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.