“Turn the company into an expert brand, and become the trusted resource for your ideal customers.” It’s the favorite marketing strategy of Dave Gerhardt, founder of B2B marketing community Exit Five, and one we wholeheartedly stand behind. Gerhardt mentions creativity as one of the key elements in this strategy and HoneyStack as an example of a company that stands out because of its creative use of B2B video marketing. This analytics SaaS has built an entire streaming platform that educates, nurtures, and converts B2B marketers.
It’s a great example of video done well, but if you don’t have a B2B video marketing strategy yet, the idea of creating something so elaborate can be daunting.
Luckily, you don’t have to. Follow the steps in this article to put together your strategy and figure out what type of video content to create, and where to publish it.
Table of Contents
Why Consider B2B Video Marketing for Your SaaS?
A great benefit of video over written content is that it allows you to share more information in a shorter time. Videos are often also easier to consume on mobile than long text is and can convey and induce emotion more easily.
Offering both audio and visual input, video is great at conveying and inducing emotions in an engaging way. It’s often also easier to consume on mobile than long texts are. This means that video lets you captivate a user more quickly, bringing them into your brand’s universe.
Once they’re there, video helps you visualize and explain what your product is about more clearly and comprehensively than text usually can. Instead of having to read how your software works, users can see it in action.
But what about reaching those users?
Social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram have increasingly favored video over static images and text posts over the last few years and it doesn’t seem like that trend will change any time soon. Even Google is showing more videos in the SERPs, ranking them on Page 1 and quite often near the top of the page.
B2B video marketing doesn’t just serve lead generation. It also offers a way to nurture your current leads and customers and support them with, for example, explainer videos and new feature demos. By adding videos to your feature, product, or landing pages, you can increase the time visitors spend on your site.
Lastly, video helps you build a multi-dimensional brand. On top of the font, color palette, and word voice that text brings, video adds movement and sound, truly allowing you to showcase your brand personality.
Developing Your B2B Video Marketing Strategy
For your B2B video marketing to be effective, you need to develop and follow a clear strategy. And as is so often the case in marketing, that strategy starts with your ideal customer.
Define your B2B video target audience
As for every type of marketing strategy, you need to define who your videos will be targeting.
- Your entire target audience or just a segment?
- Prospects who find themselves in the discovery and awareness stage or leads who just need that final push to buy?
It’s possible to target different segments of your audience with different types of videos and even through different channels but you do need to know who you want to reach. It’s better to directly address a certain segment of your audience and make them feel like a video was made just for them than to create something general for “everyone” and miss the chance to make an impression.
Set goals and a budget
Once you’ve defined your audience, it’s time to set specific goals for your video marketing campaigns. Your goal will highly influence what kind of videos you’ll be making. If you’re looking to generate awareness, it makes more sense to launch a marketing video that introduces your brand and its core offer. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to bring leads deeper down into your funnel, a series of case study videos showing how your product has helped other customers would be a better fit.
Start with a video marketing campaign that addresses your most urgent need (for example, generating more leads), and then further develop your video marketing strategy to include a balanced mix of top-of-the-funnel (ToFu), middle-of-the-funnel (MoFu), and bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFu) video content.
Now, aside from your audience, another thing to take into account when setting your video marketing goal is your budget. Nowadays, mobile phones carry amazing cameras and there are plenty of affordable video tools out there. You don’t need a huge video budget to produce an effective marketing video.
That being said, you will need to invest time into mastering different film techniques and editing, or you can outsource one or both of these tasks to a freelancer or agency.
Choose your channels
As mentioned, a lot of social networks nowadays favor video over text posts. Facebook, Instagram, X (I’ll never stop wanting to call it Twitter), and even LinkedIn push videos on their feeds. However, that doesn’t mean you should be present on all of these channels.
Now that you know who you’re targeting and what your budget is, you can figure out where these people consume video content and thus where you should focus your video content distribution efforts.
For most SaaS, it’s a good idea to start with and stick to one channel until you know whether it’s working for your brand or not. This allows you to optimize your video strategy – and results – for that channel and prevents you from spreading your resources too thin.
To get you started, here are some of the channels to consider:
- YouTube
- X
- TikTok
And of course, you can also embed your videos on your website to support your copy and keep the reader on the page for longer. Or, you can distribute bottom-of-the-funnel videos such as demos of new features or explainer videos to your email list.
Have a consistent publication frequency
When publishing videos on social networks such as LinkedIn and Instagram, it’s important to stick to a consistent publication schedule. That way, your audience knows when to expect new content from you.
Following a set schedule also allows for easier A/B testing. Especially when you’re just getting started with video marketing, you’ll need to figure out which posting days and times work best for you and your audience.
Pick style and format
The style and format you create videos in will depend highly on
- Their goal.
- Their target audience.
- Their distribution channel.
An explainer video that tries to convince warmed-up leads to buy will look very different than a marketing video that aims to raise brand awareness among potential customers in the discovery stage. We’ll go into different types of marketing videos further down this post.
Aside from the (style of the) contents of your video, you’ll also need to think about:
- Its length: short, relatively short, or long?
- Its format: vertical or horizontal?
- Its dimensions and file size
A horizontal clip won’t do well on TikTok while uploading a vertical video to YouTube means you’re wasting a lot of video real estate.
Include a clear CTA
Just like with blog content, your videos need a clear CTA to move a lead further down the funnel. Here are just a few examples of CTAs for videos that target leads at different stages of the buyer’s journey:
- For TOFU videos: CTA to read a whitepaper, check out a feature page, read a blog post, opt into your newsletter, or even sign up for a free trial.
- For MOFU videos: CTA to read the full case study on your website, opt into the newsletter, check out your different pricing plans, or sign up for a free trial.
- For TOFU content, CTA to sign up, book a demo, or get in touch.
Repurpose your video content
Get the most out of the video content you create by repurposing it. If you’ve recorded a webinar, you can publish it in its entirety on YouTube and cut it up into shorter clips for – for example – LinkedIn and Instagram.
You could also:
- Turn customer testimonial videos into video ads.
- Turn webinars and workshops into teaser videos.
- Turn product demo videos into animated GIFs to support blog posts.
and more.
Track and analyze
To know whether your video strategy is working, it’s important to track and analyze your results. Key metrics to keep an eye on are your video click-through rate and conversion rate.
Depending on your video distribution channels, you can also track metrics such as engagement (likes, shares, comments) and the average time people spend watching your videos.
A/B test everything
Once you have some initial data, you can start A/B testing to figure out what resonates most with your audience. This doesn’t just mean experimenting with different types of videos but also with the days and times you publish and the captions or copy that accompany your videos.
Examples of B2B Marketing Videos
There are many types of marketing videos you can create to promote your SaaS. Here are a few ideas to start experimenting with.
Educational videos to generate leads
Real Estate platform Mosaik worked with the fabulous ümault B2B video ad agency to create this educational brand introduction video. It visually addresses the pain points real estate agents need to deal with and presents Mosaik as the answer to those problems.
In the video, real estate agents can literally see how Mosaik works and how it would make their lives easier. On top of that, the video demonstrates how Mosaik users have happier clients and run their businesses in a much more relaxed way.
Another great example of a brand introduction video that showcases the product is this ad Sandwich made for video editing software Descript. In the video, it’s as if Descript’s target customers are having a conversation with the narrator who shows them exactly how Descript will make it easy for them to edit the video content.
The back-and-forth between the different users and the narrator keeps the video engaging and makes it easy for the viewer to place themselves in the shoes of the users in the video.
Live videos for engagement
Adding a face to your brand can be a great way to stand out, especially in the SaaS landscape. Founders with a social media presence are the obvious ones to get in front of the camera, but perhaps you have a Head of Marketing or even a Social Media Manager who can connect directly with your audience through your channels.
While you do need to know what you’ll be talking about and how, live videos can be a great way to quickly get some video content out there while connecting and engaging with your target customers.
Here are a few ideas to try:
- A Q&A about a new product feature.
- A Q&A with the founder.
- A live product demonstration.
- A behind-the-scenes during a team retreat or other special event.
And of course, all of these live videos can be recorded to be repurposed afterward.
Thought leadership videos to build authority
If you want to increase your brand’s authority and trustworthiness, thought leadership videos are a great idea. In the video above, Flow SEO founder Viola Eva addresses how AI is reshaping the search landscape. By doing so, she demonstrates her knowledge of the topic.
Another great example is how Refine Labs CEO Chris Walker was quick to start using TikTok for B2B marketing purposes. Some of his videos have gone viral, with one of them getting more than 703,000 views.
Thought leadership videos also give your clients a feel of what it would be like to work with you and are a good way to demonstrate your values and opinions as a brand.
Case study and testimonial videos for persuasion
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more
At first glance, this video seems like an advertisement for Barclays but after a while, you realize that it’s a soft case study video that demonstrates how Barclays uses Salesforce to communicate and engage better with its customers.
It’s only in the second half of the video that Salesforce is mentioned and that we get to see, very subtly, how brokers can use Salesforce on their phones to engage with Barclays. The only people talking in the video are people from Barclays, adding a testimonial aspect to this video as well.
Explanatory videos to keep customers engaged
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more
Once someone has signed up for your SaaS, you want to make sure that they actually use it. One of the ways to do that is by providing videos that show the customer exactly how to do certain things using your tools.
While the above tutorial by Leadfeeder may be a bit dry, it does provide a clear step-by-step guide on how to add the Leadfeeder tracker to your website at a pace that’s easy to follow.
Videos like this prevent your customers from getting frustrated not knowing how to do things using your tool, and they can also be a great support tool for your customer support team to use.
And more
Other types of videos you can create are:
- Brand videos: that show how you operate, what you stand for, and what it’s like behind the scenes.
- Product demos, like this one by Trello, are great for leads who are close to buying and want to make sure your tool is the best one for them.
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more
- Entertaining videos, like this one by HubSpot that only presents its SalesHub product as the tools through which its customers can tell that Q4 has been a great
By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.
Learn more
Finally, video can be a great internal marketing tool as well. Whether your SaaS team is remote or not, creating videos of your yearly retreat, Zoom hangouts, or conference attendances can make everyone feel more connected to each other and your brand.
Create Your Video Marketing Strategy Today
While getting started with video marketing, or making it a more central part of your marketing mix may seem daunting, there are too many great things video can do for your brand not to invest in it. From growing brand awareness to generating leads and nurturing customers, an effective B2B video marketing strategy will positively impact your bottom line.
With more than 3 billion searches performed on YouTube every month, the video platform is the world’s second-largest search engine after Google. That makes it a great place to start your video marketing efforts, and with our YouTube audit checklist, you’ll be ahead of your competitors in no time.
