Video Marketing Trends for 2021

Big data, 360 video and more: a preview of the biggest video trends of 2021

This is an overview of what’s new in video in 2021, what continues to improve from 2020, and how to use each rising technology.

Slow Clap Productions is a San Francisco-based creative video production company that helps brands like GitHub, Blue Shield of California, and Capital One use video to its full potential.

2021 feels like the year of the comeback, but in video, it’s been an uninterrupted campaign of internet domination. While marketers continue to shout, “brands must use video today or risk everything!”, video marketing itself is not risky. Because in 2020, people consumed a ton of video, and data gives us a great picture into what will continue to work in 2021.

This means you have more data than ever to create the right video for your favorite audience. But here’s the twist: 2021 may be the year to let others tell your brand’s story, and get better results. And not only are influencers bringing audiences into familiar company – more brands will bring audiences into their world using relatively new technology, including one that used to just be for people who “gotta catch ‘em all.”

Here’s how that will look.


Artificial Intelligence will improve audience matching

In 2021, “big data” will continue to improve video effectiveness by showing targeted videos to the right audience.

With more consumer data available every second, algorithms can increasingly predict which videos will garner more likes, subscribes, and sales.

This is already the strategy for YouTube and Facebook ads – but how about emails, popups, or celebrities who show up in a 360-degree virtual space?

HOW TO USE IT

  • Use platforms with data management and analytics, like Wistia, Google Analytics, Brid.TV, or Hubspot
  • Create demographic tiers based on variables native to your audience
  • Create A/B versions of videos or CTA landing pages and see how they compare

But influencer marketing remains more trusted

influencer marketing, video marketing, social media influencer

Influencer marketing is still on an upward trend. With ads everywhere – and soon to appear in immersive 3D worlds (more on that later) – advertisement fatigue is massive.

But humans continue to know, like, and trust each other – even online. We also value authority. And that’s where everyday people become influencers – by being likeable and knowledgeable.

YouTube changed the face of video, from entertainment to news to yes, even marketing. It’s possible to learn to fix your own car, build your own computer, and know which boots will last the longest – thanks to helpful video content.

But the hard-to-replicate element is trust. Humans value free and helpful information, and they really value it from other humans who act, look, and think like them. And in this age, they earn more credibility if they have nothing to gain by sharing that information.

The future of credibility may be in “brand advocacy,” where ordinary (but trusted!) people make videos about your products and services. Their opinions are the difference between being the giant evil corporation and the community business people know and trust.

HOW TO USE IT

  • Make it easy for influencers to test and review your products and services
  • Offer partnerships with influencers
  • Don’t ask those influencers to exclusively use your products and services – they will lose their trust with the audience

Virtual conferences become a weekly event

Online webinars, virtual conferences, Online events,
Ironclad Virtual Conference, Winter 2020

Just as live streams are the influencer’s sold-out concert, virtual conferences are multiplying. You’ve probably been to at least one. A virtual trade show. A Q&A session with an expert. A discussion group.

But even in live streams, it’s good to step away from talking heads when you simply have to “show” your audience what you can do for them. Last year, Slow Clap made a testimonial video for Slack Frontiers 2020, showing the audience how fast and effortlessly they can both gain momentum and pivot with the right communication platform.

We also helped with Adobe MAX 2020,  creating a fast and fun showcase of creatives empowered by Adobe – while staying focused on how accessible creative work is for anyone, anywhere.

HOW TO USE VIRTUAL CONFERENCES:

  • Choose a theme based on what’s trending in your industry
  • Build attendance with a full-fledged campaign
  • Protect the event with a great video and tech team
  • Bring in well-known experts as keynote speakers
  • Repurpose great talks and Q&As as content after the event

360-degree video grows more accessible

360 video is where the audience can move through and look in any direction. And like The Matrix, sometimes you just have to see it to understand what it means:

And some applications not yet created:

  • Virtual events: feel like you’re there with the live attendees
  • Movie promotion: let the audience explore the asteroid belt from a space pod
  • Education: learn to watch the pitcher’s tells in a virtual baseball training
  • Travel: Following along as explorers dive an ancient shipwreck
  • Health Care: Learning the layout of a hospital before you visit
  • Home Decoration: tour the house’s Christmas decorations

360 video is not new for 2021, but it’s reaching its adolescence, and it’s growing muscles. Once the exclusive realm of video games, 360 is now less expensive, and therefore more accessible to imaginative businesses everywhere. That’s because the technology continues to decrease in price. Though if you want super high resolution, you’ll want to hire a team like Slow Clap.

Augmented reality is now more than just a game

AR, ipad shopping, video marketing with AR

AR is the converse of 360  – instead of placing a user in the brand’s world, it places the product in the user’s world.

Augmented reality was, for most, seeing a Pokemon on their kid’s phone as they walk through the park. In 2021, it’ll be a lot more than cartoons, and many of us will see it through our glasses, too.

While not strictly “video,” augmented reality nonetheless brings products, services, and education into perception in a novel way. And for the B2B environment, this can mean ideas like:

  • Teaching anatomy and medicine – like Case Western Reserve University
  • Training employees, like where to place objects when a shelf is empty
  • Seeing if office furniture fits (and looks good) in a preview
  • Identifying an out-of-place part or product instantly – just point your phone at it and find out what department it belongs in
augmented reality shopping with smart phone,

HOW TO USE AUGMENTED REALITY:

  • Start with an idea. What can you bring into your customer’s world that they want or need?
  • You’ll have to build an app – or integrate it into an existing app
  • You’ll need 3D footage or a 3D animated model of the objects

Education videos are still a tried-and-true video entry point

Educational videos continue to make up a huge portion of YouTube viewership. While it would seem that every “how” has been answered on YouTube, it makes lot of sense for any brand to find out what questions their customers ask most, and make content about it, because:

  1. It positions you as a thought leader
  2. It creates value, which builds trust
  3. And it drives inbound traffic to your brand

For example, RepairPal created simple, professional how-tos that, frankly, anybody could have made with a shaky phone camera. But in both content for businesses and customers, they contrasted themselves as an organized and reliable source for repair.

HOW TO USE EDUCATIONAL CONTENT:

  • Find the most-asked questions about your product or service
  • Write a script – or consult a scriptwriter
  • Shoot the video yourself – or hire a production company
  • Upload it to the platforms your audience uses
  • Name, tag, and keyword it effectively

Public platforms continue to attract different audiences

Holding a smartphone with social media apps open

Your platform is wherever your audience already is. But odds are you’ll use more than one platform.

YouTube remains the biggest host and curator for video on the internet.  YouTube is largely about sitting down with people from around the world as they share their perspectives.

As such, traditional commercials don’t fare well unless run as ads – but educational content still makes up around half of YouTube views. And of course, reality shows and influencer vlogs are doing just fine too.

One more reason to use YouTube: videos hosted there can greatly boost blog posts on the same topic.

Tik Tok grew tremendously in 2020, in spite of legal restrictions. It is deliberately short-form and works well for younger audiences.

Tik Tok doesn’t yet have the filtering of older platforms (YouTube), which allows disruptive newcomers to kick down doors with clever and trendy ideas.

LinkedIn now has 700 million users. LinkedIn’s culture is deliberately workplace-safe,  but if you can balance the platitudes with a dose of real emotion, you can build an audience.

If you’re a B2B brand, pay special attention: LinkedIn is the first place many businesses turn for their needs. It’s where their partners go, their audience goes, and often where it’s safe to spend a little work time visiting.

A note: share your videos by uploading them directly to LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes natively hosted videos, and we’ve seen view counts as much as 4x higher just by uploading directly to LinkedIn.

Facebook video is worth prioritizing if most of your audience is already on Facebook. They’re more likely to see videos hosted on Facebook in their feed. And Facebook is, naturally, a more social platform than YouTube, leading to more shares and likes.

That said, Facebook’s video tab suffers from weak recommendations – geared more toward total views than the appropriate audience.

Instagram, an influencer’s best friend, lowers the bar to admission for brands of any size. But it remains primarily oriented toward B2C.


As video grows, private platforms help leaders inspire

CEO of Blue Shield of California, Paul Markovich, uses private video to speak to his employees.

Sometimes it’s just faster – and more impactful – to send a video to your employees, colleagues, or coworkers.

This is why internal platforms like Wistia, Brighteon, Vimeo, BombBomb, and others are strong options for keeping your messages away from prying ears.


Pants optional, but lights are now dress code

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, video chat, complete with screen sharing, grew exponentially in 2020. And while we can’t stay inside forever, it will take some time before in-person meetings become a regular part of life again.

For some companies that may never happen. That’s where having a video-chat friendly setup makes you look and sound as professional as you are.

A good web camera is nice – but bright and even lighting and a good quality microphone are better gifts for your audience and your personal brand.

HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT VIDEO CHAT EQUIPMENT

  • Search YouTube for options within your budget and technical needs
  • Get lights of a matching color temperature
  • Consider what’s the best space to chat, for both noisiness and light

Shoppable video will be assessed for effectiveness

shop through video, shoppable video screen, ecommerce through video, ecommerce video marketing, online shopping,

The fewer clicks between the consumer and a product, the easier – and more likely – it is for them to buy. So why not let them click right there in the video?

As more customers shop online due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as generational trends and preferences, this – and an integration with 360 environments – could become a major market share. And for those of us who live miles away from our favorite stores, this could be a new form of freedom.

But shoppable videos’ effectiveness is still a question mark. Big data will help with that, but given that this is standard in Instagram, there is reason to be confident that shoppable videos will continue to rise.

HOW TO USE SHOPPABLE VIDEOS

  • If your brand is a lifestyle, it’s a no-brainer to give tours of an iconic scene with products they can buy
  • If your sales lean on an influencer, let them showcase your products with affiliate links
  • Make videos about your best-selling products first

Principles that haven’t changed in 2021

Focus on your customer, not your company

The highest-ranking and hottest-selling videos – be it content or advertisement – are stories where your customer is the hero, and you are merely a guide.

This can be an ad about your customer saving the day with a better fire extinguisher, or content teaching them how to fireproof a garage. But videos about your company’s greatness should be saved for the people who make your company great.

Value is still king

As in, content that shares helpful information will outlast and, over time, outperform the best ads. You still need ads – but even those should focus on your customer’s journey.

So when you begin planning your videos, here are some highly successful examples to draw from:

Get started. Today.

Yes, earlier we insisted you have time to make good decisions. That’s true. But this next step should go into your schedule for this week.

If you don’t yet use video in your marketing, figure out what video your audience wants most. Then set that video in motion. And if you need help making it, contact us.

Hook ‘em from the start:

In your video thumbnail, show them what they can expect in the easiest to understand way possible. If you can, make it so a 4th grader will understand.

Then in the first 15 seconds of the video, make it clear that you’re going to deliver on the promise that brought them there.  “Today I’m going to show you how to hook your audience” is a lot more trustworthy than an open loop (“later I’ll show you how to hook your audience, but first let me tell you about SuperCorp”).

Make your videos searchable

Google still can’t “read” videos, but it can read transcripts. And while YouTube provides automatic transcribing, it’s often inaccurate – which is a problem for Google and for your audience. To counter this, include captions whenever you can. Services like Rev make it easy and inexpensive.

Stay in the conversation.

In our crowded mindspace, people need constant and value-rich reminders that you’re great at what you do. So make a list of the rest of the videos your audience needs, and schedule them to launch at set intervals. And then, create a plan to repurpose your content.

Most of the time, keep it short

YouTube prioritizes long videos because they can then show more ads. And for some content, a comprehensive approach is best. Or when you want to hang out with your fans for a long livestream.

But most video is better short. Your audience will stick around if you don’t waste their time. Executives prefer shorter video, too.

Don’t use autoplay in your ads

Google knows it irritates most audiences – and they continue to hunt and kill it. It’s better to blend your marketing into value-rich content than to shout at people while they look up dinner recipes.

Conclusion: try something bold in 2021

Whether it’s partnering with an influencer, or investing in Augmented Reality, or experimenting with 360 videos, or just creating good educational videos about your products and services, 2021 is a great time to start using video. And if you need help with any project, contact Slow Clap.

Further Reading

Personalized Video Marketing: The Next Revolution in Content Marketing

The 7 Most Creative Uses of 360 Video by Brands

25 Predictions for Social Media Marketing in 2021

The Best Video Production Companies in the San Francisco Bay Area

How to Make Videos While Sheltering in Place

A Complete Guide to Understanding, Planning, and Creating B2B Videos

To make effective B2B videos, you have to think differently than B2C.

This is a guide to making B2B videos, or videos that sell from one business to another.

Is there a difference? Put simply, the B2B audience is small and practical. They are company decision-makers, managers and CEOs. They have strict budgets, stakeholders to please, and employee jobs to protect. 

B2C markets don’t have to be so methodical. While a B2B software company may have 10,000 real-world prospects, a B2C software company may have 10 million or more. And their purchase habits can be guided by logic – but they can also be for curiosity or comfort. 

Therefore, while all advertising requires emotion to sell, B2B depends heavily on concrete data to close a sale. Statistics, industry knowledge, and proven results are required. 

Sounds daunting, right? Well, in a lot of ways, we’ve found that B2B video can actually be easier than B2C, because if you know the industry, you know precisely what the players need. And creating videos to position yourself as an indispensable guide can actually be fun.

Slow Clap Productions is a San Francisco-based creative video production company that helps B2B brands like GitHub, Slack, Blue Shield of California, Capital One Small Business, and Insightly use video to its full potential. 

This article will show you: 

  • How B2B video is different. 
  • The best types of B2B content to make. 
  • How to choose which content to make. 
  • And where to deploy your videos for maximum results.

So let’s get started.


Great B2B video starts with B2B marketing fundamentals

B2B video follows the same principles as any great marketing, but differs in the where and how the message is delivered.

Start by thinking about who buys. Are they the director of marketing? Purchasing director? Or field supervisor?

Next, what does this person want? They may have a large budget, but misspending can damage the company and possibly cost them their job. A B2C customer can suffer a broken hair dryer, but a B2B customer may not be able to survive faulty software. 

Your customer’s first desire is safety (not to lose), but their hopes are pinned on products that go beyond “staying the same.” They do want software that really does save them an hour a day. 

Because these are the stakes, the goal of B2B marketing is first and foremost to build trust

To build trust, We suggest you demonstrate five things:

  1. You understand their industry. You know their operations and supply chain. You speak their language, including industry-specific lingo. Our testimonial video collaboration with GitHub, for instance, targets a very specific audience interested in cutting edge cloud computing, featuring Spotify, Google, and the Apache Foundation.
  2. You can prove your results. You gather testimonials from other customers – ideally recognizable brands, but at least companies in the same industries as your prospective customers. The video we made for NewVoiceMedia (now Vonage) about DoorDash does a great job of laying down the concrete benefits of their product.
  3. You can show relevant data. This includes test data, like “our drills lasted 40% longer in an independent study.” And related data, like “tungsten has shown to outlast other metals by as much as 90%” Our animated videos for States Title, for instance, use data points to make a strong case for their solutions.
  4. You know the culture of the industry. Like CRM, where sarcasm and color are encouraged. Or IT, where being efficient and correct are virtues. Or law, where reputation and power matter most. Stampli’s audience is Accounts Payable, one of the least sexy silos in a business. But they know their audience and know that AP teams love a good sense of humor. We made sure that shined through in our Stampli brand videos.
  5. You have a clear message that wraps the first four together. “Suppliers who use HoverTruck pay half as much in mileage costs, and it’s trusted by brands like FedEx.” Blue Shield of California did a great job of this when discussing new emerging technology, Virtual Consults, in our animated video series Health Reimagined.

How to use this knowledge in your B2B video best practices

Video is arguably the most powerful marketing short of a friend’s referral, but it faces the same problems as every other type of online marketing, including:

  • How will we get them to find it?
  • How will we get them to click on it?
  • How will it resonate with the audience?
  • How will it persuade the audience?

To tackle these, answer the following questions.

Who is the hero of the video?

More specifically, who is your customer “avatar?” What are their demographics and gender? How do they dress? How do they talk? If using actors or animated characters, you’ll need to make these decisions so you can include characters with whom your audience can identify. 

“To be good at sales, you have to be good at basically duplicating and mirroring the person you’re selling to and giving them the personality they need to feel comfortable to buy,” says Benjamin Denehy, CEO of The UK’s Most Hated Sales Trainer. 

What story does your customer need to hear?

It’s a simple formula – your customer has a problem (X), so they obtain your product/service (Y), and get a specific outcome (Z). 

Even in B2B video, most of your storytelling should be about your customer. This means skipping the office tour video unless it’s relevant – for instance, if you want to show that your employees all share a background in the same industry as your clients.

How is your customer searching for answers?

You solve a problem. Your customer asks about how to solve that problem in different and sometimes unexpected ways. 

Promising these answers is the key to being found, being watched, and (eventually) being purchased. 

This is first a problem of defining the answer, and then using keyword research to find out exactly how your audience is really asking it. For example, if you run a SaaS company, a frequent search is “software as a service vs. subscription.”

Source: Answer The Public

One way to begin is by using Answer the Public, which is sort of a reversed search engine. You type in a topic, and you’ll get questions and queries most frequently searched in Google that includes that search phrase. Be sure to try different search phrases – and consider comparing them in Google Trends to see which one(s) are searched most overall.

What proof do they need to hear and see?

According to Harvard Business Review, emotional purchase decisions are still rational – but in a complex way, where the intuition processes data faster than conscious logic, and then offers up its judgment as an emotion.

So maybe we don’t exactly “buy with emotion and justify with logic.” But either way, data is necessary to sell. Here are four easy-to-use forms of data for your B2B videos:

  • Before & after: Whenever possible, show the problem, action, and result 
  • Testimonials: “I’m director of marketing at TechCorp, and video helped us grow tremendously.” 
  • Primary data: “In our tests, video had a 20% higher conversion rate than email.” 
  • Secondary data:  “According to X, 90% of marketers say video brings them success”

During planning and scripting, consider adding every credible form of proof to your video. Rank them by how impactful they are to your avatar. Safety is always the first concern, with success coming second. 

Where will they watch this video?

The last consideration in this set is choosing where to launch your video for best results. This involves some knowledge of platforms. 

Start with these questions:

  • What platforms will you use? 
  • Is that platform’s culture best for this content?
  • What are their size limits? 
  • What are their runtime limits?
  • Should you upload the video natively on the platform, or embed it from another platform (e.g. Wistia, YouTube, or Vimeo)?

If you’re hoping to be found organically, ask these: 

  • What keywords would bring your customers there? 
  • Are the keywords found in the video? Or the video’s description?
  • Is your thumbnail eye-catching to your customer avatar?

And if you’re using advertisements, consider these:

  • Which platforms have the most professionals?
  • What keywords would target them best?

The best formats for B2B videos

Testimonials

A customer’s success story is worth… well, don’t tell them how much it’s worth, or they may invoice you. All the data in the world still doesn’t compare to a trustworthy recommendation. Even better: a human from a brand recognized in your industry. 

For instance, our case study video of how Asana’s legal operations pros use Ironclad is worth its weight in gold. It describes a story of a company department (legal ops) on the cutting edge of an industry (business contracting) all powered by Ironclad.

Ironclad x Asana Testimonial Video

To create a great testimonial:

  • Ask an outspoken customer who loves your product for help.
  • Film them in their native environment, using a professional production team.
  • Have them speak to an interviewer. It’s easier than talking to the camera.

And for basic interview questions:

  1. Who are they, and what does their business do?
  2. What was their problem?
  3. How did they know that your product had the answer?
  4. What was the result?
  5. Do they recommend you?

Explainer Videos

Explainer videos aren’t always about animated characters facing abstract problems. They can be live action, too, with a company representative talking about their methods. The common element is that they sell by explaining their unique solution to a problem.

You’ve seen a million of them – but they don’t need a million views. They only need to be seen by the right people. So targeting and promoting is just as important as creating a clear message. 

Stampli: Effortless Invoices Explainer Video

To create a great explainer video:

  1. Use an avatar that is familiar to your customer like Tony in our Stampli videos.
  2. Start with the problem. And really make them feel it.
  3. Explain the advantages of your solution.
  4. Show results with your strongest data.
  5. Target your audience with ads – be it through Google search, or through ads on specific problems.

Webinars and Live Streams

As an alternative to meeting in person, video conferencing is still rising. There are big advantages, too, beyond safety and lack of travel. 

  • It’s friendly. You’re not some faraway company in a tower nobody can enter. 
  • Customers get to learn and learn about your brand at the same time.
  • You can answer specific questions. B2B video marketing is largely about concrete answers, and you probably won’t be able to answer all of them in your other marketing. 
  • You get content you never knew you needed. Customers will raise concerns you never thought about. 

Slack Frontiers

Webinars live or die on audience participation, so we recommend you devote a large portion of time to answering questions. Lecturing through a pitch deck is boring. Keep your presentation short and open up the mic as soon as possible.

Besides planning, spend time promoting your webinars. Use your email list and your social media. And offer value. Your webinar should be worth skipping lunch. Two great methods include offering answers customers can’t get elsewhere, and offering discounts on your product.

Lastly, make sure you partner with an event production agency, or have an internal event producer, who knows the ins and outs of attendee registration, and how to turn registrants into high quality vetted sales leads.

Interviews with Experts

Often in B2B marketing, the word of an expert can be as good as a testimonial. If you make medical-grade masks, talk to a microbiologist who can verify that some masks – like yours – can stop even the tiniest of viruses from passing through.

La Crema Brand Story as an interview with experts

People understand that experts are busy and often live far away, so they don’t expect a full-scale production. Their first concern is getting answers. So your two priorities in expert interviews are good audio and good questions.

To create great expert interviews:

  1. Contact the expert with full disclosure about who you are and your intentions
  2. If they’re unwilling to host a film crew, ask them to record in a quiet area, preferably with good lighting
  3. Send them your questions in advance
  4. Set up your space for high-quality recording
  5. Respect the expert’s time and thank them

Educational Videos

Educational videos naturally include teaching your customer how to use your product or service. If you don’t show them how, somebody else will, and you don’t know what they’ll get wrong, let alone what they’ll say about you.

RepairPal Educational video

But beyond that, educational video can add value to your brand by creating industry-specific content. For example, SEO juggernaut Moz creates how-to videos on every aspect of SEO and search. And RepairPal collaborated with us to create content about commonly asked car maintenance questions.


How to choose what videos to create

If you have no video content whatsoever, this is the B2B video marketing strategy we recommend:

  1. A great explainer video. Your customer must first understand how you help them through a problem.
  2. Testimonials. Even when filmed on a phone, testimonials can build trust. But capturing them professionally demonstrates your success and reliability.
  3. Webinars. These help you build email lists, meet people interested in your product, and find out more about what they value. It’s win-win stuff.
  4. Educational videos. First, create some on how to use your product (if necessary), and second on heavily-searched topics related to your business. If you recorded a great Webinar, it can easily become an educational video.
  5. Interviews with experts. They’re essentially more educational videos, but it’s harder to predict if the content will answer specific questions your audience has. Sometimes, though, you need somebody with more authority to prove your own credibility.

Choosing the right platforms

As always, go where your audience goes. But in B2B, that’s a somewhat predictable breakdown: 

If you’re starting from scratch, build your presence in the top four platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube). You can use programs like Hootsuite to post to every platform on an automated schedule. 

Remember that total views and total subscribers are nice, but they’re not the metrics you want. Your goal is engagement with actual customers. It doesn’t matter if you only get 25 views in a month if one of them is a major customer.


Tips for better videos and better outcomes

Start with a script. It’s a lot easier to change paths on paper than it is mid-filming or in post-production.

Add captions. Captions make your content friendly to hard-of-hearing and increase engagement from users scrolling down feeds. Some platforms offer them for free. Rev.com offers them at just over $1/minute. 

Hire a top-notch production company if the video is going to directly impact your sales. Reach out to us to start the conversation.

Follow the 80/20 rule. Spend 20% of your time on creation, and 80% on promotion. Use it in ads. Put it on a social media schedule. 


Further reading

Building a Brand Voice with Video (Slow Clap)

A Complete B2B SEO Strategy for 2021 (Backlinko)

Understanding the Differences Between B2B and B2C Marketing (The Balance – Small Business)

2016 B2B Benchmarks Report (Content Marketing Institute)

Four Best Practices for B2B Marketing (Uberflip)

Six type of B2B video and when to use them (LinkedIn)

The Best B2B Social Networking Channels To Grow Your Business (Shane Barker)