Creating successful B2B video content.

These days, a marketing campaign without video content is like a bicycle without a seat. You’re likely to be uncomfortable with the results.

Video is a powerful tool. A good one will grab and hold the attention of visitors to your site. Increase engagement. Help content get ranked.

Smart marketers understand that high-quality video content resonates with audiences and encourages sharing. And that, in turn, boosts brand awareness. It’s a multi-channel market place out there, and video could be the most important component of your campaign.

It’s not just the stats that tell us video works. It’s obvious a carefully constructed series of moving images is going to hold our gaze better than the huge block of text it would take to deliver the same amount of information. Done well, video can transform an everyday brand story into a thing of beauty. Oh, and boost email click-through rates and on-page conversions.

Creating a powerful video that integrates seamlessly with the rest of your marketing activities can be tricky. But when done correctly and cohesively, the overall campaign results can be very impressive indeed.

So, if video content rules, what principles should you follow to ensure yours does the business? Well, here are Torpedo’s ‘Super Seven’ top tips for creating a successful B2B online video.

1 – Define its purpose

Before you decide whether your video will contain serious content or just a cat doing hilarious things, be clear about what you want it to achieve. Is it simply to generate brand awareness or actual leads? How will it work with your specific marketing campaign and your overall marketing strategy?

2 – Know your audience

According to HighQ, 75% of B2B audiences watch work related videos at least once a week. But, who’ll be watching your content? Sounds really obvious, but it’s surprising how many videos don’t keep this in mind. Target the video at a defined audience and make it relevant to them by addressing pain points while taking into consideration the individual’s role or needs.

3 – Tell a story and keep it real

The Online Publishers Association say 80% of users recall a video ad they viewed in the past 30 days. So how can you make yours be the one that stands out? Everyone remembers a good story – do you have an interesting tale to tell about your brand? But remember, keep it authentic. The story should stay true to your brand and be believable.

4 – Go for quality

Aim high with your production values. Hire professionals. Quality camerawork, lighting and sound really do make a difference. Remember your video is representing your brand. This is especially key for B2B.

5 – Keep it short & snappy

Three seconds is all it takes to form a gut reaction, and that may be all the time you have to grab the attention of your audience. In fact, according to research by Visible Measures, 20% of viewers click away from a video in 10 seconds – or fewer. Around a third of your viewers will be gone by 30 seconds. 45% by one minute and almost 60% by two minutes. Those numbers remain the same no matter how long the video, but with so much content out there, and such small attention spans, it’s shorter videos that get better audience retention. These days, people demand instant information which can be easily digested, so it’s best to keep running time under two minutes.

6 – End on a Call to Action

You’re creating a video in order to ‘entertain’ the audience into buying your product or service. But what’s the specific action you want your viewer to take afterwards?

7 – Optimise for searches

Add your video content to sitemaps for Google to better understand your content and rank it. If your video is required on multiple pages don’t duplicate it, embed it. Include text transcriptions as copy on the page. Optimise meta data and utilise social platforms to share the page and have it as part of your link building strategy.

YouTube videos have a higher chance of displaying as snippets in Google, but Vimeo allows easy access viewing to video content without adverts.

And finally, once you have created your video, it is also important to monitor how your content is being received. At what point in your video are viewers dropping away? If you have more than one video, you can find out which one users are engaging with most.

Also, don’t forget to set Key Performance Indicators so you can use the learnings to tweak the performance of your video content.

Need to see examples? Torpedo has a full in-house video production team and you can click here to see some of the great videos that our team has created for our clients.