Five video marketing ideas for B2B tech companies

According to Hubspot,  85% of businesses are now using video as part of their marketing strategy. Video can be an ideal medium for communicating the complex ideas often associated with new technologies and technical products. Here are a few suggestions on how to get started:

1. A TV series

Don’t panic, we don’t mean a twelve-part drama. But, you could treat your YouTube channel like it’s a TV channel.

Having a schedule isn’t something that’s always necessary, but it can keep people coming back for more. If you publish a new episode each week or month on a set day, your viewers will know what to expect and when they can watch the latest episode.

This style gives you a lot of flexibility but should at least be fairly entertaining. You can have various different presenters or just one that hosts the show each time. Take your viewers with you in your daily life around the workplace, show them what you’re working on, chat with people, and talk about the latest industry trends.

If you manufacture technical products, you could have a ‘how it’s made’ segment featuring a different part each episode, for example.

The variety of reappearing segments and new content can be exciting for your audience and fun to create too.

2. Interviews

Why not produce a whole interview series? Invite various people in the industry to come and chat with you in front of the camera.

To keep it from being too random, you should have a common theme that you stick with. For example, if you wanted to promote a larger presence of women in the electronics industry, you could ask questions about how the guest thinks we can achieve this and why it’s so important.

Or, you could simply ask them about what they do and have a segment where you ask each guest the same questions. For example, you could finish each episode by asking what their first job was or what the last text they sent was. It’s a way of keeping it light and interesting and maintaining some consistency over each episode, making it recognisable as yours.

Interviews are great for those of us struggling to come up with new content ideas: the potential for new content is virtually endless. Even if two people say the same thing, it’ll come from different perspectives and won’t come across as tired or repetitive.

3. Just a chat

We mentioned the complexity of our industry earlier. Complex topics are often understood best when explained in a simple, straightforward manner.

This is where informal chats can be an excellent idea. Gather a few colleagues and have a casual conversation about what’s going on in the industry, perhaps, or about topics you think you can explain pretty well.

It’s a good way to get your audience to relate to you and engage with your personalities. It’s why talk shows do so well: we all like watching people having a laugh and chatting about interesting stuff.

The important thing is not to practice and nail down a perfect script. Sure, you can plan out the topics that need to be covered in the episode but, for the most part, you should bounce off one another with new ideas and opinions and be fairly spontaneous. If it’s too scripted, it’ll be obvious.

4. Screencasts

How about a quick and easy video tutorial that takes very little time at all to edit and publish?

You can talk your audience through how to do something or your latest bit of software with a screencast. It might take a bit of practice, but once you’ve mastered using a clear voice and the online process, filming these are a doddle.

What’s more, it’s a crystal clear way of explaining something which might be pretty complex, which audiences will always appreciate.

5. Turn blog posts into videos

You can also just use videos to present information in a way that appeals to different audiences.

If you write a blog post, you could use some software (such as Lumen5) to turn it into a video. Outlining the main points of the article is a simple and quick task, but it’ll reach a lot of new prospects who aren’t fond of reading long blog posts.

This is great for companies who are a little more camera-shy but want to benefit from video marketing.

Takeaways

1. Video marketing is hugely important and most businesses should be thinking about investing in it, whether that’s with just their time or money too
2. It’s particularly important in the tech industry with the number of complex topics available to discuss. Video provides a new way of showing rather than just telling.
3. With so many different formats and ideas to consider, there’s really no excuse!