10 Online Video Marketing Tips every B2B Marketer should know – Part Two

Posted by Russ Gallant on 28 April 2011 | 2 Comments

Tags: online video, b2b, strategy, thought-leadership, marketing, storytelling, engagement, tips, viewers, practices, tactics, youtube players, viral presentation

In Part One of the 10 Online Video Marketing Tips every B2B Marketer Should Know we focused on the content and strategy choices you need to make to ensure your B2B video marketing efforts are as successful as possible. In this segment we're focusing on production and post-production considerations that will ensure your videos reach and engage the right audience.

10 Online Video Marketing Tips every B2B Marketer should know - Part Two

6. Include a Text Summary for your Videos - this may seem pretty obvious, but search engines don't index video content very well. Outline key points made in the video with great summaries. This detailed summary lets viewers know what content will be presented in the video (and provide the essence of your message to users who might be firewalled from viewing video content), it allows the search engines to discover and rank the content favorably for you, and it can provide additional velocity for your inbound marketing programs. Many viewers will read the description while watching the video, so make sure the description tells as compelling a story as the video does. You'll have about 1,000 characters to work with; around 166 words so choose them wisely. The first 120 characters are displayed in YouTube search results so make these really count. Choose the category for your video carefully too, the more relevant the category to your content, the better results you'll see from viewers.

7. Add Optimized Tags - Tags help you label your videos so that they can be found more easily. YouTube tags are based on single words rather than phrases; keep that in mind as you form your list. Try to leverage your website SEO and SEM keyword research to include single words and word combinations that map both to the content of the video and to the terms your target audience uses when looking for that content. You'll be able to use about 20 tags here so make them count.

8. Size Matters - Your video needs to end, and it should probably end sooner than you think it needs to. If you have to, break your video content up into shorter sections, 2.5 minutes or less, to ensure the video is accessible and focused. Experiment with lengths if you're not convinced and see what the right length is for your content and audience. Keep in mind, people have short attention spans and it is unlikely they'll sit through 10 minutes of video to get to the meat of your content, organize your message into smaller video segments so that each segment delivers value. This should also ensure that the video titles, text summaries and tags associated with each video are more focused and aligned with your objectives.

9. Include unique URLs in the Video Description - This URL could be for a landing page, or a content area on your site, or even your homepage. The objective here is to minimize any obstacles which might prevent leads from being driven back to your website. In B2B marketing, generating leads is typically an important content objective. Links back to your site facilitate this lead generation process while simultaneously improving various page-ranking metrics with search engines.

10. Choose the On Screen Talent Wisely - Creating interesting and engaging video content isn't about featuring the smartest person in the company, it is about tone and manner. When selecting the talent to appear on-screen, consider who would be the best at presenting content and explaining things clearly and in a compelling way. This may not always be the smartest person on the subject matter. You'll want a dynamic personality that can connect to the viewer audience; this is the face of your brand, the person charged with making that human connection and translating it into action. Give some good thought to this.

You can extend the value of these 10 tips by incorporating your web address, social media handles and company contact information into the video content, text descriptions and platform profiles. Try to avoid proprietary players if you can, while YouTube is not the most refined player, it is the most popular, capturing up to 90% of all video usage. If you have some additional tips to share that will make B2B Marketing with Online Video even more successful, drop us a note in the comments box below. If you'd like to talk to us about using video for your own B2B marketing purposes, Get in touch with us, we'd love to talk to you.