How to use video in the engineering sector – 5 steps for B2B marketers

25th November 2014

You’ve just been briefed to communicate about a new product for the engineering market. Armed with 100 plus pages of technical and complex documentation, how do you begin to develop an engaging marketing campaign which drives sales?

One starting point is to consider the most effective medium to use.  At some point in the process you will need to talk detail, but to start with you will probably want to cover top line messages and create an emotional connection with people. An excellent way to do this is with a promotional corporate video, which can make it easier to tell your stories more effectively. We often work with marketing professionals just like you get higher ROI through video marketing. From my experience of working with engineering brands, here are 5 steps to help you leverage the power of video…

1 Why video?

Video allows brands to communicate complex information in a way that builds trust and is easily digestible. Showing the product in action trumps telling. If you’re reading this article, you’re probably one of the 73% of marketers who are placing video above other tactics, but here are just a few compelling stats to share in the boardroom:

– Visitors dwell on websites 2 minutes longer

– 56X increased Google search rankings

– 65% of execs visit a website after watching a video*

2 Know your audience

The customer is at the heart of all successful brands. Therefore we start by asking your engineering firm to think about what your audience wants and communicate that to them. Why would they buy your product? How is it adding value? The engineers in your company may want to stress a particular feature, but we need to help you as a marketer to pick out the primary selling points visually which will impact on the buying decision-makers.

The video is another stage in the conversations you’re having with your audience(s) about your brand and products or services. To celebrate the anniversary of UT Boat, the marine division of Rolls Royce ran the “Ship that launched a thousand stories” campaign. They did not just tell their audience what to think, they asked them to share their stories too.

As Markus Keiper, executive vice president of global marketing, communications and CRM said in B2B Marketing Magazine, “An anniversary alone isn’t enough [of an excuse for a campaign]. You must have a great story to go with it, and it must be relevant to the customer.”

Video leads in this multichannel campaign to pull viewers into the stories, encourage them to get involved,.and find out more information on the products

3 Get creative

Now, let’s get creative. We always start with a session to decide the kind of video which would work most effectively to communicate with an audience at their stage in the buying cycle, and the stories that need telling. Is it on the logical or the emotional side?

Even in B2B there are emotional motivators that will trigger your audience into a reaction. Understanding this is key to success, are they looking for a solution so they can look good in the market, are they worried they may miss out on opportunities, or do they simply want an easy life.   Once you know that you can find creative ways to address it.

One example that I always give here is for Taulia.  Now, no disrespect to them, but their electronic invoicing software is dull dull dull.  But that’s not stopped them identifying an emotional driver that their audiences care will care about and making some great content to bring it to life.

 

4 How long should your video be?

There will always be exceptions, but generally judge the length of your video by the stage in the buying cycle of your audience segment. Once you’ve piqued their curiosity, you can follow up with more. Your content needs to work hard for the privilege of sharing all that detailed information with your audience.

At the initial stages, first and foremost your video needs to spark interest. As a quick guide, if your video is going to be around 1 minute long, cut it to 00:00:59s – it will get watched more and you didn’t need those extra few seconds anyway.

Then you can follow up with in-depth content where you can shine with facts, figures and specifications, white papers and technical specs, or even further video content.

For Geo Kingsbury we created two films** – one which showed the benefits of the product at the awareness-raising stage of the buying cycle and then another at the consideration stage, which revealed further information. In the first film, we stressed the key selling point for the audience – that the lathe was quicker, and would save time and money. This connected with the audience, and they wanted more. Subsequently, in the second video, we filled in the details about why the part was faster. Find out more here.

5   Market and measure

As marketers, we have a whole host of analytics at our fingertips, and it’s essential to take advantage of them. These metrics allow us to improve campaigns on an ongoing basis and hopefully prove your worth to the business. Be clear about what you are trying to achieve at the start of the project so that you’re measuring the right things – views, time watched, signups, website visits or shares.

If you have questions about how video marketing can help market engineering products, do contact us on the details below.

– Call us: 01179 240773

– Send us an email: info@hurricanemedia.co.uk

– Tweet us: @hurricanemedia

*The videos for Geo Kingsbury were made in collaboration with Shere Marketing.

By Jon Mowat

 

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