The Video Marketing Blog

4 Video Hosting Options for Small Businesses

The world of free or low-cost video hosting for small businesses has changed drastically over the past few years. Options used to be pretty limited: you could create an .swf file and host it yourself, or you could use a free hosting service like YouTube, Vimeo, or Blip TV.  But those options had issues. The quality of YouTube sucked. Vimeo had good video quality but was (and is) hostile to business. Blip TV wanted ‘series’ video, whatever that meant. An .swf file on your own server was a good solution, because there were no simple, high-quality, affordable hosting sites that were friendly to – and specifically for – business video hosting.

Wow, have things changed.

Now there are many more hosting options to choose from. And within each one are more and more cool features, like detailed analytics. Here's  another crucial point: iPhones and iPads won’t play swf files, but they happily play YouTube videos. Many other hosting services now offer this feature as well. 

There is no longer any reason to host your own video, because video is now easy to host externally at low or no cost. And there are good reasons not to host your own – like analytics. So from now on, use a hosting site for your videos. If you’ve got swf files on your website, think about whether you want to leave them there, or re-code and upload to a hosting site.

Where should you host your business videos?

Here are four good video hosting solutions for small businesses. (Feel free to add your favorites in the comments section.)

1. YouTube – how funny is it that YouTube has become one of the most used free hosting services for small businesses? The visual quality YouTube delivers is very good (which is remarkable given  how crappy it used to be). You can upload hi-def video and viewers can play it back full-screen and it looks great. YouTube is still totally free, and makes it very easy to share your videos – on Facebook and a bunch of other sites. YouTube has never been hostile to business (like Vimeo) or confusing (like Blip TV – what is that series thing?) One limitation is that YouTube videos must be less than ten minutes long, which means it’s not a good solution for hosting longer webinar videos.
2. Brightcove - the 900 lb gorilla of video hosting, Brightcove’s client list includes big companies like Fox Entertainment and General Motors. But Brightcove also has affordable hosting for small businesses too ($99/month). They’ve got good analytics, i-device capability, and the newest thing in video delivery: bandwidth detection technology. You upload a high-quality video, and Brightcove creates six versions of various lesser qualities. It then detects a viewer’s bandwidth, and delivers the version that matches the best possible quality given that particular download speed. If you're hosting multiple videos, and your small business is large enough to afford $99/month, Brightcove is a good solution.
3. Wistia – delivers very cool analytics such as the ‘video heatmap’ of individual viewer interest over the length of the video, and charts of aggregate viewership over time. It’s easy to use, and supports i-devices. You can use it for video and also for webinars. The low-price package, which is fine for most small businesses, is $39/month. 
4. Screencast - a good solution for hosting webinars as well as video. Maintains the video format and size you upload – so quality isn’t lost through re-encoding. And length is not an issue like it is on YouTube. No i-device support, though, and analytics are limited to number of views. You can use this service for free or pay $9.95/month for more storage and bandwidth, plus the ability to brand your on-site pages.

Now that the market has figured out that small businesses need AND will pay for video hosting, look for more and more options that combine low cost with features like bandwidth detection, delivery across all devices, and detailed analytics.  

So say goodbye to hosting your own video as .swf files. Say hello to high-quality, affordable video hosting that's specifically designed for the needs of small businesses.  

The Role of Video in Lead Generation

Earlier this week I attended a fascinating panel discussion - "Combining SEO and Video to Drive Awareness and Lead Generation Online" - featuring some heavy hitters in the world of online marketing.  A large part of the discussion centered on best practices for using video in lead generation and conversion, and how to measure success. A comment by Judy Gern, Director of Conversion Marketing for Constant Contact, captured the reason businesses need to use video in their lead gen programs:

"People who consume video tend to become customers at a much higher rate."

Goodbye to Viral Video

Joe Chernov, Global Director of Communications & Social Media for Eloqua, noted that there is less emphasis on ‘viral' videos than a few years ago. Gimmicky ideas like young men jumping into jeans, LED lights on sheep, mattress dominoes, etc., have given way to a new understanding of video as a practical, economical communications tool. Now companies are using video for sales, support, PR - all effective applications for video.  "We're seeing a smarter, more sensible use of video," said Chernov.

He noted in particular that video works especially well in press releases - those that include an embedded video receive 500% more views. Because of that remarkable effect, "we try to embed video in every press release," Chernov said.

What Works in Lead Gen

Constant Contact uses video as "an appetizer" for lead generation programs because of its ability to capture people's interest and draw them into the funnel.  The company conducts in-depth studies on performance of various video and key word combinations, and has found that videos with "do it yourself," "instructional," and "how-to" tend to perform the best.

Constant Contact has also found that video works best when it's given freely, before information is asked for, as opposed to holding out the promise of the video to get people to provide their information. "We give value when we ask for information, not after we get information," said Gern.

David Meerman Scott's Sales Funnel

Marketing superstar David Meerman Scott discussed the role of video in his sales funnel. At the top are short viral videos and excerpts from the informational interviews he conducts with his Flip camera - shorter videos that are casually made. Further down the funnel, where people are clearly interested in hiring him and are deciding whether to proceed, he uses video of a keynote speech he delivered previously. The production values are spectacular, he said, and rather than post short clips from the speech, he's posted the whole speech. He's found that at that point in his funnel - "right there when people are deciding to hire me or not" - people are really engaged and tend to watch the whole video.

Short, funny videos and short excerpts of interviews he's shot with his Flip camera work higher up in the funnel, he said, but near the bottom of the funnel the quality of his keynote video is important. "It really makes the difference," he said. "That video has helped me close $250,000 in speaking engagements in one year."

Measuring ROI

In lead gen programs, the number of email addresses gathered is usually the metric against which success is measured. But Meerman Scott disagreed with limiting ROI metrics to the traditional "collecting email addresses or business cards." He suggested that more meaningful metrics include view counts, and knowing through measurement what people do after they view the video.

Another metric for him is simply asking people when they hire him to speak how they made their decision. Often, he said, they tell him they watched his keynote video.

Tim Bradbury, president of New Media at American City Business Journals, suggested that instead of looking to ROI standard metrics, companies start with their expectations and then develop their own metrics to define success. It may be, he said, that the view counts and comments captured by YouTube are enough.

Bottom Line 

It can be easy to think about all the different reasons why video is a communication strategy your company is not quite ready to commit to - change is difficult, how do you figure out how to use video, what you're doing now is working well enough, etc. But if you're standing on the edge of the pool, hesitating to take the plunge into a video commitment, remember why Constant Contact uses video:  

 People who consume video tend to become customers at a much higher rate.

Use This Video Vocabulary List

If your company has decided to create video, and you've begun talking to videographers and video production companies, you may feel as though they're speaking a foreign language. Here's a quick list of video production terms (in no particular order) so you can sound like a pro and avoid miscommunication.

Shoot (noun) The event that centers around someone using a video camera to create raw digital media. (as in, We need to schedule the shoot.)

Shoot (verb) The act of using a camera to capture video. (as in, We'll need to shoot the machine in action.)

Shooter A camera operator.

Shot Video of one single scene.

Shot list  A list of shots that will be required to create your final video. The shot list is generally created after the script is developed.

Script  While you might assume that a script is only necessary for dialogue, that assumption is incorrect. ALL videos need some kind of script - because the script is the plan that helps your production team acquire all the necessary video shots to create the final video.

Standard def (SD) Video is made up of individual frames. For standard definition video, the frame size is much smaller and there are far fewer pixels than in high definition (HD) video. As a result, the visual quality of SD video is lower than HD video.

High def (HD) Video shot in a high-definition format, which means that the frame size is larger than SD, and each frame holds much more digital information. As a result, picture quality is much higher than SD video. High def is a general term that can describe different frame sizes, so it's important to understand that some HD video can be higher-definition than other HD video. Generally, HD video is of excellent quality and looks great no matter where it's shown - on the web, on a dvd, projected on a screen. In today's world, HD video has become a production standard.

Audio (noun) Refers to the sound that will be captured on videotape. Audio can be captured either with the camera's microphone or an auxiliary microphone. To get good sound quality, an auxiliary mic is a must.

Mic (say it ‘mike') An abbreviation for microphone

Lavalier or lapel mic A small microphone that clips on your lapel, usually wireless - or without a wire connecting it to the camera.

Shotgun mic A long, skinny microphone, sometimes attached to a camera and sometimes attached to the end of a pole. 

Green screen a bright green fabric that is hung behind a person being interviewed. The green background allows an editor to insert a particular background or create special effects.

While there are lots more technical terms, these are the basics and will help you understand what's being talked about when you're speaking to a videographer or production company.  Let us know if you're hearing other technical terms, and we'll update the list.

Video Best Practices: What Should You Wear?

Among the projects we're working on right now are two that are similar. In each, we're filming a business man giving a presentation. Each presentation will then be broken up into several short clips for posting to YouTube and to the respective websites.

Before the presentations, we were asked what each speaker should wear: suit jacket with shirt and tie; jacket and shirt but no tie; shirt and tie without a jacket; or an open-collared shirt. In both cases, as in all projects like this, our answer was the same: Who's your audience and what is the image you need to project to them - before you even start speaking?

 

Case #1 - A Technical Speaker

In the first case, the company provides training to technical people. All-day seminars are conducted in person at hotels and conference centers. The people who attend the presentation generally wear jeans or khakis and polo shirts or open-collared shirts. The presenter never wears a tie or jacket because it's important that the people in the audience feel as though he is a tech person like them.

The target audience for this set of videos is the same set of people who would attend the training. In this case, the best choice is an open-collared shirt or a branded polo shirt. A tie, or a jacket and tie, would identify him as not-a-tech-person, which would undermine the message he wants the videos to send - that he's a good fit for delivering the technical training his audience needs.

Case #2 - A CEO

In the second case, the CEO of a small start-up is giving a presentation about his company's product - a complex machine that saves time and money in large manufacturing plants. The audience for this series of videos will primarily be high-level managers and CEOs of mid-sized and larger companies, particularly in the Midwest.  

Though this CEO mostly wears an open-collared shirt to work, our advice was to wear a suit and tie for the filming. Manufacturing executives at the level he's aiming for - and especially in the Midwest - tend to be conservative. To connect with them as a CEO he needs to project an image of being a CEO who is successful - as they identify success. It doesn't matter that he's completely confident and successful as a CEO in khakis. What matters is the judgment his audience will make about him even before he begins to speak.  

What about women?

Women's wardrobe choices are far more varied than men's, but the rules are the same: dress so that what you're wearing conveys the right image to your target audience.

But, while the rules for clothing are the same, women have much more to worry about than men because their hairstyles are more varied, and they tend to wear more jewelry. And both hairstyle and jewelry will contribute to the visial impression that's created.

So choose your jewelry carefully. If your target audience is conservative, simple jewelry usually works best. If you want to project an image of being fashionable, you can wear more and more interesting jewelry.  

Hair also makes a statement. If you use color or highlights and it's been several weeks since your last salon visit, make an appointment for a few days before your shoot. And if at all possible, give yourself extra time before the shoot so that if it's a bad hair day, you can re-do your hairstyle. Not only will you look better - you'll feel much more confident, and that confidence will come across on video.

Whether you're a man or a woman, it's important to plan how you'll look on video very carefully. Get inside the heads of those in your target audience and look at yourself through their eyes. What assumptions do you want them to make about you based on your appearance? Because, before you even start to speak, your viewers will make a judgment about you. And it's your job to make sure that they arrive at the correct judgment.

 

Make your video assets perform like arrows

Company  X makes complicated and expensive software. Company X is having a tough time communicating what their product does because it's so very complicated. So they decided they'd make a three-minute video - to explain exactly what Software X does, and to talk about its benefits. They plan to use this video on their website home page, at trade shows, in presentations to end users, and in presentations to upper management.

What's wrong with this picture?

Simple - one video is not what Company X needs. If they go ahead with their plan, that one video will be packed with many different messages for all its different audiences. And none of those audiences will be able to absorb their message, because the background noise - everybody else's message - will be too distracting. Making that one video will be a complete waste of Company X's money and time.

What's the lesson for your company?

If you sell a complex product or service, and you want to use video to explain its benefits, think about who you're trying to connect with.

• Is it upper management? They'll need a clear statement of the problem you solve from their perspective and in language they understand. This usually means information on how your product will save them money. Add animated charts and graphs - because this is the language they speak. And don't show product details, because they don't care about details, and they really don't care about the product. What they care about is how much money your product can save them.
• The end users, on the other hand, don't care about ROI. They want to know how the software makes their jobs easier. And they'd also like to see cool features they'll have fun using. Skip the analysis, skip the charts and graphs. Show the product in action, and focus on aspects that will get them excited.
• For a trade show, where audio is a bad idea, you'll need to produce a looping dvd with visuals only.  The primary audience at your trade show will tell you what to emphasize - ROI, features and benefits, or a combination of both.
• Plant managers? Engineers? The accounting department? The nurses? They all need a different message, delivered in a different way.

Whatever you do, don't start with how to jam as many messages as possible into one single video. That's a recipe for creating junk. Instead, use your video assets like arrows - aim one video at one single target. This way you'll hit your targets, because you'll be telling each one of your audiences the exact story they need to hear about your product - so they can understand what it will do for them and how it will help them.

How can your business use a video camera?

A while ago, I blogged about our new camera - the Kodak Zi8. It's a tiny little thing and it cost less than $200. We bought it so we'd have a very portable camera to take to seminars and expos, to make quick videos for this blog. So, at last Thursday's New England Business Expo, we shot this video of David Frem, General Manager at Cyprian Keyes Golf Club.

A little camera like the Zi8 is a great tool if you do trade shows and expos, and if you travel to visit customers. It lets you make quick videos to post in your blog, which can act as launching points for discussion. It's also a great way to show both customers and prospects that you care about them.

But one comment I'm hearing is that while people see the value in short videos like this, they aren't making their own videos because they don't know what would be good questions to ask their customers and prospects.

So here are my questions: if you had a camera like this and you were at a trade show, or visiting a customer or prospect, what questions would you ask to make a quick video for your blog? And, what else would you use a camera like this for?

Flog Your Video Assets

There are two ways to look at the video assets you create for your business. The first way: they are static, passive things that sit on your website until somebody happens to find them. The second way: you paid good money for them and you're going to flog those videos until they do as much work as possible.

While it seems obvious that the second approach makes more sense, you'd be amazed by how many businesses treat their videos like passive little lumps. They make them, place them, and forget them. This can happen when the decision to create videos isn't a strategic decision, but a spur-of-the-moment, our-competitor-has-videos-so-we-better-get-some-too impulse. Then someone in marketing is tasked with getting a couple of videos made. He or she gets three quotes, goes with the lowest, the videos are made and placed, and that's it.

Are there goals for those videos? Is something being measured? Are they being sent out onto the web beyond the website? Are there plans for re-purposing them?

Nope, nope, nope and nope.

A far better approach is to look at video strategically, to decide what you want your video assets to do for you, and to understand how you'll know if they're performing. Then, start by making videos that can achieve the goals you set for them, instead of making videos that are the cheapest to make. Create a distribution plan for sending your video assets out onto the web, like little ambassadors for your business. Use Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter and YouTube and email marketing.

And then, when you've really, really flogged them, step back and see if you can re-edit them into other videos that you use for new applications - like connecting with different sets of potential customers.

How much work your video assets do for you - how effective they are at spreading your story and getting people excited about what you do - depends entirely on you and the choices you make. So choose to start with a plan, make your video assets and then get out your bullwhip and start flogging them. And don't stop until you've used them in every single way you can imagine.

Your business will thank you.

 

A Hilarious Tale of One Business Video

(This is a true story. Names and other details have been changed, but the story is real.)

Company A is an office supply company. One day, Company A's owner - let's call him Bob - had a great idea. "We'll make a video to promote the company," Bob said. "And we'll make it a funny video! We'll put it on a dvd, we'll make a bunch of copies, and we'll hand them out to potential customers. People will love it! We'll put it on YouTube and it'll go viral!"

So Bob found a video producer named Tony. Bob had a general idea of what he wanted, and he and Tony wrote a script. The video would be a funny little play about a business that buys all their supplies at the local office supply store, only they always get inferior products. The shredder dumps paper all over a worker's desk. The ink doesn't work in the printers. The furniture is too hard to put together, or else it breaks.

The punch line is that if that company had bought its office supplies at Company A, none of that bad stuff would have happened. And Bob, because he's the owner, gets to be the one who says the punch line at the end of the video. He knows how to give just the right sympathetic smile to make the point.  

It's a complex play, so Bob rents a vacant set of offices for a week, for the shoot. As actors they use Bob's people, so his company stops doing business for the week of the shoot. They need many, many takes to make sure they get the right shot. And there are technical challenges - how do you have a chair break when someone sits on it? How do you rig a pen so it spills ink all over someone's hands? It takes time, but they work these challenges out.

They shoot the video, it takes three months to edit, and it looks great. Bob is thrilled. He orders 500 dvds. He pays a design firm to make a beautiful dvd label and insert. The project is costing a boatload of money, but Bob isn't worried - he just knows that three or four or five times the money he spends will come back to him in profit on increased sales.

The dvds are made, and Bob gives them to his three salespeople. "Hand them out to everyone," he says. So the sales people do. Bob posts the video on YouTube. And then... nothing happens. Bob waits, and waits, but the phone doesn't ring. People don't call to tell Bob how great his video is. Sales don't go up. There are only 27 views on YouTube, and that number doesn't budge. But that's OK - obviously the word hasn't gotten out yet. Bob tells his salespeople to hand out more dvds. Bob instructs his salespeople to tell prospects to go to YouTube and watch the video. Again, Bob waits. Again, nothing happens.

Two years later, Bob is still talking about what a great video he made. How much fun the process was, how ingenious he and Tony were to figure out how to get that chair to break when Sue sat on it. How the design firm nailed the dvd insert. How the whole experience really helped him understand video production.

What Bob doesn't talk about, or let himself think about, is the video's complete lack of impact. Except, of course, for the impact to his bottom line, which was a doozy.

There are many things you can learn from Bob's adventure, but I'm going to mention just one: if you have an idea for a video and you're in love with it, if you're dreaming about how it's going to go viral and your sales are going to shoot through the roof, then you should ask someone to dump a bucket of cold water on your head. Because you don't understand how to use video to market your business and you're about to make a very big and very expensive mistake.

Should Your Business Buy a Video Camera?

Here at Yes! MediaWorks, we generally shoot with Canon XH-A1 cameras.

They have all kinds of useful features, and they let us make great video. When we book a shoot, they (and the big tripods that support them) work very well. But I've been feeling lately that bigger is not always better. That sometimes it would be really handy to have a little camera - small enough to tuck into my purse, easy enough to turn on, point, and shoot. And so this morning I went and ordered the Kodak Zi8.

I've been resisting a small HD video camera because up until now, they haven't had jacks for external microphones. Sure, the Flip HD cameras make nice-looking video, but the audio sounds like a small, inexpensive consumer camcorder, and there's no way to improve it. Good for some situations, but for me that's a serious limitation.

Enter the Zi8. With its HD capability, I can use it for all kinds of quick shots without having to lug around the big XH A1. And with its mic jack, I can also use it for impromptu videotaping at seminars & events - say, a two-minute hallway interview with a great speaker.

So... why do you care?

Because while your company - or nonprofit - may already have a relationship with a media company, you probably have events you don't send a videographer to, like seminars you attend. But video from those events could be very useful, for your blog, to edit into larger projects, etc.

Gathering video from the field - from your trade show booth, from site visits, from places and events that would be interesting to your customers and potential customers - is a really good reason to have a camera like this. Its price is low (on Amazon, about $250 with 16GB Flash memory card, tripod & bag), it shoots HD video, and your media company can handle the cataloging and editing for you. All you need to do is gather the raw video.

Owning a camera like this is such a good idea that I'm going to start recommending that my clients buy one. But wait - that doesn't seem to make sense. Yes! MediaWorks is a company that shoots video professionally. Why would we recommend that our customers buy and use a video camera?

Because the value that smart media companies provide is in creating and managing content, and in helping their clients understand how to use that content. NOT in being the sole content originator. It is in your best interest to market your company (or nonprofit) with lots of video. But unless you have a budget the size of EMC's video budget, it's just not practical to pay a videographer to shoot all your content.

So, when you're looking for a media company to help you understand and use video to market your business/nonprofit, ask this question: What kind of camera would you recommend we buy? If they try to talk you out of buying a camera, they may not be the right media company.  

 

Explain Your Complex Idea With Video

Sometimes businesses have complex ideas they need to explain clearly in order to sell their products and services. This can present a challenge, as website visitors may not stick around long enough to read and understand a lengthy text description of a product or service. Luckily, people love to click on video. Here's one example of a video that clearly communicates a complex concept in a fun and upbeat way:

One option, of course, is a ‘talking head,' or a head and shoulders shot of a person explaining the idea. You could also use a person's full body, which would give a more dynamic feel, though you'd sacrifice the viewer's ability to clearly see the speaker's face. Remember, website video is generally small, so a full body means a very small face. Why is this important? Quite simply, because we feel more comfortable if we can see someone's face. Of course, you can supplement video of a talking person with illustrations of what the person is talking about - photos, graphics, text, etc.

But in this case, the people at Successimo felt (and we agreed) that something that was more lively and less ordinary would keep viewers' attention longer, which would enable the whole concept to be understood and absorbed.

A video of this type is called 'kinetic typography' (KT) because it's primarily moving type. Sometimes KT videos are made without a voice-over, but in this case we felt that the narration added another layer of understanding. And, hiring a voice artist who does a great job conveying enthusiasm was key.

If you've got a complex idea to explain, consider using a KT video. They're easy to make, relatively inexpensive (depending on length), and they do a good job of keeping your viewers' attention until your concept is explained.