Like just about everyone, we’re well aware that video can be a powerful vehicle to communicate with prospects and customers.
According to Inc.com, 92 percent of B2B customers watch online video and 43 percent of B2B customers watch online video when researching products and services for their business (with 54 percent of these watching on YouTube). Numbers like these make video a difficult medium to ignore.
We recently created one of our first company videos because of an unexpected honor -- we were selected as a finalist for the Northeast Ohio Software Association (NEOSA) Awards (in the “Best of Tech Software Product” category). Over the past eight years, the NEOSA Best of Tech Awards have recognized outstanding companies like Hyland Software, TOA Technologies, OnShift, AtNetPlus, Sparkbase, and Sherwin-Williams, so we were humbled to be included as a finalist.
NEOSA asked all finalist companies to submit a short (30 second) video, to be shown at the awards dinner. Because our previous efforts with video were primitive (using a camcorder to record somebody talking), we decided to invest in something with a higher production value.
We were glad we did -- one thing we noticed was that the quality of the videos among nominees improved dramatically relative to previous years’ submissions. Some of them were outright funny, such as OnShift’s video for the Tech Team of the Year category (and included our good friend Chris Weisel), or even used puppies to pull at heartstrings, such as OnShift’s video for Tech Company of the Year. (You can check out the videos of the NEOSA award winners here.)
We surmise the videos got better because:
• People understand how impactful video can be for B2B brands.
• The cost of producing a good-quality video has become much more reasonable.
• Social-media channels can be used to get more mileage out of an investment in video production.
Here’s the end result of our efforts.
The process was easy, fairly inexpensive, and actually quite fun. Good lighting, background music, clear screenshots and visuals, and a polished script helped us create a final product we were very happy with.
Do you have any experience creating or leveraging video for B2B marketing purposes? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
The process was easy, fairly inexpensive, and actually quite fun. Good lighting, background music, clear screenshots and visuals, and a polished script helped us create a final product we were very happy with.
Do you have any experience creating or leveraging video for B2B marketing purposes? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
