3 Honest Reasons Why Your B2B Video Marketing Sucks - Part 3

Video Mistake #3 – Taking the Wrong Creative Approach

This article is the 3rd installment in a blog series called “3 Honest Reasons Why Your B2B Video Marketing Sucks.”

As a creative director, I have worked with clients over the years to bring countless videos to life. Along the way, I’ve observed and learned from creative mistakes clients make when setting out to create marketing videos. My hope is that by sharing some of these pitfalls, you can learn from their mistakes the easy way and avoid them altogether.

When Does Quality Matter?

While it would be great to have an unlimited marketing budget to make every video asset as epic as an Apple TV commercial, reality is, it ain’t going to happen. Marketing teams have to allocate their resources to video projects they feel will most directly drive business results.

It would be a mistake, though, to stretch a budget by making a ton of low-quality, low-performing videos rather than investing in a handful of high-quality, high-performing videos that can be supplemented with lower-budget videos in less important channels.

You may ask yourself if quality even matters in the age of TikTok and virtual meetings. It’s true that people have become accustomed to lower-quality, DIY-style videos. It’s a familiar aesthetic that you can use to your advantage, especially when producing in-house content. But just because you’re using iPhones or webcams doesn’t mean that you can get away with boring videos. People will not engage with content that doesn’t grab and hold their attention. During the pandemic, we worked with clients to create remote productions via webcam, but always maintained a focus on creativity and strong messaging.

So when does quality matter most?

As B2B marketers selling innovative technology solutions with big price tags, it’s critical that we represent our brands and products in a way that is consistent with the quality of our product offerings. 

For starters, I don’t know how many product demo videos I’ve seen that look like they’ve been hacked together by interns using Camtasia – and these videos are supposed to help sell products worth six or seven figures in lifetime value. Is this really the way you want to showcase your products, especially after working so hard to get a prospect this far along in your funnel? 

The same can be said for brand videos, customer success stories, explainer videos, and so on. These key video assets that are used to bring customers through your funnel are not the place to skimp on quality. I would recommend leveraging lower-budget videos for organic content on your social channels that do not need to directly tie back to business results and KPI’s.

Any video asset that is a key part of your sales funnel should showcase a high level of quality that demonstrates to prospects the excellence of your product and your brand. Using a low-quality video in these cases could cause more harm to your brand than good. 

Brand? What Brand?

Due to the decentralized approach to video creation taken in many organizations, videos produced within the same timeframe still lack a sense of cohesive brand. This can include colors, fonts, logos, creative treatment of assets, brand voice, messaging, and so on.

As marketers, it’s vitally important to maintain a consistent, clear brand across all video initiatives and channels. According to Forbes, presenting a brand consistently across all channels can increase revenue up to 23%. A lack of consistency only serves to confuse customers about your brand, and to deflate your brand credibility. 

For starters, your marketing team should make sure to have a detailed brand guide that is updated regularly to reflect any changes within the organization. If your brand guide is incomplete or undergoing a transition, wait to begin any new video projects until the brand guide has been finalized and approved at the highest level of authority (usually the CMO). There is nothing more frustrating for a marketing team or a creative agency than finding out halfway through a project that the brand is being revised.

Lack of Messaging That Resonates

For B2B tech marketers promoting sophisticated products, the temptation to over-complicate messaging is hard to resist. In-house video scripts and outlines are often full of jargon, buzzwords, and industry-speak. This kind of language represents the way that companies like to think of their products internally, but it rarely resonates with prospects.

Focusing your messaging on technology instead of the “so-what” for your customer is a big mistake, especially for videos that will be leveraged at the top of your funnel. Save technical features for product videos that will be viewed much further down your funnel. Even then, it’s important to focus on what’s important to the customer. 

The messaging in your videos should demonstrate an intimate knowledge of your customer’s must-solve problem and show them how their life will be different with your product. We aren’t marketing to robots – we’re marketing to people, and the best way to connect with them is through storytelling. Develop a clear, consistent message to use across your videos that shows prospects you understand the challenges they face. This messaging will take different forms depending on where the video will be used in your funnel. 

At the top of the funnel, hook prospects with a compelling message that speaks to their core problem. This needs to be more than, “your problems are solved” or “we’ll make your life easier.” Grab their attention with something specific and relatable to them. 

As you move down the funnel, use messaging to build trust and show (don’t tell) the prospect a vision for what their life will be like once they become a customer. This approach can take many forms depending on the type of video you are creating, but the point is to use engaging storytelling, rather than industry-speak, to bring your customer on a journey with your brand.

I recommend collaborating with your video agency to create video scripts – it’s often helpful to work with a third party who is outside of your organization and has a fresh perspective. 

Parting Thoughts

Partnering with your video agency and asking questions at the beginning of each video project is a great way to avoid mistakes, rather than learning lessons the hard way. I guarantee that any experienced video agency has seen all of these mistakes and many more. Use your agency as a guide to position your videos for creative success from the start.

Bio: Jason has over a decade of experience working with marketers in the B2B tech space to bring products and brands to life with powerful storytelling and engaging visuals. He is a Meta Certified Marketing Science Professional and Creative Strategy Professional, and has a Hubspot Digital Advertising Certification.