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B2B and the tourism Industry: the business case for video

In my previous posts I covered two fundamental issues for B2B companies and marketers in the tourism industry looking to stay ahead of the competition: the need to develop a strong digital strategy and the growing importance of the “mobile factor”. Here I want to focus on another crucial aspect: the massive potential of video.

A good digital strategy contains a well-thought out content strategy. Content is not just about presenting facts and product stats. however, it is about quality content. And quality content is about creating a better connection between your company or brand (and the tourist destination you are trying to promote) and your potential customers.

A big part of this is telling a compelling story and creating an emotional connection with your audience. These assumptions are valid in general but in the tourism industry, creating emotional connections with the destination and its business potential is crucial (in B2C but also in B2B). Video marketing is a perfect fit here. Not only is video the ideal vehicle to express emotions, it is also one of the fastest growing mediums online and offers higher visibility through significantly better search results, deeper engagement and higher quality leads.

You might have seen the stats: it is estimated that around 60 hours of video are uploaded to Youtube every minute and 800 million unique users visit the site every month, making Google’s video channel the de facto second largest search machine we have. Video’s share of web content is growing explosively and Cisco estimates that more than 85% of all consumer web traffic will be video by 2016.

These figures aren’t just about cats or K-pop either – but they are particularly relevant for B2B companies looking to craft a stronger digital strategy. Video adds considerable weight to inbound strategy and SEO efforts, as video content is said to be 50 times more likely to show up organically in searches than any other content. Furthermore video search results have a click-through rate of more than 40%. If that isn’t good enough, consider this: a recent (video) release by B2B agency Earnest cites numbers from Forbes saying that 75% of business execs watch video on business sites every week. What’s more, 65 % of those go on to visit vendors’ websites after watching.

So, it is high time to start thinking about video marketing in conjunction with your digital strategy so that you can take advantage of the large-scale exposure and dramatically improved engagement that video offers.

A caveat; make it inspiring – even unconventional – don’t just push the same product info and performance statistics through a new channel but utilize the medium in full and tell a story worth telling: a story about the tourist destination, about your products and company, about the added value that you bring to your present and potential tourism business partners. Creating quality video that both looks and feels good, fits within a larger digital strategy and is optimized for consumption is no easy task – and unfortunately no one will excuse you for producing awful and amateurish content. While the tools are readily available and becoming cheaper, being able to give your production a professional spin that will create engagement and credibility is key. Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Don’t spam the internet with more low quality content – nobody needs or is asking for more superficial and badly produced videos espousing the beauty of city A or region Z!

And last but not least:  be sure to optimize your videos for mobile devices. If you’ve made the effort to produce great emotive video content, you want to be sure to hit the growing number of viewers using mobile as well. First of all remember that iOS does not support Flash (and a large part of your potential customers in Denmark and abroad use iOS-based devices – chances are you have one in your pocket or within your reach right now). This is common sense but people are still getting it wrong. Optimizing for mobile is more than technical considerations to ensure your video actually plays, however, it is about adapting your content to the device and facilitating another kind of user-experience.

So, if you want your B2B tourism-related business to be more solid, include an inspiring and professional video component in your B2B digital strategy (and do not forget the mobile factor!)

Are you thinking about leveraging video in your communications? Let us know in the comments

Guest post by Angel L. Vidal. Angel has been involved with numerous businesses, government agencies and NGO’s as an entrepreneur and consultant and has invaluable experience from more than twenty years of working within the United Nations system. Did you like this article? Let us know in the comments and be sure to connect with Angel at Twitter or LinkedIn to continue the discussion.

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Angel L. Vidal

I’m Angel L. Vidal, entrepreneur and cultural, internationalization and sustainability advisor at Copenhagen-based communication agency Eye for Image. The ideas I share are based in the experience I gained during my career in the private sector, NGOs and my more than twenty years work in the United Nations system.

One Response to B2B and the tourism Industry: the business case for video

  1. Pingback: 7 tips for credible video in your B2B marketing | Leadership Insights Community