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Oct 21, 2021 Tribal Impact

Why Video Works So Well For Manufacturing Buyers

Why Video Works So Well For Manufacturing Buyers compressed

There’s no avoiding video marketing anymore. Not when it’s been reported that 96% of consumers watch an explainer video to learn about a product or service, and 87% of marketers believe video creates a positive ROI. Just 33% of marketers felt that way in 2015. 

Video Marketing is particularly useful for the manufacturing industry right now because prospects can see and understand solutions without the challenges of in-person events or visits.  

In fact, according to HubSpot Explainer videos have seen huge success. An overwhelming majority of people (94%) report watching explainer videos to learn more about a product, with 84% being swayed to make a purchase. 

Video can demonstrate what a solution does, what it looks like, how it’s manufactured, answer common questions, and much more. It’s a versatile format that can educate your buyers, which eventually convert as you’re kept top-of-mind.  

Videos posted on social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn can further boost the brand and help reach a wider audience. Buyers’ questions are answered before they’re ready to buy and in their own terms, which can streamline the purchasing process and lead to more lucrative deals. 

The one-to-many approach of videos can also save customer support and success teams time. When common questions are pre-empted and answered on videos, people who may have otherwise emailed in or called up don’t need to anymore. Teams then have time to answer more technical, individual questions that are harder to answer in a one-to-many way.  

Videos can also be repurposed, shared to different platforms at different times, or edited differently to share the same content in another way. Content repurposing saves marketing teams hours of time on idea generation. It can also save the time of company technical experts, who are short on time but big on knowledge. Including these in video content can help build trust because, according to 2021’s Edelman Trust Barometer, 59% of people trust them – more than CEOs, employees, or people just like them. 

 

[INTERVIEW] Two “Grumpy” Technical Experts’ Journey To Social Media Success

 

The Benefits Of Video For Manufacturing  

Videos posted to social media get shared 1200% more than images and text combined. Which means companies not using video are definitely missing out. That’s not all, though. 

LinkedIn videos earn an average of 3x more engagement than written posts, and in a year, attracted more than 300 million impressions.  

LinkedIn’s most interesting statistic about video, though, is that it leads to 49% faster revenue growth compared to brands which don’t use video. 

82% of content marketers use Twitter for their organic content, and it received a 62% increase in video views between 2019 and 2020. When its audience is over 353 million, that’s a big difference. And a whole lot ofcompanies could be missing out on, just by avoiding video marketing. Especially in the manufacturing industries, where marketing may be slower to adapt to new methods. 

 

Ways To Use Video For The Manufacturing Industry 

 

Product Demos 

According to B2B DecisionLabs, people are 13% more likely to remember what they’ve watched than what they’ve read in an email. Which means they’re going to remember the benefits of using your products more clearly if they’ve seen it on a video. 

Video is a great way to show off a product because it gives consumers a three-dimensional view. They can see what it looks like, how it works, how it interacts with the environment, and anything else they may want to know.  

Walking them through it in this way can be a great way to show off how knowledgeable employee influencers are, which builds the brand and trust of them and the business.  

It can also help to answer consumer questions – 43% of marketers say video has reduced the number of product-related support calls their company has received. So, they’re an amazing way to pre-empt what someone might want to know. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Every business has questions they get asked regularly. Answering them in a video can help to prevent support teams or success teams from having to repeat themselves to answer the same questions, giving them more time to handle more complicated queries. 

If FAQs are answered in live videos, buyers can chime in with questions while an expert is available to answer their queries. This means they get answers sooner and may also become a customer sooner, too. 

Since the answer comes straight from an employee expert, buyers are also more likely to trust the answer they get. 

 

Show The Process 

Video walk throughs of the manufacturing floor can give prospects an idea of how your product is made. This can counteract any concerns they may have, as well as demonstrating company culture.  

It can explain the digitisation process, and even explain how that’s changed over time. 

These videos can also show how you tackle real-world problems, like CO2 emissions and climate change.  

If your target account wants to reduce their carbon footprint, publishing content which shows how you’re reducing yours could resonate with them and trigger them to choose you over a competitor because of your shared values. 

 

Introduce The Team 

The latest Edelman Trust Barometer findings state that 59% of people trust company technical experts, and 53% of people trust someone just like them.  So, if you can get your employee advocates out there, in front of the camera, demonstrating your product and answering questions, buyers are more likely to develop trust with your brand. And they’re therefore more likely to buy. 

You could introduce the team by doing short videos about their roles and how it affects the products, show something more personal like a getting to know you quiz, or combine these with another video type where they share their knowledge. 

These types of videos are great for attracting top talent too. After all, people is how companies manage to grow and stay ahead of the competition.  

 

Blog: How To Attract Talent With Your B2B Social Media Strategy

 

Webinars  

Webinars can be a great way to share knowledge and answer questions. They can be presentation-based, or have more of a Q&A format.  

If you’re looking to capture leads, they’re an effective way to do this, as you can nurture buyers before and after the webinar.  

The average conversion rate of a webinar is 15% – considerably higher than the 1-2% that’s often cited as an average in the marketing community. 

Platforms like LinkedIn now allow you to host them on the site using LinkedIn Live, and attendees can RSVP in advance. 

 

Conclusion  

With 80% of marketers feeling that video has a positive impact on sales, video marketing is only going to get more important for the manufacturing industry. It helps reduce some of the barriers created by the pandemic, allowing buyers to see and fully understand what they’re purchasing before they purchase it. This gives them more confidence in where they spend their budgets, and can lead to greater customer satisfaction. 

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About Tribal Impact

Tribal Impact is a B2B Social Selling and Employee Branding Agency.

We're a team of social media strategists, trainers, coaches, content creators and data analysts who are passionate about helping our B2B customers develop and scale their social selling and employee advocacy programs.

Learn more about us here.

Published by Tribal Impact October 21, 2021