Engaging, mobile-friendly, and easy to consume, online video has become a mainstay for B2B marketers. According to recent research, 81% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool, and almost 77% say they are getting results with it.
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A key reason businesses are embracing video is its flexibility. Marketers are embracing the medium to produce several different types of videos including branding, customer education (explainer videos, tutorials), thought leadership, and client testimonials.
One critical element to video marketing success is to start with an in-depth understanding of who you are creating the video for, by building personas. These detailed target B2B buyer descriptions include several elements:
- Firmographics: What size of company does your buyer likely work for? Is your target audience horizontal (e.g, digital marketing directors) or vertical (e.g., healthcare providers)? Are your buyers likely concentrated in one or a few geographic areas (e.g., oil in Houston, autos in Detroit, med tech in Minneapolis)?
- Role: What are the typical titles and roles of your buyer or champion? What are their responsibilities? Are they likely to manage a team or be individual contributors?
- Psychographics: What do they are about? What factors determine their compensation? What are their frustrations at work? What will it take to make them want to change?
- Mediagraphics: Where do your buyers get their information? Where are they most likely to see your brand? Do they likely spend time on social media for business, and if so, which platforms?
The answers to these questions will inform the content, tone, and placement of your video content.
Determining your target audience is the first step in how to start using video for business, as shown in the infographic below from MicroCreatives.
But possibly the most interesting element of this infographc is the second section, which shows how to align different types of video with different stages of the sales funnel and buyer decision process:
- Use brand, storytelling, and thought-leadership video at the top of funnel, during the awareness phase.
- Use explainer videos and customer testimonials at mid-funnel.
- Use FAQs, instructional videos, and most importantly personalized content at the bottom of the funnel.
Check out this infographic for more tips on how to create killer marketing videos.
