Video Marketing for B2B Online Sales: A Simple Guide

No matter what you sell to other businesses (be it software, machines, services, or goods), videos can hugely facilitate the process. Some B2B entrepreneurs still might think of videos as something entertaining and unnecessary to them. In the meantime, such content is able to attract more prospects to your offerings and convince them to cooperate.

The main challenge is choosing the right strategy. This includes selecting appropriate genres, creating a content plan for a website/social media, and SEO video production. Below we’ll address all the concerns and questions as well as show some curious examples of B2B video marketing use cases.

Why Videos Are Worth the Effort: Important Stats

In the latest Content Marketing Institute’s report on B2B marketing, we see:

• In 2020, 71% of B2B marketers used videos (excluding live streaming) as a promotional tool;
• 10% of B2B marketers used live streaming content for the same purpose.

Ok, where will you leverage video content? Of course, on the website, but not only there. When it comes to the channels, social media appear to be quite popular in B2B marketing strategies (surprisingly for some):

• 89% of marketers use Facebook;
• 81% of marketers use LinkedIn;
• 72% of marketers use Instagram;
• 57% of marketers use YouTube;
• 54% of marketers use Twitter;
• 7% of marketers use Tik Tok.

One more argument in favor of videos in your socials: Instagram has recently announced it will prioritize videos over photos.

What about the webinar format? Keep recording them because webinars remain trendy in B2B marketing. See these impressive statistics:

• 62% of B2B marketers conducted webinars in 2020;
• 91% of marketers who practice webinars say they are efficient.

The best part is, with the rise of software solutions today there are many different tools to help you bring your videos to perfection with the least amount of effort. Such as:

• Subtitle Generator;
• Drag-and-drop video maker;
• Voice recorder;
• Slideshow maker;
• Video file size compression;
• Visual effects editor, etc.

Equipped with such persuasive data, now we’ll consider B2B video content ideas equally applicable to many industries.

Suitable Video Formats for B2B

Let’s review some components for your future B2B video marketing strategy. All these genres are used in the B2C segment as well. But, in your case of B2B online sales, videos have to be more profound because your target audience is business people who have to be picky when allocating substantial sums to something.

Further, you’ll see examples from quite famous companies, but these ideas are appropriate for firms of any size.

1. Onboarding Videos

The very first point on our list of B2B video marketing examples is onboarding videos. This is a sort of introduction to potential customers that must give them an idea of what you offer. Also, this content helps future sales and marketing employees get to know their product better. The content may vary depending on the specificity of your business.

Let’s regard a few onboarding video instances:

• If you develop something (e.g., a task manager), create a brief overview highlighting its key distinctions from other analogous solutions.
• If you need to promote a corporation, explain which directions it has, which spectrum of products you produce, and what you are proud of.
• If you represent a complex SaaS solution, explain how it works and which benefits it brings. Take a look at the screenshot from Amazon Web Services’ YouTube channel. The provider pinned the video called “What is AWS?” In simple terms, it tells what AWS is about, decreasing onboarding time for new customers.

Let’s make a checklist for onboarding videos:

• Provide the strongest facts in favor of the business;
• Make it comprehensible, don’t overload the video with terms and explanations;
• Try making the video catchy, professional, and stylish because people will judge by it too;
• Keep it short (a 1-3 minute-long video is perfect);
• Upload it to all possible channels of interaction: socials, YouTube, your website;
• Use it for advertising purposes on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

2. Expert Content

An essential task in B2B promotion is showing expertise and the constant evolution of your product, technology, or service. Therefore, interviews with specialists, quick product updates, and webinars (we’ll talk about them later on) are a must in your content plan.

There are no specific rules on how such videos can be made or where to post them. But we want to warn you against Instagram bias here. You might have thought that this content has no place on this platform, but there is plenty of proof to the contrary.

Take a look at the screenshots below from Adobe Commerce. The company adjusts to the Instagram format and publishes short product updates.

For instance, there is a series about Magento 2.4, a new version of the CMS. Viewers can learn how Adobe streamlined B2B workflows, improved content management, and what’s new in the PWA Studio that helps eCommerce businesses create progressive web applications (feel free to check out some examples of Magento 2 PWAs). For those who want to learn more, there is a link in the bio.

3. Product/Service Demos

Video demonstrations are a chance to get leads acquainted with your offering in greater detail. This is an overview of a particular piece. Don’t confuse it with onboarding videos (talking more about a company) or various explainers (deeply studying a product’s functionality).

Here are the primary dos and don’ts for product\service demos:

• Name the key advantages of your product/solution;
• Outline use cases and the target audience;
• Underline the features and/or innovations that make this product unique;
• Don’t make it too lengthy (up to 10 minutes is optimal);
• Don’t skimp on these videos, as people who see them have already progressed in the sales funnel but can lose interest if product videos are cheap and done unprofessionally.

The screenshot below is an example of a good yet not so costly B2B video production for Elasticsearch. In two and a half minutes, the provider showcases Elastic Enterprise Search with all its features, possible use cases, and hosting variants.

If prospects get interested in further studying the product, they’re encouraged to watch more detailed videos we’ll talk about next.

4. Explainers

IT solutions of all kinds imply rich functionality that has to be explained. In this case, tutorials and how-to’s will be essential on your YouTube channel and website (in a knowledge base/customer support section).

Basically, companies create a series of thematic screencasts with a team member’s comments. These videos are cheap in production, but authors should thoroughly work on the scripts. This helps structure the information, stay consistent, and avoid chaotic and confusing actions on the screen.

As an example, see the screenshot from Semrush. The brand made explainers for all toolkits so that current and future customers know all platform capabilities. Note that there is a timeline for those who want to learn specific parts of the toolkit. Videos of this type are usually uploaded on YouTube and duplicated on the website.

5. Webinars

As a rule, webinars are used for:

• B2B customer acquisition;
• client retention;
• raising brand awareness;
• and building an image.

These can be meetings with in-house and guest experts who discuss some on-agenda issues and trends as well as share wholesome insights.

Very often, this form is leveraged to promote new offerings from a brand hosting an event. At the same time, it’s a means of networking that is able to create and develop a community around your business. The former and the latter are worth spending your team’s time on and seeking guest pros to join your webinars.

Salesforce (in the screenshot below) even has a webinar section on the website with numerous topics: B2C and B2B commerce, sales, marketing, cloud computing, customer service, CRMs, and so forth.

6. Customer Testimonials

Let the visitors of your website know how you have helped other entrepreneurs. Some just quote their customers, others post “talking head” videos. Customer reviews on YouTube and platforms like G2 Also, we highly recommend you apply storytelling. It doesn’t matter what you are selling; you can make moving videos and show how valuable your product/service is for clients.

One of the best B2B video marketing examples on our list belongs to Microsoft. The company posts short videos about entrepreneurs who use its Microsoft 365 software. Let’s find out what makes these videos so convincing:

• Business owners tell and show what their firms are about;
• They talk about pain points and challenges they faced;
• Finally, they explain how they leveraged Microsoft’s solutions to overcome troubles, set up a workflow, and improve customer service.

Why does storytelling win? Because we see real teams, their businesses, issues they encounter, and genuine emotions.

7. Educational material

Video content is also useful to further help and educate your present and future customers. While explainers are great for illustrating your product or service, education material continues to build upon that foundation.

The advanced level of such educational content would be full-fledged courses, like our Sales.Rocks Academy. This type of resources empower customers to use our product to the fullest, giving them not just the tools but also the knowledge and experience.

Conclusion

B2B video marketing is wholesome at different stages of the sales process.

Onboarding videos aid to build brand awareness, product demos are vital for attracting interest, and testimonials conduce to forming an intent to collaborate. After becoming your clients (and sometimes before too), companies need another kind of information: in-depth explanations, webinars, and experts’ thoughts.

Eventually, videos bring you more sales and customer loyalty. That’s why videos, alongside other content types and marketing tools, must be a part of your marketing strategy.