What B2B Marketers Need To Know About Video

In case you hadn’t noticed, video has quickly taken over the Internet, and with it dramatically changed the behaviors of modern buyers. And this is a great thing for modern marketers.

Cisco projects that video will comprise 79 percent of all Internet traffic by 2020. Meanwhile, 72 percent of B2B buyers now watch video content throughout their entire path to purchase with nearly half of those viewing 30 minutes or more while researching a company. It makes perfect sense: video is a powerful medium. For viewers, it’s enjoyable to watch and easier to consume and retain. For marketers, it’s the best way to connect with audiences in a personal and emotional way. That makes it powerful not only for brand awareness and advertising but also for educating, engaging and converting audiences.

As part of our multichannel marketing strategy, we’ve produced more than 1,000 videos, which now generate roughly 2 million viewing minutes per year. We partner with Vidyard to help us centrally manage our video content, track the viewing activities of each contact within Oracle Eloqua, and analyze the impact of each video.

Today, video is one of our highest opportunity influencers, but it took some work to get here. Here’s what we did:

Step #1 – Organizing and categorizing our video collection

We started by categorizing our video assets to get a better handle on what we already had. We split ours by type, including events, webinars, user conferences and a general category to catch everything else. Then we got rid of videos that weren’t helping or were no longer being used. We created a formula accounting for the number of recent views, the value and quality of the content, and the age of the video. Videos that didn’t get a high enough score were archived so we could focus on the content that really mattered.

Step #2 – Adopting a modern video platform to optimize results

We adopted a video marketing platform that made it easy to manage, publish, track and measure our video content. This was a key step to building a data-driven video marketing strategy. In addition to making it easier for the team to manage our growing library, we now had access to relevant insights on the performance of each video asset and the engagement patterns of our viewers. By integrating this data into Oracle Eloqua, we could generate new insights on which content was resonating with which segments, and which videos were influencing the most pipeline.

Step #3 – Developing a cohesive content strategy for video

We started with a simple approach. We prioritized our top two buyer personas – developers and operators – and created video content aimed at early- and late-stage buyers in each persona category to help with awareness, interest, education and decision-making. Then we continued to build out our library to ensure that we had video content to address key topics at each stage of the buying journey for each main persona. During this process it’s critical to build a plan, set some dates, and stay focused on content delivery.

Step #4 – Finding the balance between generating awareness and generating leads

We aimed for 80 percent brand awareness and opportunity progression, and 20 percent new lead generation, which helped us determine which content to gate. We distributed different content via email, social channels, landing pages and our core website and made sure all were viewable on any device and available in multiple languages.

The Results

Focusing on the right content while combining our video platform and marketing automation system has led to smarter marketing and better demand generation results. Now we know who watches our videos, which content is most relevant to particular segments and which videos generate ROI.

And I’m happy to say that MongoDB is not alone in this journey. Our friends at Vidyard just shared how more than 100 Oracle Eloqua users are now using viewer engagement data and video marketing insights to make smarter decisions and achieve great results. Given the latest market data on the importance of video for both buyers and brands, I have no doubt this trend will only continue.

It's All About the Leads

Using video is a great way to generate leads. However when those leads don’t convert to sales, you can’t afford to abandon those prospects. You need to nurture these leads with information aligned to their stage in the buying process. 

And to learn just how to do that and more, download the Lead Nurturing Guide for Modern Marketers.

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