“Content marketing” seems to on the tip of everyone’s tongue I talk to who is involved with marketing B2B brands. Usually they suggest if you blog, write whitepapers and use Facebook enough your product will eventually become the industry thought leader and then the category leader. This may work but it depends on many factors including your industry, what your competition is doing, and the quality of your content.

I’m heartened to see that video is starting to gain ground in these circles without the dreaded “viral” modifier. Besides being an excellent differentiator,  there are few ways to drive home a sales point more effectively than video content marketing – you have the customers eyes, ears, and rapt attention for enough time to sell your product. Viewers, in fact are conditioned to watch a 3 minute video and will readily do so provided the story is well told.

Five keys to effect video content marketing:

Tell a story – People will tune out if you just throw a bunch of facts at them
Have a strategy – Know the point your trying to make before creating the video
Have it work with rest of your marketing – Make sure your video supports everything else your brand is doing. That way, it can be easily integrated into your marketing.
Know your brand voice and use it – Is it funny, smart, jovial or edgy?
Keep to your brand standards – This means use the right logo, typefaces, colors and tagline. But it also means make sure your production quality keeps to the same standards as the rest of your marketing.