The “play button” is one of the best working CTAs on the internet at the moment: Video has been the buzzword in 2018 and will continue to be one of the most critical parts of the web and company’s marketing strategies in 2019.
On the web, you can find a bunch of B2C statistics and recommendations to surf on the successful wave of video marketing. The truth is, not only B2C businesses can profit from the increasing embracement of video content, but also B2B companies should consider integrating it in their marketing strategy.
We will tell you why!
By January 2019, YouTube is the second most popular Social Media platform with 1.9 million users. More and more businesses recognize the advantages of videos in order to connect with their audiences in the digital world, and that not without reason: According to Google is the likelihood of getting the viewer’s attention 84% higher on paid YouTube mobile advertising than on TV advertising.
75% of executives watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least one time a week.
Against the misconception, videos – especially on YouTube – are not well considered by decision-makers and are only for Millennials, we will prove you the opposite. Considering already the UK audience of the popular TED Talk videos from the year 2014, the age structure depicts that 40% have 35 years +. The date lies now five years back, that means that this number has only grown.
Let’s do some rethinking and dig deeper: Which generations are our today’s leaders, managers, and executives?
Millennials
Born around 1981 and 1996
Among the Millennial generation are young talents who are the future of the companies. This generation is one of the most prominent target groups for video, who by the way increased its YouTube usage by 46% from 2017 to 2018. Furthermore, 70% of Millennial YouTube users have watched content on this platform to learn about something. What clearly shows that video is a popular medium to gather information.
Generation X
Born around 1965 and 1980
Besides of Millenials, internet users of Generation X show affinity with consuming videos. Even though they might not be digital natives, they are the ones who spend the most time on Social Media – not Millenials! Moreover, many GenXers appreciate explanation videos and tutorials. Indeed, believing a survey of Google, almost 65% bought a product which they saw in a YouTube video.
Baby Boomers
Born around 1946-1964
Baby Boomers are a way too underestimated user group of video. As we were already telling in our article about this generation, they are great fans of video content. Even more importantly: their engagement after watching. So do f.e. almost 50% look up information to gain more insights.
But there is not only YouTube to place videos for B2B clients. LinkedIn has been showing great potential during the last past months.
LinkedIn is the most popular business-oriented Social Media platform for B2B networking. It is clearly shifting away from just being a portal to look for jobs to a platform of sharing interesting content, building up serious business relations and broadening your reach. Due to its professional appearance, this platform presents an amazing way to place your marketing video.
Indeed, results of Linkedin’s beta program have shown that a company video triggers 5x more the start of a conversation between members than other types of content. In addition to that, video content enjoys on average three times more the engagement of the audience than text.
Another aspect that makes LinkedIn such a great medium to spread your video is the possibilty to gain insights about people who watched it. You can not only see the name of the person, but also employer name and job title.
To sum up: The most favored B2B Social Media channel in combination with the demand of decision makers make a perfect match!
59% of senior executives prefer to watch a video instead of reading an article on the same web page.
You still don’t believe us? Let’s have a look at a conducted survey of Forbes in collaboration with Google called Video in the C-Suite from 2018. Forbes’ study revealed significant results regarding senior executive behaviours towards video.
Video – a popular source
Who says that CEOs, CFOs and senior managers won’t consider content in video format? For gathering and filtering relevant information for business, video is meanwhile a source with growing popularity, also in the business world. That claim can be underpinned through the statement from 59% of senior executives who prefer to watch a video instead of reading an article on the same web page. Many B2B services need as much as B2C services a proper explanation and therefore are in the same amount qualified for video content. As in private life, visual content wins. In the end, every decision maker is just a person who tries to access a topic or product/service information in the best possible and efficient manner.
Not only B2C clients are embracing product reviews and demonstrations as well as how-to videos. Around half of the surveyed senior executives favor these kinds of video contents. However, most popular video topics are business news reports and business insights or expert advice and that not even infrequently. So do at least one time a week, 75% of the executives watch work-related videos on business-related websites. Yes, indeed, that is a huge number!
Taking action after watching
But really attractive it gets when the video has an impact on the viewer and leads to further actions: According to the same Forbes survey, 65% of the surveyed executives said to have visited a vendor’s website after having watched an interesting video. That is more than half of the viewers, and it gets even better: An average of 42% has made a business-related purchase. This percentage is quite higher than some other compelling CTA button text. This is the power and sales support that many marketers have been always looking for.
What’s more, half of the participated executives – especially the younger executives – share work-related videos with their co-workers. Even though not always the viewer is the decision maker, the viral component, the sharing of videos, can take an essential role in the influence on the decision-making process of a company.
Video: Here to stay
Video content will reach new levels this year. From vertical videos, YouTube video ads, LinkedIn Live videos, and many more formats, businesses should get prepared to keep up with nowadays demand. As statistics clearly show, video marketing is also effective for B2B businesses and bring success – even when at the moment it is a rather untapped field.
The creation of videos is not as difficult any more than it was in the past. Many diverse tools have been evolving on the markets and providing an easy and affordable solution for video production and editing software.