146 million people viewed online video... is it part of your B2B marcom mix?

The more I read about online video, the more convinced I am that it should be part of the B2B marcom mix as part of an integrated B2B marcom campaign. Aside from cost, the key objection that I hear to online video in the B2B space is that "my audience isn't really online savvy." You don't have to be "online savvy" to conduct a Google search. And video is increasingly becoming important to SEO. In fact, November 2008, YouTube surpassed Yahoo in search queries. That's right, Yahoo, the number two search engine, was outflanked by YouTube.

So with 146 million people viewing online video--that's 77% of the U.S. online population--can you afford not to try online video? OK... let's just assume that only 10% of the population is in the B2B space. That's still 14.6 million people.

My YouTube search using the terms RFID based inventory tracking systems and the results were everything from how RFID works to a video on how RFID technology is being used by a linen rental company. (Full disclosure... one of the videos is my client).

Then, I conducted another search on enterprise collaboration software and a range of software providers appeared... all B2B.

If you're a B2B marketer who thinks that online video and YouTube are just for pop culture or B2C marketers, then you may want to rethink. As part of an integrated B2B marketing communications strategy, online video can help:

• boost organic and PPC search results


• drive qualified traffic to your website or landing page


• move prospects further down the sales funnel closer to purchase

Your audience is probably viewing online video content. Take a look at these statistics from Media Post in Kerry Manaster's Interactive Angle Blog