B2B Explainer Videos: Best Practices, Examples, and More

If you approach B2B marketing with a B2C mentality you may be in for a nasty surprise. Yes, you’re still trying to persuade a person to do something. But there are all sorts of watch-outs and best practices that you might not consider. Especially when you’ve spent your entire life as a consumer and accept B2C comms as the default.

In the following blog, we’ll cover everything someone considering a B2B explainer video should. Things like what kind of tone and messaging businesses expect to hear within your explainer video. As well as notable B2B explainer video examples that might give you some inspiration. But before I offer any pointers let’s just establish…

Why you would want to use B2B explainer videos

Video marketing works. The stats back it up. And if you want a full rundown of how explainer videos can help your business, this blog should be useful too. As for the specific benefits of B2B explainer videos, they are as follows.

Everyone is busy and everyone’s attention is scattered 

This is especially true for your typical B2B target audience. You’re talking to people that are usually drowning in responsibility and to-dos. They might be c-suite or department heads and the last thing they care about is your product.

The best B2B explainer videos recognize that their audience’s time is precious and make the sales pitch as quick and pain free as possible. They get the audience to focus on your product for long enough to get them interested and set the sales ball in motion.

B2B explainer videos can be used everywhere

A business can get more bang for its buck and keep the finance department happy by using the video beyond just the homepage. B2B explainer videos can be used as intros at tradeshows, during in person sales pitches, as YouTube pre-roll ads, and even on social media. Still images from the video could even be repurposed as branding and used in everything from posters to brochures. 

B2B products can be complex with specific benefits that need detailing

This isn’t always the case. But put it this way: B2B products often have innovative solutions to complex business issues. To pitch such solutions in their clearest and most engaging manner possible, you’ll need all the audio-visual help you can get. For example, pitching a product like this without the help of video would be a lot harder and less easy to digest.

They create personality and identity 

Many B2B products are, on paper, pretty abstract and boring. Marketing software or team collaboration tools don’t exactly spark the same kind of joy that fashion or holidays might.

The best B2B explainer videos can create a fun and memorable message for even the blandest and most abstract of products. Mailchimp is a group of marketing tools. But with some beautiful animation and design, it has the personality of a young, fun fashion brand.

Here are some things to consider when creating B2B explainer videos

Like with any explainer video you’ll want to consider all the basics of production. And as with any marketing communication, the basics of knowing your audience should be your focus. Beyond that though, here are several things you should have front of mind when making B2B explainer videos.

What’s your goal?

Depending on your marketing strategy, B2B explainer videos can have a variety of different goals. You may be creating a big brand video that is just trying to generate awareness for your product rather than directly generate conversions.

Or maybe you’re just trying to educate your viewers on a topic that’s related to your business. 

Then if you think your audience is a little closer to considering and buying your product, a direct sales pitch could be the way to go. 

Make sure you think carefully about what success looks like for your B2B explainer video and keep that front of mind when you’re creating it.

Be concise and get to the point

In response to the point earlier about scattered audience attention, don’t waste time telling them what you offer. The sooner your audience realizes you can solve their problems, the more effective your video will be. If your audience isn’t intrigued by your video’s halfway point, then they may ignore your video altogether. 

Having a good hook will help. Ideally, you’ll persuade your audience to keep watching within the first 8-10 seconds of your video’s starting point. Start your video in an engaging/intriguing manner and minimize any urge your audience might have to ignore your video.

It’s a pitch

Unless you’re delivering a video that’s purely for educational purposes, your video needs to say impressive things about your product. Remember, your audience is busy business people. Although it can be helpful, this video’s goal isn’t to entertain your audience. Sales should come first. 

The art of a good sales pitch and writing a B2B explainer video script that sells your product is an art in itself and requires its own blog post. But for now, the following guidelines should be helpful.

• Address the audience’s problem. If the audience doesn’t feel like you’ve understood the issues they face then they’re unlikely to trust you enough to buy from you. 
• Outline what your product does as clearly, succinctly, and early on in the video as you can.
• Wherever possible, detail how your product is superior to the competition.   
• If there are strong objections your audience has to buying your product, consider presenting counterarguments to them in your video.

There’s usually more than one decision maker to persuade

Often, only one person has a say over the purchase of a B2C product. There are a few exceptions, namely with big family purchases like cars or couches. But on the whole, you’re only trying to make one person part with their money.

B2B sales is still aimed at one person. But that one person will often have to get the ok from their boss/a team/the finance department etc. Whilst you should never try to make B2B explainer videos be all things to all people, if you have any points to make that might put other groups at ease – e.g. details for the financial or legal department, how it benefits various team members etc. – then you might want to include them.

One last thing to consider is that B2B explainer videos will often need to be shared within a business to get buy-in from other decision makers. If you make your video fun and engaging, your video’s sharability will increase. And hopefully, you’ll get more members of the business that you’re targeting singing your product’s praises.

Create a good customer avatar

This should almost go without saying but I thought it would be wise to mention it since they’re so important. When you get as laser focused as you can on qualities like industry, job description, company size, etc. it makes your explainer video messaging much more powerful and boosts your ROI. 

How does your audience make decisions?

In many ways, this is part of creating a good avatar. But I thought I’d devote a whole section to this topic to highlight its importance. Different B2B audiences make decisions in different ways. Some are big dreamers and like to make big decisions based on gut instinct. Some people are more methodical and need detailed arguments. This is best outlined by the four decision making types.

Consider making your target audience the hero

Your B2B audience is probably trying to impress someone (their boss) or a group of people (their team). Unlike B2C marketing, the reward for making a good purchase isn’t just a sense of satisfaction. It’s the external validation from others and being deemed ‘a hero’ in some shape or form.

The messaging of B2B explainer videos can take advantage of this by using a central character that overcomes an issue with the help of your product. The video can sell the dream of being that person in the office that nailed it. The video below is a prime example of the audience as a hero, albeit a little exaggerated!

Benefits and outcomes over features 

Audiences don’t care as much about whether your product has customizable UI nearly as much as they care about how that contributes to their efficiency or their bottom line. It all goes back to one of the most famous quotes in marketing. 

This isn’t to say that features aren’t important. Maybe your product’s unique selling point is a particular feature that you’re certain your target audience will want. But still, that feature’s significance is probably linked to an all-important benefit or outcome that your audience is looking for. 

Features and finer details can be explained later once your audience’s interest has been piqued. Be that on your website, in longer additional videos, or in downloadable documents.

The formal vs informal debate

There’s a huge misconception that B2B communications need to be formal/boring. Your B2B audience consists of humans, humans just like the rest of us. And these humans warm to informality, humor, eccentricities, etc. If necessary, the tone of all good B2B explainer videos should fall in line with the brand’s established voice. But again, that voice should be what’s right for the brand, and not be some pre-defined ‘B2B brand voice’.

Be careful with humor though. Humor is very subjective and if executed poorly can do more harm than good. Still, everyone likes to laugh. So just make sure you consider the following.

• Avoid anything that could be considered crude or crass. Not everyone finds South Park funny.

• Don’t be too ‘clever’ with your jokes. It needs to be easy to get. If people don’t get it they’ll feel confused and the confused customer never buys.

• Some types of humor are more niche than others. So think twice before you go particularly dark or surreal.

Here are some of the best B2B explainer videos

And by best I mean most engaging, memorable, and good at adhering to the best practices that all the best B2B explainer videos should.

Slack

Wow, where to start with this epic piece? For starters, it has a killer hook. “So six months ago I get an email from…” It’s like the start of a great story. Then you realize that this is essentially a case study combined with an explainer video; the various team members that Slack helped are delivering the explainer video and telling you how Slack will solve your problems.  

This is a great way of demonstrating how many different departments benefit from Slack: i.e. everyone. And at the start of the video, we have the CEO saying “this wasn’t sustainable if I wanted my company to grow.” This very smartly frames the entire video around how Slack facilitates growth. And isn’t just some neat tool that makes work life a little easier.  

This video also nails the humor angle. Not too crazy but snappy and memorable enough that you’d want to share it around your office. Plus, there are so many subtle jokes here and there that the video gets better with repeat viewings. 

Mailchimp

Starting with a clear and simple outlining of the problem, this video shows prospects that they empathize with the challenges prospects are facing. The whole video is also tied together very smartly with a single visual metaphor: the audience is an easily distracted cat. 

Then, with a nice flourish of salesmanship, it addresses what is clearly a common hesitation amongst prospects: the threat of additional fees. The video finally brings it all back to what the audience ultimately cares most about: winning back customers and selling more stuff. 

Crazy Egg

Few videos cut to the chase better than this. In four seconds you’re told what’s on offer: “the heat map tool that shows why your visitors aren’t converting.” That serves as both a hook and a succinct outline of the product. 

We then go into details of what the product can do but, like all the best B2B explainer videos, it does this in relation to the outcomes a prospect will want to achieve: the prevention of visitors leaving their site. Then in the last 30 seconds, it tackles all hesitations and objections a user might have. It outlines the ease of implementation, the wide range of tracking options, and then mentions the 30-day free trial. It’s pretty hard to say no.

Semrush

Love how concise this video is. It’s actually part of a larger campaign, much of which lives as YouTube pre-rolls. So your typical prospect will be bombarded with this and several other Semrush videos, each delivering different messages but all with the same design. Kind of like splitting an explainer video up and delivering it from multiple angles.   

Ruby

Another fine example of an explainer video that’s the complete opposite of what many might deem a typical, boring, B2B style. It’s as cool and fun as an Apple commercial.

I really like this video’s hook. It’s effective and intriguing but it’s also very subtle. Not that there’s anything wrong with an in-your-face hook. I’m a huge fan of them and they’re super effective. But it’s always refreshing to see a hook that relies on smart insightful language and not just the raw ‘look at me factor.’

Grammarly

Grammarly has a few different target audiences. It’s both a B2B and B2C product. But here it’s aimed at your typical employee that needs to write under pressure. In this case, we see Grammarly be the tool that creates a hero. Or in this case heroine.

Snowflake

Probably the best example of targeting two departments at once, this video is a lesson in how to execute all in, over the top comedy, without going too far or alienating the audience. What I think works so well is how it targets and includes its audience. If someone were to make a joke that was entirely about your job role or your department, you’d listen attentively. This video achieves something similar. And as a result, it’s super sharable.

Click

I’ve certainly been there: you’re trying to work the room at a networking event but you don’t quite have the chutzpah you’d like to go up to everyone and sell yourself. So as someone who’s never been great at in-person networking, I’m immediately hooked by this intro. It establishes empathy perfectly and highlights what everyone fears most. There are also a few other well executed jokes that ease the message along and leave zero excuse for not giving the app a go.

M.T. Copeland Technologies

The clear, simple, and obvious manner in which this video visually represents its message is brilliant. The way it represents things like customer pricing, gathering data, and analyzing the data serve as the perfect visual aid for understanding the message. The mini history lesson we get from the hook is another classy touch.

Final thoughts

Hopefully now you can see just how much scope for fun there is when creating B2B explainer videos. That fun is, however, only as good as the script and sales message it’s based on. This is why we place so much emphasis on the script and the research when creating explainer videos at Bullseye Motion.

If you’re ready to make an explainer video for your B2B product, one that prioritizes results and your ROI, then click below and book a call with me, Bullseye’s creative director.

P.S. all comments and feedback on this blog are appreciated! If there’s any way you think it could be improved, then feel free to shout and I’ll see if I can work them into a redraft. xx