Is There a Difference Between B2B Videos and B2C Videos?

The straight answer is yes and no.

Confused?

It’s a valid enough question but too open ended for a succinct answer because it first needs to be qualified by asking what do you want to achieve with said video?

Look, it’s not complicated. Just think it through from a marketing perspective because that is what you are asking, isn’t it? This is all part of your marketing strategy, yes?

The benefits and precedents are well documented for anyone that cares to look. Online video on your website can help you get a higher page ranking on Google. An engaging video will keep visitors on your site for longer than an equivalent site without video while if you use it to describe your product or service with a clear call to action then you should expect to see an distinct uplift in your online response rate.

Fantastic!!!!.....  BUT!!

All of this means very little if no one is actually visiting your website in the first place, you’re not getting much traffic. Website visitors, by the way, are called traffic.

If your marketing objective is to use video as a means of getting more traffic or your need is to build brand awareness then what you decide to produce as a business selling to consumers is likely to be different from what you may want to first show prospective customers if they are a business and you’d like to do business with them.

Why?

Social Media.

You might argue that producing a video which shows consumers how impressive your resources or facilities are, or what great guys / gals you all are, will have them queueing at your door, but that’s probably unlikely with this kind of content. 

Yet, this type of content still has real value and should have a place in your video marketing strategy. Just don’t place it “front of house” for a business to consumer offer where your primary objective should be to create content that says something about you that will be shared.

For example, customer testimonial videos are relatively cheap to acquire and have huge value as proof that you can and do supply what you say you do.

Yet it is unlikely that anyone will watch them until they are at the tipping point of conversion and just need that last little nudge of reassurance before committing to you in some way. Some final confirmation that they aren’t wasting their money or that you’re not a rogue trader.

If your plan is to use video to help get you found via social media channels then you need a video that will resonate with your target market and this may have very little to do with your product other than an association with something good, clever, informative or much enjoyed.

More Confused?

Think engagement and levels of interest rather than promotion. 

The very first question anyone thinking of producing a B2C video should ask is. What can I produce that my target audience will watch but more importantly want to share?

This could well be a great video about your products but you are more likely to have something shared if that isn’t immediately obvious in the video you have produced. Think entertaining, enlightening, funny, tongue in cheek, irreverent, anecdotal, helpful, story telling that’s engaging yet informative.

Quite often the really memorable promotional campaigns are those that leave the core message out and so allow the viewer to make the connection.

Businesses selling to other businesses are however more likely to be better served through the production of information based video content that cuts straight to the point in showing prospective customers exactly what can be done and how this is achieved.

Still confused?

In my opinion online video has three levels of engagement. Each level needs to be considered individually according to what you do, who you sell to and what you want to get from your video investment. 

The nature of the video may be the same for B2B and B2C purposes but the execution and distribution is likely to differ.

1) Entice - The first of these is the most difficult to judge and get right. Its success relies heavily in not only knowing who your prospects are and where they are likely to be found but in also tailoring the video you produce so that it resonates with them. 

It must have value for them and ideally be of such high value that they then wish to share it with other people. This will differ from product to product and business to business.

2) Enlighten - Once someone is on your website your goal should be to keep them there and turn them into interested prospects. Your videos should be entertaining and informative. It should expand on what you do, how you do it and why you’re good at it.

3) Convert - Prospective customers are more likely to buy into your product or service if they feel there is little or no risk to them and that you have provided all the information or reassurance they could possibly need. How-To or Explain-it videos and animations, customer testimonial or case study videos and detailed product descriptions with clear calls to action will all help in this respect.

Yet any and all of these can and should be considered as content that will also help get your website found.

So why then is social media so important?

Distribution. 

You can have the best videos in the world but with 100 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute don’t imagine that yours is going to be found without doing a range of things that will help prospective viewers find it.

Having a distribution strategy is something that you should think about implementing before you invest in a video that very few people may see and we would be happy to advise you on how to go about doing this before we produced anything for you.

Animation is a Business Marketing Tool

So why animate?

Every business has a story to tell and some business stories are easier to tell than others.

Businesses such as manufacturers or suppliers of physical goods or services are generally “visually rich” in what they do and so have the happy opportunity to simply show prospective customers how or where they provide these goods to help explain what they do or how they add value for their customers. For example, the building of a house will provide multiple opportunities for every trade or profession concerned in the build to show and describe something of what they do, their contribution, using video. 

Many modern businesses are however not so fortunate. 

Those that deliver a product or service that is predominately the outcome of an intellectual or professional process find that their only immediate visual resource is the people within the business or their place of work. They struggle to describe what they do or the contribution they make because they deliver something that has no obvious or tangible physicality. 

So here is a teaser. Describe Carbon Off-Setting or Capital Gains Tax as a series of photographs.

The real power behind video is the use of visual content in support of and in synergy with an audio description being delivered simultaneously. It is the combination of the two that makes this communication media five times more memorable than using images and text alone.

The beauty and core strength behind animation is that anything that can be imagined can be drawn. It is therefore the only marketing tool available that allows one to communicate both complex intellectually theory or processes in a way that allows for a visual representation to be shown in support of an audio recording.

What animation styles work best?

Video or animated content produced for delivery via the web is quite different to that produced for a set presentation delivered to a captive audience. 

Video content consumed on the internet is done with the permission of the viewer. When they “opt in” to view your content they do so knowing that they can “opt out” at any time should what they see or hear not be to their liking. 

Unlike an auditorium or presentation to the room your online audience will be hyper critical and vote with a click elsewhere. You therefore need to play by some very simple rules if you want an enquirer to finish the course and watch your video all the way to the call to action.

A well constructed PowerPoint, Prezi or Camtasia presentation recorded in time to a supporting audio track is an animation. The power behind any animation is in the strength of the story, the relevancy and memorability of the images used and the clarity of the message being delivered but the principal rule for most online video or animated content is to keep it short.

If necessary, break long complex explanations down into chapters or even paragraphs and deliver these as individual videos to improve viewer engagement and reduce your click off rate.

Any presentation style or technique that holds the viewer's attention, delivers your message and tells your story in a memorable way will be suitable. The decision as to which style you use is more likely to be based on your market, the complexity of your message and your budget.

What do we do?

We use hand drawn animated videos, often called “Whiteboard” or Scribble” animations, to tell complex business stories in an engaging and informative way. We use VideoScribe from Sparkol to create these cost effectively using custom line drawings / illustrations produced to suit each brief.

We also use motion graphics, photographs or short video clips within these if it helps clarify or reinforce the core message we have been asked to deliver.

A well constructed hand drawn animation is incredibly powerful and difficult not to watch to the end. 

There is a direct connection between the curiosity that encouraged a viewer to “opt in” to watch an animation and the same curiosity that keeps them watching right to the end when the final frame is revealed.

The goal of every business should be to create video or animated video content that tells their story in a way that keeps every visitor engaged to the end, is memorable and evokes a response from the viewer.

Video SEO Benefits - Good Sense or Nonsense?

First things first. A short background to my perspective.

I don't come from a media or film production background but rather from a 3D furniture / product / exhibition design education with a career in helping retailers and brands sell goods in high street stores. The bulk of that time has been spent creating visual content to sell a concept to the client for how it would look, function or be produced.

Video for me is therefore a sales and marketing communications tool.

It is a relatively new phenomenon created by the growth of the internet and fuelled by Google's preference for websites that have invested in it. The market for web video is so large that an army of suppliers has blossomed to meet the potential demand from happy DIYers on their GoPros or Smart phones to sophisticated film production companies more used to making content for TV.

Google's preference for video and its effect on your page ranking has however absolutely nothing to do with how good your video is. It's an algorithm formulated to a logic that calculates and ranks the value of your video based on how well it meets those logic-based Google tick boxes which have absolutely nothing to do with how beautiful or even relevant your video might be.

However, your audience is only interested in whether your website video is relevant to them. The more entertaining and informative it is the more likely they will be to watch it to the end. The more engaging it is the more likely that your visitor will dwell on your website and take some form of positive action as a result.

Having good quality video content is important but it's not going to help you get a high page rank on Google if this is all you do and this is why I'm writing this.

Who is making sure that you are getting the maximum SEO benefit from your web video?

Do you know what boxes Google likes to see ticked? Does your website designer / web master understand and are they happy to undertake this work as a part of their brief? Perhaps you have opted to engage a Search Engine Optimisation specialist for this task and is online video SEO something they understand?

If you believe that your web video producer is providing this then think again. My experience is that few appear to understand that the inclusion of a few basic elements in the service they offer will make a significant difference to your potential page ranking.

• Stick it on YouTube with a title that reflects the title of your web page.
• Your YouTube video description should be preceded with your full URL.
• The YouTube description should also contain all the keywords you are using on your web page.
• The TAGs should be completed to match the keywords in your title and description.

The above list is a bare minimum and will provide some effect but if you "go the whole hog" and max out using your video to help get a high Google page rank then the results can be startling as we found when we checked the progress of an experiment we recorded last year.

A progress check last week showed that our Video SEO Benefits exercise titled Googling Gecco is producing a double page one listing for the key words "Somerset Builder" despite our belief that it may have been penalised by Google's latest changes to its search criteria. Yes two page one references!!!

So we know that web video is an incredibly powerful online marketing tool but that its success in this respect has more to do with what you do with it after it has been produced than the video itself.

If you feel that you're not getting the value you were led to believe you would get from investing in a video for your website then perhaps it's time to take a closer look at your supplier and question whether they just make nice videos rather than one that provides a service that aims to achieve an effect for your investment.

Is Talking to a Crowd Easier than to Camera?

Video testimonials and case studies have huge value as a marketing tool, are simple to acquire and should be easy to produce.

Yet my experience is that most people find talking to a video camera makes them feel self conscious, uncomfortable, awkward and anxious. Why should this be the case? After all, if you don't like what has been recorded, it can be deleted. 

What you see on the screen is neither remarkable or unusual.  It is no more than everyone else sees every time you meet them.

Yet there appears to be a natural aversion to the whole talking to camera experience. It causes mouths to dry, palms to sweat and exaggerated unnatural behaviours to unfold even when the interviewee is a confident and regular public speaker.

In my view the key to gathering natural content is to take the time to just have a chat. 

Video content that is recorded during the course of a structured conversation, about a subject that the interviewee knows inside out, helps to remove some of the stress. The most usable content tends to be recorded towards the end of the conversation when the interviewee has relaxed and the questions posed have already been more formally answered. 

It also helps if the recording equipment has been chosen for its small size rather than to impress and one accepts that, provided the audio recording is good, then the lighting of the subject can be less than perfect.

This is in part due to my belief that the real power behind video is in its ability to provide visual reference in support of what is being said by the speaker. Without the combination of the two then one might as well use a Podcast that frees the listener's imagination to provide the visual tapestry. 

Acquiring visual references to support and reinforce a story can not always be practical but it should be the "Gold Standard" one always tries to achieve. Budgets permitting. ;-)

I recently provided the following testimonial for Sparkol whose software I use. It was filmed and produced by Nick Jones, a young film maker whose work I like.

Web Video : I finally got it up at the weekend.

Web Video : I finally got it up at the weekend.: Our NEW website that is!!! It has taken far longer than I had planned, but then, what doesn't!! The one thing I have learned from the w...

I finally got it up at the weekend.

Our NEW website that is!!!

It has taken far longer than I had planned, but then, what doesn't!!

The one thing I have learned from the whole process is a renewed respect for all you website construction peeps who develop nice sites because doing it ourselves has proved to be such a mammoth task.

OK. So my objectives from the start were to have a site that was noticeably different. I wanted to have a website that allowed me to do what I have been telling everyone else they should be doing, but there lies the nub of the problem I found myself facing.

I've been using a "What You See Is What You Get" piece of website design and build software to produce simple pages with video embedded in them for client discussion for years. I felt that I had become quite adept with it and so set about building the new site with a spiders scrawl mind map for a plan and the conviction that it needed to:

A)  have a variety of engaging video content on it
B)  use this video to communicate what we do and how we are different
C)  provide a useful resource for visitors and not just be a sales platform.

I'm no fan of traditional "show reels" on video company websites. I've no doubt that they have their place within the mainstream film industry but have little relevance to the production and consumption of video on the internet, where value for money and getting a return on the investment are the key drivers.

Web video for business is all about understanding your market, what your message should be and finding the simplest way to communicate it both effectively and memorably at a realistic cost.

The reason our new website took so long to complete was in part down to the number of animations we needed to produce to describe and communicate our message effectively.