Bruce McKenzie — May 14, 2018 — May 14, 2018
Technology products have become increasingly hard for buyers to differentiate. Gartner has published research on the prevalence and dismal consequences of failure to differentiate.
It’s the product of “commoditization” that is driving consumer marketers to obsess about touchpoints, customer experience, engagement, AI, and the burgeoning “martech stack.” The consumer buyer’s journey is all about delivering the right message or offer at the right time.
Similarly, Gartner research analyst Hank Barnes says that the way to differentiate a technology solution is, not with forgettable laundry lists of differentiators, but with one key differentiator. One thing that customers can remember. One differentiator per video is a format that’s about to take off.
A single-differentiator video will be valuable to customers researching an issue on their own. Business development reps can share it. Marketers can tweet it.
Examples: One research report yields seven differentiator videos.
According to a 2017 study Lead Generation to Increase Conversions by Ascend 2, research reports and video rank highest among types of content that generate the most conversions.
Research reports and video turn viewers into leads. Why not combine the two? Source: Ascend 2 Research
This is interesting. Research reports convince a lot of buyers to become customers. As do videos. So, it stands to reason that combining the two should produce double the impact, right? Maybe not, but research reports can make interesting source material for videos.
Brocade, a Broadcom Company, recently published a series of short videos (< 1 minute each) based on the results of a survey conducted by 451 Research. The survey queried data center managers on their experience with storage technology alternatives to Brocade’s. Each video introduced a different survey question and briefly explained the technical issues raised in the center managers’ responses.
High-impact campaign
Campaign combined text and video content for maximum impact.
The videos debuted, along with the research report text and related content, in a campaign on the TechTarget “Search Storage” and “Search Converged Infrastructure” websites. This campaign generated more than triple the clickthrough of industry standard benchmarks.
“Differentiators” in this campaign were the reasons data center managers preferred the provider’s solution. One differentiator per video.
Taken together, the videos covered most of what was in the research report’s executive summary. Separately, they were used in social media and other channels to deliver messages in a highly digestible format. After all, it’s easier to remember a video that explains one thing well than it is to remember three things explained with less specificity.
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