Tag: technology solution marketing

 

Take advantage of these 2017 B2B Video Marketing Trends

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2017 B2B Video Marketing Trends open up new opportunities for increasing customer engagement and improving the customer experience.
The trends in video open up a number of new moves to use video to create more customer engagement in 2017.

In a recent post I wrote about three B2B Video Marketing Trends I’ll be watching for in 2017.

  1. More conversational. Less advertorial.
  2. More formats
  3. More app-like

Actually, I’ll be doing more than watching. I’ll be working with clients to find ways to take advantage of these B2B video marketing trends. All three lead toward more engagement and a better customer experience. And that’s where all business is headed.

More conversational. Less advertorial.

This is in line with the trend toward a “video-first world,”  as envisioned by Mark Zuckerberg.   The more pervasive personal video streaming and messages become, the less relevant categories such as webinar, slideshare, explainer, tutorial, and commercial become. Video is simply part of the sales conversation.

Here are three things you can do in 2017 to make videos that are more engaging:

  • Get subject matter experts to record answers to frequently asked questions instead of making presentations. Add titles and graphics.
  • Record Skype conversations with customers.
  • Add video animations or slides to SME blog posts

More formats

Did you know that vertical video ads on Snapchat have up to 9 times more completed views than horizontal video ads? With more and more video being viewed on mobile devices, is makes sense that people aren’t going to want to turn their phones horizontal to view every video that comes along.  If you’re just trying to explain a value proposition and or teach a customer something useful, there’s no compelling reason to do it sideways.

In fact, one could argue that turning your phone sideways detracts from the customer experience. The vertical format favored by 200 million Snapchat users  will become increasingly relevant as more web videos are viewed inline on iOS devices, courtesy of Apple’s iOS 10.

It’s certainly not difficult to record videos in portrait mode. Or to edit in graphics and animations. Give it try. Put some on your FAQ page. Re-use on Snapchat.

More app-like

Here’s an example of a video that’s feels a bit more like an app than a video, simply because it allows the viewer to manipulate it.

 

Top explainer marketing videos work by reducing “cognitive load”

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top explainer marketing videosWhy consider cognitive psychology’s theory of “cognitive load” when you are trying to produce top explainer marketing videos? We’re currently starting work on an overview video where the objective is to help re-position a well-established software brand. The company has crafted a positioning statement comprising a dozen discrete concepts that, taken together, convey what the company stands for, who should use their software, what it does for them, and why they’ll like using it.

Consider cognitive load when you’re designing top explainer marketing videos

It’s natural to think that an overview should present a complete picture, and that the task in this instance is simply to make sure that our video ticks all the boxes in the positioning document. This should not be difficult, as the positioning statement uses only about 80 words to express the ideas the company wants to put across.

On the other hand, these ideas are supposed to get viewers to look at the company in a new way — in other words, we’re asking viewers to learn something new. Asking them to learn a dozen new things is asking quite a lot.

Learning is a matter of processing information in “working memory” to fit existing patterns (schema) by which it can be stored in long-term memory. Our working memory is pretty limited, so it’s important not to overload it.

Total “cognitive load” consists of:

  • the complexity of the information itself (“intrinsic load”), plus
  • the amount of information that is not relevant to learning — decorative elements, non-relevant animations, etc. (“extraneous load”), plus
  • elements like examples and exercises that assist information processing (“germane load”)

 

eLearning insights improve technology marketing videos

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eLearning insights improve technology marketing videos

Think about how your videos transfer knowledge — instead of how they represent your solution. It’s good exercise and will make your videos stand out.

We’ve specialized in writing and producing short videos to support technology sales for many years. Now that we’ve entered the Age of Bite-Size Learning, we find that we can take advantage of learnings from the eLearning community to help sharpen our focus and develop new approaches.

Light bulb moments

Bite-size learning is analogous to high-intensity exercise, which has been shown to produce better results faster than endurance training. People learn in short bursts — light bulb moments — better than they do by continuous effort, because concentration is hard to maintain. How many light bulb moments can be crammed into a short video?