Let’s say you own a company or operate one. You know your marketing efforts make a huge difference. If you use the wrong marketing techniques, you’re wasting money, and you won’t see the return on your investment you want.
You can spend money on many different marketing efforts, but promotional videos will probably enter the picture at some point. You can either make those videos yourself, or you can hire someone to do it if you don’t have the time or the technical expertise.
When you have those videos ready to go, you’ll need to figure out what hosting platform to use. Several possibilities exist, so let’s talk about how you can choose between them right now.
Can You Display the Videos on Your Company’s Website?
Choosing the proper video host makes a big difference. You want to feature the videos somewhere you know your potential customers or clients spend their time.
Because of this, featuring videos on your company’s website makes sense. You know someone who visits the site likely already wants your services or products. If not, you might entice them to buy once they watch some videos.
However, you can’t use your website alone for this purpose. Using social media platforms can lead your customers to your site. When you do this, you’re using what marketers call a sales funnel.
You’ll need to do some research and figure out what social media platforms your potential customers use. You might conduct a focus group and ask them that question. You can also conduct a survey on your website. You may offer a prize or product rebate if site visitors answer questions about their preferred social media platform.
Video Host Features
If you look at different video hosting or social media platforms, you’ll see that each one comes with particular perks that you might appreciate. For instance, you want to choose one that will give you a detailed analytical breakdown regarding who uses the platform, how much time they spend there, etc.
You might want to use a platform that features an email collector. This tool lets you ask anyone viewing your video to provide you with their email address. You’ll need to incentivize this prospect so someone watching your videos will give you their valuable email address you can add to your mailing list.
You probably want a user-friendly video hosting platform. You want one where you can easily display a call to action. You need one that’s the right price since you probably have a limited marketing budget.
You may want a platform that allows live streaming. You will probably want one that offers clickable links as well. Someone might click on that link and go straight to your website, making a conversion more likely.
Why Choosing the Right Host Makes Such a Difference
You might go with a hosting platform like YouTube, or you could use a lesser-known one like Brightcove or Wistia. Vimeo is another option that’s not well-known like YouTube, but it does have some name recognition.
If you use the wrong hosting platform, it won’t have the features you need the most, nor the ones your potential customers want. For instance, maybe you decide to use one that does not have all the analytical options you want. If so, you can’t collect the information you need to refine your videos to make them better.
You also can’t choose the wrong video host because, if you do, you’re spending money from your ad budget that you could allocate elsewhere. If you own a small startup and have a very tight ad budget, especially during your company’s first few months or couple of years, spending your ad dollars on the wrong initiative could bankrupt your business.
You need to present your videos in a format that is as user-friendly as possible. If someone wants to watch your videos but they don’t like the presentation, they’ll experience frustration and probably go to another video or platform. That means you just lost a potential sale.
If you’re going to choose a platform for your company’s video hosting, you need to research each option carefully. Failing that, you can hire a marketing company and consult with them about which platform to use.
If they have a solid industry reputation, you can probably trust them when they recommend a hosting platform. Knowing which one to use means you’ll get as many customers from your video marketing efforts as possible.