1. What's my goal?

What kind of video is it? A testimonial? A product launch or demo? An educational or “how-to” video? Or, maybe a culture video? What purpose does it serve in your B2B content strategy? Is your goal brand awareness or education? Clicks or views? A specific call-to-action such as a download or sign-up? Engagement looks different depending on the kind of video you’ve created and the objective you have in mind.

Having a clear-cut goal—and building your video and promotional strategy around it—provides the foundation for successful conversions down the line.

2. Who's my target?

What really matters to your audience? How do they consume digital media? Where do they go online and how long do they spend there? How do they make buying decisions?

A little research can go a long way. If you haven’t already, develop personas and journey maps for your target audiences. Know where your customers and prospects might be in the process when your videos get in their way. Then, you’ll know how to message to them and what the right call-to-action is for each video.

3. How are they going to watch?

A survey by LinkedIn found that B2B audiences are nearly just as likely to watch B2B videos on their mobile devices as they are on their laptops or desktops. But no matter how your audience consumes content, don’t overlook these four ground rules that always apply to video content:

• Make sure it's mobile-friendly. Functionally, yes. But not just. In order for a video to truly be effective in a mobile environment, it has to tell a story, visually, first. Remember, most viewers won’t have the sound up initially. You have to convince them to stick around and listen to what you have to say. Or, at least give them captions or subtitles to read.
• Give your users a second option for viewing. There’s nothing wrong with using a third-party program to take care of your video hosting needs, but there’s always a chance that it might not work on a viewer’s computer. We suggest using YouTube or Vimeo. They both generate embed codes that make adding videos to web pages a more user-friendly experience, and adding your videos to your YouTube channel makes them more findable—and viewable. Why Vimeo, then? Because the playback resolution on Vimeo is higher.
• Consider what people are going to see before they press play. Open your video file, but don’t press play. What do you see? A black screen? Your video star’s picture frozen with their mouth open? The “poster frame” is important and can be used to tempt viewers into clicking. Make sure it has something interesting to say.
• Make sure there’s a strong call-to-action. Remember question #1? It’s first on our list for a very good reason. What do you want your B2B audience to do after they’re done watching your video? You can include it in the video itself by programming button overlays (again, YouTube makes this easy) or on a web page with a hyperlink or CTA button. Consider using action-oriented phrases like “Learn more,” “Sign up today” or “Try now.”