Tips for Creating Compelling Product Videos for Your B2B eCommerce Store

For years, experts have been touting video as the most important emerging trend in marketing, but that trend is no more. Video marketing is officially here!

In today’s eCommerce marketplace, product videos are a critical component of every brand’s overall marketing strategy. They are an ideal way of showing your B2B customers the benefits and uses of your products right at the all-important point of purchase (POP) stage. In addition, if your customers are a bit hesitant to buy or don’t fully understand your products’ value, product videos act like an in-store salesperson, helping customers move through the B2B sales funnel.

Animoto found that as many as 73% of customers are more inclined to purchase a product after watching an explainer video about it, and up to 71% say video content gives them a positive impression of the brand.

Still feeling a bit uncertain about jumping behind the video camera lens? Check out these statistics by E-Commerce Nation:

• When a video is available on the site, 60% of visitors will opt to watch it before reading any text.
• Visitors stay longer on the pages with product videos, and overall session duration increases by 340%.
• When videos are added to product pages, visitors browse on average 127% more pages per session.
• Those who watch videos are 1.8x more likely to purchase than visitors who don’t engage with the video content.
• The “add-to-cart” conversion rate increases on average by 37% when product videos are added to product detail pages.
  

Now that you know why product videos are so important for eCommerce, let’s look at ways to make them as compelling as possible so that you can start leveraging the power of video marketing for your online B2B store.

5 ways to make product videos that boost your online B2B eCommerce store

1. Tell a story

‍When customers look at a product video, they want to know more than technical specifications—they also want to meet the people behind the product and the people who use it. Storytelling is an effective way of not just sharing knowledge and information about a product but also putting the product in context and appealing to your customers’ needs and desires. Make sure your product video tells the story of what the product does for the customer by showing the product in use and how it solves their problem. Remember, a great product video can remain on your customer’s mind for a long time.

2. Keep it short

‍While it might be true that your products are so great you could ramble on about them for hours, most B2B customers don’t have that much time to spare when they’re buying online. Longer is not better when it comes to product videos. In fact, a short product story can be just as compelling as a long one and has a better chance of holding your customer’s attention all the way through. Ensure your product videos are focused on the key aspects of the product and aim to keep their length to two minutes or less.

3. Make it relatable

‍When writing the script for your product videos, remember to talk to your customer, not at them. The goal is to have a conversation with them, to connect and engage with them on a relatable level so that your customers are left feeling as though you understood the problem they’re looking for your product to solve. To ensure your product videos are effective and interesting enough to watch, stick to the point, don’t be afraid to inject some creativity, and keep it human.

4. Explain why your product is better

‍Apart from making sure your product videos explain what the product is all about and how it solves the customer’s problem, you also want them to show why your product is better. This will reinforce in your customers the belief that they’re making the right decision by buying from your B2B eCommerce store. One of the ways you can do this is by highlighting your brand’s personality in your videos to differentiate your products from the millions of others on the market.

5. Focus on the details

‍Make sure your product videos highlight the most important features of your products. Effective product videos typically start a zoomed-out shot of the product, then zoom in to focus on the smaller details using different angles and perspectives before zooming out again to finish the video. Zooming in to highlight the finer features of your products is especially helpful for products that have texture to them, such as furniture or decorating supplies. You won’t necessarily be able to include all the features of your products in a two-minute video, so choose a few that will resonate best with your customers and focus on those.

Note: If you’re publishing your product videos on YouTube or another video-sharing platform, always remember to include your online store’s URL. You can do this using a short introductory bumper graphic at the beginning of the video or through a constant watermark in the bottom corner of the screen.

Ready to bring your products to life in video?

If you sell online, good product videos are an effective tool for showing off your brand. In fact, 83% of businesses claim that product video marketing has given them a positive ROI (Return on Investment) in 2019.

Product videos can not only convert window shoppers into paying customers but also enhance the overall customer purchasing experience by instilling confidence in their decision to buy from you. Just one great video can lead to better traffic in your B2B eCommerce store, increased brand awareness, greater exposure on social media, and higher sales.

Think of it this way, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a product video must be equal to at least a whole book or novel! In fact, according to James McQuivey of Forrester Research, a video is worth 1.8 million words.