A common question that we hear is: Why do video analytics matter? In this brief video we cover why video analytics are important, what are some of the basic metrics to pay attention to, and how you can make your videos more engaging.

We hope you enjoy it!

What kind of device is your audience watching your videos on? Should you make a mobile version? Should you make an iPhone or an iPad version? What about Android? There’s no incentive for your audience to watch your video if it looks like crap or if the audio is out of sync.

When you’re serving web video, your audience is going to be on different computers, with different connections, and different capabilities. You need to deliver your content in such a way that it doesn’t detract from the message. In the end, it’s all about viewer experience. Here’s to web video that doesn’t suck.

Customer Support
You know what they say: you get what you pay for. And a free product means no customer support. Any good professional video provider will be available to solve problems you may encounter and to make sure you have a positive experience.

Actionable Analytics
While YouTube provides some aggregate data on video views, professional level video hosting allows you to see exactly who watched your videos, how much they watched, and which parts engaged them the most.  Professional video analytics are designed in such a way that understanding and effectively targeting your customers through video becomes a reality.

Security
If you want to control who is watching your videos because, for example, you wish to share confidential information, professional video hosts are for you.  Most provide rigorous security, so you can share private content with the confidence that you know who is watching.

Collaboration
For works in progress, professional video hosting allows you to limit your videos’ audience and solicit comments in a private environment. These review and approval controls make it easy to collaborate on content.  No more of YouTube’s spam comments, just thoughtful remarks from collaborators and customers.

Branding
No matter how hard you try, you can’t fully remove the YouTube / Vimeo branding from their players.  A paid service should allow you to ‘white-label’ the player and environment, so that the focus is on your brand.

Focus on Your Goals
YouTube’s incentive is to entice users onto to their site so they can bombard them with ads.  Features like “Related Videos” are designed to keep people watching YouTube videos and not to encourage users to sign up for your product.

Company Firewalls
Many company firewalls block free offerings like YouTube. When sending sales leads a promotional video to view, you certainly don’t want your video to be restricted.

Community
The YouTube community is a horde of out-of-control, often funny, sometimes crass, group of fun loving hooligans. The environment that this community creates is not necessarily bad – but it’s definitely unpredictable.

Asking why you should pay for video hosting when you can get it for free is like asking why you should pay for food when you can eat out of trash cans. If you want to showcase something of quality, you need to isolate your content from the distracting garbage on the internet. With a professional video host, you can use online video to your advantage without compromising your goals or professional standards.

The Value

YouTube can be a great resource for driving traffic and interest to your own site if used properly. Here are the ways we recommend businesses leverage YouTube.

Search

YouTube is the world’s largest video search engine. Optimizing your videos so that they can be discovered on YouTube is a great strategy to increase your visibility and help to spread your brand.

Viral Spread

YouTube has become the de-facto standard for video embeds and is supported by every social network, blog, and web interface out there. If you’re creating viral content that you want bloggers, tweeters, and facebookers to share, you should be getting your content onto YouTube.

Driving Traffic

YouTube can help drive brand-awareness, but the ultimate goal is to drive traffic to your website. Can a viewer buy your product on YouTube? Nope. You need to hook them and bring them back to your site.

The Costs

There is a cost for all this free video hosting. The root of this issue really comes down to a difference in priorities. Your priority is to use video to drive more business. YouTube’s priority is to maximize the visitors that stay on YouTube in order to drive ad revenue. You want to bring visitors to your site and YouTube wants to keep them on its site.

Content Rights

YouTube needs the ability to make money on every piece of content that enters their system. So be aware that when you upload to YouTube, you’re granting them license to do whatever they want with your content. Here it is in their terms of service.

“…by submitting User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the YouTube Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels.”

Branding

Perhaps the most obvious drawback of using YouTube embeds on your website is all of your videos will now feature YouTube’s logo in the bottom right corner. Would you display an ad for your web hosting provider on every page in exchange for free hosting? Not likely.

Related Videos

Want to embed a YouTube video on to your company’s site? Great idea, except for one thing: you’ve now created a permanent link on your website right back to YouTube — not the best idea for your sales funnel. And more than that, at the end of your video, YouTube displays a list of “related videos”. Imagine your product demo finishes playing and YouTube pops up your competitor’s products!

Blocked Messages

YouTube is an entertainment destination. And just like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, it’s blocked by corporate networks around the world. If you’re selling to other businesses, you should be certain they can see your videos.

The Bottom Line

Treat free video hosting as free advertising for your company or product. Drive interested visitors back to your website like you would with any other marketing channel so that you can push those visitors through your funnel.

Why are webinars valuable?

For the viewer, webinars provide a way to learn something new about a process, product, approach, or feature. In exchange the viewer is asked to give up their email and any other relevant contact information. For the host, webinars present a way to connect with a new audience. In return the host gets more leads, it’s a simple and overall valuable arrangement.

So why are webinars more valuable than previously thought?

They can be recorded. The first time the webinar is presented it creates value. But by simply recording your webinar it can continue to create value for months (and sometimes even years). Here are a couple of easy ways to get more from your recorded webinars.

• Feature it as a resource on your website
• Use it as the main event of an email campaign
• Have your sales team send it as follow up to prospects
• Provide access to those who couldn’t attend live

But how much value will my recorded webinar really add?

We’ll measure it. With webinars coming in at 30 and 90 minutes  in length, they are 15-50x longer than the average marketing video. NO ONE will watch 30 minutes (let alone 90) of something that isn’t interesting. This is a powerful point. By tracking those people that actually do watch your video you’ll learn which individuals are most interested in your topic (not a bad starting point for the sales team) and what interests people most in your webinar (so you can learn how to make your next webinar even better).

And here’s a teaser from a future post, a couple of the common ways we see people watching recorded webinars.