12 Reasons to Start Shooting Video Today

B2C marketers are not alone in jumping aboard the video marketing bandwagon. If YouTube is any indication, B2B marketers are increasingly utilizing online vid eos to inform, engage and even have a little fun. If you think B2B videos have to be boring, check out this one from Vertical Response.

It's no wonder of course that B2B marketers are embracing video given the outsize demand for it. A 2010 survey published by video ad company YuMe, for example, revealed that 49 % of respondents shared they are watching videos daily. More than 66 % of respondents said they watched more online video now than they did 12 months ago and 48 percent expected they would continue to watch more online videos in the future.

If that doesn't get you shooting, consider this stat from Forrester Research: Video increases the chance of a front page Google result by 53 times. Let me repeat. You are 53 times more likely to land on the front page of Google with a video than basic text.

Forrester also reports that adding video in to e-mails increases click-through rates by two to three times," says Keith Smiley, a freelance B2B copywriter in Indianapolis, Ind.

Smiley, a video maven, provides a fistful of great reasons to use video:

1. Visually demonstrate how a product or service works

2. Communicate a specific message or company news

3. As a lead generation tool

4. Case studies

5. Executive summaries and video versions of white papers

6. Share content from webinars

7. Interview partners and customers at a trade show

8. Hold a Q & A session with an expert within your company

9. Give a sneak peak at product releases

For further evidence, we turned to Sean Randles, owner of webVM ltd and UK Partner at FLIMP Media in Manchester, United Kingdom, who echoes Smiley in some of the uses for video marketing. He shares that his Web video company creates video versions of pdf case studies, which he says are "very powerful lead generation tools." Randles' other suggestions:

10. Product visualizations

11. Elevator pitch videos and video brochures.

12. Direct video marketing campaigns using www.flimp.net- which enables real time tracking of views and response by e-mail address."

"B2B video is a great way to deliver dynamic, real content - client testimonials, solution info snacks, event promotions and new product launches," says Lindsay Leugers, vice president of marketing at OneCommand in Cincinnati, Ohio. "We get a great response, even with the most basic, grassroots of our video efforts - and while polished, professionally produced videos are great to have, they aren't always in the budget. "We've learned that being creative and just having fun with the channel is just as important. Whether we shoot out in the field with one of our Flips or in against a green screen with a Sony-DV - the content is what really matters."

Finally, we love this insight into video from Daniel Roberts, CEO of Friendly Human in Atlanta, Ga.

"B2C videos tend to focus on information (think animated infographics). In B2B, the lead generally already knows what you do. B2B videos must be less about information and relationships ... the real key for B2B is to think smaller yet deeper."

So, if you've been a video couch potato, what are you waiting for? How are you using video to grow your business? I'd love to hear from you.

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Wendy Marx, B2B Pr and Marketing Specialist, Marx Communications.