7 B2B Video Marketing Myths You Shouldn't Believe

Video marketing has become increasingly popular among B2B companies. According to an OptinMonster report, in fact, it's more popular among B2B companies than B2C companies. The report found that 71% of B2B companies use video marketing, compared to just 66% of B2C companies. In our industry, we deal with mostly a visual products. One of the most effective ways to show products is with video. There are certain B2B video marketing myths you'll need to avoid, however. Below is a list of seven of the most common B2B video marketing.

#1) Ineffective for Sales Lead Generation

This myth couldn't be further from the truth. Video marketing is absolutely effective for sales lead generation. You can leverage video marketing for inbound and outbound sales lead generation. For inbound sales lead generation, you may want to publish explainer videos showcasing your B2B company's products or services on YouTube. As prospects come across these videos, some of them may voluntarily contact your B2B company to make an appointment with a sales rep.

For outbound sales lead generation, you can send email relevant and high-quality videos to prospects during their purchasing journey. If the prospect is a key account, you may even want to create a custom video for him or her. Regardless, video marketing is effective for inbound and outbound sales lead generation.

#2) Too Expensive

Think video marketing is too expensive for your B2B company? Think again. You can implement video in your B2B company's marketing, as well as sales, strategy at little or no cost. Whether you have a desktop or laptop computer, it's probably equipped with a webcam. You can record yourself talking about a relevant topic, such as a product or service sold by your B2B company, to create a video. You can also use screen capture software to create videos. These are just a few inexpensive ways to create B2B marketing videos.

Of course, you can always partner with a video production company to create professional videos. Video production companies specialize in creating professional videos. They have high-end equipment, which they can use to record behind-the-scenes videos, explainer videos and other types of videos for your B2B company. If you're on a budget, though, you may want to do in-house to save money.

Best yet, use a combination of both!

#3) Long Videos Outperform Short Videos

While it's true that some long videos will perform better than short videos, this isn't always the case. Research shows that three-fourths of all B2B marketing videos are under two minutes long. And there's a reason why so many B2B marketing videos are short: a short length allows for a higher level of engagement.

In the B2B industry, prospects and buyers typically consist of decision-makers. They are C-level executives who are responsible for making important decisions regarding their businesses' operations. As a result, prospects and buyers don't have a lot of free time to watch videos. They may be willing to watch a two-minute video, but they probably won't watch a 20- or 30-minute video. Therefore, long videos aren't necessarily better than short videos. You'll likely experience better results when using short videos to promote your B2B company.

#4) Only Publish on YouTube

Being that it's the world's most popular platform for video content, you may assume that you should only publish B2B marketing videos on YouTube. YouTube attracts over 2 billion viewers per month. While no other platform comes close to reaching this number of viewers, that doesn't mean you should focus exclusively on YouTube. There are other platforms and places where you can publish B2B marketing videos.

In addition to YouTube, you may want to publish B2B marketing videos on LinkedIn. LinkedIn offers Company Pages for companies. If your B2B company has a Company Page, you can publish videos on it. You can also publish B2B marketing videos in emails. Emails support video content. You can either upload a video as a file attachment, or you can link to a video within the email itself. And if your B2B company has a website, you can always upload videos directly to it as well. These are just a few alternative places where you can publish B2B marketing videos.

#5) Videos Must Go Viral

Your B2B marketing videos don't have to go viral. Granted, viral videos typically generate more views than other videos, but it's not a requirement for an effective B2B video marketing strategy.

Each view is an opportunity to generate a lead and a sale. If a video has just 100 views, it may land your B2B company 100 new leads or sales. The bottom line is that your videos don't need to go viral. Videos with just a handful of views can still prove beneficial, assuming they reach the right audience of viewers.

#6) Only Prerecorded Videos Are Useful

While you can certainly use prerecorded videos to generate leads and engage prospects, you may want to experiment with live-streaming. Live-streamed videos, of course, aren't prerecorded. They are streamed in real time when they are recorded. You can create live-streamed videos as part of your B2B company's marketing and sales strategy.

According to one study, nearly three-fourths of B2B companies that create live-streamed video content say it drives a positive return on investment (ROI). Live-streamed videos are easy to create. And unlike prerecorded videos, they don't require editing. You can still create prerecorded videos for your B2B company's audience, but don't ignore the value of live-streamed videos. Using both prerecorded videos and live-streamed videos will typically result in better performance.

#7) Not Measurable

B2B video marketing is absolutely measurable. Videos are a form of digital content. And like with most forms of digital content, they offer metrics by which you can measure their performance.

You can measure the performance of a B2B marketing video simply by analyzing its views. The more views it generates, the better. With that said, you can delve deeper into the performance of a B2B marketing video by analyzing other metrics like average watch time. Average watch time is the length of time a typical viewer spends watching the video. Other metrics to consider analyzing when using B2B video marketing include subscriber count, social media shares, likes-to-dislikes ratio and comments. Using these metrics, you can measure the performance of your B2B marketing videos.