Telling a good video story to consumers is one thing. Telling a good video story to businesses is a completely different animal.
B2B video storytelling can be challenging. It requires you to capture an audience in a different way than you would with B2C video storytelling. In many cases, it requires you to condense boring, dry products and services into an engaging video story.
Fortunately for you, a great story can overcome even the driest products and services. Today, we’re sharing some of the secrets of B2B video storytelling by sharing the best examples of B2B video storytelling in action.
Google is an Expert at B2B Marketing to Small Businesses, Developers, and Startups
Many people think of Google purely as a search engine. They forget that Google generates the vast majority of its revenue by appealing to advertisers – including small businesses.
The Google Small Business YouTube channel is a great place to learn the best B2B video marketing lessons. On that YouTube channel, Google shares tips, tricks, and strategies small businesses can use to enhance their online presence.
That same channel also features dozens of “Google Small Business Stories”. On that channel, businesses share how they were able to use Google products successfully, including Google Maps, Google AdWords, and other Google products.
Meanwhile, other Google B2B marketing channels include Google for Startups and Google Developers.
Across all of these B2B video platforms, Google emphasizes the value of their services while explaining how businesses can take full advantage of these services.
Many of these videos have a similar theme: they make the customer (the small business owner) the hero of the story. Google doesn’t spend the video talking about how great they are or how many awards they’ve won. People already know that Google is the king of search engine advertising. That’s why the videos focus on the personal connection a small business owner has made with Google through Google’s products and services.
Consider Creating Behind-the-Scenes Videos of your Employees in Action, Like Microsoft’s Story Labs
If your business is selling a B2B service, then your customers want to know your employees are working hard to provide that service.
Nobody wants to spend $5,000 per month on a service only to see videos of employees lounging around doing nothing. They want to see that $5,000 being put into action. They want to see employees working hard and flexing their expertise.
Microsoft has created a good example of this. Microsoft’s Story Labs page features stories from across the company. These stories aren’t typically targeted at an ordinary Microsoft customer; instead, they’re targeted at those who want to know more about Microsoft as a corporation.
Some of the recent stories include a description of Microsoft’s smartest, greenest building ever built and an explanation of how developers are using the new Xbox Adaptive Controller. The Microsoft Story Labs page also features interviews with some of Microsoft’s in-house experts.
These experts share their wisdom on unique topics. Consumers might have no interest in these interviews with niche experts, but anyone in that niche will certainly be interested.
General Electric Has a Surprisingly Strong Instagram Following
General Electric has quietly managed to be one of the best social media success stories in the modern age. Much of this social media success can be attributed to GE’s effective video marketing.
GE had a problem: most of the company’s work is technical and complex. It’s hard to communicate much of this work to customers. At the same time, GE has its hands in many different industries. It can be hard to specifically target one industry, product, or service.
Despite these challenges, General Electric has amassed a surprisingly strong following on Instagram. The company has created a series of videos called the Unimpossible Missions. You can view those videos on YouTube here.
In the videos, GE tasks itself with a seemingly impossible challenge – like “talking to a wall” or “catching lightning in a bottle”.
“We love doing things that supposedly can’t be done,” begins General Electric in the first Unimpossible Mission video. “Which is why we couldn’t resist this challenge.”
In the videos, we see how General Electric engineers can solve even challenges that seem impossible. The videos are fun and professionally produced while still conveying complex technical challenges:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSWIRAY9EBU
Overall, the videos have a MythBusters-like theme. We see engineers trying to catch lightning in a bottle using supercapacitors, for example, while the narrator mentions that supercapacitors were “pioneered by GE”. By the end of the two-minute video, GE engineers have successfully – and quite literally – captured lightning in a bottle, transferring 2 million volts of electricity into a supercapacitor and then using that supercapacitor to start a vehicle.
The video concludes with this:
“If we can catch lightning in a bottle, imagine the other impossible things we can do.”
The videos makes you believe that GE has some of the world’s best engineers – and they have video to prove it.
Conclusion: Get Ahead of your Competitors with Effective B2B Storytelling
Brand storytelling is common in the B2C world. We see brands telling consumers their stories all the time. Unfortunately, it’s not as common in the B2B world. Some people see that as a problem. Others see it as an opportunity: if you can create an effective B2B video story, then you can stand out from your crowd of competitors who aren’t creating good video stories.