Three Myths About Online Video for B2B Companies

One common trend among business owners who are marketing to other businesses is that they tend to focus on more traditional forms of marketing. They don’t take video as seriously, which is typically due to some commonly-held myths that we want to address.

B2B video is a huge missed opportunity because when people think of online videos, they think of viral cat videos; but B2B video actually makes a lot of sense for businesses.

Myth #1: People don’t watch online videos about business.

When you bring up the idea of online video, you’re usually fighting against the perception that YouTube is just full of makeup tutorials, viral videos, and vlogs by random teenagers. While YouTube has plenty of those, there’s a large amount of serious content on there as well. After all, it is the second largest search engine out there. 

Business decision makers are out there watching online content and looking for B2B videos. 54% of executives share videos with colleagues on at least a weekly basis and 65% of executives have visited a vendor’s site after watching a video. While we typically imagine decision makers as people who are thoroughly researching reports related to their industry–in reality, they’re busy. Really busy. And busy people like the convenience of being able to watch a quick video rather than read pages of text.

Myth #2: Video is too simple to get your message across. 

The first thing we want to point out is that just because video is simple to watch, doesn’t mean videos are simplistic. Great video takes a whole lot of pre-production and concept development. Clients give us a ton of information that we then have to sort through and figure out how to deliver the most important points in a way that their audience will respond to.

Video is such a dense and sophisticated medium. The relationship between on-screen imagery and a voice-over gives a huge opportunity to develop your brand’s voice, make subtle points, and even add humor. Video can act on multiple emotional and information levels simultaneously and that’s how it is able to deliver such high conversion rates. 

Myth #3: Professional videos are too expensive.

As technology advances, production pricing in the industry is slowly decreasing, and more and more professionals can get great videos to market. But other than video becoming more affordable, there is another point to consider. Video is not a one time thing. Most business owners don’t realize that the video they invest in can be used over and over again.

Once your business pays for the video, it’s yours. It can be shared multiple times and earn impressions online. It can be put in emails, used in presentations, displayed at conventions–opportunities are almost endless. 

Traditional printed advertising (brochures, newsletters, etc.) have to continuously be reprinted, which costs more money. Long-term use of a video is free and it continues to work for you, unlike pamphlets that end up in the trash. A good video that has driven online engagement and built up an audience and credibility on a site like YouTube gives lasting, long-term exposure benefits.