William Yates — January 21, 2020 Video, whether designed as an explainer, a blog, or as a product presentation, is a powerful marketing tool. Recent research indicates that 65% of viewers will visit a product website and 39% will make phone contact with the video provider after viewing the video.
And with video predicted to form 82% of internet traffic by 2022 video power is set to dominate marketing activities.
Immersive engagement
Research shows that visual information, such as video, is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text, and given that humans have evolved to avoid cognitive overload, audio-visual knowledge acquisition in the form of video is a preferred learning option.
But video creation is an art like storytelling, and should be treated in the same way. Creating a compelling and immersive B2B video story that engages prospects and customers requires careful thought.
Emotional drivers
And in today’s time-poor business environment, offering vacuous, self-indulgent content – even longer content – will lose viewers, prospects and customers very quickly; viewer drop-out is fast – 33% will stop watching after 30 seconds. 45% at one minute, and 60% in two minutes.
So time is at a premium, and there’s no room for error. But when used correctly, video can deliver emotional responses, such as aspiration, which help build brand engagement, loyalty and ultimately, trust.
These emotional responses get you noticed and help you explain complex business concepts or product technologies quickly and succinctly, meaning product technical differentiation is easier to communicate and much more visible for target audiences.
Super-detailed presentation
This is where video is key, because if you have developed world-leading fuel cell technologies, or an advanced health monitoring technology, video can ‘fly’ customers through every detail of the system quickly and with powerful influence on viewer perceptions.
We also know that viewers will remember the story.
Research has shown that 80% of viewers recalled video advertisements they had seen in the past 30 days. That means complex technical concepts can be understood and retained, making your sales teams’ tasks much simpler and more effective.
Driving sales journeys
Because when the 39% of viewers who are known to respond by calling your sales team after viewing a video, the ‘technical sell’ is unnecessary. That part of the sales journey is complete.
And they’re now calling because 74% of B2B buyers conduct significant online research before contacting you directly to proceed with a purchase. So, video is a very powerful – and quantifiable – step in the buyer journey.
Specialist technical communicators
But take care. Where important and powerful technical differentiation is involved in delivering commercial advantage, you’ll need the services of a specialist B2B digital agency with the technical communication capabilities to deliver your complex message clearly.
And if your technical offering is of a highly advanced nature, you may need to consider using an alternative delivery channel, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or HoloLens technology, to reflect and showcase your technological leadership.
LeadGen and ROI
Finally, to drive your video and maximise return on investment, you’ll need your B2B agency to make the video as visible and accessible as possible through high visibility digital marketing campaigns, such as marketing automation (MA) to optimise lead generation performance.
This will require not only the expertise needed to produce a first-class technical video, VR, AR or HoloLens production in the first place, but now the skill to drive and maximise search visibility, reach, audience engagement and sales conversions to optimise ROI.
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