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November 29, 2016 By Hendrik-Jan Francke

CM 101: Video: The New King of Content

They say that content is king, well video is the king of them all

What is the quickest way to establish trust and communicate with a visitor to your website? The answer is everywhere but seemingly absent on so many websites. Nothing is more brilliant than a quick video.

While videos can be costly to create, for your visitors, they are easy to consume and share. Let’s talk about how video can help your company better communicate.

We know that video is taking the internet by storm. Facebook and Twitter have both been bolstering their video capabilities. While these are predominantly B2C channels, video is a powerful medium in B2B marketing, also. Nearly half of B2B researchers watch 30 minutes of video or more while researching. (Study by Millward Brown and Google)

B2B Researches Watch Video Content

Watching is easier than reading. You can convey more information when you pair visuals with the audio. Users don’t have to click through to other pages, and they don’t have to read the website actively. Video makes the experience easy for the user.

Video content can be a critical component of any content strategy, but there are a few things to think about before getting started.

Different Types of Video Content to Consider

Informative How-To Video Content

An informative video is used for educational purposes, just like other content.

Just like blog posts, your videos should be providing value to potential users and clients. The type of video your company creates will depend on what you sell. If you’re selling a product, rather than a service, you can use video to inform the user how to use your product better. Evernote is a great example of using video to assist the customer in using the product. They’ve created a series of videos on YouTube introducing new users to the software.

Evernote Video Content

A video from Evernote’s series to help Mac users.

If you are a service company, your videos are going to be broader and target users with the same problems as your customers. Say you are implementing and maintaining the Microsoft Office 365 for companies. Potential video ideas could be a demonstration of how to use common functions in Excel, or how to create flyers in Word.

Moz, a popular website that helps internet marketers of all kinds, creates a weekly video series called “Whiteboard Fridays.” The co-founder of the site discusses important topics in the internet marketing realm. These are a perfect example of more general content that is valuable to a wide audience.

Moz Whiteboard Friday Video Content Marketing

Moz’s Whiteboard Friday video on choosing the right domain name.

Explanatory Videos

The copywriting of video content

How many times have you scrolled through a landing page, gotten to the bottom and had no idea what the company did? We can all agree this number is too high and for companies, this is a huge missed opportunity! They have people’s attention and simply aren’t conveying the necessary information. The answer could be as simple as an explanatory video.

A phenomenal example of a video like this on Crazy Egg’s website. Go to that URL, click the “Tell me more,” and you’ll see what I mean. Just imagine how long someone would need to read to get all the information communicated in that 2-minute video?

CrazyEgg Explanatory Video on Homepages

This explainer video that DemoDuck helped produce boosted conversions 64%

Explanatory B2B video content puts a spotlight on products, services, and the company. These videos are perfect for landing pages, home pages and “about” pages. This is the material that visitors seek! 70% of B2B buyers are watching videos as a part of their research process. (Study by Millward Brown and Google) Your customers are consuming this content, so your website should cater to this.

Getting Started with Video

Video is not for everyone and takes resources that not all marketing teams will have at their disposal. While informative video content can be as essential as blog posts (and maybe even more impactful), it requires consistency and volume. Trying a short, explanatory video can be a good way to see if a video investment will work for your audience.

Explanatory videos can be an easy start because it can be a one-off video and still be successful, (like Crazy Egg’s homepage video). This type of video works best on a homepage or a landing page. This way, it’s the focus. It’s not the oddball video on the blog. This will also give you a chance to try out the process of creating videos. If you’re not committed to the process of creating content, then it’s not going to work in the long-run.

Decide on a page on your website that might need some more explanation. Maybe it’s your homepage, or maybe it’s a more complex product page. This video is going to increase the amount of time visitors spend on your site and boost conversions! Find video production help and get started on this venture. This is an experiment to see how video can help your website. If it doesn’t work well and isn’t sustainable, you’ve gotten off with minimal investment, instead of diving all the way in and creating a ten video series.

A Note on Cost of Producing Video Content

While a professionally produced video isn’t cheap, it can be well worth the investment. The video DemoDuck made for CrazyEgg boosted conversions by 64%. Great video content costs nothing to post on the web and can reach thousands or even millions depending on the quality. Over half of B2B marketers are planning to increase spending on content marketing in the next year. New marketing battles are going to be won with great content, and not forgettable advertising.

Other Ways to Explore Video

Live Video

Live video is an up-and-coming form of content that gives viewers an even closer connection with the company. Periscope and Meerkat were the first movers in this space, but Facebook has since launched Facebook Live and Twitter also recently launched a live feature. This channel leans toward B2C content at this time, with companies like Mashable using it to unbox technology and stream the event!

Video Backgrounds

Proceed with caution

Video backgrounds don't fall into the realm of video as content marketing, but it might be on your mind. While video backgrounds are trendy on some websites, they are a bit distracting, and we recommend being selective with the type of video used on a homepage. For more on this concept, we’ve written an in-depth post on good and bad uses of video.

Video Testimonials

We love the idea of video testimonials. What is better than a group of your real clients saying what it’s like to work with your company or how your product is great for users.

Instead of stating the features of your product, you can use video to show the benefits. This gives the visitors a chance to put themselves in the shoes of the happy customer. Helpscout visited the offices of Wistia to gather testimonials from users at their company, and the result was this great testimonial.

Moving Forward

Now that you’ve been primed on the power of video, which parts of your business that could be improved by video? If customers always calling with a question about your product, maybe that’s good material for an informational video. If a landing page isn’t causing readers to take action, maybe you need a video to grab their attention and provide a better explanation. Not sure if your homepage is getting the message across? Give us a shout.

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