Which video platform do you choose?

03 Oct Which video platform do you choose?

Essentially, the goal of any video marketing campaign is to generate revenue and more often than not, the first step in doing so is attracting your audience onto your website. It’s on your website that you have the best chance of converting them from a cold prospect into a warmer one. 

Alternatively, they might already be on your website through a google search or referral. 

In either of those scenarios, the majority of videos will need to be hosted on a variety of different platforms, maximising the opportunity of creating a new customer. 

 The top 4 for video hosting’s and why?

First of all, you should think about the purpose of your video. For instance, if you are talking to a cold audience then you are going to need to be where that audience is. That is going to be Youtube, a social channel or somewhere that there is an already established audience. In any situation you are going to need to be providing some value upfront, be that information, advice, expertise, entertainment, something that is going to capture people’s attention and get them to watch.    

Alternatively, if you have a company promotional video or an explainer video demonstrating a specific product or service you offer, then this is best served on your web page, to a warm audience that is already showing an interest. 

In each of these scenarios, the audience is different and using different hosting platforms that are tailored to these situations, will ultimately give you the best interaction and ROI. 

Youtube

Youtube is a search engine and that is different from Social Media Channels. You want to think of Youtube in the same way you would think of a blog, in terms of content strategy. You’re looking at creating content around search terms and keywords that people are going to be searching for. 

It’s common for brands to think that youtube is the defacto place to upload all of your content. Whilst this is partially true, Youtube does have its benefits but it also has drawbacks, depending on your content and its goals.  For instance if you are going to embed content on your website, you have to be careful with the embed code from YouTube, unless you turn it off in the settings, recommended videos will automatically show after the video has finished, essentially leading people away from your website and potentially losing your audience.

Even with a carefully edited embed code there will still be a youtube button, which could draw your audience away from your website. For this reason, Youtube is not the best platform for embedding content on your website.

However if you are consistent with Youtube uploads and use it for video blogging, delivering expertise and solutions to people’s problems, you can build a steady audience over time and that can become a valuable asset.

Whilst there might not be any direct benefit of uploading a promotional or explainer video to Youtube, there’s also not any harm in uploading it. Its free and it will still come up in Youtube and Google searches if your audience are searching for you or your product/service specifically.  

So the best uses for Youtube are:

• Vlogs
• How to’s
• Keyword rich content that people are likely to be searching for

Pros:

• Youtube has a huge audience. Approx 1.8 billion users (Source) 
• SEO Driven
• Free

Cons:

• Limited Embed options 
• Limited Analytics

Vimeo

Vimeo’s highly customisable embed options coupled with the ability to add a pay gate to charge viewers, makes vimeo the best option for creatives and businesses who produce premium content. The downside is that Vimeo as a platform has, a smaller, more niche audience. The perfect place for an arty film but not the best place for a “how to” video.

Vimeo is popular amongst:

• The creative community
• Filmmakers
• Businesses creating high level premium content. 

Pros:

• You can set up a paygate so you can charge people to watch certain bits of content. 
• Password protect content
• More customisable embedding settings

Cons:

• Limited search
• Smaller audience compared to Youtube
• More customisable embed settings

Wistia

Wistia is a powerful video marketing platform that has detailed analytics. For instance you can track a video to an email address as part of a campaign by seeing who from your email list has watched the video, how long they have watched for and how they have engaged with it.

Wistia has lots of SEO tools and back-end tricks you can use to maximise the audience who watch your content.

Super customisable embed options, allows you to remove all branding and use webforms to create popup windows, utilising call to actions and capturing viewer details. 

Wistia is designed for use on a website, through a campaign in the latter stage of the sales funnel, predominantly for people who are already engaged with you and are already warmer prospects. 

Best uses for Wistia:

• Website Videos
• Training Videos
• Campaigns

Pros:

• Best analytics
• Best embedding options

Cons:

• No public search
• No subscribing option
• Fairly pricey

Social Media

Finally on our list we have the option of uploading directly to your social media channels. Social media channels like to keep you on their page, so they will reward videos that are uploaded natively to their platform. They often offer much better reach than links to external platforms such as Youtube etc. So if you are going to use Facebook or Instagram to publish your video then it would serve you well to upload it directly. By doing so you will also gain analytical data on who is watching and engaging with your content, so you can build an end of campaign report allowing you to follow up on your successes and grow your audience in the future. 

Best uses for Social Media:

• Short Videos
• Campaigns

Pros:

• Good analytics
• Good targeted promotion options

Cons:

• Doesn’t link in with other platforms
• Not suited to longer formats

Whichever platform you choose, it’s worthwhile giving thought to the individual requirements of that platform. Technical requirements such as time limits or aspect ratios can vary dramatically, especially when hosting your content on social media platforms. Due to the way content is consumed on social media you may want to chop larger pieces of content up into smaller segments, you may also want to consider subtitling your video, as most social media videos are no longer watched with the volume turned up. – We will create another post on the best ways to use video on Social Media soon.

We would always advise you to consider which platform/s you would like to use before creating the content. Think about where your content is in the sales funnel. What is its purpose? Who are your audience? Where are they etc. Pre-production research and development is one of the most overlooked stages of any video production/campaign but it is essential to making sure your content reaches and resonates with the correct audience, giving you the return on investment that you require and ensuring that your time and effort and money, isn’t going to waste. 

If you would like to know more about how to use different hosting platforms as part of your sales funnel, Clear As Day are here to help you with every stage of the process. Get in touch via the link below, we’d love to discuss your next project.

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