“Show, don’t tell.” “Seeing is believing.” “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

These aphorisms about the primacy of the visual may be trite but they’re true. Four-fifths of all the impressions on the senses come from the eye. Our brains have evolved to rely on our vision to filter out threats and identify opportunities.  

This is why video advertising works so well. However, applying video to account-based marketing (ABM) includes a host of challenges. ABM is the practice of creating a personalized mini-campaign aimed at a group of decision makers within an organization. Once you identify strategic accounts to target, video lets you reach those decision makers in a visceral way and in a personalized manner. Here’s why video works so well in this context:

(1) Video a time saver. B2B prospects are increasingly wary of partaking in tactics like white paper downloads and chatbots. They know that opting in for these types of outreach will mean sitting through a sales demo at some point. By contrast, such decision makers can learn all they want about the company, product and services if video does the job. Videos that don’t waste the prospect’s time will help them make an informed decision about whether they want to reach out to you.

(2) It provides social proof. ABM sales require the buyer to put his or her reputation on the line to make the case for spending large amounts of money for a new good or service. Not many would take that uncalculated risk without some proof that what they’re advocating for works. Case study videos and testimonials can provide such proof. Even better, buyers can share such videos with their colleagues and superiors during the deliberation process.

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(3) Video is a better conduit for information. Most of us dread spending 10 minutes reading a white paper. But watching a three-minute video is painless. If you’ve ever used YouTube to help complete a home DIY project, you know why: The average viewer retains 95 percent of the information they watch versus 10 percent when they read. If you pass on a white paper and your colleague read it, you can’t be sure that they got all the information, but if they watched a video, you know they did.   

(4) Video is versatile. Video can be used to offer sales demos, showcase a new product offering, and share new content, among other approaches. Video is an endlessly customizable canvas that lets you tailor your messaging exactly as you’d like.

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(5) It conveys emotion. The role of emotion in purchase decisions can’t be underestimated. Neuroscience has proved that the adage that we make decisions emotionally and justify them logically is true. When competing sales pitches are equal, even the biggest sales boil down to a heuristic like “Do I like this person?” or “Would I want to call this guy if there’s a problem?” Video helps to address those heuristics in a way that pure text can’t.

Account-based marketing is an evolving discipline. But it is a distribution method, not a fully fledged mode of marketing. The means of communication for ABM are up for the debate. But logic dictates that if video works well elsewhere, it will work here. In the right hands, video-based ABM is a potent tool for any B2B sales team.

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