Meet Thermo Fisher Scientific. They’re a very large, global company that manufactures capital equipment for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. When Thermo first approached 12 Stars Media, Aaron Craig, Thermo’s Global Marketing Communications Manager said, ”Okay. We sell large equipment that we can’t have our sales reps carry around with them. So what do we do to get our product out there?” With a lot of thought and some hard work, Thermo and 12 Stars would go on to build a solid B2B video marketing campaign.
They opted to start their online video campaign by showcasing a product launch. When they went to the product manager and asked him which five key points he would want a potential customer to know about this new machine, he easily came up with them.
These five key points presented Thermo Fisher with a new opportunity. Rather than create one long video highlighting these points, why not create several shorter videos to emphasize the importance of each point? So they started with five videos about their new product:
- The overview
- How to use it
- Easy set-up
- How to change the belt (an important thing to know about the machine)
- Wash down feature
“As we continued to evolve, we took what worked from the product launch, went back and did the same thing for our other products. We looked at the literature for those products, found the key messages, and made videos that explore those messages,” Aaron says.
Looking for a good starting point for your first videos? Here are some suggestions.
1. Look at your products.
Thermo Fisher made videos to not only to highlight products, but also to spotlight specific features of some machines, or to act as a user guide for other products. Think about the most useful information, the most important message you can convey about the product, and make a video about that.
2. Talk to your salespeople.
Thermo Fisher asked their sales team, “What are the most common questions you find yourself answering?” Certainly, your videos are a useful cold marketing tool for your sales team, but they also provide elegant answers to questions that your sales and support staff spend a lot of time answering.
3. Listen to your customers.
Your customers are likely to have their own questions about your products that they may not want to ask salespeople. Consider your customers’ experience with your products when developing a video. When you are a customer, what are your specific questions about a product? Put yourself in your customers’ shoes.
