Here’s an interesting perspective. Think of the buyer’s journey as a highway. And what about your leads? Well, those would be drivers going down the highway, with many options available to them – and of course – distractions – those are everywhere as well.
Normally, your marketing has a main goal: showing that your way is the only path that makes sense for your clients, and a proven way to achieve their business goals.
Your main job in this case, is simple – but not easy: guiding them from “never heard of you before” to “damn, this is amazing – how do we start?”, with a clear and compelling journey.
And a smart video marketing funnel – is the amazing thing to help you establish yourself as the only path to success.
Here’s how your roadmap should look.
1. Top of Funnel: Catch Eyes
At the beginning of their roadtrip – your prospect most likely doesn’t even know that your brand exists. So you can’t sell to them yet – they might not even know that they have a problem, or even if they do – they don’t know that there’s a solution that could fix that.
Your goal is to speak directly to their problems – by calling out the main frustrations, and come in with quick punches, using short and punchy video content – preferably no longer than 60 seconds. At this stage, they are still not ready to begin their journey with you – so you should start with attracting them your way and establishing their needs.
In this case – you have a few options – short brand awareness and animated explainer videos, which you can use across socials, ads and other top of the funnel use cases. You can even share them in cold outbound emails, why not. Just make sure to keep them short and sweet – 15-30 seconds works like a charm for something like that.
Example:
Notion frequently uses animated micro videos across their socials, showing real-world use cases – and even in our example here, they are baking in a meme about IPad kids. 23 seconds in length – and amazing engagement stats with 611 likes.
It’s not selling – it’s inviting.
Tip: Remember – give them value, and kick start their journey with you.
2. Middle of Funnel: Guide Them With Clarity
Of course, once they are riding your way – help them increase the speed of getting to their final destination – which is becoming your cherished client..
But even more important than that – make sure they stay on the straight and narrow – and don’t start looking for the next exit and start engaging with your competitors, because your solution is too complicated, or lacks the supporting content.
This is where you want to introduce educational B2B video content. And there are various styles we will suggest:
– Product Walkthroughs – for hands-on, lifelike experience of using your product in day to day environments;
– Comparison videos – showing their current workflows, and how they are improved with implementation of the software;
– Use Case Explainers – showing real results produced, numbers, stats – and implementation.
All of these help them understand the route, follow it closely, and why you are clearly better and more effective than your competitors.
Example:
With HubSpot – the whole of their buyer journey is sprinkled with helpful explanatory content, live webinars and deep dives – as well as courses for marketing, sales and SEO.
Here’s a great example of a video tlike that from their selection.
Tip: This way, you have content that’s relevant to a variety of roles, pain points, industry verticals – and it just feels like the solution is built exactly for them.
3. Bottom of Funnel: Seal the Deal Before They Detour
Here’s where the trust becomes the fuel that makes them arrive towards the final destination of becoming your customer.
In this part of the journey – using testimonial or personalized B2B sales videos are the way to go. They can see the real-world applications and real-world ROI, presented as case studies of similar companies that have used your solution.
At this point – they are asking: “I have a problem, and I need to fix it – but is this the right vehicle for me?”
Example:
Zendesk builds a whole playlist of Customer Stories – presenting cases from different niches across SaaS, ecom, healthcare and more – so prospects can essentially visualize their steps forward.
It removes uncertainty, which kills millions of deals every year.
Tip: This is no longer engaging or educating – this comes to help with your closing needs.
Bonus: Refill the Tank with Repurposed Content
What if your clients diverge from the straight and narrow? Let’s say, instead of moving fast in the direction of starting working with you – they stop at some place along the way, because they need to “think about it” and “explore other solutions”?
In this case, you will still have a variety of different content pieces across various platforms. All of the content from previous stages can be repurposed, adjusted and reused across social media. Your demo video can be cut down and used as 10 short clips on your feature pages (and you can bet, the clients will be viewing those).
On the other hand – customer testimonials and case study can also be repurposed into bite-sized, 20-30 second clips – for social media. You can even give them to your sales people, to use with those clients that are seemingly stalling.
Conclusion
Your effective video marketing funnel isn’t about flashy visuals – although having amazing videos certainly help with improved engagement. It’s about knowing how to direct your audience with intention and strategy, towards becoming a customer.
Show them the route – then keep them engaged, and remove any friction or confusion along the way.
Strengthen your sales funnel with a multipurpose animated video explainer. Let’s talk about your project!
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