Often, marketers focus on growing sales…and fail to consider the needs of customers after closing them. Sure, there is a customer success team who is dedicated to serving and delighting customers, but rarely does this team interact with the marketing department. This is a costly mistake, especially since 80% of your future revenue will come from 20% of your current customers.
Your company needs to hone customer retention to be profitable. Take a hard look at your content strategy and evaluate what you are doing to retain customers. How can you continue to educate, entertain, and influence your customers (in hopes of marketing and selling to them even more)?
One of the most effective ways to increase customer retention is by using video content to connect with your customers. Let’s take a deeper look at how personalizing video marketing to your target audience ensures your relationship grows and keeps generating revenue:
Why Online Video Marketing is Effective in the Retention Stage
Typically, marketers attract and convert customers – then that’s where their interaction ends. But why go back to nurturing cold leads when customers who already like your brand are sitting right in front of you? It’s a fatal mistake to count on in-product messaging to do your job for you.
Use retention videos to show your customers how you can make their lives easier. A few retention video ideas are:
- Onboarding videos
- Tip series by AMs/Support
- How-To/Tutorial
- Future Teasers/Product Explainers
- Customer Experience Videos
Or you can try out making video playlists that use customer habits to offer a unique experience to each individual.
Again, interactive video can thrive here, crafting custom experiences that show customers you care about their time. Demonstrate how you understand the target audience’s interests with post-roll clips that recommend video suggestions based on what they have already watched. Place CTA buttons that lead to content offers or the option to watch another video.
Strategy Roundtable: Key Points to Remember When Marketing to Customers with B2B Video
Don’t start making retention videos until you have asked yourself these key questions:
How can adding video to your conversations engage current customers?
Don’t make videos just to make videos. Map the types of communications you expect to send customers in the next six months (press releases, product announcements, account manager check-ins, product tutorials, and whatever other communications you have planned). Can this content be made engaging through video summaries, or quick personalized video communications? Not everything deserves a video, but admittedly, some information can be consumed more readily watching a 30-second video clip instead of reading a 700-word press release. Lastly, make sure the customer understands WIIFM, or “what’s in it for me.” Spending time and resources on video creation just to talk about your brand doesn’t tend to yield the intended ROI. Set the context for customer success.
Why should you use video marketing for retention campaigns?
Retention campaigns mimic engagement campaigns in many ways. Previously, we sought to enhance the lives of our readers by providing advice on how to solve their problem, and now we continue to do this on a more advanced level. Not only can video content teach customers how to maximize their investment in our products or services, but it also helps them to strategize long-term. Embrace related tools or topics, and provide insight on trends. It might sound counterintuitive but you need to keep proving to customers that your company is the best choice. With a solid content marketing strategy, you can use video content to demonstrate your brand’s knowledge and propel your customers’ business to long-term success.
What is the best way to create personalized video experiences for my customers?
Today, marketers face a conundrum. Personalization at scale.
This gets even more complicated when you add video to the mix. While tools exist that allow us to stitch names into emails and even videos… this marketing technique, admittedly, doesn’t feel very personal, does it? The ease of video tools (we all have a camera on our phones) and the fluency with which our workforce is becoming comfortable with video content means it’s just another communication tool we all have to master. Try sending custom video communications from account managers, product managers, and engineers (beta test, anyone?) instead of emails.
It’s a good idea to speak with your customer support team to get a better understanding of your customers’ common issues. Use these problems as a basis for creating video content that answers their burning questions and speaks to their specific needs.
Customer Retention: B2B Video Examples that Inspire Loyalty
Company: Powtoon
What they do: Video Maker Tool
Type of video: Tip Series
Why it works: This video is simple, but aces execution. Powtoon’s #makeitawesome series pairs bright visuals and markup with an engaging talk show format. While expert interviews might seem like more of a brand awareness play, these types of videos heighten the importance of your brand with current customers.
Why? In many respects, companies don’t just buy b2b tech tools, they also buy the knowledge and expertise of the company. There is a certain expectation that these young tech companies will stay up-to-date with cutting edge concepts, integrating these not just into the product but also the strategy and techniques they teach customers. Blame content marketing!
Creative concepts to steal? Front-load detail. Here, Renee Teely gives us a quick preview of what is to come, illustrating the benefits to the viewer. Secondly, get into character. No, Renee and Chad are not caricatures of themselves, but they’ve certainly put on their SME hats and dive into the shareable tidbits with no time to waste. Additionally, they create comradery and humor on the spot. Interviews are often used by B2B brands because they’re a simple hack – viewers love seeing the interaction, exchange, and report between individuals. Play this up. Never underestimate the “power of pairs.”
Company: Cisco
What they do: Technology Solutions
Type of video: Tutorial/Workshop
Why it works: This deep dive detailing a partnership with Cisco and SAP is B2B video done right. At 25 minutes, the video is certainly long, but it provides a detailed explanation of the features and benefits for customers who want to leverage this partnership. A pre-loaded demo, certification offer and customer support FAQs are also discussed. Since so much ground is covered my only suggestion would be to add video chaptering so customers can skip to the sections most relevant to them.
Shooting on-site at the SAP TechEd Conference allows customers to feel like they have a front-row seat to this important announcement. Remember, customers schedules are jam-packed and they can’t always keep their account check-in appointments. Don’t make them wait a month or longer to learn about a new feature or offering. (Even so, a monthly account management call can’t cover all the updates, questions, or queries that might need to take place.)
How this video beats the B2B borefest? Simple, but effective techniques.
Here, our host Robb Boyd of TechWise TV invites three experts to sound off on the benefits of this partnership for Cisco customers. They demonstrate intimate knowledge of the customers and their problems, aligning around a shared goal. But this isn’t the hack. It’s the volume of people! Multiple experts and interviews add both visual and auditory variety. A lack of auditory variety is why you tune-out twenty minutes into a 45-minute webinar.
Scripting is vital. Use summative language to keep the audience engaged. “There were three main problems…” is a line that is used. Customers’ ears will perk up to see if what follows applies them. Consider other language such as “there are two ways to think about it” “we need to ask 3 questions” etc when introducing strategy concepts. Just like you’d write a blog, numbers and lists of best practices help audiences “tune-in.” Remind them, this is the important stuff.
Company: Xero
What they do: Business Accounting Software
Type of video: Customer Experience Videos
Why it works: Ah, don’t we all wish we could pack it up and go live on a farm? The simple life. Back to nature. A return to “authenticity.” Xero’s customer story profiling Lisa Ngan and Pete Teo of A Little Farm on a Hill is grounded in reality – just not yours. Grounding a story in reality is a constraint that breeds creativity. We have to look for what’s interesting. In this case, it’s this amusing soundbite: “We learned farming from Google.”
Unique challenges, the same solution. Customer stories aren’t just provoking for potential customers, they pull in current customers through shared experiences. People like learning about people, not products. Presumably all of Xero’s customers want simplified, easy online accounting, and while they’re all “bonded” through this challenge, the business vision differs. As Pete explains, he and his wife want to create a community. How can you create a community amongst your customers?
KPIs for a Video Retention Campaign
Don’t confuse your customers. Interact with your target audience through video marketing – then use powerful CTAs to push them towards a specific action that aligns with your content marketing goals.
Track these metrics to measure growth and customer retention:
- Email: Difference in email open rates / product update subscriptions
- Social: Growth in video shares and user-generated product recommendations
- Views: Total product launch and customer support videos watched. Also, the average number of pieces of content consumed monthly (video plays, blogs read, papers downloaded).
- Sales: Percent likelihood to continue to purchase
- Opt-ins: Increase of loyalty program adoption and percent of customer special offers redeemed
Can Video Marketing Help Brands Gain More Customers?
Plainly put, it’s easier to keep customers than sell new ones. Furthermore, growth can’t be achieved if you don’t keep a healthy base.
By lessening attrition, you’ll stress less as a marketer and know your campaigns targeting new prospects and leads are moving growth forward, instead of accommodating for loss.
But to answer the above question, yes! Content strategy shouldn’t be exclusive to new leads but retaining customers and expanding accounts. Global Enterprises often work with various pieces of technology, each department using something different. They’re eager to consolidate these buys. Customer retention campaigns can create advocates who recommend you within their organization. So, remember to use video to create conversations with your customers and remind them why they chose your brand in the first place. Build video marketing into your content strategy and stick to creating the type of content that solves your customers’ problems and caters to their interests.
Read More of the Creative B2B Video Series
Awareness: How to Use Video Marketing to Drive Brand Awareness for Your B2B Business
Engagement: Content Marketing Strategy: How to Create Engaging B2B Videos
Conversion: Improving Lead Generation and Opt-Ins with Video Marketing
Retention: How to Use Video to Retain B2B Customers
Advocacy: Create Lasting Relationships Using Video for a B2B Customer Advocacy Campaign
