With live networking events, expos, speaking engagements and in-person meetings cancelled this year, Vendors and Channel Partners alike are scrambling to find new ways to drive demand for their solutions. Of course, video has always been an effective way to attract and engage prospects online. However, given today’s highly distracted, digitally-fatigued, pajama-wearing decision makers, it’s never been more of a differentiator. Customers crave no-nonsense content that’s quick, informative and easy to digest. And video provides just that. In fact, according to the Digital Marketing Institute, 90% of consumers claim that video helps them make purchasing decisions, and by 2021 over 80% of website traffic will be mostly video content.
Crazy, right?
So why and how should you and your Partners take advantage of video for through-channel demand generation? Let’s go!
Watch This!
First of all, video is actually an inexpensive way for you and your Partners to showcase solutions and business outcomes in a compelling way without bombarding prospects. We are an “instant gratification” society. And so we look to gather information through audio and video, which we happen to have access to 24/7 via our smartphones and social. Companies today also rely on employees under the age of 39 to narrow product and solution options before handing them over to final decision-makers. And if you haven’t noticed, millennial and Gen Z “decision-influencers” favor video over any other content type. Creating and sharing bite-sized sales and marketing videos, enables you to infiltrate overwhelming social feeds and inboxes, where your prospects are already spending their time. It’s a recipe for success!
Make Your Demand Gen Videos Work For You
Spoiler alert! Through-channel demand generation has changed. Today’s buyers don’t care about your brand as much as they do about their bottom line. Your videos need to promote business outcomes first, followed by your value and then the products themselves. It’s also important to consider the modern buyer’s journey and sales cycle. Different video types and formats are more effective depending on where your prospects are in the sales cycle. For example, “How To” videos work best for top-of-the-funnel awareness, as prospects begin to learn about your value proposition, whereas explainer videos with in-depth information, work better during the consideration stage.
Since prospects have the lowest attention spans on record and rely on fast, reliable information to make decisions, sharing videos on social platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is an incredibly effective way to highlight business outcomes in creative and compelling ways. Including video in emails can also do wonders for open and click rates. Research shows it can increase email click-through rates (CTRs) by 2-3x. Even just adding the word “video” to an email subject line can increase the open rate by 13%! Not too shabby!
The bottom line is NOW is the time to teach Partners to drive demand with strategic video content that aligns with buyer behavior and proves value without in-person interactions.
Interested in learning more about leveraging video for through-channel demand gen? We’d love to help!