While blogging is an exercise those of us who enjoy writing will enjoy, and one we’ve covered here before if you’re blogging is part of your B2B digital marketing efforts for a B2B business then your goal is lead generation:
- Driving traffic to your site
- Engaging visitors
- Having them express interest in meeting your team.
You’re blogging efforts are a form of advertising. But are they the most effective kind of advertising?
Let’s consider one of the biggest trends driving online advertising at the moment – video.
Video content digital marketing conventions
Let’s start with some distinctions between practices for including video in your digital and content marketing efforts. There are two primary ways you can integrate video into your content mix:
- Video blogs – The practice of running a blog consisting only of video posts. Also known as a “Vlog”.
- “Traditional” blogging with video thrown into the mix.
What follows applies to both.
B2B Digital marketing with video
Video is by now a staple of digital marketing. Originally encountered most on Youtube, it really came into its own thanks to Facebook ads.
There are several compelling reasons for video ads:
- Video lends itself naturally to storytelling – It’s a time-sensitive medium.
- It’s effortless engagement – Compare to the active engagement required to read, video allows for passive engagement.
- As a multi-sensory medium, it allows a much deeper introduction of your offers – Images, sound/narration and captions all come together in one whole that addresses multiple methods for conveying the same message.
In our own experience working with clients we’ve run A/B test for Facebook ads using both image and video ads – Engagement for videos ran as high as 2000% (20x) higher than what we saw for image ads.
Video for the awareness phase of your lead generation
Since it’s likely that your first goal is to get viewers to your site, let’s begin there, at the top of your lead generation funnel during your B2B digital marketing. Video is a great way to attract eyeballs:
- It ranks well on search engines
- It’s easily syndicated across several platforms. Once you’ve created your video you can post it to YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, etc.
- Look out for niche video sites that fit well for your offer.
An important factor that we still see too many brands overlooking is how video is featured on the mobile versions of their sites. Especially at the awareness phase, this is how most visitors are likely to experience your content.
Going After Conversions
Your next goal is to turn those eyeballs into customers. With conversions, size and placement of video players factor heavily.
Think about where in your video you’re introducing the key messages you want your audience to remember. The later in the video you present these ideas, the less likely a user is to see them so be sure to keep your videos short and sweet. Aim for between 30 to 60 seconds of video max.
The Future of Video on the Web
We don’t presume to know how the web is going to develop in the future, but given all the trends we’re seeing for video consumption, video’s dominance as the preferred online medium is assured.
The only question B2B businesses really face is will they be leading their sector, or playing catch-up. Don’t let your blog get left behind!
As always, we are here to help.
