Roger Wigington: Press Play: How Marketers Who Invest in B2B Video Earn Greater ROI

How B2B video gets greater marketing ROI group of marketers image.

How is B2B video marketing continuing its ascendancy and generating greater return-on-investment (ROI) than ever, and where are B2B marketers finding the sweet spot when it comes to video success? With investment in B2B video having climbed, search engines showing more video answers and social media platforms continuing to place video front and center, there’s never been more vibrant and bustling video marketing activity — or possibility — than now. Let’s take a look at some of the most recent information about B2B video from the latest industry reports and surveys, and hear from some of the top subject matter experts and proponents of B2B video.

1 — Increased Video Investment

When it comes to online video advertising, brands have continued to increase investment, with spending having climbed by 30 percent during the first quarter of 2022 — to the tune of $5.5 billion — compared to the final quarter of 2021, with spending on YouTube video ads alone reaching $482 million, an increase of 57 percent, according to recently-release MediaRadar report data. Additionally, the number of businesses investing in online video in the U.S. alone rose 21 percent to some 15,500 during the first quarter of 2022 compared with the final quarter of 2021. MediaRadar Image

It’s certainly not only paid advertising where video is seeing increased investment and exposure, however, as we’ll examine.

2 — Search Engines Providing More Video Answers

Use of video has not only continued to grow among B2B firms and in both paid and organic marketing efforts, but among search engines and the content they are increasingly showing to searchers looking for answers online. “We see that people love videos and authentic images in search results, so we try to show them more,” John Mueller, senior webmaster trends analyst, recently said during the SEOday 2022 conference. Giving today’s digital-first audiences what they want has naturally surfaced more video, and B2B marketing efforts that don’t include at least some video element will face increasing difficulties as search results reserve more spots for video-only content. [bctt tweet="“We see that people love videos and authentic images in search results, so we try to show them more.” — John Mueller @JohnMu of @Google" username="toprank"]

3 — Video Continues As Prime Social Format

Data from several recent surveys have strengthened the notion that video use and spending have both risen, despite fears by some that a saturation point could arise — a tipping point that may indeed someday arrive, but as B2B marketers are finding with increased use of video, there is still plenty of room for more relevant digital video content. 47 percent of social media marketers have said that they plan to increase their video activity on LinkedIn over the next year, according to recent survey data. MarketingCharts Image A

LinkedIn itself has continued refining and expanding its video features, including LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events, with the latter recently adding the ability to engage in conversations before, during and after events, as we covered recently in our weekly TopRank Marketing Friday B2B marketing news. B2B marketers looking to find the ideal social media home for their latest video content have a wealth of options available in 2022, with the old guard of video hosts being joined by a steady stream of newcomers looking to make an impact. B2B video opportunities for cross-platform engagement testing abound for marketers willing to embrace new social platforms. [bctt tweet="“B2B video opportunities for cross-platform engagement testing abound for marketers willing to embrace new social platforms.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

4 — Brands See Video Engagement & Room For Expansion

On LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and elsewhere, B2B brands are working to meet a combination of increased demand for video content and growing digital disengagement. “Our audience is overwhelmed, distracted, and disengaged. But time spent engaging with video is higher than ever,” Heike Young, senior director, brand marketing team at Salesforce, recently observed. “B2B companies have a quickly growing number of content teams, but still relatively few video teams (and small ones), especially when compared to the opportunities that are still out there for video,” Young added. B2B marketers that capitalize on those opportunities when it comes to using video will have a conspicuous advantage in a business environment where more people are viewing video content than ever, and making buying decisions based on what they see — or don’t see. [bctt tweet="“Our audience is overwhelmed, distracted, and disengaged. But time spent engaging with video is higher than ever.” — Heike Young @YoungHeike of @Salesforce" username="toprank"]

5 — B2B Video Makes Buyers More Receptive

The use of video in B2B marketing has always played a part in the sales process, however the shifts seen during the pandemic have made buyers even more receptive to B2B video. “97 percent of B2B buyers said they would be more receptive to sales communications from a business after consuming their video content,” Colin Day, managing director - EMEA at Oktopost noted recently. Day also shared some of the ways that video can be used in today’s B2B marketing efforts, including:

Webinar clips
Podcast clips
Tips and tricks
Product demonstrations
Top product features
How-to videos
Tutorials
Customer success stories
Industry trends
A day in the life using a product

Those are only a few examples of the many areas where digital video can successfully be used in 2022. Video can prove vital in pushing potential buyers to move ahead, as 95 percent of B2B buyers recently said that video plays an important role in deciding to move forward with a purchase, according to Brightcove and Ascend2 report data. That same report noted that some 93 percent of B2B buyers found video to be important in building trust in a brand — a factor that is more important today than ever in the B2B realm, where trust in marketing has fallen. 58 percent of respondents in the most recent annual Edelman Trust Barometer report said they either buy or advocate for brands based on their values and beliefs, and video has been playing a greater role in helping establish the trust required to build such brand advocates. Our own Joshua Nite recently explored “5 Ways Influencer Marketing Builds Trust for B2B Brands,” and how great content in video or any format can boost brand credibility and awareness. [bctt tweet="“Influencer co-created content shows that you genuinely care about the audience, and are committed to presenting something of value they can’t get anywhere else.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

6 — What’s Hot In B2B Video Content

B2B marketers looking to find out precisely which types of video content B2B buyers are tending to watch can gain insight from recently-released survey data showing that product reviews and demonstration videos topped the list, with tutorials, training and live videos such as webinars also making a strong showing. MarketingCharts Image B

An additional study showed that some 69 percent of marketers expect their top investment during 2022 to be for video efforts.

6 — Creative Angles & Humor Have A Place In B2B Video

Andrew Davis, keynote speaker and author, who was featured as one of the 50 top B2B content marketing influencers to follow in our list, recently created and shared a video on LinkedIn detailing how humor can play an important role in the success of B2B video content. Davis also sat down with our own Nick Nelson to share some of his insight on video marketing, in “Content Marketing Interview: Andrew Davis on Showing, Not Telling.” Those looking for other creative ideas for new takes on B2B video and other visual content elements will find 14 in the latest Forbes Agency Council Expert Panel piece, “14 Creative Ways Marketers Can Use 360-Degree Images And Other Unique Visuals.” [bctt tweet="“The number of people that make up our brand is more powerful than a logo. Get the face of the CEO, CFO, and CMO into the public eye!” — Andrew Davis @DrewDavisHere" username="toprank"]

Press Play On Your Own B2B Video Success

B2B video usage is only going to grow for the foreseeable future, and those marketers that stay aware of this trend, the increasing prominence of video in search and social, and the continuing power of video to tell memorable stories, will have a significant edge on competitors unable or unwilling to expand their B2B video efforts. We hope you’ve found this brief look at some of the key shifts B2B video is undergoing helpful, and that you’ll be able to put these insights to use in your own video marketing efforts as we push ahead towards 2023 and beyond. We regularly cover how B2B marketers can put video, live-streaming, and podcasting to use, and some of our recent articles on these topics are listed here for further reading:

Creating award-winning B2B video marketing that elevates, gives voice to talent, and humanizes with authenticity takes considerable time and effort, which is why an increasing number of firms are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Contact us to learn how we can help, as we’ve done for over 20 years for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and others.

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