B2B Marketers Turn to Shorter Videos Across Many Channels to Engage Millennial Buyers

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When it comes to digital video, size doesn’t matter, but length does.

That’s according to a newly released report by the video marketing platform Vidyard, which analyzed more than 250,000 videos published by business-to-business marketing teams and found that smaller businesses are publishing just as much video content as larger firms, while the average length of videos is getting shorter.

Seventy-five percent of all videos published are under two minutes in length, according to Vidyard’s analysis. That’s compared to 56% just last year.

Shorter videos aren’t the only trend that Vidyard uncovered. The company’s data analysis team also found that the creation of video in business is exploding, with an 83% increase in new videos published each month. Business-to-business video libraries are expected to double in size within 12 months.

“There are very clear signals that we’ve moved beyond the ‘why video’ years and that businesses are now investing in video as a core part of their marketing and communications strategies,” says Tyler Lessard, Vidyard’s vice president of marketing.

Lessard believes that the shift toward shorter video lengths is a reflection of three market trends—changing expectations from today’s audiences, which prefer shorter, more snackable content; the growing use of video on campaign landing pages and within email marketing campaigns; and the growing use of analytics.

“As marketers use more of the data behind the scenes, they are better understanding where the drop-off points are within their videos, and they’re using this data to make more informed decisions on content length and style,” he says.

The topic of video analytics comes up frequently in Vidyard’s report. The company found that 36% of businesses are using intermediate or advanced analytics as well as viewer engagement data to measure performance, and marketers who use these tools are twice as likely to report that returns on their video investments are improving. Just 13% of businesses in Vidyard’s analysis are not using analytics of any kind.

“For a number of years, the use of video analytics has been closely correlated to the level of investment in video for more than just top-of-funnel brand and social media. As video is used more frequently and within a broader set of programs, marketers have a growing need to understand various aspects of performance beyond just view counts,” Lessard says. “We expect to see the adoption of intermediate and advanced video analytics continue to grow as more and more marketers increase their investments in video content while expanding the types of channels and programs that video supports.”

The use of non-traditional distribution channels is on the rise, as well.

According to Vidyard’s analysis, product videos, demos, and explainers are the most common videos produced, with websites and social media serving as the most common distribution channels. But the number of businesses using video on other channels has jumped. For example, 60% of businesses are now using video on landing pages, compared to just 49% last year, and the number of businesses using video in email rose from 36% to 46% in that same time.

Publishing video across a wider set of distribution channels is one way that marketers are appealing to millennial buyers. Vidyard’s findings indicate that B2B marketers are also using video as a way to differentiate their messaging as the amount of video web traffic continues to increase.

“Businesses are now trying to understand how to scale their video creation even faster without blowing their budgets, and how to use video analytics behind the scenes to identify what’s really working and how to invest in smarter ways to maximize their returns,” Lessard says. “It’s an exciting point in the evolution of video in business as we move from the age of validation to the age of enablement and investment.”

Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.

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Stephanie Miles is a journalist who covers personal finance, technology, and real estate. As Street Fight’s senior editor, she is particularly interested in how local merchants and national brands are utilizing hyperlocal technology to reach consumers. She has written for FHM, the Daily News, Working World, Gawker, Cityfile, and Recessionwire.