A Guide to Producing Video for B2B Marketing

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) products in high-tech fields can be complicated to explain. But being able to effectively communicate with potential customers is critical not only for your company’s survival, but also your ability to thrive. 

The key to successfully marketing complex products or services is to offer your target audience engaging, informative, and actionable content. Clear communication enables your company to attract customers whose problems you have the solution for. White papers, data sheets, and other written content pieces are a tried and true strategy, but are demanding for potential customers, requiring time and focus on their part to read through your message. 

Video, on the other hand, has the unique capability to distill complicated concepts into a short, digestible format that’s easy to consume. Because of its visual nature, video can uniquely showcase complex features of a technology solution to provide a comprehensive explanation that’s also easy to understand.

Here's how producing B2B videos can help your business get your message across to your buyers in a format they are clamoring for. 

Why Video Is the Best Format to Help B2B Technology Companies Educate Their Customers

Why should you use video to educate your customers? Here are a few arguments about why it's one of the most effective tools in your B2B marketing toolbox: 

• Video is popular, especially for business. 85% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. 88% of marketers report getting a positive return on their investment.  
• Video appeals to a variety of learning styles. By combining movement and noise, video combines both auditory and visual senses. One study showed that the human brain remembers 95% of a message when it's watched as opposed to 10% when read. 
• Video is effective. Studies show that videos made correctly can be more engaging learning tools than other forms of content. 

What makes video marketing so effective for B2B technology companies is that you're helping your audience process a lot of information in a short amount of time. At the same time, you're educating them in a way that ensures they'll retain more information than other formats. 

The Different Types of Videos You Can Produce

Now that you understand why videos are such an effective way to convey information, it may help to look at four video formats that are particularly effective when educating your customers. Here are some B2B video examples you may want to deploy as part of your overall content marketing strategy. 

The About Us or Company Overview Video

Your company's "About" video should be posted prominently on the "About Us" section of your company website. It gives a brief overview of your company. It acts as an online business card, detailing what makes your company tick and how your product fits into your prospective customer's suite of solutions. It may not offer a lot in the way of detail on how your product works (more on how to do that later), but it should showcase your company's overarching organization and what it stands for. 

Here's what else it should include: 

• Your company's mission statement. This is a simple declaration of what you're trying to accomplish. 
• Your company's value proposition. How do you bring value to the world? How do you bring value to the customer? What value does your product add in general? 
• Who are you? Your video should prominently feature your company's leadership team, including onsite camera footage with scripted talking points for leadership to read. You can also interview your team leaders for a more unscripted but authentic-sounding video. 

Think of this as your company's virtual introduction to the world. It should boil down what you do into easily understandable terms that make it crystal clear what purpose you serve. That makes it especially easy for companies you're trying to provide solutions for. 

The Animated Explainer Video

An animated explainer video gives your audience a conceptual and stylized overview of your product in the form of an easy-to-understand animation. It should be short (typically 1-2 minutes, tops) and explain some critical concepts, including: 

• Your audience's pain points, showing you understand the problem at hand.
• Your product's value proposition, demonstrating you are the solution to your customer's problem.
• At least one example of a use case, showing proof that your solution has worked in the past.

Explainers are particularly well-suited to simplify complex concepts. Using simple, plain-speak language, you can give other businesses a clear-cut vision for how you can help them grow.

The Product Demo Video

Having a technology product that works is fantastic, but you have to let people know that it works. That's where a demo video comes in. 

A demo provides a walkthrough of your product or service. This not only gives your audience a "how-to" guide on using your offering, but it also shows them that the product can do what you claim it can. Demos should have a professional voiceover and clearly labeled instructions. 

The advantage of posting a demo video is that it moves your company's "secret sauce" from being conceptual to concrete in the minds of your audience members. It makes your offering that much easier to understand. 

The Thought Leadership Video Series

Used at the top of the funnel, thought leadership videos help position your company and brand as an authority within your space. Thought leadership videos are educational in nature, giving explanations on core topics within your specific field of expertise.

You, or someone from your company, provides relevant information on an influential topic within the industry. Your team can provide key insights that can't be found anywhere else. 

Here's a behind the scenes look at our team filming for a thought leadership series to share on LinkedIn. 

Depending on the subject matter and the distribution channel, these videos can be long or short. While short videos can be more engaging at times when posted to social media, some topics may require a deeper dive. Your audience may find more value in a longer video with more information. You can also post these to your website to demonstrate your expertise. 

Ready to Start Rolling?

Videos are an effective resource for improving how you communicate with your target buyers. They're a popular and easy to understand content format. They allow for versatility in how you promote your company, brand, and product. And they allow you to emphasize how you're able to solve the problems your audience is facing in a concise, visual way. 

What do you think? Ready to fully embrace video production for your company? Get in touch with us to learn about our video services for B2B companies.