Video has revolutionized business communication

All buyers, especially buyers of services and products for companies and enterprises ( B2B) use a lot of videos when examining different options. 70% of the buyers for companies who carry out research about options tell they are using videos in the process. A buyer’s path to purchase goes through a variety of videos in each stage of the digital research process.

1. Interest and awareness

Your videos need an audience. In order for people to be aware of and interested in the subject of your video,  content marketing should be done at the beginning of the shopping experience. Interesting and entertaining  pieces of content. As above.

Effective use of video in content marketing has changed rapidly. Just a year ago you could share a one and a half minute video about a product from Youtube in social media channels such as Twitter and you got reasonable numbers of engagement. Today, not so much. The reason is that people do not want to click a link that takes them out of the scrolling of  channel experience unless there is a really relevant reason, especially in mobile. Social media channels favour native video in how they are integrated in the user experience. Native video means a video that is uploaded in the particular service it’s being showed on. Video which is directly in the channel, and starts itself, gets more views because of it’s easy viewing experience. This kind of video is intended for creating interest and an emotional momentum to continue on by clicking to the brand’s website, or sharing the video. Researching purchasers will click forward to the brand site, if they feel they might have a need for the product. For others the video is excellent and distinctive service and thus also great brand advertising.

• Interest-provoking, informative but light.
• In feed, 15-60 seconds.
• Mobile Experience. A large part of these views are mobile.
• Approximately 50% of the total investment should go to this phase, including a small media budget. (If you you already have a large part of your target group as followers, you might not need a media budget at all.)

2. Getting to know you by video

In this digital investigative stage, the buyer engages the videos in the brand’s website, expecting to see an original one minute product intro or a quality explainer video. Because video is a superior way to discover and learn about a new subject online. If the video cannot be found, the buyers wade forward by learning the site’s structure at random order of pages and case descriptions on to the contact information collection point, such as a downloadable guide, which they are not necessarily willing to download at this point, because they are not ready to leave their contact details just yet.
Providing the intro video at this point is the best practice, placing it on the front page or a landing page, so that people get the best possible starting point to the experience.

• Product or service intro video. Like this one.
• On the brand’s website. 1 to 2 minutes. (Embedded)
• Allocate 25% of the total investment to this step.

3. The last round

When the intro intro video is seen, the researcher continues empowered by the understanding and feeling gained from video.  Now he or she is ready and wants to plunge into self-orienteering deeper into content. It is a good idea to have several how-to videos, customer references, and even recorded webinars available. Of these videos the buyer chooses a couple and maybe views them only partially, but it’s enough if they give the right image confirmation. These videos have an important persuasive effect and they tell that the company has depth and real things to do. Especially for products and services containing new innovation, customer references are very important. The videos at this stage are a testimony about the hands-on culture of the company, which is why the way they are offered, and suitable presence of the brand in these videos is important.

• Product support videos
• Customer References
•  Webinars held in the past
• 1 – 3 min. Webinars up to 1 h.
• 25% of the total investments in this stage.

4. After the sale

After the sale, the customer experience can be strengthened by supporting the customers by instructions and tips for the use of products and by sharing other users’ videos. If the customer is follower to a certain channel, he or she can be find curated videos produced by others interesting and entertaining,  about suitable topics for the brand. Additional sales can be suggested with a separate video directly purposed for it.

• Videos to enhance customer experience.
• For new products, return to 1.

P. S. If you would like to have a proposition of how to use video in driving your business, please contact us. We will reply you soon.