Youtube

Why B2B Marketers Should Consider Adding Video Content on Youtube

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

In my last post, I touched on the importance of B2B Content Creation and more specifically B2B Blogging, which is the easiest way to create B2B content.  Today, I will touch on a few reasons why Marketers should consider video content creation and Youtube to get found online by the right prospects.

In God We Trust; All Others Must Bring Data

W. Edwards Deming’s quote is used on occasion at the HubSpot office.  I’m a firm believer in making decisions based on data.  That said, here are some data points marketers should consider on creating video content for Youtube:

2 Billion views a day
3rd most visited website (Alexa)
Localized in 23 countries across 24 different languages
15 The average number of minutes people spend on the site each day
24 Hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute
45 Million home page impressions every day Update: YouTube has clarified that this is the number of daily impressions in the US alone
70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the U.S.
100 Years of video scanned by copyright managent technology, Content ID, every day
1700 Years it would take you to watch the hundreds of millions of videos on YouTube

B2B Video Content Ideas

  1. How-To Videos:  Educate prospects.  Teaching prospects about the problems that your products and services solve is extremely important.  If a company has the greatest product of all time, but prospects don’t understand the fundamental problem that the product solves, then the company is in deep trouble.  Youtube is the second largest search engine behind Google and when people query youtube, they are ASKING QUESTIONS and are looking for ANSWERS.  Videos that educate and teach a prospect how to solve a problem that they have will add instant value to the prospect and credibility to the b2b video content marketer.  Prospects are much more likely to embed a How-To Youtube video onto their blog which will add to your credability (and SEO – inbound links).
  2. Product DEMO: Have online videos that clearly demonstrate the value add of your product.
  3. Fun Topics:  Focus on fun topics related to your industry.  People are more likely to share happy, fun, likable video content.
  4. Customer Testimonials: If you have  successful customers, let them share their success story to the world with a short video (2-3 minutes in length).  Video Tesitmonials is a form of Social Proof and adds credibility to your company.  If XYZ competitor company is successful, then you can be successful, too!
  5. Viral Video Contest: Let your prospects and customers create content for you!  Have a legitimate contest and prize that will entice prospects to create video’s on your company’s behalf.  For example, the iPad is in high demand right now and tech enthusiests will be compelled to take a stab at a viral video in the hopes of winning an iPad.

Key B2B Marketing Takeaways

  1. Video Content is in Demand.
  2. The majority of internet usage is via video content
  3. Start Producing Video Content today to Get Found by more qualified prospects and convert them into leads
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  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the post Ryan. I think B2B companies are sometimes daunted by the idea of creating videos to market their products online. While it is more difficult for many B2B companies to create quality video content that can become viral, it is possible with a little bit of creativity and it can be very successful (as Hubspot has shown us). Video has certainly become very important for any company B2B or B2C to market online. I do believe there are some industries that it would be difficult to create videos for.

    The statistics you listed were interesting, particularly “67% of Internet usage is Video based!”

  • http://rbeale.com RBeale

    Thanks for your comment, John! The Video Content statistics are eye-popping and really the reason why I wrote the article. Really any business can leverage video to teach prospects how to solve problems either using their products or not. Either way, video is a way to 1) get found and 2) gain “trusted advisor” status, IMHO

  • Anonymous

    True, they can be used for product demos, customer testimonials, and how to videos, but the fun videos and viral videos can get more difficult for B2B industries where the audience does not spend as much time online.

  • jgshort

    Thanks for the post Ryan. I think B2B companies are sometimes daunted by the idea of creating videos to market their products online. While it is more difficult for many B2B companies to create quality video content that can become viral, it is possible with a little bit of creativity and it can be very successful (as Hubspot has shown us). Video has certainly become very important for any company B2B or B2C to market online. I do believe there are some industries that it would be difficult to create videos for.

    The statistics you listed were interesting, particularly “67% of Internet usage is Video based!”

  • http://rbeale.com RBeale

    Thanks for your comment, John! The Video Content statistics are eye-popping and really the reason why I wrote the article. Really any business can leverage video to teach prospects how to solve problems either using their products or not. Either way, video is a way to 1) get found and 2) gain “trusted advisor” status, IMHO

  • jgshort

    True, they can be used for product demos, customer testimonials, and how to videos, but the fun videos and viral videos can get more difficult for B2B industries where the audience does not spend as much time online.

  • http://www.vipepower.com Adam

    Though I agree that video can effectively be used in B2B marketing, I will challenge that YouTube is the best platform to use. To bring your stats about YouTube down to earth, here is a TechCrunch article that points out the average video on YouTube is watched less than 500 times. Furthermore, half of all views come within the first 2 weeks, and the attention span of the average YouTube viewer is ~30 seconds. (http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/30/context-is-king-how-videos-found/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29). In addition, many business block YouTube either by policy of firewall so for B2B companies that can be a serious detriment. The list of issues goes on an on, but from a pure business perspective, I think one more valuable point is that YouTube makes money in a much different way than businesses – the goal of YouTube is to DISTRACT the viewer from watching the current video with related videos so the viewer eventually lands on a page with a relevant ad for them to click on. – Adam

  • http://www.vipepower.com Adam

    Though I agree that video can effectively be used in B2B marketing, I will challenge that YouTube is the best platform to use. To bring your stats about YouTube down to earth, here is a TechCrunch article that points out the average video on YouTube is watched less than 500 times. Furthermore, half of all views come within the first 2 weeks, and the attention span of the average YouTube viewer is ~30 seconds. (http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/30/context-is-kin…). In addition, many business block YouTube either by policy of firewall so for B2B companies that can be a serious detriment. The list of issues goes on an on, but from a pure business perspective, I think one more valuable point is that YouTube makes money in a much different way than businesses – the goal of YouTube is to DISTRACT the viewer from watching the current video with related videos so the viewer eventually lands on a page with a relevant ad for them to click on. – Adam

  • http://rbeale.com RBeale

    Thanks for stopping by and for commenting! While you make valid points, I still highly recommend B2B Marketers create Videos for Youtube – the second largest search engine on the planet. Which platform do you suggest B2B Marketers use to share video content?

  • http://rbeale.com RBeale

    Thanks for stopping by and for commenting! While you make valid points, I still highly recommend B2B Marketers create Videos for Youtube – the second largest search engine on the planet. Which platform do you suggest B2B Marketers use to share video content?

  • http://www.vipepower.com Adam

    Hi Ryan. I will agree with you wholeheartedly that for search/seo purposes, posting a video on YouTube can be of value. I would simply classify that as passive marketing – which there is nothing wrong with. However, limiting the use of something like a video (which likely took some resources to create) to SEO/search, is also limiting the value. I come from the perspective that a video asset can *also* be used actively. What I mean is that if a marketing department had a way for themselves and their sales team to further distribute the video to their target audience, packaged in a way that (1) motivates the viewer to take action (as opposed to distract them), (2) has a high probability of being viewed, (3) is potentially wrapped in a message more targeted to the audience of a specific sales person, and (4) is done so in a manageable and trackable way, there is significant additional value. This is where YouTube breaks down, per my previous comment. I don’t like to sound like a commercial on other people’s blogs, so I will simply say that companies *like* Vipe (www.vipepower.com), provide this capability for a multi-sales person team to actively leverage and market video assets created by the marketing dept.

  • http://www.vipepower.com Adam

    Hi Ryan. I will agree with you wholeheartedly that for search/seo purposes, posting a video on YouTube can be of value. I would simply classify that as passive marketing – which there is nothing wrong with. However, limiting the use of something like a video (which likely took some resources to create) to SEO/search, is also limiting the value. I come from the perspective that a video asset can *also* be used actively. What I mean is that if a marketing department had a way for themselves and their sales team to further distribute the video to their target audience, packaged in a way that (1) motivates the viewer to take action (as opposed to distract them), (2) has a high probability of being viewed, (3) is potentially wrapped in a message more targeted to the audience of a specific sales person, and (4) is done so in a manageable and trackable way, there is significant additional value. This is where YouTube breaks down, per my previous comment. I don't like to sound like a commercial on other people's blogs, so I will simply say that companies *like* Vipe (http://www.vipepower.com), provide this capability for a multi-sales person team to actively leverage and market video assets created by the marketing dept.

  • http://rbeale.com RBeale

    Hi Adam,

    Sorry for taking a few days to respond to your informative comment. I’m not familiar with Vipe or other companies like Vipe, but will certainly check you guys out.

  • http://rbeale.com RBeale

    Hi Adam,

    Sorry for taking a few days to respond to your informative comment. I'm not familiar with Vipe or other companies like Vipe, but will certainly check you guys out.

  • http://www.komarketingassociates.com/blog/2010-b2b-marketing-blog-posts/ 2010 B2B Marketing Blog Posts | A Comprehensive List – KoMarketing Associates

    [...] Why B2B Marketers Should Consider Adding Video Content on Youtube – Ryan Beale [...]

  • http://www.trafficgeyservideomarketing.com/ Sam

    of course it work but don’t forget that there are many people on youtube and to be popular it’s not easy you have to build a good promotion to
    viralized your videos you can post your video on big forum or promote by
    email , facebook etc

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    Your blog never ceases to amaze me, it is very well written and organized.

  • http://www.electricianmelbourne.org/ electrician melbourne

    Teaching prospects about the problems that your products and services solve is extremely important.