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B2B Hot Content – Video

Following the B2C world, video is now the hot content in the B2B world.  With the popularity of YouTube, iTunes and watching tv over the web, B2B audiences are ready to watch video on your website.  Take the opportunity to show how your products, services or processes can help your customers.  Post regular video updates on your website about what your company is doing instead of just written press releases.  Post these same videos on B2B industry sites with links to your own website to entice your customers (remember to use a unique landing page with a call-to-action).

Video does not have to be high quality on the web.  Using just a home video camera and some inexpensive or free video editing software, you can create short videos of interest to your customers.  If you have a Mac, try out iMovie which comes with the computer (if you purchased it in the past couple of years) or QuickTime Pro, which runs about $30 (and also runs on Windows).  For Windows users, take a look at Windows Movie Maker which comes on most new computers, Ulead (about $60), or Adobe Premiere Elements ($100).

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B2B Media Usage

B2B numbers from 2006 (latest info I could find – July, Sept, Nov):
From Knowledge Storm and Universal McCann:

  • 80% read blogs
  • 31% use RSS
  • 63% use online video
  • 23% use social networks
  • 86% use wikis, only 6% contribute
  • 66% use podcasts

Sources:

  1. KnowledgeStorm – Podcast – Emerging Media Series: Online Video, Social Networks and Wikis
  2. KnowledgeStorm – Emerging Media Series: How Blogs & Real Simple Syndication (RSS) Impact B2B Technology Purchase Decisions
  3. KnowledgeStorm – Emerging Media Series: Online Video, Social Networks and Wikis

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Good B2C Websites

Since I covered an example of a bad B2C website last week, let’s take a look at a couple of good B2C websites and what makes them good.

  • L.L.Bean – This site has been one of my favorite consumer websites for several years. Why? Because I can always find what I’m looking for. If I need help there are multiple different ways to contact the company: email, phone, online chat which are clear from every single page. I can find products by their catalog number, by searching, by browsing (in multiple categories). Browsing allows the ability to narrow your choices by several different types of information (dependent on what you’re looking at) – for example, on comfort fleece, I can narrow my choices by department, attributes, price and colors. When I add an item into my shopping bag, I can label it with different names if I have items going to different people and during checkout it will ask me for different addresses and gift card information. I also can save items in my bag for later if I’m considering different items or shopping around. They have details on every product including the ability to zoom in to see more detail. L.L. Bean is a catalog company so if they lose a visitor off their site, they’ve lost a sale. You can’t get much more customer-centric.
  • Lands End – Also a catalog company, Lands End has many of the same functions as the L.L. Bean website (they compete on many of the same items). I think their display of items is somewhat better since they offer several different views of each product and offer recommendations on how well something will fit you (based on your personal measurements). They also offer the same great customer service options and abilities as far as finding products.

Obviously eCommerce sites are going to be very different than other B2C websites and different from most B2B websites, but they are very good at being customer-centric since they must be so to compete. Most B2B websites are also selling products, but often forget to offer good customer service and to think about what their customers want when they are on their website.

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