B2B Marketing with Video

Driving ROI from Awareness to Advocacy

White paper

In the past two years online video has transformed the communications landscape for business marketers. Video is the most compelling communication medium ever created, but before online video, it was largely out of reach for most business-to-business marketers because of the distribution costs. Now all of that is changing.

Introduction
With the explosion of online video adoption in the last two years, savvy marketers are now using video across the customer lifecycle - from market awareness to customer advocacy driving better results and greater return from their online marketing investments.

This whitepaper provides a comprehensive framework with real-world examples of how you can incorporate video into your online marketing mix.

What Youll Learn

What drives Online video Strategic applications of online video across the customer lifecycle Key considerations for video production and publishing Five concrete steps you can take to begin using video

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The Video Imperative

In the last few years, online video has emerged as a critical element of online communication and marketing strategies for business-to-business marketers.

Strategic Use of Online Video

Marketers use video at every stage of the customer lifecycle and it has become a key part of the overall marketing mix. While

Worldwide there are 452 million broadband subscribers and almost every business has a high-speed connection to the Internet. Broadband has made the delivery of video across the Internet possible; now more than 80% of Internet users watch online video regularly.2

every business organizes the lifecycle in different ways, the simplified process illustrated in Figure A is typical of most organizations. At each stage in the lifecycle, marketers deploy tactics to address their customers needs and move them through

When todays business customers visit a website, they expect to find video. If it is not there, they notice that something is missing.

to the next stage.

According to MarketingSherpa, online video is second only to word-of-mouth for its ability to influence decision makers in every stage of the purchase lifecycle. 3 No marketing effort is complete without incorporating online video to drive awareness, leads, customer acquisition and loyalty.

Figure A

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Branding & Awareness

Prospects in the branding and awareness stage are starting to become familiar with your industry and learning about the key players. Online video drives branding and awareness through its ability to capture and engage your audience. With its rich storytelling capabilities, video is one of the most effective brand-building mediums available, and it can be applied in advertising, viral marketing and corporate communications campaigns. DuPont was able to reach key influencers and bloggers using online video aimed at the last several years, new web information sources such as blogs, podcasts and online communities have become highly influential. Online video can be used to reach customers effectively and efficiently through these new online sources.

Video Advertising
Todays world of rich media advertising offers a variety of approaches for incorporating video into online ads. Unlike static banner ads, video ads embedded in web pages or in online video content engage viewers with deeper and richer messages that leave a lasting impression. They can introduce your products and your company to prospects in ways that are impossible with traditional banner ads.

raising awareness of DuPont contributions and building brand value. To achieve these results, they created a series of compelling short videos about their products and scientific innovations, drawing on content from their video archive combined with commentary from a popular blogger. Using Brightcove, the videos were hosted on a DuPont site and distributed to select blogs.

New Media
Purchasers of business technology and services depend on the Web to discover and learn about new products. In

With popular video blogger Amanda Cogdon and archival footage, DuPont took their brand story to key influencers.

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Watch It Now
The DuPont Video Case Study http://www.brightcove.com/customers/

This award-winning video campaign was a huge marketing success. During a relatively short period of time, the campaign drove 2 million impressions, 60,000 video streams, and achieved an average time spent on-site of eight minutes. 93% of viewers said they learned something new, and 61% said they would tell someone else about the videos.

Corporate Communications
Speaking engagements and public relations are extremely important awareness tactics for most businesses. Video can extend the life and impact of these activities by giving you the ability to re-broadcast executive speeches and presentations through your website, raising the profile of your key spokespeople and expanding the viewership of their presentations.

Branding & Awareness Toolbox

Video advertising Viral video campaigns Sponsored content on targeted sites Executive speaking re-broadcast

Developer - Wrench Icon

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Interest & Consideration

During the Interest and Consideration stage of the customer lifecycle, prospects need to be hooked by the benefits of your product and presented with a clear value proposition that will drive them to evaluate more deeply. Many business-to-business products involve extended sales cycles with relatively long periods of customer consideration. The most effective B2B marketers have systematic ways to maintain a relationship with these Online video gives you a way to draw users into your content, bringing your products and services to life. One of the most popular types of video content is on-demand product tours that give the visitor control of in-depth information. Beyond communicating the value proposition, video product tours can utilize in-depth video analytics that will give you insight into which parts of your pitch are resonating the best with prospects and customers. prospects as they move closer to a time when they are ready to enter the evaluation and purchasing stages. These communication strategies usually depend on an exchange of value; the marketer provides valuable information about products and services in exchange for information about the prospect and permission to engage them.

In addition to product tours, Marketers use video to present customer testimonials and introductions to features directly into the content on their website. These short, high-impact videos help to capture customer attention and spark deeper engagement.

Podcasting is one of the most popular approaches to recurring communication with prospects and customers. According to MarketingSherpa, 78% of surveyed business technology executives said that on more than one occasion, they have listened to a technology-related podcast.4

Because of the relatively low production values associated with video podcasts, moving from audio to video can be done in a straightforward way without significantly increasing production costs. Video podcasts
On the Brightcove site, contextual employee videos highlight product benefits and add a personality to the company brand.

draw prospects even more deeply into your content and message, letting you show examples as well as explain them.

Interest & Consideration Toolbox

Video product tours and demos Customer testimonials and case studies Video podcasts
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Evaluation
At the evaluation stage, customers are ready to dive more deeply into their assessment of your product. They are looking for validation and trying to determine if the product can be applied to meet their needs.

Loyalty
Because existing customers are worth a great deal, savvy marketers continue to invest in the customer relationship long after purchase. Whether the application is product information, training, ongoing

During the evaluation stage, online video can help tell your story more effectively. Longer-form video presentations that present product functionality, describe benefits and show products being used are a compelling way to help customers understand and evaluate your products. With the latest online video technology, these on-demand videos can be full-screen presentations at HD quality, providing your viewers a rich and immersive experience.

thought leadership, or strategic business content, video offers a compelling way to maintain customer loyalty and continuing engagement.

One of Adobes most powerful tactics for building loyalty among their most influential customers is their annual user conference, Adobe Max. Each year, Max brings together

At this stage, customer case studies are one of the best ways to persuade prospective buyers of the value of your offering. Traditional written case studies are often dry, and fail to connect with buyers at both an intellectual and an emotional level. With video, you can bring your case studies to life and let your existing customers sell your products and services for you.

thousands of Adobe users with hundreds of sessions and presentations. But Adobe realized that once a year was not enough to accommodate their customer base; the demand for sessions outpaced capacity at the live event, so they developed an online video version of the conference that presents content from the conference sessions as well as other sessions produced throughout the year.

Evaluation Toolbox
In-depth product information Customer case studies Thought leadership content

In addition to online conferences and information, companies are also using video for recurring podcasts to customers, as content in customer newsletters, and as the foundation for delivering on-demand, online training and information.

Loyalty Toolbox
On-demand video of executive speeches Online user conferences Training and education Video podcasts
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Choosing Your Strategy

Each video project is an investment, and different companies will find different ways to capture value from video. Generally, you should start by evaluating your customer lifecycle and choosing the area where you believe you can have the biggest impact. From there you can target other areas of the lifecycle as you develop greater experience and production capacity.

Often the same content can be leveraged across several stages of the customer lifecycle. Sun Microsystems has done this with Channel Sun, which brings together an array of different content about Sun products.

Channel Sun presents an array of product information to prospects and customers.

On Channel Sun, new prospects can find quick introductions to products that interest them. Prospects engaged in a deeper evaluation are able to access in-depth content. Existing customers can tap into an extensive library of videos from Sun user conferences while saving on travel costs.

After rolling out their new video portal with Brightcove, Sun saw a 158% increase in video streams in just a few months.

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Production, Publishing & Analytics

With a strategy in place and a plan for how you want to use video, you need to address the key challenges around creating, publishing and monitoring your video.

Production
For most marketers, the first challenge is creating content. Video content can be more difficult to create than traditional written content, but it has the potential for much higher impact. The production process you choose will vary depending on your resources and strategy. As your production volume increases, it Generally, content produced for awareness and interest should have the highest production values since you are establishing your brand. Often, the most expensive content is video advertising, which is also the shortest. The exception to this is podcasting, which can be both low cost and quick to produce. may make sense to bring video production work in-house. Some marketers are creating their own video production studios, which range from very simple set-ups to handle webcasts, to more sophisticated studios with green screens and full production editing tools. Your needs will dictate the approach you take. When it comes to actually shooting and editing video, you can choose from a wide variety of independent production firms that produce different types of video. You should look for a firm that has experience producing the kind of video you want to create.

As customers move into the evaluation and loyalty stages, they are more interested in depth of the information rather than quality of production. As a result, you can start to take advantage of other sources of content such as sessions from conferences and seminars.

In general, starting with outsourced video production and slowly ramping internal video production capabilities will allow you to monitor ROI and carefully evaluate the success of your online video initiatives. This strategy prevents overspending up-front, and allows you to apply what youve learned about your needs when you start.

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10 Publishing
As the online video market has matured, a new class of ondemand systems has emerged called online video platforms (OVP). An OVP (such as Brightcove) provides all the capabilities you need for managing, publishing, distributing and tracking online video.

Analytics
As with all modern e-marketing strategies, analytics should be a part of any online video program. In cases where marketers are already using an online analytics platform (such as Omniture or Google Analytics), the best strategy is to hook your video platform

The online video platform you select should have the following capabilities: Upload and manage online video content easily Create and publish video players customized to the specific needs of your site Enable viral sharing and distribution to build community around your content Provide analytics that allow you to monitor and optimize video initiatives Deliver high-quality user experiences and a highly-reliable service

into the existing analytics system. Most OVPs provide their own analytics, and advanced systems like Brightcove also provide direct integrations with third-party analytics systems.

With an OVP, you can easily add a player to your website without worrying about complex backend set-up and video hosting requirements.

Leading OVPs such as Brightcove significantly cut start-up costs, reduce total cost of ownership, and accelerate time to market for your online video initiatives. Brightcove offers advanced functionality that makes it easy to fully customize the player experience so that it cleanly integrates with your branded destinations and sites.

Learn More About Brightcove

www.brightcove.com/products/

Online video platforms provide everything you need to publish, distribute and monitor video.

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Get Started
The growth of online video has been explosive, and the marketers that take advantage of this medium now are leapfrogging their competition with communications that break through the clutter and connect with prospects and customers.

With the cost of video production at an all-time low and the rapidly increasing numbers of clearly established success stories from leading marketers, more and more companies are bringing online video into their marketing mix at all stages of the customer lifecycle.

Five Steps to Getting Started

1. Identify stages in your customer lifecycle where you can use video to deliver your message. 2. Choose a tactic and focus your efforts on executing it well. 3. Hire a video production company who can partner with you to create content. 4. Produce your first video content and publish it with an online video platform. 5. Monitor the success of your initiative and use the insight to plan your next move.

To learn more about Brightcove and how we can help you implement your online video strategy, visit our website at www.brightcove.com or contact our sales team directly at +1 (888) 882-1880.

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Worldwide Broadband Subscriber Forecast, In-Stat (2008). eMarketer (February 2008). MarketingSherpa Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007 - 08 MarketingSherpa Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007 - 08

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