Video grows your market share: Here’s how to use it well

If you have ever wondered whether it’s worth investing in video for your marketing these two statistics will answer the question:

• Marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than those who don’t
• 97% of B2B buyers say they would be more receptive to sales communications from a business after viewing their video content. (Brightcove)
• Web pages with video are 53 times more likely rank on the first page of Google

There is no question whether video helps you grow your market share. The question is how to use it for maximum value and impact. Here’s how.

The best length for your videos

Like any content, video needs to be created with empathy for the audience. In B2B sales and marketing, that more or less always means shorter is better. Your audience is time poor, and in a lot of video formats they can see a progress bar at the bottom of the video telling them how long the video is. If the pace is too slow or the length to great, then your audience has every reason to ignore the video and move on.

So how short is short? To an extent, that depends on where you publish it. Hubspot breaks down what it considers the ideal video length per platform:

• Instagram: 30 seconds
• X: 45 seconds
• Facebook: 1 minute
• YouTube: 2 minutes

The best content for your videos

What should be in your videos? Again, purpose is the deciding factor. An explainer video will need more content, more illustrations, and more facts than a video designed to showcase your brand, which on the whole will be more about look, feel, and tone.

One principle to consider is that videos featuring people are most likely to inspire trust. A human connection creates more warmth for the brand, and reassures prospects that there is a real team behind the brand. That visibility and openness can make people feel comfortable very effectively, and gives them a personality to gravitate towards. In fact, content featuring faces is 38% more likely to get ‘likes’ on social media and 32% more likely to get comments.

The added bonus is that it takes very little time and budget to create a short talking head video. One person with a mobile phone can record themselves speaking, and that can resonate deeply.

However, production values also communicate something crucial — investment. When you create a slick, high quality video, you signal intent. The audience understands unconsciously that you have poured resources into content, which suggests yours is a stable business with long-term intent. Put more casually, it shows you have put your money where your mouth is.

The best strategy for your videos

For the most part, video marketing is labour-intensive to produce, so you will want the maximum ROI for it. That means rather than creating one video and simply publishing it, you should repurpose and reuse it, for example by editing and sharing clips.

Video will also be more powerful as part of a wider campaign, so consider how it fits into your objectives and what purpose is at its heart. If it is there to build communities, it should be provocative, informative, inspiring, or all three. If it is content for sales teams to send after initial conversations with prospects, then it should pick up, supplement, and develop sales messaging. In any case, it should complement social media posts, support long form content, and reinforce or at least fit with the message of an overarching brand strategy.

33% of teams face the challenge of not knowing how to design a video strategy, and 29% struggle to generate content ideas to film in the first place. If you think video might be the medium to reach your audience, but you’re not confident planning and executing it, then Nutcracker is always on hand.

Whether it is a brand video to showcase your business, thought-provoking clips to build communities on social media, or sales collateral to help keep prospects excited and close more deals, we create videos, content, and marketing strategies that grow your business and your market share.

Find out if we’re the partner for your project by emailing our CEO Jenny on jenny.knighting@nutcrackeragency.com.

To read more about how to claim more clients and more budget, even in a tough economy, get your copy of our free guide Claiming the Spotlight.