cdn

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.

© 2008 Brightcove Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

2

What You’ll 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


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.

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

When today’s business customers visit a website, they

expect to find video. If it is not there, they notice that

something is missing.

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 compete without incorporating online video to drive

awareness, leads, customer acquisition and loyalty.

3

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

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

to the next stage.

Figure A


4

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.

Video Advertising

Today’s 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.

New Media

Purchasers of business technology and services depend

on the Web to discover and learn about new products. In

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.

DuPont was able to reach key influencers

and bloggers using online video aimed at

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.

With popular video blogger

Amanda Cogdon and archival

footage, DuPont took their brand

story to key influencers.


5

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 ToolboxVideo advertising

Viral video campaigns

Sponsored content on targeted sites

Executive speaking re-broadcast

Developer - Wrench Icon

Watch It Now

The DuPont Video Case Study

http://www.brightcove.com/customers/


6

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

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.

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

draw prospects even more deeply into your

content and message, letting you show

examples as well as explain them.

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.

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.

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.

On the Brightcove site, contextual employee videos highlight

product benefits and add a personality to the company brand.

Interest & Consideration Toolbox

Video product tours and demos

Customer testimonials and case studies

Video podcasts



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

thought leadership, or strategic business

content, video offers a compelling way to

maintain customer loyalty and continuing

engagement.

One of Adobe’s most powerful tactics for

building loyalty among their most influential

customers is their annual user conference,

Adobe Max. Each year, Max brings together

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

7

Evaluation Toolbox

In-depth product information

Customer case studies

Thought leadership content

Loyalty ToolboxOn-demand video of executive speeches

Online user conferences

Training and education

Video podcasts



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.

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.

8

Channel Sun presents

an array of product

information to prospects

and customers.


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.

9

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.

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.

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.

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 your production volume increases, it

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.

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 you’ve learned

about your needs when you start.


Publishing

As the online video market has matured, a new class of on-

demand 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.

The online video platform you select should have the

following capabilities:

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.

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

10

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

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.

Online video platforms provide everything you need to

publish, distribute and monitor video.

Learn More About Brightcove

www.brightcove.com/products/

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.

One Cambridge CenterCambridge, MA 02142

617 674 6500 tel617 395 8352 fax

www.brightcove.com

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.

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.

1 Worldwide Broadband Subscriber Forecast, In-Stat (2008).

2 eMarketer (February 2008).

3 MarketingSherpa Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007 - 08

4 MarketingSherpa Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007 - 08

Documents

cdn