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Video accelerates in B2B, converting better than other content types

by | Nov 17, 2017 | Public Relations

New research from new-generation business video platform Vidyard finds that the use of video within marketing teams is rapidly accelerating, with a significant growth in the number of sales teams now also using video.

For the fourth straight year, Vidyard partnered with marketing research and advisory firm Demand Metric to publish The 2017 State of Video Marketing report. Based on research conducted with B2B marketing and sales teams across a wide range of markets and company sizes, this year’s results reveal some important findings.

Video creation remains a priority as usage rapidly increases

For the fourth consecutive year, over 90 percent of study participants report that video is becoming more important as a form of marketing content within their businesses. The percentage of participants that report that video converts better than other content types have averaged 71 percent over the four years of this study, with video remaining the favored content type. The most commonly produced video continues to be Product videos, produced by 63 percent of the organizations surveyed.

As businesses continue to create videos, budgets are following. This year, 90 percent of study participants reported having the same or a growing video budget. The usage of video across websites, social media, landing pages and sales conversations has increased year-over-year, with the volume of videos produced annually increasing to an average of 38 videos, up 31 percent from 29 last year. Today, only seven percent of study participants rely exclusively on third-party production for video creation with 93 percent having some type of video creation production capabilities in-house.

“Marketers today need little convincing that video is a powerful content form. By every measure — lead creation, conversions, SERP ranking, time on page, likes, shares and any other form of engagement—video’s power to inform and persuade is unmatched,” says Jeff Loeb, CMO at Vidyard, in a news release. “With the rise of new-generation video platforms, marketing and sales teams are using video to drive more qualified leads, cut through the noise, and accelerate pipeline.”

Video accelerates in B2B, converting better than other content types

The role of video is expanding from marketing to sales

Thirty-seven percent of sales teams are now using video throughout the sales cycle and 23 percent are now creating their own video content, both measures are up more than 50 percent from the previous year.

There has been a two-fold increase in the number of survey respondents who report using video as part of their account-based marketing (ABM) strategy. More companies today (37 percent) use video as part of their sales conversion process, up from 25 percent last year. Video creation within sales departments is also on the rise with the introduction of new tools. Results indicate that 23 percent of sales teams are creating more of their own video content this year, up from just 15 percent in 2016. Usage of video viewing data by sales teams to qualify, engage or influence deals is also up 13 percent year-over-year which indicates that video has become more accessible and desirable for personalized communications.

Video accelerates in B2B, converting better than other content types

Video is becoming more integrated with business systems

Integrating video viewing data into marketing automation platforms (MAP) or customer relationship management platforms (CRM) like Salesforce, Marketo, Eloqua, Hubspot, and others enable marketing and sales teams to monitor and track video usage metrics. In 2017, 45 percent of marketers reported having integrated video viewing data within these applications, up from 30 percent each of the last two years. The percentage of organizations that have integrated video viewing data—and are exploiting it—with key sales and marketing systems jumped from 13 to 20 percent this year.

Download the report here.

Video accelerates in B2B, converting better than other content types

Over 70 percent of this study’s participants were in marketing roles in B2B or mixed B2B/B2C organizations that reported revenue growth in the most recently completed fiscal year. All of the organizations that participated in this study are using video in their sales and marketing efforts. Agencies and studios were disqualified from contributing to the study.

Richard Carufel
Richard Carufel is editor of Bulldog Reporter and the Daily ’Dog, one of the web’s leading sources of PR and marketing communications news and opinions. He has been reporting on the PR and communications industry for over 17 years, and has interviewed hundreds of journalists and PR industry leaders. Reach him at richard.carufel@bulldogreporter.com; @BulldogReporter

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