Welcome back! It’s time for your 9th installment on ‘Video Marketing Revealed’ series. Hopefully my last blog gave you good clarity on video marketing features & business uses. As promised let’s understand Employ Effective Online Video Distribution Channels.
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Employ Effective Online Video Distribution Channels
Ever had a sneaking suspicion that you could be missing out on a wider online video reach? You could be, if you're limiting your brand to YouTube, as opposed to combining it with other marketing channels available to you. Operating on a single video content channel can curb your marketing potential and impact the growth of your brand; which is why we're going to look at several other avenues you can explore in your effort to gain more exposure.
Due to the constant evolution of video marketing, you may have to reevaluate your strategy every now and then, just to make sure you're not limiting your potential by operating on older methodologies. You may have done this lately and if so, where do you think video platforms excel these days- and where do they fall short?
Keep in mind some platforms may make more sense than others, in regards to your brand or goals, but these are the top players:
YouTube: Hardly surprising, with more than 1 billion unique visitors every year and over 4 billion hours of video watched monthly, YouTube pretty much dominates the video market.
Vimeo: With close to 1 billion visitors last year, and a constantly growing member list, Vimeo is quickly becoming a major force.
Brightcove: Its video player loads over 3 billion times every month and the site boasts over 6,300 customers all across the world, in over 63 countries.
Now let's take a closer look at these platforms and see if they have any similarities or differences, and find out which one excels.
Quality
It would help your campaign if you invested in high quality video content but if your platform doesn't support it, you'll have wasted a lot of money. Let's say for instance if you embed a high quality video on your website, would the platform run it in HD, or do they support SD?
The most popular video platform, YouTube, tends to drop to much lower resolutions in situations where bandwidth is limited. In this case, your best solution for a consistent, top quality video stream would be Brightcove and Vimeo.
Vimeo supports 720p HD, and it maintains picture integrity throughout the view. Brightcove on the other hand does adjust the quality based on availability of bandwidth, but it never goes into SD, so the viewer doesn't ever get a grainy picture.
Searchability
If the goal of your video is to pull in more leads then obviously search will be important to the strategy.
You've most likely been sucked into the black hole that is YouTube. This happens because this platform has video curation skills that are second to none. It also dominates organic search results beyond YouTube and into Google and other search engines.
Because YouTube uses it's parent company's (Google) methodologies when conducting searches, it makes it more challenging for other platforms to compete with its search function. It is highly optimized and will give you all the tools you need to narrow down your target audience further than you'd imagine. When you have an organic audience constantly watching videos on this platform, chances are a good number of them will stumble on your videos.
Embedding
For some marketers hosting a video directly on their website is more important than inbound marketing and in such cases embedding takes priority. Keep in mind the quality of all your videos has an impact on the overall quality of your website. That obviously counts out YouTube's schizophrenic HD-SD vibe.
According to YouTube, hosting related content that is not necessarily specific to your brand can in some cases increase the chances of your visitors leaving for good.
If you're aiming for a high quality embedded video then Vimeo is your best solution, and more so if you're only dealing with a small number of videos.
Customization
Are you in the process of building your own content network? Apart from skill, one of the things you'll need is a platform that grants you more control, with enough customization tools. In this feature Brightcove takes the lead as the best contender for marketers working with a large number of videos. The platform allows you to add personalized pre-roll/post-roll ads, give your player a personalized skin and play around with a whole bunch of customization tools.
When compared to Brightcove, both YouTube and Vimeo are somewhat restrictive when it comes to customization and control so if control is important to you, Brightcove your best option.
Investment
There is absolutely no harm is exploiting a popular free platform such as YouTube but still, if you're looking for the functionality of Vimeo or Brightcove you might have to shell out a couple of bucks. (note: Vimeo does offer a free package but it comes with limited features.)
YouTube is a service, but Vimeo and Brightcove offer you solutions. If quality is a priority for your campaign, then loosen the vice grip on your finances and make that move.
Analytics
As you get into big data, you'll discover you need good analytics for video. The three platforms we've mentioned so far have their own tools for measuring analytics, but Limelight Networks is especially notable for its analytics collection.
It has a way of weaving into the on-going narrative, which makes it easier for you to understand exactly how video connects with other working components of your campaign. Video has a considerable effect on your bottom line and understanding its impact will help solve problems and pave the way for more efficiency.
Niche focusing
The top three platforms, YouTube, Vimeo and Brightcove operate as blanket platforms, supporting different purposes in a wide spectrum of industries. Consider Savvy, a quickly growing video network that focuses on top industry leaders giving speeches at conferences; the network allows the leaders to get more exposure beyond their own industries and in the process, this keeps professionals informed on industry news and trends.
If you can find a niche delivery system and use it to engage your audience, you'll have tapped into great power.
So which video platform do you use for your brand? These factors play a role in the accomplishment of your goals so go over each platform and see how their unique features affect your marketing plan.
Hopefully now you are clear about video marketing main features & Business uses. So that’s it for today’s installment of knowledge in ‘Video Marketing Revealed Series’. In the next blog we will discuss how EMOTIONS influence video sharing.
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Until then If you have any questions, just let me know. I help Small Business with Big Dreams to achieve their true potential & much awaited growth. If this is useful for you and you’d like some help to leverage the unmatched benefits of video marketing, or just need to put in place predictive client generating strategy using videos - just send me a message with the subject ‘VIDEO’ at mithun@mithunnarkar.com, and perhaps we can help you put together a strategy to achieve your dreams & targets as well.
Hope this has been helpful.
Talk to you soon.
Mithun Narkar
P.S. Don’t forget, I’m here to help, so if you have questions just ask!
The fastest way to reach me is here: "www.mithunnarkar.com"
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