In China’s internet environment, the short video refers to video content that is less than 5 minutes long and spread through new media platforms such as social media, search engines, and professional short video platforms. According to the report, the number of short video users in 2021 was 934 million, showing an increase of 6.99% compared with 2020, and accounting for 90.5% of the total netizens.
Today, the mature business model of short video + e-commerce has brought considerable income to B2C customers. On Douyin, the number of short videos with the promotion of goods during Q1 and Q3 in 2021 has increased by 553%, and the video marketing value has increased by as much as 249%.
Is short video marketing necessary for the B2B industry where enterprises are the main customer?
For B2B enterprises, although the business process is long and complex, it is still “connecting with people” in nature. Short videos are the initial marketing touchpoints, just like content marketing, official websites, conferences, live-broadcast, WeChat Enterprise, and WeChat official accounts. Short video marketing can be used as the first step for B2B enterprises to acquire potential customers. The overall conversion from marketing to service requires not only attracting potential customers through high-quality content, but also subsequent collaborative operations by more cross-department teams.
Current situation and analysis of B2B enterprise’s short video marketing in China
The “B2B Enterprise Short Video Operation White Paper” released by JINGdigital, investigates the short video marketing of 100 B2B enterprises, including 41 large B2B enterprises (the top 2,000 companies on the Forbes list) and 59 small and medium-size B2B enterprises.
#1 Short video content is still in the blue ocean stage in B2B marketing
According to the report, less than half of B2B enterprises have officially launched short video operations; the remaining companies have not yet started to take any action on short video operations
Large enterprises pay more attention to short video marketing, accounting for a higher proportion
Only 17% of B2B enterprises have three or more platforms to distribute video content
#2 WeChat and Douyin are the home of short video marketing for B2B companies
According to the research report, platforms most used in the operation of short videos are WeChat video accounts and Douyin, whether it is a large enterprise or small and medium-sized enterprise
#3 Only 27% of B2B enterprises are mature operators
Enterprises that operate short video accounts in a refined manner, with diversified content, stable publishing, and adapting to different platform features to adjust content and account positioning
Most B2B enterprises still operate short video accounts in an “extension” manner, with a small number of videos, no matrix, single content and only one platform.
#4 Video content and publishing frequency
Nearly half (47.5%) of B2B enterprises publish content related to PR, including corporate culture, introduction, public welfare, and awards
Nearly half (42.5%) of B2B enterprises publish less than 3 short videos per month, 35% publish 3 to 5 short videos per month; only 5% publish more than 5 short videos per month on average; the remaining number publishing is 0, including only creating an account, stop immediately after starting, and private account
#5 How B2B enterprises can drive traffic through video
More than half of B2B enterprises setup Enterprise WeChat QR codes on the video screen to attract traffic, and only a few enterprises put their contact information on the video screen or in the comment area; 45% of the enterprises still did not take any action to attract traffic
Less than 10% of B2B enterprises set up malls in WeChat video accounts
China's top 5 short video platforms, how should B2B enterprises take advantage of the top 5 short video platforms based on platform characteristics?
WeChat Video Account
User volume: 300 million+ DAU
Platform tonality: Private traffic to public traffic, strong social attributes
Recommendation mechanism:
1. Decentralized social recommendation + algorithm recommendation
2. High weightage of social relationship
3. Like rate > comment rate > repost rate
User nature: Based on WeChat users’ likes, sharing and other behaviours, mainly WeChat friends, high-quality content is further pushed to the non-friend user
B2B enterprise benefit model: Cultivating potential customers, acquiring customers through live-broadcast (retaining capital or attracting traffic), acquiring customers through video-based intervention content, and monetizing e-commerce
Douyin
User volume: 340 million+ DAU
Platform tonality: Content quality is king, heavy operation intervention, strong media attributes
Recommendation mechanism:
1. High content quality weightage, low social relationship weightage
2. Operational intervention has a large impact
3. Like rate > comment rate > repost rate
User nature: The proportion of users in first- and second-tier cities is higher
B2B enterprise benefit model: Public traffic acquisition (consultation appointment, contact, etc.); monetizing e-commerce
WeChat or Douyin?
Short video marketing is still in the “blue ocean marketing” stage in China’s B2B industry.
WeChat and Douyin have become the main avenue for short video marketing.
For enterprises that have just started short video marketing, since the proportion of enterprises with WeChat short video as their core platform and the average video likes are higher than Douyin, B2B enterprises can first focus on the WeChat video account and gradually think about the expansion to Douyin.
The recommendation mechanism of the WeChat video account’s emphasis on social relations and the social convenience of WeChat ecology can strengthen the communication between the video account and the WeChat official account, and between the Enterprise WeChat, enhancing the focus on the touch point within the rich WeChat video account homepage and play page.
The distribution mechanism of Douyin pays more attention to the content quality, compared with the comment rate, and repost rate, the interaction rate of the video has the greatest impact on the content score. Therefore, enterprises need to ensure the professionalism of the content to satisfy Douyin users’ interest in video and story preferences.
If you are a B2B enterprise looking to start your short video marketing strategy, please contact us. We have marketing strategies customized according to the characteristics of different platforms and provide comprehensive marketing solutions to help you from marketing to service to conversion.
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