Boost Sales with Video Content-Storytelling in B2B Marketing

B2B marketers often omit storytelling. Stories are considered to have a stronger impact on the end-users rather than companies.

However, aren't those also people representing different brands that you target? At the end of the day, whether you run a B2B or B2C campaign, you are selling to people, and people like stories.

Business owners need to see data that would provide them with a clear statement of the reasons of why they should deal with a particular company. They want to see posts with useful information. However, they are also people who don't always need a narrative to understand that a specific piece of content is valuable.

This is when stories come into play.

A good story can capture a user's attention, hold him on the page, and evoke a desire to learn where the story goes. That is why, different brands from all over the world have started using video content-storytelling in both B2C and B2B marketing campaigns to humanize their projects, make their data relate to the readers, and reveal in what ways their offerings can transform other businesses.

So, is video content-storytelling THAT useful for your business? Let's try to find an answer to this question while considering several cases for using storytelling in B2B marketing.

Learn from the Trendsetters

To check how stories work in online marketing, customer service software company Groove once ran a case study on how the same text delivered to their clients through a narrative and a story influenced the way people reacted to it. What they did first was a publication of an article "How We Got 1,000+ Subscribers from a Single Blog Post in 24 Hours".

Next, they emailed two versions of this text to their subscribers.

In the first version, the text was wrapped up into a story, where users were taken to the primary objective.

As per the second version, the text was written straight to the point.

As a result, the first version showed a greater public engagement into the post. 300% more readers moved from the beginning up till the end of the text, spending an average of 5 minutes longer to read the copy, compared to the straightforward version.

The web saw many companies communicating their services to the audience through stories.

Here are a few of the most remarkable ones.

Norton, the world leader in digital security, released a 20-minute documentary video about a small and picturesque Romanian town Râmnicu Vâlcea, which better known as the hacker capital of the world.

The video features stories of scammers who hacked Google, Facebook, accounts of the members of the president family, the U.S. Army, NASA, etc. While telling stories of real people who were imprisoned for hacking companies and organizations of all sizes, Norton transports the audience into the world of cyber crimes, communicating how fragile is the web space and how important it is to take care of your virtual security.

Salesforce is another world-known company making use of videos to deliver stories to their consumers. Instead of adding a regular section with user testimonials to the homepage of their site, they devote a separate page for every client who shares feedback about their services. Most importantly, people tell their success stories via videos, which are known as better attention-grabbers and stronger influencers.

Just take a look at Aston Martin story of using Salesforce to add a personal touch to their business.

Boeing replaced press releases with news stories on their Features pages. With the help of stories, the company tells the history of their establishment, the way they operate right now, as well as their plans for future. For example, in the Space Features block, there is a story under the title "The Flight Before the Launch."

The written story about the preparation before the launch of WGS-9 and its shipment from the LA to FL is accompanied by a brief explanatory video, which makes it easier for non-tech-savvy users to understand what the whole story is about, and where it goes.

Why is video content-storytelling so effective?

As noted earlier, people love being entertained by visual content. That's why more and more often marketers use video ads to promote their offerings and get the audience more engaged. In their press kit, the giant video streaming platform - YouTube - states they receive over a billion of users watching video content of various kinds on a daily basis. What's more, YouTube videos are being reached by the 18-49 target age range, which most of the online marketers hunt for.

Taking into account the extraordinary popularity of YouTube videos among millions of users, both world-known brands and mom-and-pop companies have started investing into YouTube advertisements, as well as launch their channels featuring tutorials bringing value to the customers, reviews, entertaining stuff, and merely highlights the memorable company events. TemplateMonster also doesn't lag behind the trends and updates the YouTube channel with valuable pieces of video content every now and again.

Simply put, the reasons why videos are indispensable for the success of your online marketing campaign are the following:

• people enjoy video content more than print;
• videos visualize the marketing intent;
• a video leaves no room for misinterpretation;
• a video shows a product in action, revealing in what ways it can benefit their lives;
• videos let customers feel like they are participating in the active relationship with the brands they enjoy;
• a video breaks down corporate walls, referring to consumers like friends.

Final thoughts

Even if you run a small company and you do not have the budget for an Oscar-winning movie, record short video clips revealing your company story, introduce people to your employees and loyal fans. Get inspired by the way trendsetters use visual stories in their B2B marketing campaigns and consider in what ways you can do the same.