Offering informative blogs, white papers, eBooks, infographics, case studies, calculators, checklists, and other forms of content not only helps garner new leads, but also establishes you as a knowledgeable thought leader in your industry.
Developing fresh, new content can also improve your SEO rankings, making it easier for people to find your company online.
While you may be providing ample written content for your site visitors, you might be missing one crucial component — videos. Increasingly important in today's digital landscape, video content allows for efficient dissemination of complex information while providing an interactive, engaging user experience.
Below are the four of the most compelling reasons to start incorporating video into your industrial inbound marketing campaigns.
1. Your Customers And B2B Buyers Are Watching Videos
Let's face it — videos are everywhere. In fact, more than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube every day.
If you’re not using videos in your marketing strategy, you’re at risk of falling behind in the industrial B2B world, especially when you consider:
- 95% of a message is retained when a viewer watches a video versus only 10% when reading text
- 68% of people prefer to learn about a product or service through video
- 65% of executives visit the companies website after viewing a video
- 39% of executives call a vendor after viewing a video
Users are increasingly seeking out engaging, easy-to-access watchable content — a recent Animoto study showed that four times as many consumers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.
With more and more users accessing information using mobile devices, it’s only logical that people would rather watch an informative video while on the go than read long-form articles or eBooks. Providing educational, useful videos not only helps consumers easily access the information they need, when they need it, it also demonstrates your commitment to providing the most cutting-edge resources.
We recommend keeping the videos short — around two minutes for YouTube and a minute or less for other social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook.
2. Videos Are Easy To Share
Ideal for sharing on various platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube, videos consistently outperform text-based updates on social media platforms.
A recent HubSpot study found that video is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than any other form of content. That's because the average human processes visuals faster than text — think back at how you scroll through your own personal Facebook feed. Did you notice you spend more time on images and videos?
Followers who share your videos with other users can provide a serious boost to your marketing efforts, introducing you to new prospects and organically increasing brand awareness. The video format allows consumers to get a better feel for your brand personality and provides you with a versatile platform for sharing product information and capabilities, answering commonly asked questions, and showcasing new technologies.
Plus, when users share your videos, they signal to others that you’re a trustworthy, knowledgeable brand.
Increase Your Sales With The Power Of Video
Thomas offers video content production for FREE with the purchase of an advertising program for OEMs, Distributors, and Service Companies
3. Videos Are Effective At Increasing Sales
The overall goal of content marketing, of course, is to provide directly relevant, useful information to prospects to convert them into customers — and videos are proving to be highly effective in achieving this goal. According to a survey by Wyzowl, 77% of consumers reported that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service based on a video.
Thomas Video Advertising offers industrial companies the creation and placement of video content on their company profile. Suppliers advertising with video content on Thomasnet.com increased engagement and RFQs by 32% — with some seeing increases as high as 70%!
Unlike written content, videos allow you to showcase your brand character and team personality, making it easier to connect with people on a personal level and establish trust. Because video content can be tailored to many different consumer needs, it’s easy to target users at all different stages of the buying journey — companies can offer videos as general, top-of-funnel overviews, and highly detailed, bottom-of-funnel explanations.
Three Types of Video Storytelling Examples
The Explainer Video
This type of video elevates your brand by showcasing some aspect of your company to your audience — start with a 90-second video walking through your shop floor asking employees what makes your company an industry leader.
Explainer videos also simply explain how your product or service solves your buyers' problems. Just remember to keep it short!
The How-To Video
These videos explain specific processes or technical concepts that are often too lengthy or difficult to describe with just text.
Some how-to video favorites in the manufacturing industry take viewers through a step-by-step preventative maintenance task or troubleshooting instructions for certain products.
💡 Bookmark this for later! 17 Videos Featuring Industrial Companies You Should Watch
The Demo Video
Demo videos demonstrate more complicated products or services. Similar to the how-to videos, they teach your viewers how to do something with your product. Your demo video should capture how your product works — it's a great shareable sales tool, too.
Yes, your sales team will find your videos helpful! Videos allow for easy tracking of who has viewed your video, how long they watched it, and whether they watched certain sections of it more than once — making it easier to track return on investment (ROI) for lead conversion. Your video marketing will also serve as a great internal resource for your sales team. The videos will help them understand your company, products, and services more clearly — perfect for internal training.
4. Your Competitors Are Already Offering Videos
More and more B2B companies realize the benefits of offering video content, positioning themselves as modern, knowledgeable brands with an eye on consumer preferences and technological trends. If you're not using videos in your content marketing campaign, you may be losing out on valuable leads.
In today's increasingly fast-paced digital world, users want to access informative, engaging content quickly and efficiently, and videos allow for easy watching on the go or in the office.
Hundreds of thousands of manufacturers engage with industrial B2B buyers on Thomasnet.com — and some incorporate videos in their business listing. Check out how Paratherm Heat Transfer Fluids incorporated a product video on their Thomasnet.com profile.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A775IAE1fSKSbNh1Uj4ZMPIgF3j9ki9V/view?usp=sharingv
If your competitors are offering informative, relevant videos but you aren’t, it might be time to reevaluate your marketing plan and take stock of your overarching company goals. (And in case you didn't already know, it's free to list your business on Thomasnet where you can easily add your product videos.)
What's even better? Thomas offers free video production and creation with the purchase of an advertising program. Get started by listing your manufacturing business for free and contact us about producing a video for you that helps generate sales — according to HubSpot, marketers who incorporate video into their content strategies have seen 49% faster revenue growth than those who don’t.
Getting Started With Videos Can Be Easy
Ready to get started with video marketing? Thomas can help!
Through our Video Advertising Services solution, we help industrial businesses create persuasive, professional, and highly engaging videos to promote new products and services, highlight specific product lines, and spread the word about your unique company capabilities and experience — for less money than you would expect.
Not sure if you're ready yet? Discover which buyers you could be doing business with a free in-market buyer activity report. It will give you an idea of how to pivot your marketing strategy.
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