B2B Video Marketing: Executive Buyers Deep Dive

Executives play a primary role in major purchase decisions made for their company, but how do executive-level decision-makers utilize and appreciate video in a business setting?

Our research study, “B2B Video Marketing: The Power Of Video In The B2B Buyer’s Journey”, examined the role that video plays throughout the B2B buying process. Due to the role executives play in that process, it’s worth taking a deeper look into how they engage video.

Key Highlights

• 95% of executives say that video is important in building trust in an organization’s ability to deliver on its promises.
• 93% of executives say they would be more likely to purchase from a business that has video content readily available for them to consume.
• 70% of executives watched videos for work on five or more occasions over the last three months to help them in their purchase decisions.

Executive Habits and Preferences

Executives are consuming videos frequently, with 70% having watched videos related to a purchase decision on five or more occasions in the last three months. Compare this to just 39% of non-executives, and we see that executives rely on video far more than others for B2B purchasing.

What are executives watching? Product reviews rank at the top of the list of types of videos most frequently watched by executives, followed by product demos and live videos such as webinars.

Reaching Executives

For marketers trying to reach the executive audience, it is critical to use video content. Our research indicates that executives connect with, and prefer to interact with, video far more than with other content formats.

Ninety-three percent of executives say they would be more likely to purchase from a business that has video content readily available for them to consume (with over half saying they would be significantly more likely).

When reaching the executive audience, video prevails over written formats.

• 92% of executives prefer video over written content when viewing an explanation of a complex product or service.
• 90% of executives prefer video over written content when learning how to use a product or service.
• 85% of executives prefer video over written content when learning about a business.
  

Building Trust with Executives

Executives trust video and are more confident in brands that have video. Nearly all (95%) executives surveyed say that video is important in building trust in an organization’s ability to deliver on its promises, with 75% saying it is extremely important.

This trust and confidence are paramount in setting executives up for sales outreach. After consuming a brand’s video content, 98% of executives say that they would be more receptive to sales communication from them, and when being introduced to sales or customer service representatives, 92% of executives report preferring video most or all of the time.

Which forms of content do executives find most compelling? When comparing potential solutions, executives find videos (63%) and research reports (50%) to be the most compelling forms of content to help with their purchase decision.

Gaining Buy-In From Leadership

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of executives say that video is extremely helpful throughout the decision-making process for their company. As marketers seek buy-in from leadership, video is easy to share and can be quickly viewed by executives evaluating businesses to work with.

How is it most helpful? Executives list learning how to solve a problem, as well as learning about a product/service, as the top ways video is most helpful to them in making a business-related purchase.

Here are some tips for packaging video content to present to executives:

• Consider videos that are more solution-based with a value message. Nearly half (47%) of executives say that learning how to solve a problem they have is how video can be most helpful to them as they make a purchase decision.
• ROI is always a great message for presenting a solution to executives. Always make sure there are numbers to back up your proposals.
• Customer testimonial videos resonate well with executives—particularly when they are from a similar size company in the same industry. Forty-three percent of executives report that hearing what other customers think of a product or service is a top way in which video is most helpful to them during the decision-making process.