Amplifying the Power of B2B Content with Wistia Channels

For Dallas, Texas-based marketing firm and publisher MarketScale, education is what they do best. Not in the traditional sense of books or school, but in that they’re inspiring and leading the shift in the B2B space to the creation of marketing content that educates. With client and original content, data-driven technology, 15 publications, and a talented and growing team, MarketScale guides B2B brands to winning thought leadership.

So, how are they standing out and demonstrating their unique value to potential prospects across the B2B space? From the creation of their own original long-form episodic series for their publications, to videos for both their own brand and their clients across a myriad of industries, MarketScale’s in-house creative team is creating thousands of videos to capture their audience’s attention.

We spoke with Zach Werblo, Director of Original Content, and Josh Brummett, Creative Director, to learn more about MarketScale’s video strategy and their decision to use Wistia to host their video content.

Creating: “Welcome to the Show”

Every week, MarketScale produces video content for some of the world’s biggest B2B brands. With both a leading network of B2B clients and partners and industry publications to support them, storytelling is at the core of what they do.

Welcome to the Show features the Savannah Bananas, a minor league baseball team that is anything but boring. The team’s owner, Jesse Cole, is a leader in the sports business world having been awarded Entrepreneur of the Year, Business of the Year and Organization of the Year. Always wearing a signature yellow tuxedo, Cole believes strongly in putting fans first in creating the game experience. While the Bananas are definitely entertaining, why exactly did MarketScale cover the Savannah Bananas in a 3-part series with episodes well over 15 minutes in duration?

“Brands are shifting their strategy from creating content to sell toward creating content to educate their audience," said Werblo. "Welcome to the Show, quite literally ‘shows’ and educates.” This series marked a shift in how MarketScale created not just original content, but also client content.

For B2B businesses in niche industries, there’s a real content gap when it comes to storytelling, and MarketScale has proved that they can help fill that void. The success of Welcome to the Show became the launching pad for MarketScale’s next original series — Behind the Screens and Made In America as well as some of their client’s stories.

“It’s not just about what stories we tell, it’s about how we tell them," said Werblo. "And for most of the content we’re creating today, it’s educating our audiences, therefore creating content that has a significantly longer shelf life.”

Distributing: Using Channels versus other platforms

Being able to own their content by hosting it on their site is key in MarketScale’s strategy and success. That’s why when MarketScale’s newest series, Made In America, launched this past September, it was imperative that it was showcased on Wistia.

Displaying a Wistia Channel on their homepage let MarketScale segment all of their videos and original series in an engaging and binge-able way. When they launched a client testimonial with ARC Specialties for This is MarketScale a few weeks ago, the first thing they did was upload the video to their Wistia Channel, which completely changed the dynamic of the site.

“Video is at the heart of everything we do. So we needed an easier way to display all of our videos without creating a playlist that everyone ignores or that doesn’t easily subdivide our content to improve the user experience. With content becoming more episodic, Channels are the perfect tool to make sure our content is seen and it also gives us control over what a person sees right away when they visit our site," said Brummett.

When Welcome to the Show premiered last summer, MarketScale wasn’t yet using Wistia Channels to share their video content.

“I think the only disappointment with Welcome to the Show was that we hosted the series on Vimeo, which got almost 10 times the viewership of our actual publications because people shared individual Vimeo links and pushed traffic to the Vimeo platform, instead of to our publications. This was before the Wistia Channels feature was introduced, which would’ve definitely been a game changer. With Wistia we have more control over our data. The content is hosted only on our site, not in multiple places like you see with YouTube or Vimeo. This is one of the biggest factors going forward to ensure our company, our clients, and our publications grow, and most importantly — that we own the content we produce,” said Werblo.

“The content is hosted only on our site, not in multiple places like you see with YouTube or Vimeo. This is one of the biggest factors going forward to ensure our company, our clients, and our publications grow, and most importantly — that we own the content we produce.”

Since seeing such success with Wistia Channels, MarketScale has also shared the value with their clients by creating and implementing Channels for them on their own sites. Segway, a leader powering the future of mobility, worked with MarketScale to devote an entire segment of their site to a Wistia Channel. The page is set up so that viewers can now more easily navigate to the desired video content across its stories, partnerships, and products.

Analyzing: Diving into the numbers

MarketScale knows how important metrics are when it comes to understanding the impact content has on a business. From full breakdowns of top videos watched to engagement metrics and player stats, their analytics team has been able to dive deeper into video data than ever before. They’re able to see exactly how audiences are watching their videos, where they’re engaging with the content, and where they’re dropping off. With these insights, they’ve been able to alter the structure of videos to better ensure their content fits the audience’s wants and needs.

“We’ve been able to add custom metrics from all of our Wistia Channels to our dashboards around the office, adjusting what’s being tracked and shown for each department,” said Brummett. “We also help our clients to do the same.”

Wistia Channels are key in helping MarketScale amplify the power of their content and their clients'. According to MarketScale, the average number of video plays per day during the first week of a new episode being released has tripled since moving to Wistia. Plus, video plays on content like client case studies and training videos that are now featured in Channels on their site have increased by over 500%.

“Video plays on content like client case studies and training videos that are now featured in Channels on their site have increased by over 500%.”

The future of marketing is education

MarketScale’s overarching vision when it comes to video is to educate marketers on creating story-driven content in the B2B space. As they continue to become more global, they’re creating even more scripted stories and episodic content that helps elevate B2B brands to new levels — all while driving their own stories through original content.

As we mentioned before, thanks to the success of Welcome to the Show, MarketScale now has two new original series in progress. Be sure to check out Made In America, a show that covers some of the most interesting companies in America and their iconic products manufactured domestically. You can watch the first two episodes today!

Their second series, which will debut in November, centers around the uncharted territory of implementing drones across industries, and how it can help businesses and inspection services reach places known for being too dangerous for people to access.

We’re really looking forward to seeing MarketScale’s new series on Wistia Channels in the near future. Clearly, they’ve discovered how episodic video content can help build their brand and leave a lasting impression on their audience. Will you do the same for your business?

Find MarketScale online and on LinkedIn and Twitter.