Business-to-business (B2B) companies aren’t likely to thrive without effective networking. Interacting with your ideal clients and other professionals in the B2B space, sharing information and experiences, and growing genuine relationships are integral to consistent growth.
One of the best vehicles for developing B2B networks is video marketing. Video content is influential in building brand awareness. It’s also a powerful tool for getting into the hearts and minds of a B2B audience.
Here’s how to build effective and engaging networks that generate quality leads with video marketing.
Think About How to Pique the Interest of Decision-Makers
B2B companies must focus on piquing the interest of decision-makers with their videos. This is because it’s most productive to focus your relationship-building efforts on the people that have a say in buying decisions.
Keep in mind that there are usually multiple people involved in the decision to purchase from a B2B company. So, creating buyer personas for each potential decision-maker is a good idea. Then, you can note what kind of videos each would be most attracted to.
Use artificial intelligence tools to collect, process, and analyze data about the individuals that interact with your brand online. You can use this information to create the buyer personas above and tailor your marketing, video marketing in particular, to exactly who your decision-makers are.
When you know what kind of videos decision-makers are attracted to, you can create them and inspire potential clients to take action with your business.
Define Your Video Marketing Strategy for B2B Networking
When B2B companies build a solid digital presence, it can boost conversion rates, help build trust with their audience, and make marketing more cost-effective. Video marketing can fast-track creating that digital presence — but you must define your video marketing strategy first.
Write down specific, networking-related goals for your video marketing. Detail what kind of videos you want to make, their respective purposes, channels you wish to publish them on, and how often. Also, talk about how you will attract quality leads with your videos and convince them to take the next step with your company.
Defining your video marketing strategy for B2B networking ensures you have something to help you visualize what video marketing success looks like for your company.
Make Social Media a Primary Part of Your Strategy
Decision-makers are on social media, and they’re most definitely consuming video content from brands and businesses. So, you need to be on social media, publishing unique video content to grow your network of professionals and potential clients.
Make social media a primary part of your video marketing strategy. Detail what social media platforms you will use and what kind of videos you will post on them. Study the video-related features and functions on each platform. Also, establish how you will engage with followers.
Designing effective video marketing for B2B networking is incomplete with social media.
Take Your Time Creating Video Content
Creating quality video content takes time. But it is necessary to develop an effective, engaging network that fosters quality leads. Unique, thoughtful video content will help you stand out online.
So, give yourself enough time to create top-tier video content. Do your best not to rush through any part of the creation process. Make scripts, ask your employees to participate, and hire video professionals if you need to.
Spend time editing your video content as well to ensure the final product conveys your message effectively, is reflective of your brand and is visually captivating.
Experiment With Different Kinds of Videos
There is so much room to be creative with videos. You can leverage storytelling in a way images, audio, and other graphics can’t. You can design pieces more likely to solicit an emotional connection with a B2B audience.
Videos are also fantastic opportunities to try out new ways to nurture leads and build your brand’s reputation among them. That said, different videos are meant to serve different purposes. So, be sure you’re experimenting with various videos in your strategy.
For example, if you’re strategizing for a Software as a Service (SaaS) company, you should already be knee-deep in content marketing. You can enhance your overarching content marketing strategy with video content. Testimonial videos for your website or live streamed product demos are surefire ways to inspire viewers to begin a relationship with your brand.
Also, consider creating and distributing these videos for effective video marketing across various platforms:
- Company culture videos
- Behind-the-scenes videos
- Video tutorials
- Video ads
- Explainer videos
- How-to videos
- User-generated content
- Interactive videos
- Employee-led videos
Effective video marketing for B2B networking also relies on consistency.
Prioritize Consistency
You’re never going to gain momentum by randomly publishing video content. You also won’t be able to build brand awareness and better relationships with current and potential clients with an unorganized video marketing strategy.
To avoid this, prioritize consistency. Create a content calendar that details your videos’ who, what, when, where, and why. Implement automation tools to ensure you stay consistent with your publishing schedule.
It’s also essential to ensure your branding is consistent in every video and across every platform. It’ll be much easier for people to connect your brand to your videos when your visual branding elements, tone, voice, and messaging are the same, no matter the touchpoint.
And finally, always track the performance of your videos.
Track How Your Videos Perform
You can’t measure the effectiveness of your video marketing if you don’t have the tools to track how your videos perform. Analytics tools are essential for measuring the results of each video, campaign, and overall video marketing strategy.
Assess the performance of your videos on every channel. Identify the kinds of videos your audience is engaging with. Find out what parts of each video perform best. Analyze how each video is getting you closer to your networking goals.
In addition, pinpoint what isn’t working in your video marketing. You can then adjust particular techniques to mirror the working video content or scrap them altogether.
Conclusion
B2B networking is much more fun and lucrative when you use video marketing to connect with professionals in your industry. Designing effective video marketing to strengthen your network depends on your willingness to test the advice above.
Author
Luke Smith
Writer, researcher, blogger
Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but technology and digital marketing topics are his favorite. When he isn’t writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.
