EPISODE 14: Seven Considerations to Getting Leads Using Video on LinkedIn in 2020

As a B2B Marketer, it is very challenging to capture the attention of busy business buyers. Video is not the only way, but it is one of the best ways to catch the attention of buyers while they are on the LinkedIn platform. It is no longer an, “up and coming” trend. It’s here and here to stay! 2020 is the time to get fast organic traffic and when you post organic videos it can really boost your traction and engagement. 

1. Some Stats LinkedIn is the #1 Platform for B2B companies to share content.  Over 50% of social media traffic to B2B websites comes from LinkedIn.  Remarkably, Google has predicted that 90% of all content consumption will be video in 2020.  That being said, if you want to get the attention of B2B buyers then concentrate on LinkedIn and use video to get their attention.

59% of business executives would rather watch a video than read text says Hubspot.   According to Small Business Trends in 2019, 50 percent of executives look for more information after seeing a product or service in a video. In fact, 65 percent of them visit the brand’s website and 39 percent call a vendor after viewing a video”. Also noted is “76.5 percent of marketers and SMB owners that have used video marketing said that it had a direct impact on their business.”

2. Length Viewers will Watch

This episode is based on a blog post I wrote last Summer - June of 2019 - you can find it at www.socialxeno.com under Blogs - and it's still relevant today, in my opinion and the opinion of other strategists.  If you’re getting started and growing an audience with LinkedIn video, we encourage limiting each video to one (1) minute and focus on one simple subject that provides value. With this approach, your videos will be easy for viewers to understand.  Videos on LinkedIn can be up to 10 minutes. However, LinkedIn viewers most often will not want to watch that long of a video. One (1) minute is a great start especially when posted consistently, such as every Wednesday morning at 8AM (it should be when your audience is on the platform).

3. Message that will Resonate

LinkedIn conducted a study that resulted in findings that video on LinkedIn should “show” people expertise, not “tell” them.   In other words, people don’t want to see “talking heads” on LinkedIn anymore. What people like and take the time to watch is a well thought through message tied to your business value. Show them how you can help achieve their goals and needs. Ask yourself, how can we make it easy and fun and show them our unique place in the market? Demonstrate credibility, experience and trust. Definitely come up with a hot title, intriguing description that makes them feel anticipation and start videos with some excitement and quickly get to the point.

4. Imagery to Induce Emotion

Great imagery is key and lifts engagement.  Get people to watch your video in the first place by posting a video that has an appealing thumbnail that is relevant to the video itself.  Some brands make the mistake of posting a video where the thumbnail is black and despite how amazing that video may be, humans won’t be immediately interested in viewing it. Personally or professionally curated video content with interesting imagery and the right lighting makes a big difference. Then authenticity in your message is important in order to engage emotion. Marketers are talking a lot about authenticity this year and some brands do it better than others. It can be explained in a variety of ways, but what it comes down to is not coming off as fake, not coming off as trying too hard, and not over-selling or making the viewers feel like they are just watching an advertisement. A quote by Dr. Donald Kahn says, “Emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.” This also means that videos that are overdone, often don’t feel authentic or engage viewers emotionally.

5. Pleasing Sound

Some basic editing can give music in part or all of the video. It is important the sound is tested so any voice doesn’t come across as “tiney” or annoying background sound(s). We add captions to video because people more often than not have sound turned off. People will see the video in the LinkedIn feed and the video plays automatically. Most people do not want the sound to come on as they’re scrolling because they are with other people or want to decide for themselves whether to hear. So adding captions makes your video content as easy to consume.

6. Tracking Metrics

Typical engagement metrics include views, likes, and comments. The LinkedIn platform algorithm works analyzing content on relevancy not recency.  What this means is it will show posts to followers who it thinks the content is relevant to, as opposed to showing all followers the most recent post, like Twitter's algorithm.  Posts that also generate the most reach and engagement will also be prioritized higher.  So think  both a) relevancy and b) reach and engagement.  The more relevant it is to the most people then the larger the reach, thus increasing chances for engagement.  When it comes to tracking shares, this can be tough because if someone quotes your video in their own post, you don’t see that share. To work around this issue, we add hashtags to video posts so we can manually track the share. We can see the job function, company, and location of people who have been looking at each video and that helps lend insight to future video ideation and creation. 

7. Platform Optimization Last, we optimize the video for the way the LinkedIn platform works. Tag people or other brands who are associated with the video. Use #hashtags, including one that is unique to your company so you can use it to search for the post in the feed later.  Last, take a few minutes to ask friends to check it out and share what they think!

As a B2B Marketer, it is very challenging to capture the attention of busy business buyers. Video is not the only way, but it is one of the best ways to catch the attention of buyers while they are on the LinkedIn platform. It is no longer an, “up and coming” trend. It’s here and here to stay! 2020 is the time to get fast organic traffic and when you post organic videos it can really boost your traction and engagement. 

1. Some Stats LinkedIn is the #1 Platform for B2B companies to share content.  Over 50% of social media traffic to B2B websites comes from LinkedIn.  Remarkably, Google has predicted that 90% of all content consumption will be video in 2020.  That being said, if you want to get the attention of B2B buyers then concentrate on LinkedIn and use video to get their attention.

59% of business executives would rather watch a video than read text says Hubspot.   According to Small Business Trends in 2019, 50 percent of executives look for more information after seeing a product or service in a video. In fact, 65 percent of them visit the brand’s website and 39 percent call a vendor after viewing a video”. Also noted is “76.5 percent of marketers and SMB owners that have used video marketing said that it had a direct impact on their business.”

2. Length Viewers will Watch

This episode is based on a blog post I wrote last Summer - June of 2019 - you can find it at www.socialxeno.com under Blogs - and it's still relevant today, in my opinion and the opinion of other strategists.  If you’re getting started and growing an audience with LinkedIn video, we encourage limiting each video to one (1) minute and focus on one simple subject that provides value. With this approach, your videos will be easy for viewers to understand.  Videos on LinkedIn can be up to 10 minutes. However, LinkedIn viewers most often will not want to watch that long of a video. One (1) minute is a great start especially when posted consistently, such as every Wednesday morning at 8AM (it should be when your audience is on the platform).

3. Message that will Resonate

LinkedIn conducted a study that resulted in findings that video on LinkedIn should “show” people expertise, not “tell” them.   In other words, people don’t want to see “talking heads” on LinkedIn anymore. What people like and take the time to watch is a well thought through message tied to your business value. Show them how you can help achieve their goals and needs. Ask yourself, how can we make it easy and fun and show them our unique place in the market? Demonstrate credibility, experience and trust. Definitely come up with a hot title, intriguing description that makes them feel anticipation and start videos with some excitement and quickly get to the point.

4. Imagery to Induce Emotion

Great imagery is key and lifts engagement.  Get people to watch your video in the first place by posting a video that has an appealing thumbnail that is relevant to the video itself.  Some brands make the mistake of posting a video where the thumbnail is black and despite how amazing that video may be, humans won’t be immediately interested in viewing it. Personally or professionally curated video content with interesting imagery and the right lighting makes a big difference. Then authenticity in your message is important in order to engage emotion. Marketers are talking a lot about authenticity this year and some brands do it better than others. It can be explained in a variety of ways, but what it comes down to is not coming off as fake, not coming off as trying too hard, and not over-selling or making the viewers feel like they are just watching an advertisement. A quote by Dr. Donald Kahn says, “Emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.” This also means that videos that are overdone, often don’t feel authentic or engage viewers emotionally.

5. Pleasing Sound

Some basic editing can give music in part or all of the video. It is important the sound is tested so any voice doesn’t come across as “tiney” or annoying background sound(s). We add captions to video because people more often than not have sound turned off. People will see the video in the LinkedIn feed and the video plays automatically. Most people do not want the sound to come on as they’re scrolling because they are with other people or want to decide for themselves whether to hear. So adding captions makes your video content as easy to consume.

6. Tracking Metrics

Typical engagement metrics include views, likes, and comments. The LinkedIn platform algorithm works analyzing content on relevancy not recency.  What this means is it will show posts to followers who it thinks the content is relevant to, as opposed to showing all followers the most recent post, like Twitter's algorithm.  Posts that also generate the most reach and engagement will also be prioritized higher.  So think  both a) relevancy and b) reach and engagement.  The more relevant it is to the most people then the larger the reach, thus increasing chances for engagement.  When it comes to tracking shares, this can be tough because if someone quotes your video in their own post, you don’t see that share. To work around this issue, we add hashtags to video posts so we can manually track the share. We can see the job function, company, and location of people who have been looking at each video and that helps lend insight to future video ideation and creation. 

7. Platform Optimization Last, we optimize the video for the way the LinkedIn platform works. Tag people or other brands who are associated with the video. Use #hashtags, including one that is unique to your company so you can use it to search for the post in the feed later.  Last, take a few minutes to ask friends to check it out and share what they think!