cdn by digital works

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.

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.

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

Strategic Use of Online Video

element of online communication and marketing strategies

Marketers use video at every stage of the

for business-to-business marketers.

customer lifecycle and it has become a key part of the overall marketing mix. While

Worldwide there are 452 million broadband subscribers and

every business organizes the lifecycle

almost every business has a high-speed connection to the

in different ways, the simplified process

Internet. Broadband has made the delivery of video across

illustrated in Figure A is typical of most

the Internet possible; now more than 80% of Internet users

organizations. At each stage in the lifecycle,

watch online video regularly.2

marketers deploy tactics to address their customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs and move them through

When todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business customers visit a website, they

to the next stage.

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.

Figure A

Branding & Awareness Prospects in the branding and awareness stage are starting

the last several years, new web information

to become familiar with your industry and learning about

sources such as blogs, podcasts and online

the key players. Online video drives branding and awareness

communities have become highly influential.

through its ability to capture and engage your audience.

Online video can be used to reach customers

With its rich storytelling capabilities, video is one of the

effectively and efficiently through these new

most effective brand-building mediums available, and it

online sources.

can be applied in advertising, viral marketing and corporate communications campaigns.

DuPont was able to reach key influencers and bloggers using online video aimed at

Video Advertising Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;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.

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.

New Media Purchasers of business technology and services depend on the Web to discover and learn about new products. In

With popular video blogger Amanda Cogdon and archival footage, DuPont took their brand story to key influencers.

Watch It Now The DuPont Video Case Study http://www.brightcove.com/customers/

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 Toolbox Video advertising Viral video campaigns Sponsored content on targeted sites Executive speaking re-broadcast

Developer - Wrench Icon

Interest & Consideration During the Interest and Consideration stage of the customer

Many business-to-business products involve

lifecycle, prospects need to be hooked by the benefits of

extended sales cycles with relatively long

your product and presented with a clear value proposition

periods of customer consideration. The most

that will drive them to evaluate more deeply.

effective B2B marketers have systematic ways to maintain a relationship with these

Online video gives you a way to draw users into your

prospects as they move closer to a time when

content, bringing your products and services to life. One

they are ready to enter the evaluation and

of the most popular types of video content is on-demand

purchasing stages. These communication

product tours that give the visitor control of in-depth

strategies usually depend on an exchange

information. Beyond communicating the value proposition,

of value; the marketer provides valuable

video product tours can utilize in-depth video analytics

information about products and services in

that will give you insight into which parts of your pitch are

exchange for information about the prospect

resonating the best with prospects and customers.

and permission to engage them.

In addition to product tours, Marketers use video to present

Podcasting is one of the most popular

customer testimonials and introductions to features directly

approaches to recurring communication

into the content on their website. These short, high-impact

with prospects and customers. According to

videos help to capture customer attention and spark deeper

MarketingSherpa, 78% of surveyed business

engagement.

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 â&#x20AC;Š On the Brightcove site, contextual employee videos highlight product benefits and add a personality to the company brand.

draw prospects even more deeply into your content and message, letting you show examples as well as explain them.

Evaluation

Loyalty

At the evaluation stage, customers are ready to dive more

Because existing customers are worth a

deeply into their assessment of your product. They are

great deal, savvy marketers continue to

looking for validation and trying to determine if the product

invest in the customer relationship long

can be applied to meet their needs.

after purchase. Whether the application is product information, training, ongoing

During the evaluation stage, online video can help tell your

thought leadership, or strategic business

story more effectively. Longer-form video presentations

content, video offers a compelling way to

that present product functionality, describe benefits and

maintain customer loyalty and continuing

show products being used are a compelling way to help

engagement.

customers understand and evaluate your products. With the latest online video technology, these on-demand videos can

One of Adobeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most powerful tactics for

be full-screen presentations at HD quality, providing your

building loyalty among their most influential

viewers a rich and immersive experience.

customers is their annual user conference, Adobe Max. Each year, Max brings together

At this stage, customer case studies are one of the best ways

thousands of Adobe users with hundreds

to persuade prospective buyers of the value of your offering.

of sessions and presentations. But Adobe

Traditional written case studies are often dry, and fail to

realized that once a year was not enough

connect with buyers at both an intellectual and an emotional

to accommodate their customer base; the

level. With video, you can bring your case studies to life and

demand for sessions outpaced capacity

let your existing customers sell your products and services

at the live event, so they developed an

for you.

online video version of the conference that presents content from the conference sessions as well as other sessions produced throughout the year.

Evaluation Toolbox In-depth product information Customer case studies Thought leadership content

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.

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.

Channel Sun presents an array of product information to prospects and customers.

â&#x20AC;Š 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.

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.

Production For most marketers, the first challenge is

When it comes to actually shooting and

creating content. Video content can be more

editing video, you can choose from a wide

difficult to create than traditional written

variety of independent production firms that

content, but it has the potential for much

produce different types of video. You should

higher impact. The production process

look for a firm that has experience producing

you choose will vary depending on your

the kind of video you want to create.

resources and strategy. As your production volume increases, it Generally, content produced for awareness

may make sense to bring video production

and interest should have the highest

work in-house. Some marketers are creating

production values since you are establishing

their own video production studios, which

your brand. Often, the most expensive

range from very simple set-ups to handle

content is video advertising, which is

webcasts, to more sophisticated studios with

also the shortest. The exception to this is

green screens and full production editing

podcasting, which can be both low cost and

tools. Your needs will dictate the approach

quick to produce.

you take.

As customers move into the evaluation and

In general, starting with outsourced video

loyalty stages, they are more interested in

production and slowly ramping internal

depth of the information rather than quality

video production capabilities will allow you

of production. As a result, you can start to

to monitor ROI and carefully evaluate the

take advantage of other sources of content

success of your online video initiatives. This

such as sessions from conferences and

strategy prevents overspending up-front,

seminars.

and allows you to apply what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learned about your needs when you start.

10 Publishing

Analytics

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

As with all modern e-marketing strategies,

demand systems has emerged called online video platforms

analytics should be a part of any online

(OVP). An OVP (such as Brightcove) provides all the

video program. In cases where marketers are

capabilities you need for managing, publishing, distributing

already using an online analytics platform

and tracking online video.

(such as Omniture or Google Analytics), the best strategy is to hook your video platform

The online video platform you select should have the

into the existing analytics system. Most OVPs

following capabilities:

provide their own analytics, and advanced

Upload and manage online video content easily

systems like Brightcove also provide direct integrations with third-party analytics

Create and publish video players customized to the specific needs of your site

systems.

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

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.

Learn More About Brightcove www.brightcove.com/products/

Online video platforms provide everything you need to publish, distribute and monitor video.

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.

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.

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.

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

eMarketer (February 2008).

MarketingSherpa Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007 - 08

One Cambridge Center Cambridge, MA 02142

617 674 6500 617 395 8352

tel fax