The annual benchmark report has become a highly anticipated analysis of the data at hand. What can marketers glean from the 2018 Video in Business Benchmark Report? Let’s break it down.
For an at-a-glance look at the findings, here are the key takeaways:
- Businesses have published 377 videos on average and are publishing 33 new videos every month; their video libraries will double within 12 months.
- 89 percent of views of business-related videos take place on desktop browsers, with only 11 percent on mobile devices.
- The middle of the week is the most popular for B2B video views, with Tuesday between 7AM-11AM PST seeing the highest number of views.
- Product videos, demos, and explainers are the most common videos produced; websites and social media are the most common distribution channels.
- Businesses are increasing their use of video across specific channels: the number of businesses using video on landing pages jumped from 49 percent last year to 60 percent this year and the number of businesses using video in email jumped from 36 percent to 46 percent. Additionally, video use in sales conversations has also experienced a marked increase from 25 percent to 37 percent.
- The average portion of viewers remaining by the end of a video is 46 percent, with video length playing a big role in retention. Videos less than 90 seconds in length see an average retention rate of 59 percent, as compared to videos over 30 minutes that retain only 14 percent of viewers.
- The use of video analytics is becoming more prevalent, with 36 percent of businesses using intermediate or advanced analytics to measure performance and only 13 percent of businesses not using video analytics of any kind.
- Those using advanced analytics were 2x as likely to report that returns on their video investment are improving
There’s a lot more than bullet points to get out of the 2018 Video in Business Benchmark Report. Let’s do a deeper dive and find out what the data is telling us about video in business.
Mobile is Not Yet King
Mobile is a huge and growing market. It’s where a lot of action is. But don’t make too many assumptions on that score. One of the more surprising findings in this report: When it comes to B2B video content, 89 percent of viewing is happening on laptop/desktop browsers and only 11 percent on mobile devices.
So, while you should produce content that is suitable for mobile-viewing, know that most of your leads will likely come from a desktop. The bottom line is leveraging videos for B2B lead generation is a must.
Video Publish or Perish – by the Numbers
How many videos are getting produced? The average number of videos published by an organization was more than 1 per day at 377. Often, these are not slickly produced, expensive content pieces, but rather quick demos or product information videos put together by employees in sales, marketing or other departments within the organization.
Not surprisingly, smaller companies are more likely to rely solely on in-house production, and enterprise level tend to outsource this task.
If you want to learn more about producing videos download: Six Steps to Kick Start Your Video Marketing.
Content
Are you asking yourself how can companies come up with so many ideas to produce multiple videos a day? The graph below gives a fine-grain look at types of videos being produced. Demos and product videos, no surprise, top the list with How-tos and explainers are a popular choice as well.
The 2018 Video in Business Benchmark Report has some interesting stats on the 3 most popular types of video related to distribution method. You’ll see that while product videos perform well on landing pages, websites and in social media, demos take the top spot when shown in emails and as part of a sales conversation.
Want to learn more about distribution? Read: Top Video Marketing Distribution Trends Marketers Need to Know.
Analytics and Impact
51 percent of respondents report using some sort of basic analytics tools like views or shares. 13 percent use no analytics whatsoever. The percentage of companies who don’t bother has decreased rapidly over the past year. Lesson: If you are putting the effort into making the videos, you should find out what good it is doing you.
Your Turn
Take a closer look at the 2018 Video in Business Benchmark Report. My biggest takeaway: Moving forward, utilizing analytics tools will be the difference between churning out video content and making a difference in sales and affinity for your business. Kowing views and shares data is great, but to stay ahead of the competition, data on location, viewer drop-off rates, viewing heat maps or attribution to sales pipeline. The more precise the data, the more exactly you know the impact on revenue and ROI.
The original version of this article was first published on The Marketing Scope.