B2B Video Guide: 8 Must-Dos (and 2 Don’ts) for Success

Want to start making B2B videos? Get expert advice and practical tips.

Want to start creating B2B videos? Or perhaps you’ve already started making videos, but you’d like to hear some tips from seasoned digital marketing professionals?

You’re in the right place.

Whether you work for a big brand, a small business or yourself, creating a video marketing strategy is a great way to connect customers with your product or service.

In this post, we’ll be providing a recap of a webinar where three industry professionals got together to share their advice about making videos. Their list of Do’s and Don’ts are based on each of their learnings through years of experience making videos in the B2B space.

Prefer video? Check out our webinar.

Must-dos for B2B video success

Do: Think like a TV network

Stop random acts of video.

Often, when it comes to B2B video marketing, people are making one-offs. Perhaps creating one video for social media. And maybe later, one for their website, etc., without a system, sequence, or plan.

Jay advises, instead, to develop a series and produce videos consistently, like a show.

Here’s an example from his YouTube channel:

This ongoing, consistent approach will help you get better as a creator, and also help your audience with brand recognition and allow you to make a bigger impact as you go-to-market with your video content.

Do: Set up consistently

If you are producing video consistently, and this is especially true if you are doing multiple episodes of a show, it’s important to keep your set up consistent, so that the end result is consistent.

Similar lighting, audio, and editing techniques will give you a cohesive look and feel throughout your content.

This, again, helps with branding in general, so that your audience can easily recognize you. Andy shared his own consistent set up in the photo below, noting that he’s actually since swapped the DSLR camera for a webcam.

Do: State the premise immediately

When your audience clicks on your video, the first thing they’ll do is make a judgment about whether or not to keep watching. This is especially true if your brand is new to them.

At TechSmith, our research found that the number one reason people stop watching a video is that it doesn’t provide the information they were looking for.

It’s important to do this within the first few seconds of your B2B video (this is true for podcasts as well).

Kerry advises immediately demonstrating that the video will be well-produced, with polished footage (or other visuals) and audio, while hinting at the most compelling aspect of the content itself.

Illustrate the relevance to your audience.

This will let people know the content is relevant and help keep them engaged for the duration of your video.

Do: Keep it short

Most marketing videos should be 2 minutes or less–according to research from Vidyard. This is at least true for higher-in-the-funnel, awareness-type videos.

The majority of users we surveyed prefer informational and instructional videos to be between 3-6 minutes.

People don’t have attention to spare, and if they don’t yet know your brand, they don’t know why they should pay attention to you and care. The appropriate length will depend on where someone is in the customer journey, though.

Once they’ve entered the consideration phase, at that point, your videos can typically be longer since you’re past the point of capturing their interest.

However, you need to plan ahead and continually test and monitor your results to see what works for you.

Do: Use captions

You should use captions with your videos whenever possible. The most important reason for this is so that your content is accessible to anyone who may have a hearing impairment.

There are some additional reasons to use captions, though. They are helpful when you are posting your B2B videos on social media because most people are watching on their mobile devices with the sound turned off.

Andy says this makes your videos a “thumb-stopper” and gives people a reason to turn the sound on.

He has an entire blog post he wrote which goes into captioning for social media more in-depth. Additionally, uploading captions can help make your content more findable by Google and other search engines.

Do: Spice it up with annotations and transitions

When it comes to spicing up your B2B video with annotations, transitions, and other simple edits, Jay shared that Camtasia makes this very simple, since all the effects are drag-n-drop.

Kerry shared that she is a self-taught video creator and that she leveraged the Camtasia tutorials to become fluent.

She relies on arrows and text annotations, to maximize knowledge transfer, and make sure that her message lands with her audience, and explained that the visual reinforcement is key to getting your point across.

Do: Add tracking URLs

Use a URL builder to create a unique link, so that you can understand where traffic that you send back to your website is coming from.

This will help you understand the effectiveness of your B2B video, and that there are dozens of these tools available online.

Andy has had lots of success with video on social media but said he wouldn’t know that if he didn’t add campaign tracking codes to the link.

This is applicable if you are using clickable links in your video (in Camtasia, these are called HotSpots), or in the copy that surrounds your YouTube video, this could be in the description box below the video. Or in the link you include alongside your video on Facebook.

Then, you can review results within Google Analytics, and you’ll be able to attribute your video efforts for the traffic it drives.

Do: Track results and tweak accordingly

This builds off the previous point, but in addition to monitoring traffic to your site from any links associated with your video, review other video metrics like video views, engagement, etc.

Regardless if you are new to video in general, or if this is a new type of video series, the first few that you share will give you a starting point.

Think of it as an experiment. Then, based on your results, you can determine areas you’d like to improve, and then plan different approaches you may be able to take to drive those desired improvements. As you track your results, you’ll either win or learn.

This wraps up the list of things you should Do as you create B2B videos. Now, on to the Don’ts!

Don’t: Get discouraged

It takes time and repetition to drive results with video.

And like anything else, you’ll continue to get better at it with practice–faster and more effective. And the ROI will increase because you’ll get to a point where it’s less experimentation and more of a process.

Don’t: Be intimidated about the DIY video process

Most people start making videos not knowing at all what they are doing. And that’s okay. You don’t have to be some sort of video production wizard to make a good video. According to Jay, you just have to dive in and be comfortable that you are going to learn it.

The more you do it, the better you’ll get.

Know that you absolutely can do it. Allow yourself to be a beginner, keep at it, and enjoy the process!

If you’re struggling to find ideas for your videos here is a quick list to help get you started making great videos:

• Explainer video
• Demo video
• Customer success video (aka success story)
• Tutorial video
• Training video
• How-to video
• Presentation recording
• Social media video

B2B video creation next steps

We hope you’ve found this list from some of the top B2B marketers helpful. Whether you’re completely new to video creation, or you’ve made a few videos on your own, and want to continue to improve.

If you need video creation software, be sure to check out Camtasia–you can download a free trial to test it out. Camtasia is easy-to-use and intuitive to learn. Plus, there are instructional tutorials available to help guide you along, and free tech support if you need help.