The cardinal rule in content marketing is to engage your audience quickly. If you don’t, they will click away. It may seem ruthless, but this is the nature of a fast-paced world and short user attention spans.

That’s why video content can be such an effective marketing tool. Good videos capture attention. They are faster, easier, and cheaper to produce than ever before—even quality videos. Video marketing can add an emotional, personal touch to an otherwise logic-oriented B2B world, making brands stand out as relevant, connected, and genuine companies.

According to HubSpot, the online marketing software firm, 86 percent of businesses use video as a marketing tool, and 87 percent report that video delivers a positive ROI.

Specifically in the industrial sector, 79 percent of manufacturing marketers use video content, according to “Manufacturing Content Marketing,” produced by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, and sponsored by GlobalSpec. In addition, 52 percent of engineers spend an hour or more watching video for work, as reported in “2021 State of Marketing to Engineers,” from TREW Marketing and GlobalSpec.

Video performs so well because it’s an engaging and concise way for viewers to consume content. The question isn’t whether video should be a component of your marketing portfolio, it’s what kind of videos you should produce and what channels are best for distributing them.

Think Educational

Like other forms of content marketing, videos should primarily be educational rather than salesy in nature. Engineers hate to be sold to and can sniff a sales pitch a mile away.

Use video to demonstrate thought leadership, expertise, and an understanding of your customers’ needs. Focus on these types of videos:

• How-to videos. Examples include how to incorporate a technical process into workflow, solve a problem, or use a product. Eighty-four percent of engineers say that how-to videos are valuable to them (2021 State of Marketing to Engineers).
• Product demos. Use visual media to demonstrate the top features and benefits of your product. Eighty-nine percent of engineers find product demo videos valuable (2021 State of Marketing to Engineers).
• Case studies. A customer success is a compelling story. Most case study videos describe the business, set up the business problem, and talk about the solution along with benefits and quantifiable results.
• Executive interviews. Perfect for demonstrating thought leadership in your industry and positioning your company as forward-thinking experts. Helps your audience forge a connection with your company.
• Data presentation. Create a video showcasing results of a survey or trends in your industry.
• Video blogs. Take one of your high-performing blog posts and repurpose it into a mini-documentary with interviews, images, and sound.  
• Roundups. How about a monthly video that provides a high-level summary of news or trends in your industry? You can give your audience a wealth of valuable information in just a few minutes.
• Day in the life. This type of video might follow one or more of your employees around to show viewers the ins and outs of your company. It not only puts a human face on your company, but can serve as a great recruiting tool in a time when the competition is fierce for attracting high-quality employees.

Marketing Channels for Video

Thanks to technology advances and the near-ubiquity of broadband, you can use almost any marketing channel for video:

• Videos can be a part of or the entirety of a social media post.
• Put demos and how-to videos on relevant pages on your website.
• Show video clips during webinars and other presentations.
• Use a video snippet as an advertisement in sponsored industry e-newsletter.
• Promote a video in a display advertisement, enticing viewers to learn something new and important.
• Add videos to your supplier page on GlobalSpec and other industry sites.

Keep Track

Like any other marketing content, keep track of metrics to see how well your videos perform on each marketing channel. Key metrics for video include number of views and length of view. If you find that users are dropping off at a certain point in the video, you know you’ve lost their attention and will need to make some changes.

Now get your cameras ready. And: action!