When talking about video marketing, we often hear about YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and paid media options, but we don’t hear a ton about LinkedIn. Not really known for being a video platform, the site is nevertheless a critical network for B2B marketers that has over 350 million registered users (the vast majority being real people). What makes it good for B2B marketers is its focus on business.For marketers who promote their video content on LinkedIn, it provides a stellar opportunity to reach a professional audience with targeted B2B videos. Let’s take a look at three ways you can boost your video marketing by using LinkedIn.
Profile Interactivity
howtostartablog.net/FlickrA standard LinkedIn profile that reads like a resume is fine and all, but it won’t attract much attention and won’t be remembered by any media contacts or potential clients who visit it. Rather, you can give your profile a boost and promote your brand with a video. You can add or link to a video in your LinkedIn profile in the “Summary” section, which would be an ideal place to put an explainer video that talks about your brand. Another way you can add video to your profile is in the “Experience” section. Here, you can add customer testimonial videos that pertain to your brand. Share the love by creating branded recommendation videos for your business partners or colleagues so they can post them on their own “Experience” sections. This is an ideal way to promote your company via video on LinkedIn.
Video Updates
Boosting engagement on LinkedIn is as easy as posting video updates about your business. Your latest marketing videos or short recaps of what’s new (done in a brand journalism type way) are good options. You can tag other companies if they are mentioned so they will also share or comment on the video. To get the best of both worlds, you can first upload your video to your YouTube channel and then post the link on your LinkedIn post. LinkedIn will use YouTube’s metadata about the video, which will also be good for SEO.Sharing your brand’s marketing videos and posting video updates keeps your business page fresh with new content and keeps prospects up to date with what’s going on with your company.
LinkedIn’s groups are a superb way to connect with other people in your industry. You can start a new discussion with video content by posting a link into a new discussion thread or you can post video in a reply to an existing discussion thread. While it would be tempting to use your brand’s video content in these groups, that may backfire, as people may not appreciate your marketing content being used in groups. (And, in fact, some groups will even give you the boot for that.)Sheila Scarborough/FlickrRather, this is a good opportunity to prove that you’re an industry leader with video content other than your own. Video is naturally engaging and if you find a news story or something that pertains to your industry and post that to start a discussion, you’ll effectively be using that video content to boost yourself as an industry leader. And, finally, you can always buy some video advertising on LinkedIn now that the network has gotten on board with video ads. Although it’s not usually associated with video, LinkedIn offers B2B marketers a great opportunity to reach their audience. With some planning and strategizing, you can use LinkedIn to your advantage with video advertising. To see how much an animated explainer video to post on your LinkedIn profile and company page would be,click here to use our price estimation calculator. (You don’t even need to talk to anyone!)
Many of the business customers we have end up making more than one video. Usually, they make a video, see how well it performs and then opt to have another two, three or four made. But, it can be a worthwhile investment to actually plan for having multiple videos created at the same time so they can be watched as a series.
Let’s look at why companies are moving away from standalone videos and opting to make series instead.
Multiple Products or Services
Sascha Pohflepp/Flickr
Large companies almost certainly have more than one product or service. And although small companies may only have a single product or service they offer, that product or service may be complex and require more than a single video to explain it properly.
Our client Drobo has multiple products that require promoting and they’ve made a video for each one so all their products get the attention they need to be thoroughly explained to customers.
Multiple Audiences
JD Hancock/Flickr
Even if you only have one service, that service might have more than one group of users, especially if it’s a service that connects businesses and customers. If your service has multiple groups of people who would be using it, then it’s better to make a video for each of those groups rather than trying to fit all the information into one video that addresses all the groups. By making multiple videos, you’ll be able to target their distribution better and all the various groups will be more engaged because the individual videos only address that specific group.
For example, JobFormance created two different videos for its JobFaxReport because the service is aimed at two different groups: job seekers and client companies who are looking to hire the best talent they can find. By making two different videos, JobFormance didn’t have to worry about trying to address both groups in one video, which could have overcomplicated it and which would have made targeted distribution difficult.
Avoiding Information Overload
Jorge Franganillo
Even though animation is usually more compelling to watch than live action business videos and it’s the perfect medium for breaking down complex ideas because you’re not bound by the sometimes pesky laws of physics, trying to shoehorn too much information into one video can overwhelm viewers and counteract the initial drawing power of the animation.
By having multiple videos and making the concepts in them even simpler, you make your messaging more effective. Plus, if you can get visitors to watch multiple videos on your site, it will be good for your SEO because it means they’ll be spending more time on your site. Viewers are much more likely to watch a series of shorter videos than one longer video.
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A company’s products and services tend to evolve the longer the company is around. If a new feature is added to your product or you offer some kind of upgraded service, a new video is in order. To make it fit with your older videos and add to the brand identity you’ve been building, use the same characters as you did in your initial videos.
Perfect Promos
werbelaeufer/Flickr
If you have a big promo coming up, why not add some oomph to your announcement with a series of short animated videos? They are super shareable and a series of videos that explain different points of the promo can more easily answer customer questions. And if it’s a regularly occurring promo, like an annual giveaway, you can even use the videos multiple times.
One explainer video is a good investment, but multiple videos in a series is an excellent investment. As we’ve found with many of our clients, it’s quite common for a company to come back for more after their initial one is completed. By planning for a series of videos right up front, you have more control over how they complement each other. Click here to use our price estimation calculator to see approximately how much an animated video series would cost. (You don’t even need to talk to anyone!)
When JobFormance CEO Jim Owens had to decide how he wanted to promote his new brand, the decision was easy: Animation.
Working in the talent acquisition field, JobFormance does recruiting, outplacement work, job coaching and career development. It primarily works with companies looking for new talent.
After seeing various whiteboard videos online, Owens and his team decided to use whiteboard animation so they could tell job candidates and client companies alike about one of their most important tools, the JobFaxReport. Having a video to explain the tool saves on Owens and his staff having to repeatedly explain it to people.
Animation Appeal
Owens said he and his team gravitated toward animation because they thought it would be good to use a different medium rather than just having a person talking in front of a camera.
“It’s a fun video and a fun way to present the information,” Owens said during a recent interview. “I’m glad I did this as a form of alternative media versus doing a live action video or Facebook Live or something like that.”
JobFormance made two different videos about the JobFaxReport. One is aimed at job candidates to explain the tool and the second video is aimed at client companies and explains how these JobFaxReports benefit the client companies
Owens pointed out that many job candidates believe that they give their resume to JobFormance, which then forwards the resume directly to a client. However, as JobFormance’s videos explain, the company performs an analysis on the job candidate to create its JobFaxReport, and that is the document provided to their clients.
The JobFaxReport is geared toward business owners, human resources managers and other hiring authorities and includes:
a simplified resume,
a candidate profile,
a Peer Review of the candidate,
a JobFit Assessment,
a degree verification, and
a background check.
“We want to give them more than a resume on a candidate,” Owens said. “We want to give them a JobFormance report detailing the candidate beyond the resume. They can also order the JobFaxReport for Organization Development and Coaching of current employees and finally they can order the JobFaxReport if they are letting people go. We can provide the outplaced employees with JobFaxReports to help them find new roles in the marketplace.”
Their videos are currently being used on the company’s social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, along with its website. JobFormance also makes reference to the videos in its print material with a screenshot and points people to places online they can view the videos.
The Process
Aside from a brief phone call, the entire process happened online and went about as smoothly as Owens could have hoped.
After filling out the creative brief, WizMotions wrote a preliminary script and sent it to JobFormance. Owens and his team made some minute changes to it and handed it back to WizMotions who expanded it to a full script and created a storyboard out of it.
“I felt like they really captured what we do and how we wanted to do it and how we wanted to present those videos,” Owens said. “It was really a simple process.”
Although Owens said he doesn’t have any solid numbers about the videos, anecdotal feedback has been positive. The company has more tools it wants to promote and plans to use more WizMotions videos for that, likely in the fourth quarter of this year.
“As we roll out JobFormance as a new brand, we’re going to be using the videos more and more to tell candidates about our tools,” he explained.
Looking to go beyond just a talking head video, JobFormance has worked with WizMotions to craft a pair of quick, fun and informative videos that perfectly capture the JobFaxReport tool JobFormance wanted to spotlight.
Having an explainer video made is just the first step in using one for your business. Once you get the thing made, you have to promote it so people will watch it. Skywriting the url of the video over major cities is obviously the most effective way to promote it, but let’s take a look at some other tactics you can use to promote your video once you have it made.
Put it on Your Site
medithIT/Flickr
We’ll start with the most obvious one. This is probably why you got the thing made in the first place. Having your video on your site boosts your SEO by increasing time spent on your site and decreasing the bounce rate from your site.
Videos also serve to answer many of the questions a visitor to your site will have about your business, mainly the “What does your business do?” question. You can replace thousands of words of text that, frankly, nobody is reading anyway, with a short, compelling video.
While there are different ways you can use your video on your website, putting it above the fold will help, so people don’t have to scroll or click around too much to find it.
Optimize it for SEO
MACVILLANO/Flickr
Speaking of SEO, you can help people find your video easier by optimizing it specifically for search engines. The title should be succinct and alluring. Give people a reason to click on the video. The description should give a quick outline about what the video contains. You can also make the transcript of the video available on your site somewhere. That will allow people who can’t watch the video to get the information contained in it and it will also help with SEO. And, obviously, don’t forget the most important aspect of SEO: Words that are key.
Optimize it for and Share it on Social Media
Jason Howie/Flickr
Another obvious one, but here’s the thing about sharing your video on social media: Don’t just share the link to wherever the video appears on your site, actually upload it to whatever social media sites you’re using and host them as native videos on those sites. This allows you to take advantage of any features specific to the site like autoplay on Facebook, for example. Don’t forget a transcription of the video so viewers can read the subtitles if they don’t want to turn the sound up.
Optimize it for Mobile
Intel Free Press/Flickr
A lot of people who view your video are going to watch it on a mobile device, which is why you want to make sure your video is optimized for mobile devices. A quick rundown on how to do this is:
Pick a good thumbnail
Start with a good hook at the beginning of your video
Keep cuts quick so the video has a good pace
Use some dramatic angles for visual interest
Have good audio, but don’t make the video dependent on the audio
Use large, bold print if you have to use print
Keep your calls to action simple
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You need not just use your video online. You can even use it in real live life, too. Trade shows, business meetings, employee orientations, investor presentations, corporate events or any other time you need to tell people about your brand is a good time to show your video. It’s like a Swiss Army Knife of versatility.
Track your Video’s Results
Santiago Medem/Flickr
Okay, this one is cheating a bit since it’s not technically promotion, but you should do it anyway. Just like everything else online, you can get tons of data about your video like how many people watched it. Depending on the platform you use to host it, you can get all kinds of other information, too. Wistia, for example, creates heatmaps for each view that shows you which parts of the video a given viewer watched, which parts they skipped over and which parts they rewatched. It also gives you trend graphs so you can see how all your videos hosted on the platform are performing over time.
The data will help you figure out the ROI on your video and help you plan future content. The heatmaps are especially helpful when planning future content. If a certain portion of a video is consistently skipped, there’s no need to concentrate on that any further and if certain parts are rewatched, you may have to make an entirely separate video to go over those parts more thoroughly.
You can have the best video in the world, but it won’t be of much use if people don’t know about it. Promoting a video isn’t difficult if you know how to do it. While the promotion is up to you, we can help you with the video part. Click here to schedule an appointment with WizMotions to see how we can help you make the perfect business video.
We asked small businesses for their most unique promotional tactics. Some of them are unorthodox, but they are all effective. Take a look at what these four small business owners have done to get their companies in the news and, more importantly, in the minds of potential customers.
Fake it ‘Til You Make it
Rick Sloboda
Rick Sloboda Senior Web Copywriter and Content Strategist webcopyplus.com
“Are web copywriters sexy? Not necessarily. But we suggested that’s the case in a recent April Fools’ prank that’s generated laughs across the Web.
We launched a World’s Sexiest Professions Poll, which included occupations typically considered alluring. We also snuck web copywriters into the mix.
Web copywriters technically made the ‘top 10’. However, despite our intrinsic beauty, brains and brawn, we didn’t actually gain any bragging rights. That’s because, full disclosure, there were only 10 professions listed in the poll.
While we didn’t bring sexy back, we took it upon ourselves to create and announce the world’s sexiest content writers.
It’s been picked up by dozens of sites. And we’re receiving kudos from creatives and agencies around the globe. The key here is we didn’t say we’re creative, we demonstrated it. Plus, we’re enjoying the free press and backlinks — great exposure all around!”
“One of my favorite stories was from Dublin’s Web Summit when over 800 startups were exhibiting (90% of them were men) and I decided to stand out by wearing angel wings throughout the conference. When I was checking out of my hotel to head back to NYC, I looked down at Judy Dench on the cover of the Irish Times and there I was right next to her (me on my laptop with my angel wings). Inside there was another 1/4 page picture mentioning my business. Ireland knew about Cheek’d.
One of my first big hits was The New York Times and I got in by simply mailing a lone black Cheek’d card in a plain black envelope to one of the main editors at The Times. A few weeks later, we were featured on the cover of the Style Section and coined as ‘the next generation of online dating,’ which lead to customers in almost every state in America and requests from all over the world to get in on the action. We immediately set up an international shopping cart and soon hit 28 countries.
Another one of my favorite stories to date would be when I slipped a Cheek’d card into Hip Hop Mogul, Russell Simmons’s front jacket pocket (when he didn’t notice) and the next morning I woke up with a Google alert that we’d gotten all kinds of hits from the NY Observer and many national customers after the article dropped.”
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“Here’s my best trick. I took my book, a trail guide titled The Four Wheel Drive Trails of Arizona, to a Sammy Hagar concert and tossed it up on stage.
Sammy picked it up and said, ‘WTF is this? The Four Wheel Drive Trails of Arizona? I’ve got tomorrow off so I might buy me a four-by and hit the trails.’
I don’t know how much revenue it generated, however I think half of the concert attendees were on the trail the next day.
I also approach parents of children to show them my business card and get permission to give the child a business card. Once permission is granted, I ask the child if monster trucks tow trains. Regardless of their answer, I show them my business card with a monster truck towing a train, which is my kiddie ride of the ultimate combination of two of a child’s favorite toys.”
“My small business has done all sorts of promotions over the years. Standard discount sales being the biggest one. But it wasn’t until we started our once a year Buy One Get One sale, the Friday BEFORE Black Friday, that we hit pay dirt! The only sales I ever have during the year are when our Seasonal scents go out of season. This way, our customers wait all year for the big day.
We took in well over 8K this past November in the hours from 8 am – 10 pm. Our average product price is $25 so that was a huge day.
Another way we promote ourselves is by donating product for fundraising event gift bags. It is a great way for up to 50 people (that is our top amount per event) to actually try our product. We include a discount code for a future order and can then judge how many repeat sales came from the donation.”
As you can see, there are plenty of bold things you can do to promote your business in unique and sometimes daring ways. If you have passion for your brand and some imagination, you can easily find ways to get people talking about your brand. One of the best ways to get people talking is still a tried-and-tested animated explainer video. Click here to schedule an appointment with WizMotions to see how we can help you make the perfect business video.
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JobFormance made two different videos about the JobFaxReport. One is aimed at job candidates to explain the tool and the second video is aimed at client companies and explains how these JobFaxReports benefit the client companies
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