You need a video marketing strategy that extends across your digital landscape and throughout the sales funnel to be competitive today. You could lose out on your competition if you aren’t creating B2B video marketing funnels.
Firstly, video content is hot. All the research and surveys tell us that online consumers love video content. And not just for entertainment.
According to a Cisco internet report, online video will generate more than 82% of all traffic in 2022.
An Ascend2 and Brightcove study found that 95% of B2B buyers say videos play a crucial role in purchasing decisions. But more importantly, survey respondents said that they prefer video content over text-based content across all stages of the buyer funnel.
Cognitive research proves that viewers retain 95% of a message when they see it in a video compared to only 10% when reading text-based content. Therefore, videos embedded on your website, social media channels, landing pages, and emails will generate higher levels of engagement than your text-based content.
B2B video marketing funnels should lead your demand creation and lead generation strategies and be a preferred content type for every touchpoint along the B2B buyer journey.
In this article, we’ll talk about:
- What Is A B2B Video Marketing Funnel?
- How To Use B2B Video Marketing
- Best Practices To Drive Results
B2B Video Marketing Funnels: What Are They?
A video marketing funnel mirrors your content marketing funnel. It should gently lead your target personas through the buyer’s journey–awareness, research, intent, decision-making, conversion, and retention.
Your video content is determined by which marketing channel you use to publish your video and where your buyers are in the sales funnel.
You should establish KPIs attached to each stage, with the same goals you set for your content marketing funnel.
For example, let’s say your content marketing goal is to create demand for your product or service. You’ll want to create top-of-funnel videos for your target personas that highlight problems, gaps, or other issues in their industry.
Your primary KPI would be video views, proving that your video resonates with your target audience.
If you include a CTA at the end of your video, another KPI would be the click-through rate.
B2B Video Funnels: Where To Use Them
Top of the Funnel (TOF)
The Ascend2 and Brightcove study reported that 70% of B2B buyers said videos had a better impact than other content in creating awareness of their business-related problems.
- To reach your target audience at the top of the funnel, you’ll want to create video content around specific problems, gaps, or issues that your buyer may or may not be aware of.
- Your video script at this stage is focused on solutions–no selling. However, your video content should give something of value to your target audience.
- Educational vblogs, thought leadership, and industry trends video content perform well at the top of the funnel.
- KPIs here are views and engagement. Your analytics need to tell you if your target audience is consuming your videos.
Middle of the Funnel (MOF)
At this stage, you’ll want to publish educational videos intended to reach your buyers as they move from an awareness that they have a need or a problem to searching for a solution.
- Your videos will now focus more on the specific solutions you offer to address the problems, gaps, or issues you identified in your top-of-funnel videos.
- You want to build credibility for your company and the solutions you offer.
- Case studies and product overview videos perform well at this stage of your B2B video marketing funnel. Keep the video concise, clear, and unambiguous yet entertaining to increase engagement.
- Your primary KPI now will be watch time. You want to ensure that your target audience is watching your video from beginning to end, fully immersed in your solutions and why your company is the best vendor to meet their needs.
Bottom of the Funnel (BOF)
Your target customer knows there is a problem or challenge. They’ve heard about your products or services and are trying to decide who has the best product or service for their needs.
- You’re trying to clarify any questions and overcome any doubts about your solutions.
- You’re making the final push for a sale.
- Customer testimonial videos are perfect for this stage of the buyer funnel. They build authenticity and trust in your company.
- KPIs now will be conversions–leads, signups, and sales.
Retention Stage
At this stage of the buyer journey, your goal is to develop long-term relationships with your customer. Your B2B video will be educational and instructional. You don’t want a frustrated customer, so with video, you can experientially guide them through all the features of your service or product.
B2B Video Marketing Funnels: Best Practices
All B2B digital marketing strategies begin with the same task–audit what you’re already doing and identify issues or challenges.
- Have you published videos?
- Are they touching every stage of the buyer’s journey?
- What are the performance KPIs?
- Identify what’s not working.
Know Everything About Your Target Audience
Dig deep into your buyer personas–what are their challenges, problems, and needs? What are their values and interests? What do they need to know as they travel along the buyer journey?
Do Your Op Research
Find out what your competition is doing. Check out their B2B videos’ engagement, especially on social channels and YouTube.
The Buyer Journey Is Circular: Adjust Your B2B Video Marketing Funnels
As mentioned in my previous articles, the B2B buyer journey has evolved from linear to circular. Buyer groups typically consist of at least six and up to ten decision-makers. B2B buyers bounce back and forth through funnel stages.
Your videos need to capture attention and be informative, helpful, and educational and create an emotional connection that will cause your solutions to be remembered as buyers circle through the funnel.
Different Digital Channels Require Different Videos
The way video content is consumed is different on each social channel. For instance, you might post a longer top-of-funnel video that tells your story or talks about industry trends on YouTube. And, you could publish a YouTube short for the middle of the funnel that hits hard at how your solution works.
TikTok B2B buyers are looking for innovative, quirky, creative videos. Craft your video script according to the funnel stage and in a way that resonates with the TikTok audience.
Your B2B video marketing funnels need to be omnichannel:
- Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok
- Embed videos into your blog posts.
- Add videos to your landing page.
- Include videos in emails.
Keep your company brand voice consistent throughout the B2B video funnel, and be sure your logo can be seen, so viewers know who made the video.
Track, Measure, and Optimize
Constantly assess your video marketing funnel performance, optimize content and make adjustments when necessary.
The digital landscape is fluid, and trends are continually shifting. Additionally, algorithm changes can help or hinder the success of your marketing videos.
Utilizing cutting-edge tools to evaluate performance is critical to helping you design and launch an effective B2B video marketing campaign.
Final Thoughts
Adding the correct video content to each buyer journey stage will ensure that you have a successful B2B video marketing funnel.
- Develop a plan, identify your goals, do your research and drill down on your customer personas.
- Establish your KPIs.
- Be willing to experiment.
- Fit your video content to match each platform’s requirements and the preferences of the viewing audience.
- Assess and adjust.
