Video Marketing Increasing - Tips on B2B Videos

Great article today in eMarketer on Video Marketing. The article talks about how online video marketing and advertising is increasing, except in B2B. They concluded that the biggest factor in B2B video marketing is the lack of audio in the office.

I’m sure you’ve seen all types of videos online. To me, the most annoying ones are the ones that pop-up automatically and can’t be turned off. Last week I was on several conference calls and during the conversion we were going to various Websites. One conversation in particular was regarding vendor selection. A particular vendor had a pop-up person.

At first glance having the person pop-up with audio looked interesting. The more interesting ones are when the person appears to be walking in from behind your Web page. It seemed clever to have someone tell you about the Website and company so you don’t have to read. However, during the second visit they become absolutely annoying, especially when you can’t turn them off.

That’s what happened to us during the conference call. In fact, what ended up happening is that we had to leave the site completely and in doing so the vendor dropped off our list. Of course, that’s the worse case scenario and I’ve seen reports where these pop-up people actually increase ROI – but wait, now that I think about it, the reports are always from the video producer – mmmm. We’ll have to do more research on this and get back to you.

Back to the video for B2B marketers. The pop-up audio people or “talking head” videos are not the only method used in when utilizing video. However, the article to us pointed out the obvious. You need subtitles on B2B videos. We’re producing videos for our clients and while the best version of the video is with the voice over, a viewer will be able to get the main points of the video without the sound.

In the article, they state that videos with subtitles were watched 91% to completion, compared with 66% to completion for those without subtitles. While we didn’t have the research to back us up we know how annoying unexpected sound can be in the office. It happens in our office too many times and takes everyone else off task. Plus, we know that many businesses do not have audio available to workers at the office. Its great to have the research data back-up our conclusions. Of course, many graphic artist do not prefer to have text obstruct their work, but just like a Website you must blend form and function with results driven marketing wining every time.