George B. ThomasIt’s well known that video is exploding as an extremely effective strategy for businesses around the world.
However, many companies still have not started because video marketing is considered difficult, nerdy, technical and possibly, a pit that one could throw money in over and over again without any return.
Another well known fact to those who know me, is that I love video content.
There are so many reasons why I love creating and using video. But one of the biggest is because I have built a process that makes it stupidly simple to create tons of content.
Some other reasons I love video are:
- It helps to humanize your brand
- It can simplify the complex
- It allows you to streamline communication
- It can unlock your creativity
- It is one of the best ways to educate visitors, leads and customers
Just to name a few.
As a matter of fact, I talk about these and several other video tactics this year at INBOUND. But, this is not about me. (But, I still hope to see you at INBOUND if you are attending.)
As I have created and shared my own videos, as well as taught clients how to use video on weekly trainings and during video workshops, one question keeps coming up over and over again:
What video hosting platform is best for my business?
It is not an easy question to say the least. I mean, there are so many choices.
Several mainstream platforms you could choose for your business are:
And yes, I could keep going and going and going.
But, just because these platforms are mainstream, does that make them the best?
Does that make them right for you and your company’s video strategy?
In this post, I am going to stay away from the usual “this platform has this, and this platform has that” type of information. Instead, I am going to talk about the 10 things you should check to see that your business video hosting platform provides.
As you read, keep track. Your platform may have some of these tools. Or, if you’re lucky, it will have all 10 of these important video tools for an amazing business video strategy.
As you read through the article, you may start to think to yourself, “George… there ain’t no platform that has all of these tools.”
Hang tight, at the end of this blog, I will give you a way to find out exactly how you can find all of this for your business.
Without further adieu, let's get into this.
Your Video Hosting Solution Doesn’t Allow You To Generate Leads Inside of Your Videos
So many marketing and sales professionals are looking for more ways to generate leads.
Professionals talk about how the digital form is not as powerful as it once was. Some are turning to pop-ups, slide-ins, and banner drop downs to fix the lack of leads problem, while a whole set of other folks are leaning into live chat and bots.
While both of these work, so many have yet to pair up their forms with their videos. Several video hosting platforms give you this ability. Usually they even give you the ability to place it at the front, inside or end of your video.
With this functionality, you can make your videos more engaging. Talking about an ebook you have? Then say, “If you are interested in us sending the ebook to you right now, just fill out the form you’re about to see. Don’t want it? Then just hit the skip button and continue to learn about this topic.”
Boom!
You now have either a new lead or you’ve maintained a viewer of your video.
Maybe the video is for a webinar you have already recorded. Why do you need a landing page and a thank you page when you could just front gate the webinar? “Fill out the form to watch this highly important information for your business.”
Boom squared!
Now you have a new lead educating themselves on the problems you solve. Or, at the minimum, you have a current lead that you just built some more lead intelligence on.
Your Video Hosting Solution Doesn’t Allow You To Focus on Video SEO
Some folks out there simply think that you just create a video, upload it to YouTube “The second largest search engine” on the planet, embed it on your site and well, you are done.
Not true.
There is so much more to focus on when it comes to video SEO.
You see, search engines usually have a tough time indexing video content on web pages. Using video sitemaps can change this and even allow Google to display your videos directly on the search results page.
You have to ask yourself, does your platform give you options like:
- Allowing indexing
- Using SEO-friendly embed codes
- Using video sitemaps
- Enabling rich snippets
These are just a few but important things to look for.
A big thing you should also look at is load time. Some players of these video hosting platforms can really slow down your page load speed and we all know Google really hates slow pages.
Your Video Hosting Solution Doesn’t Connect With Your Podcast Strategy
So, the only thing that I may love more than video is podcasting. Many folks have heard me on podcasts like, Inbound Buzz, The Absolute Advantage, The Hubcast, Wayfinding Growth, and my latest love Sprocket Talk.
I absolutely love being a guest on podcasts too, so if you have a podcast, call me. :)
But, let’s get back to the article.
Over the years, I have burnt so much time taking a video and extracting the audio and then uploading it to something like Libsyn to then publish to all the podcast hosts like iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google, Play and others.
However, this always left me with a real pain point as a marketer. I was faced with the challenge of measuring video plays on YouTube, plays from embeds from a platform like Wistia, and last but not least, the plays on the podcast.
Oh the irony! In an effort to create a better user experience for a community, I spent more creation time and double the reporting time to understand if it was successful.
With that said, you have to ask yourself, does my business video hosting platform have a way to upload a video and auto publish it to an audio and or video podcast? Then, once it is published, do all of those podcast plays head right into your analytics giving you an all-in-one video and audio reporting nirvana?
If yes, you need to run outside and yell at the top of your lungs, “I LOVE MY LIFE!” (Hey, if you do that, record it and Tweet me @georgebthoms.)
I need to see that.
If not, then keep reading as I am going to share this and several other secrets at the end of this article.
Your Video Hosting Solution Doesn’t Give You Optimization Suggestions
I don’t know about you, but for me video feels like it has a ton of moving parts. I’ve always wished there was an amazing checklist I could follow. There actually is a list. Our friends at TubeBuddy have created several.
But, how do you top a list?
You have a platform that looks at all of your videos and pulls all the videos that need help into one area. Does your platform look for things like:
- Missing tags
- Optimizing video titles
- Missing video titles
- Optimizing video descriptions
- Missing video descriptions
What if your video host then let you bulk edit these items?
Does it?
Back to your video SEO for a hot second. Much of what weighs your videos are tags, titles and descriptions. Make sure they are the best they can be!
Your Video Hosting Solution Doesn’t Help You Plan, Promote, Publish & Analyze Your Live Videos.
Live video is all the rage nowadays. I mean everywhere you look, you can do live video:
- Instagram Live
- Twitter Live
- Facebook Live
- YouTube Live
Heck, there are so many other ways to do live video as well. If we started to talk about live third party options the conversation might look like:
Let’s stop there! I could probably add another 200 to 300 words to this article with just names of live video software options. However, if I was creating a list of video hosts that also have live video functionality, the list would be much shorter.
Add in a step-by-step process to follow for a successful live video and the list gets even shorter.
What about a promotional page, lead conversion form, ability to share your live video on social and send out invites? You see, Live is cool but I feel like it has not been a real baked-out marketing and sales strategy because of the lack of host-to-live video relationship.
Did you get a little excited there?
What if you could add multiple camera choices to your Live videos or even use your cell phone camera connected to your video host?
Yep, it gets even more exciting when you start to think about things that might seem impossible to you now. You see, your live video strategy could be so much simpler as well as more effective for your business’s bottom line.
Your Video Hosting Solution Doesn’t Pull All Your Video Analytics From All Your Platforms
I touched on this just a bit back when we were talking about pulling in podcast views and listens.
But, we need to dive in even deeper.
Right now, you might find yourself trapped in the need to upload native video strategy. Which in return means you probably need to put an Excel sheet or something like a databox dashboard together to see Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Wistia, Vidyard, your website and any other video plays all in one area.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could upload to one business video host and then push them out to the other platforms from there?
And, because your video shares started from your video host, it has an invisible “link” to that video on the other platforms and keeps pulling all of your views, and watchtime, as well as other stats in one easy to view dashboard on your video host.
Imagine a world where you knew 30% of your video success was from LinkedIn, 20% from Facebook, 50% from your podcast … and so on.
If you can say, “Hey George, I have that functionality native in my video host. Then and only then should you feel like you won the lottery, go out a buy yourself a large beverage, stare at the sky and say to yourself, I am a video ninja!”
Your Video Hosting Solution Doesn’t Allow You To Build Native EndScreens
Wait what?
George have you lost your mind?
Endscreens are only a YouTube strategy.
Are they? Or, can your video host allow for a better user experience by serving up a video or two for your visitor, lead and customer to follow and get lost in your amazing content?
Does your video host allow you to tie native video shared on your website or used in your resource center to also add to your YouTube subscribers? This one seems like it would be tricky and simply impossible but, it is totally achievable for your companies video strategy.
Stay tuned to the end of this article and I will share how you can make native endscreens a reality for your business video strategy.
Your Video Hosting Solution Doesn’t Provide a Resource Center Page-Style Platform for Your Video Content
Another huge hurdle I have seen companies deal with is the lack of a resource center, a place where you can find all of your educational content in one place.
This becomes even harder when you start to talk about video pages and or a video resource center. Making your pages fast and easily usable and in a way that entices the viewer to keep watching is something that has eluded companies thus far.
Make sure you create an almost YouTube experience with a video sidebar, while also paying attention to the text on the page that’s super important for your success.
One thing I always share with clients during our workshops around this subject is to clean out or keep away any unneeded noise. The videos (aka the content) is the super star hero. Not, your website design or some crazy functionality.
Last but not least, these video page or video resource centers have to be simple to stay updated. Every sign has to point to one publish and video content is live everywhere.
Your Video Hosting Solution Doesn’t Allow You To Build a Customizable Branded Player
The days of the Vimeo and or Youtube player living on your site truly are over or at least are fading fast. Your player has to feel like it belongs on your website pages from the get. It can not feel like an afterthought. Things like customizable colors, fonts, play buttons, and controls are a must.
Also, allowing your visitors to share right from the video or even download a local copy of the video makes sense in different situations.
Do you want your player to make suggestions at the end of the video, show a CTA, or simply kick back to the thumbnail? A great customizable player will give you all of those options and sometimes even more.
If you can say “Yes, yes, and yes again” to these player functions, then you are good to go.
Simply take a nap and sleep like a baby knowing your are a video guru and a god amongst mere mortals.
Okay, maybe that was a bit much but, you get the idea.
So Let’s Wrap This Video Hosting Post Up
No matter how you shake it, video is not going away. It is a thing that keeps growing and growing. More businesses are jumping on the video marketing bandwagon on a daily basis.
Your big worry should only be to make sure you are doing it before your competition. After that, the conversation changes to how do we do it better and faster!
These 10 video marketing tools or functionality elements will help you do exactly that.
Create video better and faster than your competition.
So make sure you can check all of those boxes and allow your sales, marketing and service teams to create an amazing video experience for your visitors, leads, and customers.
If you can’t check all of those boxes, what should you do?
That is simple.
Watch the video below and see how we have achieved this for ourselves and our clients here at Impulse Creative.
Let us help you get your video marketing strategy headed in the right direction (even if it is currently broken down on the side of the road.)
Have questions past the video, you can always email me or hit me up on Facebook or LinkedIn.
