When it comes to marketing, businesses have different goals, values, and communication styles than your average consumer. B2B (business-to-business) marketing involves promoting goods and services directly to other businesses and their representatives. For businesses running a B2B sales model, creating a marketing strategy can be an entirely new challenge; fortunately, B2B video marketing remains a reliable medium that can perform well on any social media platform.

Unlike B2C (business-to-consumer) digital marketing, B2B marketers have fewer digital platforms to take advantage of; such interactions often take place on professional sites like LinkedIn or real-time social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter). Knowing how to use these limitations to your advantage is the key to a successful B2B video marketing strategy.

A 2021 study broke down the B2B marketing funnel into four distinct phases. Here’s a breakdown of what each phase might look like for you:

Identify opportunities, build target audience profiles, and analyze potential clients via social media interactions. Now is the time to engage in market research, perhaps by conducting formal research or using social media platforms to conduct informal polls. If you’re on a budget, you could lurk on online platforms like LinkedIn to gauge the opinions of potential clients and like-minded professionals!

Make use of your online resources to conduct in-depth research on potential clients, relevant trends, and market conditions. This phase of B2B research focuses on in-depth, peer-reviewed investigation; connect with peers and potential leads to get a better idea of the current professional climate, or organize meetings with connections to potential leads.

Using the information you’ve gathered in the previous two phases, create content that aligns with your brand image and strengthens your relationship with potential leads. Remember that it’s not just about your output; don’t be afraid to engage with content from your potential clients!

Once you’ve established a solid social network, strengthen your relationships via direct communication with representatives. Create opportunities for further discussion and secure any potential leads.

Video marketing has the strongest positive impact on the first three stages, with Building Networks and Managing Existing Relations being the most directly influenced. With this in mind, it’s important to set your content creation goals with the intent to share information, build connections, and strengthen your business relationships.

With more limited platforms to choose from, it’s more important than ever to leverage every channel available to your business. One approach to consider is transmedia marketing: the integration of content across multiple platforms such as social media, video sites, and blogs. Unlike cross-platform marketing strategies, which merely focus on adapting the same content to different platforms, transmedia strategies involve the creation of interactive storytelling content for multiple platforms around an overarching theme or metanarrative.

With transmedia narratives, you’re essentially creating a “cinematic universe” for your B2B marketing strategy: although each platform delivers its own “genre” of content, these individual narratives all contribute to a singular, cohesive metanarrative. Users can follow these narratives across multiple platforms, driving engagement and presenting a more holistic brand image to potential leads.

A 2019 study investigated technology conglomerate Cisco’s approach to transmedia marketing. To promote its new “Internet of Things” network feature, Cisco produced multiple episodic video series, ranging in genre from documentaries to science fiction and comedy. All of these individual series revolved around a singular theme: everyday technology powered by Cisco’s newly developed “Internet of Things”.

The company’s transmedia approach to B2B video marketing created new opportunities for specialized forms of content that could appeal to a far greater number of potential clients.

Video marketing is a valuable tool for B2B marketers to build social networks, share information, and potentially generate leads. Here are some tips to get you started on your strategy, based on the information we’ve outlined:

1. Define Your Goals: When it comes to B2B marketing, raw numbers aren’t as important as the connections you set out to make. Do your research and plan to create content that is relevant to your potential leads.
2. Get Real: B2B marketing doesn’t have to be boring or dull; don’t be afraid to add some authenticity to your content, especially when it comes to short-form video.
3. Don’t Stick to One Genre: Because virtually every platform supports video content, video marketing as a medium presents unique opportunities for transmedia narrative strategies. Breaking into multiple genres of content can ensure that your message reaches different segments of your target audience.
4. Collaborate with Professionals: Digital marketing specialists at companies like iStudios Media can help you refine your business strategy. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to strengthen your brand, the advice of a marketing professional can go a long way.

As a B2B marketing studio that specializes in video marketing, our consultants at iStudios Media can help you achieve your B2B marketing goals.

Have an idea? Let’s get to work. Get started and book a consultation with one of the Bay Area’s best marketing professionals.