7 Ways Industrials Can Use Video in Their Content Marketing Strategy
50 percent of consumers prefer video content over other forms of content like blogs, articles, or emails.
Video is growing on every social media platform by leaps and bounds.
We even watch videos WHILE we’re watching videos.
While we all know that video is important, it can be hard for the small to mid-size industrial manufacturer to create industrial videos and place them in strategic places.
Videos can take more time to create than a blog post, and learning about and acquiring the proper equipment can be a barrier to entry for many marketers looking at video for content marketing in manufacturing.
Video Content Marketing Ideas
Here are 7 simple ways that B2B industrials and manufacturers can use video to increase engagement and conversion in their video content marketing campaigns.
1. Product Demonstration Video
Product videos can increase purchases by 144%
In many senses, consumer prefer brick and mortar retailers and storefronts where they can touch, feel, and see a product before purchasing.
Seeing it up close allows you to interact with a product in a way that you don’t get with a static image.
Video can fill that same product interaction need.
An industrial product video allows consumers to:
- See a 360 degree view of a product
- See the size in proportion to other real life objects or people
- Watch the product being used
- Understand how to assemble, install, or power the product
And even if you do have products available in a showroom, 50% of internet users look for product videos related to a product or service before visiting a store
Industrial product videos for manufacturers do not need to be highly produced or flashy. A simple camera on a tripod filming a person holding a product against a solid background can be enough to increase the effectiveness of your product page.
2. About Us Video
One of the burdens your manufacturing marketing department has to carry is communicating the nuances of your company’s values, beliefs, history, and market position across online platforms.
All on the flat screen of a web page that is nowhere near where your team works and plays.
In person, it’s much easier to show off your values and personality but even great companies can get buried behind the shallow facade of their website.
Using a video placement on your About Us page, forces your audience to interact with you at a human-to-human level.
These manufacturing marketing videos can be highly produced or a simple talking head video. What matters is that you candidly share your company’s story.
No sales pitches.
Talk about why you started your manufacturing business, what you’re passionate about, and why you built your company the way you did.
Go even further with your ‘about us’ video by giving a quick tour of your industrial plant or meeting some employees. You can even talk about what makes your product so great, but DON’T SELL.
On average, 55% of people consume video content thoroughly which gives you a captive audience. Everyone asks for sales, but many companies aren’t sharing their story.
Tell your story with video content marketing.
3. Company Updates on Social Media
If you’re looking for a place to start with casual, low-budget, low production industrial videos, social media is the place to start.
The reason we spend time on social media is that we love seeing what REAL people are doing in REAL life.
Often times highly produced social updates actually perform WORSE than casual video updates.
Here’s how to make a social media video update:
Step 1: Grab your phone
Step 2: Be enthusiastic (video can make you come across flat)
Step 3: Point it at yourself or a co-worker
Step 4: Share an update, a milestone, or congratulate a co-worker or customer
It’s THAT easy.
How often should you post video updates? You can post them anywhere from once a month to a few times per week.
Really…anytime you have noteworthy updates to share.
If your video updates aren’t very exciting, people will remember and stop watching them. So save these video opportunities for times you have interesting updates to share.
4. Hello From The Owner (or President) Video
This can be similar to the “About Us” video but, as the name implies, it must come from the owner, or the founder, or the board chairman of your industrial company.
In manufacturing marketing, most messaging comes from the marketing department. This marketing video comes right from the desk of the highest person in your organization.
This indusrial video can be shot at the president’s desk, or a comfy chair that is placed in the middle of a busy place in your office.
All of these elements create intimacy and familiarity.
No need for fancy footage or graphical elements. This is just a face-to-face video conversation with your audience and they will connect most effectively when you strip all the fancy video elements out of this.
You’re inviting your audience into the living room of your business and letting them see the face, and hear the voice of your president (regardless of how photogenic they may or may not be).
Even in industrial B2B marketing, It’s all about intimacy.
5. Customer Testimonial Video
Testimonials build social proof and show your audience that there are others who trust you. In social media, email marketing, website strategy, and video content marketing it’s important to showcase happy customers.
Video testimonials are a simple and effective way to do that.
This is another place where simple industrial videos work great. These don’t require fancy animations, or highly produced title graphics.
Your B2B customers can be impacted by other B2B customers who sing your praise. Text testimonials are harder to identify with, but watching a peer endorse a product or service can be very impactful.
It may take a little time to gather these videos but piecing together a few video testimonials is a great way to promote your industrial brand and build trust.
6. Landing Page Conversion Optimization Video
Landing page views are hard fought.
Whether you’re driving paid traffic to landing pages or sending organic traffic, every conversion percentage matters.
These B2B website visitors are further along in the funnel and you want to get as many as possible to convert.
Conversion optimization videos can be a powerful nudge to convince visitors to become leads or contact you about a project.
Consider a simple and intimate industrial video of someone on your team demonstrating that you understand your audience’s goals and the pain points of your industry.
Be sympathetic, poke their pain points, and then make a compelling action.
Watching a sales message from a real human can be more compelling that reading bullet points on a webpage.
7. Video Sales Email
From upper leadership to the boots on the ground, everyone is bombarded with sales messages via email.
Most emails come from somebody we’ve never met who works for a company we’ve never heard of.
It feels impersonal at best and intrusive at worst.
It can be hard to find ways to be more personal and establish a connection with a prospect via email.
Videos embedded in an email with a thumbnail force your prospect to see your face and, when clicked, hear your voice and feel your passion.
Sales videos can create closeness and show that you’re a relatable human too.
When you make yourself relatable, you build trust and connect with your prospect at a peer level which can make your industrial company feel more accessible.
Video Content Marketing: Where to Start
Video content marketing is a must for all industrial marketers.
It’s no longer optional.
In order to make your messaging heard, outrank your competitor, and drive conversions, video needs to be a part of the content marketing strategy for industrial manufacturers.
I hope we’ve been able to remove some barriers to industrial video content marketing.
There is certainly a place for highly produced and highly graphical marketing videos.
But it’s equally important to produce intimate and low-fi videos that show your personality and create a connection with your audience.
Start with the video equipment you already have in the space you already have.
Only have a phone?
Many of the above examples of industrial video content marketing above can be done successfully with just a cellphone camera.
Tell us what you think
Share your thoughts here in the comments! Have a burning question or feedback about the topic? Let’s keep the conversation going.