customers to digest more easily.
Use these tips to show your executives that you’re thinking bigger picture with your video investments. At LoSasso, video is a strong asset in our integrated B2B marketing toolbox. Visit our YouTube page to see some of our work in action!
