“Decision-Makers Love Business Videos Because It Gives Them The Most Amount Of Information In The Shortest Amount Of Time” Robert Weiss.
Many businesses and corporate marketers are realizing the power of business video marketing. Moreover, many studies have been conducted about video marketing and loads of statistics and articles have been posted about the importance of video content and video marketing.
Video marketing is not only for hip consumer brands. Everybody likes video. B2B video marketing is a great way if you want to reach CEO’s and executives.
To start with, a study by IT giant Cisco revealed that when in command, young executives depend heavily on business videos to connect with their teams, colleagues, suppliers, customers and prospects, as well as to help their companies deliver new products and services.
Tips to keep in mind
1- Keep your videos short as more than half of executives would only watch videos of 3 minutes or less.
2- Do not count on executives to make your videos go viral because the huge majority of business leaders prefer to share one-to-one as opposed to one-to-many. Their most common sharing methods are email (76%), Facebook (32%) and in-person (20%).
3- Do not be preoccupied with mobile because 51% of business leaders admit they don’t use their smartphones to watch business videos.
4- Post online videos after work hours because it is the most popular time for online viewing, with 54% saying they watched videos in the evening or night, next was midday (30%) followed by first thing – ‘upon waking up’ – at 10%.
5- Spotlight VIPs in your videos, because when asked what kind of video they found most appealing, 69% said they liked video featuring somebody they respected such as a journalist or big thinker. (Statistics source: The Science of Business Sharing by Alpha Grid in partnership with Unruly)
Senior executives are a great audience
According to the Cisco Global Survey, 3 out of 5 young executives say they will rely more heavily on business videos during the next 5 to 10 years. This reveals that the majority of tomorrow’s leaders see a promising future for video and in their everyday operations.
Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager for the Collaboration Technology Group at Cisco, said tomorrow’s leaders are increasingly tech-dependent, and video is no exception to the rule.
“The next generation of leaders is realizing that using video makes them more productive, helps companies reduce costs and even plays a role in attracting the best talent available,” Trollope said. “They understand why video can be better than being there.”
At first glance, many people might assume video marketing is more for businesses aiming to attract the youngest demographics. However, there is ample evidence that people across all demographics prefer video. And statistics show you that business executives are a great audience for video marketing.
Executives prefer video over text
Video content that is related to work can be a powerful motivator for executives and can spur action on their part. “75% of executives surveyed said they watch work-related videos on business-related websites at least weekly”. Furthermore, “nearly 60% of executives state that they prefer video over text”.
That being said, it is worth noting that video marketing is rocketing on different levels. And as video continues to grow both offline and online, it will continue to grow in importance for top executives and CEOs.
Hence, we are witnessing a huge shift in how everyone uses and interacts with videos, no matter what their management level.
Video filters information
While the Web itself is in the midst of a video makeover, executives are transforming their habits to be more open to video—the non-text Web—as a highly reliable and trusted source for gathering and filtering business information.
Since executives and CEOs are generally the top decision-makers in any company, this should be as great news to B2B video marketers and creators of videos.
Hence, here comes the importance of video content providers to pay close attention to the behavior and online video viewing habits of business decision-makers.
As stated before, video is a great way to target and engage B2B prospects, but note that B2B and B2C video marketing are different.
Respect their standards
Video marketing to executives and business decision-makers needs minimum standards of quality: While B2C businesses can get away with putting out an amateur video so long as they have good content, B2B companies generally need more polish and professionalism with their videos.
Make sure to speak their language and create content that matters to them. You also need to aim high towards their level of business. You will generally use a more serious and academic tone such as this video we produced for a bank.
To sum, the power of video marketing has been gaining traction over the years, as we have seen digital marketing taking over conventional marketing methods. In addition, video marketing in B2B has become more flourishing and exciting thanks to enhanced technology and to the greater understanding of audience habits.
Start today and grab their attention
Therefore, in order to remain a player in the digital space, any marketer, content provider, company or business, should use videos to enthuse executives and grab their attention.
Based on the above, and mainly on the executives’ interest in video content, the video should take a leading role in your B2B content marketing plan.
Just keeping the above facts in mind will help you understand how, when and where to target executives, what types of videos will do the job, and what outcome to expect from your B2B videos.
Now that you know the habits of whom you are targeting, start earning their precious time, grab them, reach them where they are and delight them with a professional short video, contact us to get your next video project started.