Is Video the Most ‘Precious’ Content for Prospect Engagement?

What types of content delivers the highest ROI?

That’s the focus of an inforgraphic I came across recently from the folks at Content Crossroads, which looks at the wealthiest content in B2B marketing. While some of the data is expected (Did you know lots of companies have blogs these days?), it’s always interesting to see how marketers are taking advantage of online video content.

For example, the infographic lists video among its most “precious” content assets, noting that 65% of organizations use it “for engaging prospects and delivering messages.” This falls in line with the increasing popularity of video marketing amongst B2Bs, but the prospect engagement angle is particularly interesting.

I’ve written before about how the right content can help with sales prospecting, in terms of both generating higher quality leads and improving audience engagement further down the sales funnel. Video is particularly effective in delivering more impactful messages quickly (Forrester Research estimates that when it comes to audience retention, one minute of video equates to about 1.8 million written words). And as the Content Crossroads infographic states later, it’s also among the most powerful content types for influencing purchase decisions.

Not long ago, we created an infographic of our own about the value of video throughout the B2B sales funnel. Data like this only further validates the power of video content not just as a marketing tool, but as a selling tool as well, and sales prospecting is a prime example.

Some other quick thoughts from the Content Crossroads graphic:

• Video is listed as the sixth most popular content tactic (70%) amongst B2Bs. This number comes from last year’s Content Marketing Institute trends report. When the new edition comes out this fall, I fully expect that number to be higher (it already grew by 12% from the previous year).
• While the value of video content is widely understood, many marketers consider it among the most difficult assets to create (49%, according to the graphic). While videos certainly involve more effort than simply writing a blog post, I think this is a bit of a misnomer. Technology has reached the point where it’s surprisingly easy to create effective videos quicker and easier than ever before. Case in point, Brainshark On-Demand enables marketers and reps to develop voice-enriched video presentations with nothing but PowerPoint and a phone – no fancy editing required.
• Customer and product videos are also listed among the most costly content resources to create. Again, this can be true, but it really depends on the types of videos that you are talking about. If you are looking to hire an agency to develop high-concept content with actors and sets – then yes, that will tend to run up your budget. But organizations don’t need to break the bank to make an impact with video anymore, and even in-house recording studios can be put together on a reasonable budget these days.

You can check out the full Content Crossroads infographic below, and learn more about using video for sales enablement here.

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