The MarCom Strategist: A Free B2B Marketing E-Newsletter
August, 2009
Published by Dianna Huff
Volume 10, Number 08
Welcome!
Last time I checked, it was January and the year had just begun. Now we’re in to August and the year is half-way done. Gads! I hope you’re having a wonderful summer and that you’ve either had vacation or are planning yours. I take my annual unplugged vacation later this month – and I can hardly wait.
This issue I cover how to use video to connect with your customers. The article is based on a blog post I wrote in July that was retweeted numerous times. For this version, I’ve included five real life video examples for your viewing pleasure.
Regards,
Dianna Huff
Five Ideas for Using Video to Connect with Your B2B Customers
By Dianna Huff
The July/August 2009 issue of Fortune Small Business featured Carousel Designs, a niche baby bedding manufacturer, for its Tool Kit | Makeover story. (For these Makeover stories, Fortune brings in three experts who analyze the company’s financials, sales, marketing, etc, and then make recommendations on what needs to be changed.)
David Nies, a marketing and branding consultant with Flexible Executives in Atlanta, praised Carousel Designs’ two owners for two Website innovations (a gift registry and a tool that lets shoppers customize bedding) but took them to task for a website video “that showed the factory where muscular workers stuff bedding into shipping boxes.” Says Nies to the two entrepreneurs:
A mom-to-be doesn’t want to see the factory floor. She wants to see your mom – now a grandma – talking about raising her kids while designing beautiful nurseries. She wants to see you, your wife and your children, discussing the importance of a safe, comfortable nursery. You have a great opportunity to become a trusted resource for expectant moms. They can’t get that at Pottery Barn Kids.
The Carousel Designs shop floor video is now gone and has been replaced with a terrific blog that answers customers’ questions about ordering baby bedding. And, the Carousel team developed a video on how to order fabric swatches for baby bedding – a question many customers apparently have.
Although this is a business-to-consumer marketing example, B2B marketers can learn something, especially when it comes to replacing those photos of the exterior of the “state of the art manufacturing plant” or video showing machinery working – which, let’s face it – are pretty boring.
Instead of posting photos of your building, use video to communicate directly with customers and prospects – as these five companies have cleverly done:
Waters Corporation – Taking the customer testimonial to the next level, Waters Corporation filmed over 50 customers talking about their work in the life science area -- and how using Waters’ instruments helped them in their work. Wouldn’t you kill to have your customers talk like this about you?
Fujitsu Hitachi – In a piece for the Discovery Channel, Hitachi demonstrates how it manufactures plasma televisions at its Miyazaki, Japan location. Think about how much impact a video like this would have on your prospective customers – versus tired and stale “we’re the leader in producing high-quality widgets, blah, blah, blah” Web copy.
Magnet Productions – In this professionally shot video, Magnet Productions shows how it can increase traffic to your tradeshow booth using real tradeshow floor examples. Do you think the company would have been able to communicate the same message without video? And, aren’t you ready to hire the company – like today?
Cisco – Turn your boring PDF product datasheets into cool video datasheets the way Cisco did. The company started off with three videos and after noticing they were the top downloaded pages on their site, added a dozen more.
ReachForce – A provider of targeted leads, ReachForce asked attendees (including their partners and prospects) at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2008 in June questions about the sales lead process. According to Leigh Anne Wallace, MarCom Manager for ReachForce, the company shared the video on its blog so that those who couldn’t attend the event could still learn from it. Says Leigh Anne, “This was our first foray into video on our blog – it was a lot of fun!”
The bottom line: video, when done right, shows your prospects and customers that your company has some personality. After all, it’s run by people . . . and people do business with people they know and trust – not buildings.
Do you have a B2B video campaign that you’d like to share? If so, send your details to me at info@dhcommunications.com – and if it’s a good story, I’ll feature it on my blog, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Dianna Huff / DH Communications In the News
The Link Economy and Why It Matters to Small & Growing Businesses – An e-book I edited for Yield Software.
Using LinkedIn to Gather Industry Intelligence – An article I wrote for the Savvy B2B Marketing Blog.
Need Advice From Business Women? – A link from the WOMMA blog to my blog post, “25 Smart Women to Follow on Twitter” that went viral (very exciting!).
Four Easy Steps to Successful SEO Copywriting – Bob Bly quotes me in an article for Target Marketing magazine.
Stay Away From Plug and Play – MarketingProfs reprinted one of my blog posts for its Daily Fix e-newsletter.
Hire Dianna Huff to Speak at Your Company
Would you like your corporate marcom team to learn more about social media, search engine optimization (SEO), or results-based B2B marketing writing?
Hire Dianna to give a half-day workshop. I’ll develop a customized and interactive presentation geared toward your company and industry that will help your team learn how to implement practical strategies quickly and easily.
I love what I do and really get into my topic – which means your team gets an enthusiastic presenter who really knows her stuff! (See my testimonials for proof.)
To learn more, visit my Speaking page or view my LinkedIn recommendations. If you like what you see, give me a call at 603-382-8093 or send email to: info@dhcommunications.com
“Dianna presented a fast-moving, entertaining session to the VT-NH DMG that brought attendees ‘actionable’ suggestions they could put to work upon returning to their offices. At a time when so many conferences and workshops about Social Media are from the 10,000 foot perspective, attendees appreciated learning more about the nuts and bolts that they could put to work for their businesses right away.”
-- Susan O’Neil
President, @Website Publicity
VP, VT-NH DMG
