Content may have been king once, but now, it’s videos that rule. Building a brand in the digital era is all about visual storytelling and videos can meet the challenges head-on. For B2B marketers, video remains more powerful than any other medium or channel.
Shootsta disrupts the traditional agency video production industry by offering a unique subscription model which has powered brands like Audible, Oracle, Toyota, Moet Hennesy and T-Mobile , besides building a strong brand narrative for public sector agencies, institutions and governments worldwide.
Chad Lakin, VP at Shootsta ‘s North America office, shares valuable insights on video as a B2B marketing tool.
Background on Shootsta
Shootsta enables companies to create high-quality video content, incredibly quickly, cost effectively and at scale. We teach our clients how to shoot their own content and provide them a custom camera kit, training, and resources to do it. They upload their files to our platform and our team of editors does all the post-production in 24 hours. Chad took the time to share how video content across social is critical for authentic brand building and digital branding.
How does video serve as a powerful medium for B2B marketers?
Across the board, people are engaging with video content more than any other content. Cisco says that 80% of the internet traffic will be video by 2020. Brands should adopt video across all communication channels. Brands that have ignored video are already beginning to see the negative effects.
How has the advent of Facebook Live changed video marketing?
People want to connect with brands authentically, and that’s exactly what platforms like Facebook Live and YouTube live streaming allow brands to do with their audiences. Live streaming tends to give you a good platform to interact authentically with your audience (and at scale) because it’s not overly produced. Live video platforms like Facebook Live have proven effective for many brands as part of a holistic strategy that also incorporates on demand, produced content.
How can brands leverage IGTV for branding?
With Instagram as a platform, you have still imagery, videos, stories and now IGTV. Stories are the most closely aligned with Facebook Live, as it is in the moment, less produced content that disappears in 24-hours. Brands should be thinking about producing more content on IGTV, as this is a channel where your content is going to live and be curated. The great thing about IGTV is brands already have a built-in audience ready to tap. It’s not a new platform where you have to build an audience from scratch.
With IGTV, you’re going need to think about how to tell a story, and it’s not going to be the same way you’d tell it on Facebook or YouTube. Formatting across platforms varies significantly, so you have to think about how content will best be viewed and digested on a specific platform. For example, I would never suggest a client take one piece of content and share it across all channels. I wouldn’t put the same piece of content on Instagram that I would put on LinkedIn. The vertical format required by IGTV should be a big consideration for brands as they expand their social strategies.
What advantages does video marketing offer for promoting B2B sales?
Video marketing offers B2B brands an excellent opportunity to brand themselves and key executives as thought leaders and influencers. When you think about social selling and B2B – LinkedIn is the go-to platform. How do you raise the profiles of your subject matter experts on the platform? You’re not going to shove your message down your audience’s throats, you want people to trust your brand and view you as knowledgeable. This boils down to thought leadership. For example, a pharma executive who wants to engage with sales leads on LinkedIn should first consider what content they can share to show industry knowledge. Whether that’s an interview with a customer, an industry Q&A, a discussion about trends and advancements in the industry, and so on. Social video for B2B companies is all about building a rapport with the audience so when the time is right those prospects are coming to you.
For Shootsta, we send our prospects personalized videos talking about our model. It’s a great way to instantly build rapport with someone in a world where there is a lot of noise. People are getting thousands of emails, and this is how we’re setting ourselves apart as a company. For prospects, we show them we’re willing to spend the time on something personal, and as a result, we’ve seen incredible through.
Can video marketing help in building a B2B sales pipeline and if so, how? / What role does video play in the sales funnel?
Video content for B2B sales starts at the top of the funnel with awareness building. Top of the funnel video content should focus on thought leadership. From there, you can nurture the lead into the next phase, which is more about education – education on a product, how it’s applicable to their industry, etc. As the prospect keeps going down the funnel they’re getting more qualified, which means they’re gaining access to more nitty-gritty content. For Shootsta, prospects closer to the bottom of the funnel will want to access content to learn more about the camera kit, insight into how the platform works and other tactical topics.
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Content is king, but video rules when it comes to brand building. Do you agree and if so, why?
It really comes down to data. Look at our world now and how people want to consume information and its video. LinkedIn turned on video late last year and is seeing an incredible uptick in engagement. Facebook is highly valuing video in their feeds. Google clearly values video as well – if you’re putting up regular content on YouTube, Google is going to factor that into your SEO ranking. Video allows people to build an emotional connection with your story and your content. Video is also retained better than text: viewers retain 95 percent of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10 percent when reading it in text.
Final Word
The rise of the video star remains a powerful channel for engaging customers and building a powerful brand. B2B marketers would do well to factor in a video as a marketing tool for building a strong emotional connect and driving sales. Clearly, when it comes to B2B marketing, video is a compelling tool for sharing your story and powering your brand.
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