Blog / How to create the best B2B video content for 2022

Industry researchers agree that the average attention span is gradually diminishing, with 8 seconds becoming the norm. University research also shows that 95% of viewed content is recalled – compared to only 10% of content that is read.

The creation of engaging, digestible content is critical to the success of all marketing and video is a leading format for digital marketing in 2022.

The growth of video

In 2021 video formats exploded with mobile video traffic growing by over 80%. Driven in part by the success of TikTok, all social platforms were quick to grow their video portfolios. Tweets including video get around 3 times more re-tweets. YouTube Shorts have surpassed 5 trillion views. The success of Reels led Instagram to share its vision for evolving from a photo-focused to a video oriented platform. And video is considered highly in Linkedin’s algorithm so animated content has a much better chance of reaching the top of a Linkedin user’s feed.

Not just social media

Beyond social media, video content can be created or re-purposed for a broad spectrum of marketing activity. Incorporating video into paid activity will help drive optimisation of B2B campaigns and all earned or owned organic content such as blogs, email marketing and PR storytelling will benefit from video support. Video content allows businesses to connect with their business customers in a ubiquitous and popular format.

And what’s more, video advertising gives advertisers unique opportunities to engage and convert prospects better than standard image ads. With users nearly 30 times more likely to click through on video content – compared to a standard visual – it’s easy to see why.

As online buying continues to champion purchase patterns, video is a proven tool to help increase engagement, dwell time and conversion rates on any e-commerce site.

So whether you’re in B2B or B2C marketing, video is an essential component of your toolkit for 2022. Here we share our top tips for creating engaging B2B video content.

The B2B marketing myth

Let’s start with some myth busting. Many still believe that B2B customers are distinctly different to B2C customers and B2B purchasers apply a level of detached clinical rationality to their purchase decisions. Of course, B2B decision making is more considered and the sales funnel will take longer. But remember B2B customers are people first! The same engaging triggers and influencing levers will land in the same way so the application of video in B2B marketing is highly advantageous.

In fact the principles of B2B video content that drive high conversion rates has many parallels with B2C. B2B video marketing can tap into the same sense of FOMO with video stories that highlight price exclusivity, limited availability offer or customer feedback that shares credible third party endorsement.

Customer understanding

As with any marketing strategy, starting with a firm understanding of your customers is key., Be clear about your audience personas and their ‘hot buttons’? What solutions are they searching for? How do you want to impact your customers and what actions do you want them to take? Laying out these considerations will help you curate relevant video content and enhance customer connection.

Steps To Video Impact

The versatility of video means it can be applied and re-cut for all phases of the purchase funnel. Start with a master video format with an edited series of content pieces that fit each stage of the sales funnel as follows:

• Awareness

With just 8 seconds to command attention grabbing impact – the opening seconds of any video are key. Leaving the ‘punchline’ to the end of the video is just not an option. Initially your approach could be about a sharp edit of your product offer or distilling your business service into a bold elevator pitch. Go further and get creative – curating surprise content that disrupts marketplace conventions.

It helps to recognise that essential to short video storytelling is not just content but also design style. Employ dynamic colours, contrasts in tone and sharp powerful visuals. At this early stage, it might be useful to engage a video maker from outside of your industry for a fresh perspective.

But whilst you want to draw fresh attention, maintain a consistent brand voice. Your brand is your unique DNA so ensure your business identity and tone of voice is aligned. If you haven’ already, It helps to create a set of brand guidelines or a simple ‘brand on a page’ that you can always return to.

• Consideration

Once you have a format that succinctly explains the ‘what’. Now consider the why? How can you distill (what can be lengthy messaging) into digestible messages for video? Visually simple graphics (including infographics) are good tools for this. But it’s important not to overwhelm your viewers with too much content.

If you have multiple buying messages, think about designing a suite of video pieces that highlight different reasons to purchase. These could range from third party influencer endorsements with short statements or a focus on limited edition discounts.

Also don’t feel obliged to tell your entire narrative in your video. A video piece can behave as a teasing conversation starter, leading viewers to click through to your website landing page where more detailed messaging is covered.

• Call To Action

Once viewers have been wowed and your key themes have landed, now think about the next step. What do you want viewers to do? As with any advertising strategy, a call to action should be clear. Make the next steps for customers really easy.Perhaps a website or land page link, downloading a white paper, e-book or using a code to unlock more information.

• Format

Just like B2C, ensuring your content plays across all formats is critical. For mobile, remember that 94% of people hold their mobiles vertically so a 9:16 aspect ratio is key, although splitting the screen and stacking content is also compelling.

85% of Facebook content is watched silently, so clear subtitles or integrated text must be part of the story. If the song lyrics are delivering the main message choose your media placement wisely.

Don’t forget, every digital platform has a range of formats, so your film needs to work across each of them.

• Optimisation

Is your video interesting enough to be re-shared? An extra creative spin or sense of playfulness (yes – even in B2B!) will encourage viewers to enjoy and re-share and help the content travel further.

And don’t forget SEO optimisation! Content in any format should be created with search engines in mind. So make sure you integrate keywords into copy including video name and description for optimised search results.

A useful trick is to think about thumbnails. A simple piece of advice is to use a thumbnail that captures the attention of the searcher immediately. Do not use an image from your video, instead, create a custom thumbnail for the video. Use a highly engaging picture for the thumbnail, its quality will also be better than taking a cropped image from your video.

And finally, create videos with a long term strategy in mind. Don’t feel that everything needs to be packed into your first and only piece of film! Compelling video content should now be an on-going piece of your marketing strategy.

For more guidance on integrating video into your digital marketing strategy – we’re here to help! someone@somebodydigital.com