Video Marketing Goes Beyond YouTube. Have You Explored These 3 Options?

I love YouTube. When it comes down to it, YouTube is still the most heavily trafficked video site online today. And with an estimated 72 hours of content being added every minute, it should certainly remain the cornerstone of any good video-based content marketing campaign.

But what if you want to take things further? Sayyou’ve already maximized your brand’s presence on YouTube and are looking for new opportunities to reach different consumers or experiment with alternative types of video content. Depending on your specific use case, any of the following three YouTube alternatives could give you the campaign growth you’re looking for:

1. Reach higher-quality audiences with Vimeo. Although Vimeo’s basic structure is similar to Youtube’s, it differs in a number of key ways. Not only was Vimeo the first to support consumers' uploading high-definition pieces, the video-sharing site prevents post-viewing “related videos” from displaying your competitors’ clips. And it's is totally ad-free. For these reasons, Vimeo tends to attract a smaller but what many advertisers consider a much higher-quality audience (meaning a viewership including lots of employed professionals). 

Get started by creating some epic video content: Vimeo filters out most commercial, gaming and nonuser-generated content, so you’ll want to invest in creating quality videos before branching out onto this site.  

Consider a paid account. As a paying producer (plans start at $59.95 a year), you’ll be able to customize your video player, add your logo to the top of your videos and take advantage of other premium features.  

Focus on community building: Vimeo users are seriously loyal about their platform. So don’t look at the site as just another dumping ground for your video content. Instead, get to know the site’s users by interacting with them before sharing your work.

Related: Why Short Videos Are Wildly Popular Over Social Media

2. Use Vine when you want to experiment with more viral-style short-form video content. Vine isn’t a video-sharing site; it’s a mobile and desktop app associated with Twitter that allows users to share looping videos of 6 seconds or less in length. The videos' limited duration means that Vine isn’t right for every brand, but it’s definitely worth considering; Ogilvy vice president Heather Taylor estimates that “brand vines are shared four times more than other online videos.”

Think personality. Six seconds doesn’t give you enough time to do a full product demonstration or sales pitch, but it does give you an opportunity to showcase your brand’s personality. Have fun with your clips and leave people wanting more.

Post regularly.The number of Vines being created and shared means that regular posting to this network is a must. Don’t stop after releasing a single Vine video. Keep your channel full and your followers engaged with regular releases.

Learn from the big boys.The learning curve for Vine can be steep. Help your brand's Vine profile pick up traction (scoring followers and interaction) by checking out how big companies like GE and Lowes use the service.

3. Tap Wistia when you need more analytics data and features than YouTube provides. Unlike YouTube, Wistia is a paid video platform (the price for a plan starts at $25 a month) that delivers clips to websites and mobile devices. Where Wistia really shines is with its conversion and analytics features, which help users capture leads and learn more about how viewers are interacting with each video.  

Amp up your production quality; if you’re going to invest in a video platform, you’ll want to use it to deliver quality content. Wistia’s video-production page offers tips on improving clip quality on a budget.

Think about your core audience; Wistia isn’t about driving view counts; it’s about the chance to engage with your brand’s ambassadors. Use analytics to be sure your videos are striking the right chord.

Pay attention: Having access to advanced analytics is only helpful if you use this data. Tap the information you generate to drive campaign changes across all your brand’s marketing channels.

These three Youtube alternatives should help you expand your video-marketing campaigns, but if you have another recommendation to share, leave a note in the comments section below.

Courtesy : SUJAN PATEL  VP of Marketing at When I Work

Mobile video: how to win the battle for engagement

Instagram has recently introduced video to its suite of options for users and advertisers. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

With smartphones and tablets rapidly becoming the world's preferred method for connecting to the internet, brands are looking to mobile video as the next great battleground in advertising. Advertising tailored to mobile devices is growing rapidly as services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube and Sky encourage mobile viewing. Meanwhile, social media platforms are looking for ways to boost the use of mobile video ads.

Facebook, which gets nearly 60% of its ad revenue through mobile, according to its Q1 2014 figures, sees mobile video as a burgeoning area and is introducing a range video ad formats. These include Video App Install Ads, which enable marketers to drive downloads of their apps through video ads in the mobile news feed. The social network has also launched its premium auto-play video ads in the US (which play silently until clicked, after which the sound comes up) and is introducing this to other markets, including the UK.

Meanwhile, Facebook's image-sharing social network Instagram has introduced video and is striking deals with brands to create what is being billed as beautiful and memorable advertising.

Chris Jacob, director of product marketing at Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud, believes that mobile video is quickly becoming a vital part of most marketing strategies. He says: "As mobile video consumption continues to increase, it is becoming an important medium for marketers to maintain brand awareness, build loyalty and influence the customer journey.

"Advertisers are realising that delivering engaging location and smartphone or tablet-optimised video is not only powerful, but is also becoming the best way to reach much of their target audience."

An attractive feature of mobile video advertising via social networks is the sophisticated audience targeting and analysis that is now possible. Jacob points to other advantages, such as tapping into the always-on customer environment and reaching potential consumers when they are most engaged. Jacob says that customers are engaging with mobile video more actively too, choosing to view the content rather than sitting passively through a standard TV ad spot.

To get the best out of mobile video advertising, brands need to use one of the ad management platforms that can guide them through what can be a complex process. Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud offers the Social.com service, a platform allowing advertisers to launch, manage and optimise their video campaigns efficiently and at scale.

Social.com enables brands to use their first-party customer data to better inform their targeting through Facebook's Custom Audiences product. This allows brands to supply Facebook with email addresses from their customer list so the social network site can anonymously target those users with ads. Meanwhile, social.com also offers features such as Interest Clusters & Draft Campaigns, which help boost return on investment.

Mobile video offers stunning prospects for advertisers to engage with audiences through the devices that they keep closest to them. They will need to bear in mind that there are differences between how people use their smartphones and tablets - tending to spend longer on tablets while using smartphones in a more functional way. But given the opportunities for targeting people by location, activity and through their social networks that mobile offers, brands are likely to build it into their marketing plans.

Coutesy : 

• theguardian.com