Discover how to use video to achieve your business goals in customer support, learning and development, and more. We’ll also cover the video metrics needed to measure success.

There are countless types of videos a company can produce. Review these video use cases to set clear goals, measure effectiveness, and improve your video strategy. 

Note: The metrics below are common across video hosting platforms. However, we’ll discuss how to effectively improve each metric using the SproutVideo platform. 

1. Sales & Marketing

Goal: Attract new leads, shorten the sales cycle, and increase conversions.

Video was the primary form of content businesses created last year — likely due to the high engagement rate, popularity of video-sharing platforms, and SEO benefits. 

Let’s consider how an e-commerce brand might use video. For its spring clothing line, the company produces videos to target customers at all stages of the buying journey.

These videos might include:

• Product demonstrations 
• Customer testimonials
• Educational content
• About Us/Mission 
• Explainer videos 
• Advertisements 

For example, the e-commerce brand creates a 15-second product demonstration of a sequin-beaded dress sparkling in the sun. 

It’s featured on the product page, across social media, and within segmented marketing emails to one-time dress buyers, new subscribers, and loyal customers. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Play Rate: Measure the effectiveness of video placement, thumbnail, and copy with play rate. A higher play rate increases the likelihood that viewers will absorb the video’s value and fuel their interest in the brand’s offerings. 
• Average Engagement Rate: Determine how much content average users watch to determine the significance of video engagement on purchasing decisions. Use this information to determine highly engaging strategies and recreate them. 
• Domains: Discover which marketing channels drive the most traffic and engagement to your videos. Use this information to optimize the most valuable channels and gain further insight into your audience segments. 
• Conversion Rates: Compare engagement data with your customer relationship manager (CRM) and Google Analytics. Determine the relationship between viewer engagement and increased conversions. Correlate new conversions with a traffic lift from videos. Take this further with individual viewer data: tag users to see how videos influence viewers on the SproutVideo platform. 

2. Employee Onboarding & Training

Goal: Train new hires efficiently and improve employee skills.

Expedite employee training and student education with video-based learning. For example, a national chain of hotels creates training videos for staff in multiple languages and across locations. Onboarding teams and leaders within the organization can share these videos with employees and new hires as needed, in person or virtually. 

Types of videos the company creates might include,

• Screencast videos 
• Company culture highlights
• Educational content
• Day-in-the-life reels
• Live stream events

Imagine the hotel chain hosts a monthly “Welcome to the team” live stream for new employees. The video introduces new hires to executive team members, covers company culture and core values, and presents profiles of employees who have enjoyed career advancement. 

During onboarding, new hires receive a “day-in-the-life” video on their position, how-to videos for learning their job, and a screencast video on using the company’s HR software. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Heat Maps: Course completion is important for L&D teams. With heat maps, they can easily determine if individual viewers completed a video. Review all sessions so that the viewer can track completed videos across multiple viewing sessions. 
• Unique Plays: Proprietary and confidential training materials are usually for internal “company eyes” only. Monitor unique plays to ensure video plays don’t exceed the amount of people with access. If you suspect a leak, determine the cause by investigating individual session data. 
• Viewer Name: Utilize tagging on the SproutVideo platform to easily review all session data for individual users. Once tagged, users will appear by name instead of the Viewer ID assigned to them. Click on their name to see all the videos and live streams they have watched.

3. Internal Corporate Communications

Goal: Communicate across departments and enhance culture.

Internal communications must ensure that proprietary information and intellectual property are kept private and secure. Consider a Fortune 500 company with multiple locations, remote workers, and tens of thousands of employees who must communicate securely and effectively. The company uses video metrics to monitor internal content and protect intellectual property, unreleased information, and proprietary knowledge.   

Other types of internal videos a company might create include 

• Strategy or policy change videos
• CEO-led mission statements
• Financial updates for shareholders
• Department-wide communications

In remote workplaces, companies also use video for virtual celebrations, scavenger hunts, and other team-building activities. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Average Engagement Rate: Evaluate how much content viewers watched. Review how people interact with the video, including what parts they watch and rewatch. This information allows you to review how people engage with important communications.
• Geographic Location: Track viewer location to ensure communications only reach intended parties or branch locations. 
• Unique Plays: Ensure communications reach the intended amount of people. Investigate individual session data if the number exceeds the intended audience size. 

4. Customer Support 

Goal: Provide personalized service and create a library of help videos.

Companies use videos in knowledge centers to provide 24/7 customer support and serve as pre-sales tools. Video is also great for personalizing customer support, as Support agents can send short messages or screencasts to customers that demonstrate the solution to their problem. 

For example, a solopreneur selling a video course on investing for beginners doesn’t have the resources to handle many support requests. However, she learns from past customers and generates screencast videos that address common issues and how to solve them. 

Support videos a company might create include:

• Product-based tutorials
• Screencast how-to videos 
• Video library of FAQs

When the solopreneur, from our example above, responds to support requests, she hits record and talks directly to the customer. This approach saves her valuable time and personalizes the support, increasing customer retention. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Average Engagement Rate: Evaluate how much content viewers watched. Use this metric to determine the effectiveness of support videos. Learn what parts of the footage created “ah-ha” moments for customers. 
• Play Rate: Track how often people watch a video to find a solution to their problem versus reviewing the text of a help article or support email. This data validates the use of video for customer support and helps you optimize your knowledge base by highlighting which frequently asked questions need videos.
• Heat Maps: Discover what parts of the video provide the most important information for solving a common customer problem. Determine when a concept needs to be explained more deeply based on the density of rewatches within help videos.  

5. Regulatory Compliance and Continuing Education

Goal: Maintain compliance with regulatory requirements.

Video training is a common aspect of maintaining compliance within regulated industries (i.e., finance, healthcare, legal services.) For example, a personal finance company creates an online training platform to ensure employees comprehensively understand and adhere to standards. It also hosts live stream conferences to facilitate compliance management across a location-independent team. Types of videos the company creates include:

• Tutorials on compliance management
• Live stream workshops 
• Industry rulings and updates 
• Corporate policy videos

The company can use its secure video hosting platform to closely monitor employee engagement with compliance materials to ensure the information is absorbed. 

Metrics to Evaluate Success

• Viewer ID or Name: Track and review engagement data for each viewer to ensure viewer completion of all compliance materials. An easy way to do this is with log-in protection (or Single Sign-On) through the SproutVideo platform. 
• Heat Map: Review visual engagement data for each viewing session. View all sessions for any viewer to determine if the user started and finished a video later. 
• Viewer Minutes Watched: Track viewer time input for compliance regulations that require certification or continuing education hours. View the minutes watched for a single viewer across live streams and videos using individual session data on SproutVideo.

Dive into the world of video engagement and metrics with our series:

• Video Engagement: 10 Strategies to Grab & Hold Viewer Attention
• 15 Live Stream Metrics & How to Measure Success
• Video Metrics to Measure Performance and ROI

The post 5 Use Cases for Business Videos & How to Track Success appeared first on SproutVideo.

Yet simply adding product videos to your website and social media accounts doesn’t necessarily make them effective.

Video marketing, especially for B2B products and services, requires a strategy with clear goals, a winning customer experience, and contextual market understanding. 

The right B2B strategy will leverage video content for lead capture, relationship building, customer support, and sales. 

In this complete guide, we’ll walk through every step — researching, planning, budgeting, and executing — of an effective B2B video marketing strategy, with examples for brainstorming. 

What Is B2B Video Marketing?

Business-to-business (B2B) marketing sells products and services to other businesses and organizations. B2B video marketing is a marketing strategy that uses video throughout the customer journey to inform, educate, and assist current and prospective customers. 

B2B marketing focuses on the pain points, desires, and solutions needed for businesses and organizations. These marketing strategies balance the needs of the business and the wants of the decision-maker. 

A formal approach may feel natural, but B2B sales still hinge on building connections. Instead of old-school salesmanship, foster authentic relationships through knowledge sharing and genuine care. This is why video is why it is becoming standard across industries. It is highly effective at establishing trust with the viewer.

Why Use Video for B2B Marketing?

A potential customer can absorb much more information from a 15-second video than in 15 seconds of reading text. But the benefits of video marketing go beyond information retention.

• 59% of B2B decision-makers prefer video over text when learning about a product.
• 92% of video marketers cite a good return on investment (ROI) for video content.
• 70% of B2B marketers say videos convert better than other types of content.
• 4.8% is the average conversion rate for websites with video (compared to 2.9% without).
• 70% of B2B researchers and buyers watch videos during their path to purchase.
• 60% increase in response rates when using video for sales outreach.

How to Create a B2B Video Marketing Strategy

1. Create Clear Marketing Goals

A marketing strategy is a cohesive approach with a theory of success. Assuming it is successful, what are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will indicate its success?

Every KPI should be measurable, specific, and include a deadline. Here are some general examples:

• Increase trial conversions from 5% to 8% by Q4 2024. 
• Secure two new enterprise memberships a month.
• Reduce customer churn 2% month-over-month by end of year.
• Achieve a 10% increase in organic traffic year-over-year.
• Generate a minimum of 100 activations per month by Q3 end. 

The strategy you develop will determine how you approach achieving these goals. But knowing what you intend to accomplish ahead of time will make it easier to create an effective strategy, ensure it’s working, and pivot as needed. 

How to Use Video

Internal communication is important for success. Most marketing strategies will involve multiple teams within a company. Using video to communicate goals and outline the strategy is an efficient way to ensure everyone is on the same page and contributing their ideas throughout the planning process.

2. Refine Your Brand & Voice

Branding with a consistent tone produces a sense of trust and reliability. A clearly defined brand will make it easier for prospective customers to remember your business and visualize the unique and innovative ways in which your business solves problems.

Ahrefs is a standout example. From its bold color scheme and unique graphics to the blocky font and educational content, its branding choices align with the target audience. This allows it to feel both personable and professional while setting the company apart from its competitors.

Unless your business is new, your brand and voice are likely established. Evaluate all of your marketing channels and your website. 

Implement a consistent brand and voice across channels as part of your B2B video marketing strategy. Consider the tone, colors, fonts, images, and user experience you present. 

How to Use Video

A consistent brand and tone of voice can be brought into your video content as well. Bring the same energy and perspective, and use the same graphics, fonts, and colors in your videos as the rest of your marketing content. With SproutVideo, you can also customize the video player itself for a branded, distraction-free customer experience.

3. Identify Target Market & Audience

An essential aspect of creating a successful B2B marketing strategy is understanding your company’s market position and its relation to the competition. 

Review your sales data. What kinds of businesses move through your customer journey and make a purchase? What companies become return customers or long-term subscribers? 

Identify the businesses you want to target. Consider,

• Business Size (small, medium, enterprise)
• Industry (Healthcare, Education, etc.)
• Number of Employees
• Revenue
• Location (by region or specific country)

Next, who are the people within those businesses that you are targeting? Identify the departments within the company that your product serves — marketing, human resources, executives, product development — the list goes on and on. 

Develop a specific persona for the person who works at this company. Consider,

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Job Title
• Beliefs and Perspective
• Education Level
• Pain Points
• Consistent Routines
• Industry Idiosyncrasies 

Use this information to develop customer avatars. These buyer profiles will make it easier to map a successful customer journey and gain potential leads. 

Every business attracts outliers with similar needs and interests. But your core business marketing should be positioned for your ideal persona. Take notice of the audience segments that convert at the highest rates and investigate. 

Example: A social media management platform might target small business owners in North America who are women aged 20-35 that feel burned out and frustrated with social media. Alternatively, a semiconductor manufacturer might target Senior Product Managers in Asia over 45 who are hesitant to change and require executive approval. 

How to Use Video

Customer profiles are an essential part of any business strategy. But it can be challenging to personalize content for a group. Consider asking customers to share video testimonials or host video interviews in exchange for exclusive discounts or benefits. Identify individuals who fit your audience segments and ask yourself if they would personally benefit from your content.

4. Analyze the Competition

Next, review your company and assess your competitors to determine where your business fits, and how it should be positioned, within the market.

Start by researching direct rivals: businesses that are similar in size and target the same industry. Make a list of these competitors, as well as companies that are smaller and larger.

From your list, select three to five companies that cater to the same target market and audience as your own. Review their branding, customer journey, and product features. Become a potential customer to learn more about how your competitors convert browsers into buyers. 

Example: SproutVideo is a video hosting platform. While there are many video hosting companies, the list of competitors with platforms built for enterprises and priced for small businesses is short. We serve this niche. 

How to Use Video

Knowing where your business fits into the market will allow you to create a winning strategy that sets your company above the rest. Depending on the industry, competitors may be underutilizing videos or creating lackluster content. Consider how you can use video to outdo the competition by making each step of the customer journey easier to engage with and enjoy. 

5. Build a Market-Specific Strategy

Think of your strategy as the thesis statement of your organization. What is the outcome your business wants to achieve? What approach would make your competition irrelevant? 

1. Outline Brand Vision

Develop a clear vision of what your business intends to accomplish. Answer these two questions for your B2B marketing strategy: 

• Why are we in this market (and not another one)?
• How are we going to be the best in this market?

Look at how your company solves customer pain points in a superior way. Or pinpoint the ways your business innovates in your market to create new demand. 

2. Identify Unique Value Proposition

Reflect on your company mission statement and the transformation your product or service creates for customers. Having researched your close competitors, are you filling a gap in the market or innovating on the current standard? This is your unique value proposition. 

If you’ve ever wondered why there are so many companies solving the same problem, take a closer look at their unique value propositions. You will see significant differences in the audiences those businesses serve and the core features they promote.

Example: Mailchimp focuses on helping small businesses grow email newsletters. The company was one of the first to allow new business owners to freely use the platform’s core functions until a certain number of subscribers is reached. This continues to be one of Mailchimp’s main strategies, even as its audience and offerings have expanded. 

3. Compose Your Strategy 

Share your vision of success in its realized form. For some businesses, the overall business mission will naturally guide the marketing strategy. Consider all of the steps you have completed and the information you have gathered so far. 

Write down your strategy and include:

• Your vision for the business
• Any issues the strategy needs to address
• The projected result of a successful strategy 

Your strategy might be a sentence or a few paragraphs; keep it succinct. Your marketing strategy postulates success: what must happen for this to be true?

Combine your brand vision, innovative approach in your market, and the intended result.

Example: Ghost is an all-in-one CMS platform that offers a minimalist website, email marketing software, and payment processor, which collects 0% in fees. Its open-source software allows developers to unleash their creativity and businesses to customize the framework. Fully bootstrapped, Ghost is a reliable platform built for longevity. It is the solution of choice for modern enterprises that value content marketing.

How to Use Video

Your brand strategy should inspire you and your employees to bring your company mission to life. Use video to show appreciation for employees and to generate excitement and motivation for upcoming events, projects, and strategy shifts. 

6. Outline Channels & Technology

With the information you have now and your strategy in hand, determine if there are any gaps. Start by listing your marketing channels. Common channels include:

• Website or landing pages
• Newsletter
• Blog
• Social media 
• Paid advertising 
• Webinars
• Demo or Trials
• Opt-in Offers (White Papers, Case Studies, etc)
• Knowledge Base

Perhaps you thought social media was covered; however, after reviewing the market and your competition, you’ve learned that your audience is more likely on TikTok than Facebook. Alternatively, maybe you’ve been paying for advertising but haven’t developed a marketing funnel to attract organic leads and nurture potential customers. 

Additionally, consider how you will distribute your content. Each stage of your sales funnel (discussed in the next section) will require its own distribution plan. As you map your customer journey, determine how and where you will reach people with your content. 

Example: An explainer video might be shared on your website, uploaded to YouTube for paid advertising, and shared across social media. This is your distribution plan for the awareness stage of your sales funnel. Educational videos, on the other hand, might be shared exclusively on your video help site and embedded in your email newsletter for the conversion stage. 

How to Use Video

As you outline your marketing channels, take note of how many videos you are currently using to market your products and services. Consider the videos on your website, social media pages, paid advertising, onboarding process, and more. Review your analytics. Are there any obvious areas where a video would improve engagement or conversion? Start to outline how you might use video to improve your customer experience. 

7. Map Your Customer’s Journey

In most cases, B2C businesses create awareness of their product, potential customers consider it, the company stokes their desire or nurtures the relationship, then a purchase is made. The buyer may need customer support and will hopefully become a return customer, but the funnel is complete. 

The B2B customer journey is different. The research and comparison phase of the B2B journey is crucial, often due to higher prices or more complex offerings. 

The Standard B2C Customer Journey

The Standard B2B Customer Journey

Furthermore, there is an additional stage in B2B marketing that we’re calling Post-Sales Service. This is the company’s user experience from purchase through utilization. 

B2B solutions are rarely one-off purchases. For this reason, companies offer robust customer support, including product customization, onboarding assistance, and exclusive content.

Map Your Customer Journey

For each customer persona you have created, how does that audience segment move through your sales funnel? Look broadly at how people move through each phase of your customer journey. Learn why and how they:

• Discover your business
• Engage to learn more
• Gain trust in your services
• Choose to make a purchase
• Continue to subscribe or buy again

If your analytical data provides an incomplete picture, solicit feedback from current customers in exchange for bonus offerings or discounts. This information is vital to implementing effective marketing tactics that resonate with your ideal audience. 

How to Use Video

Using videos in your sales funnel allows you to collect significant data with analytics. This information can be used to improve your customer’s experience. For example, heat mapping shows what portions of your videos are being watched, re-watched, or skipped. With individual tracking, you can tag a viewer to track how many minutes and what videos they’ve watched. 

8. Plan Your Video-Led Customer Experience 

With all the information you have gathered, plan how you will reach potential customers at each stage of your sales funnel. Here are some examples of content you might create at each stage.

• Awareness: Blog posts, educational videos, social media
• Research & competition: White papers, case studies, comparison guides
• Conversion: Demos, trials, testimonials
• Post-Sales Service: Exclusive video content, email newsletter, success stories
• Loyalty & Retention: Feedback surveys, community groups, loyalty programs

At every stage, use video content to improve the user experience. Creating videos takes time and work — whether producing them in-house, hiring freelancers, or employing a production company. Make a list of content to be produced and prioritize implementation as outlined below.

1. Start with the Basics (Website, Social)

Produce videos that target the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey and set the tone for your brand. An explainer video, for example, showcases the transformation your product or service creates. It can be shared on social media and featured on your website and landing pages. 

2. Guide the Buyer’s Journey 

Evaluate your sales funnel and marketing automation. Create videos that will improve your customer experience. Add video to your email nurturing sequence, create a series of onboarding how-tos, or animate a stellar customer testimonial. Engage, inform, and motivate your audience at every stage of the customer journey. 

3. Add Educational Content

Educational videos explain topics related to your product or industry. They cover a broad subject concisely or answer a specific question in detail. These videos generate new leads and build trust. They add value to potential customers without asking for anything in return. This content is also useful when building an audience on social media as a business.

4. Consider Support & Retention

There are multiple ways video can be used for customer support and retention. Start by creating videos for your most frequently asked support questions. This knowledge base will allow users to self-service, freeing resources up in your business for high-profile customers. 

Things to Consider

Each stage of your customer journey will have different video content and a different means of distribution. For example, how-to videos for trial customers should be privately hosted and embedded within an email or webpage. But a corporate advertisement will be publicly shared across social media. Keep this in mind when outlining your plan of action.  

9. Set Video Production & Marketing Budget

Return to your goals from step one and estimate the cost of each. Project an expected ROI using past campaign data to estimate your expected cost per new lead or conversion. 

If your goal is 100 conversions and past data reveals that each conversion costs $200 to acquire, you can estimate a marketing budget of $20,000 to complete the goal. 

[Conversions] X [Cost Per Conversion] = [Marketing Budget]

To estimate your projected ROI, multiply the number of conversions (100) by your sales price. This will provide you with the projected revenue. 

[Conversions] X [Sales Price] = [Projected Revenue]

Subtract your marketing budget ($20,000) from the projected revenue to get your ROI.

[Projected Revenue] – [Marketing Budget] = [Projected ROI] 

Track your actual ROI over time. Use analytics and marketing automation software to continuously gather data on your marketing campaigns and assess conversion data. 

Before setting a video production budget, consider the other costs associated with your marketing plan. This will ensure you don’t over- or under-spend on video content. 

Things to Consider

Save money in the long term by producing evergreen videos — meaning the content will continue to be accurate and relevant for years. This will allow you to generate higher returns on your investment as well. Consider video longevity when adding humor and style; ensure the choices will allow your videos to remain modern and relevant. 

10. Take Action & Schedule Implementation 

Time to implement your B2B video marketing strategy! Formally compose a plan of action, use work management tools to stay on track, and collaborate with internal team members. 

If time and budget are concerns, implement your B2B video marketing plan in stages starting with the highest-impact content. Talk to your customers, get their feedback, and focus on creating a customer experience that consistently converts.

Things to Consider

Utilize the vault of knowledge we’ve compiled here at SproutVideo to make every stage of the process smoother. Check out these essential planning documents for video production, how to hire videography freelancers, and maximize your video ROI with these tips. 

Examples of B2B Marketing Videos

Hubspot Master Class

Hubspot hosts marketing master classes to educate and inspire. In this master class, Buzzfeed video producer Daysha V. Edewi shares her approach to crafting viral content. 

Snowflake Advertisement

This ad is a perfect example of exaggerating a common pain point for laughs: the only way to end the feuding department’s prank war is to use Snowflake for cloud data management. 

Workday Explainer

Combining animated graphics with a live-action host, this video skillfully presents the key benefits of Workday’s human capital management (HCM) system in under three minutes.

SAP Behind-the-Scenes

During Take Your Child to Work Day, SAP interviewed employees’ kids about what their parents do. The result is a fun peek into the lives of the people who keep SAP running day-to-day.

Volvo Trucks Advertisement

Prepare to lift your jaw off the floor. Volvo Trucks wanted to showcase the stability and precision of its Dynamic Steering, so it enlisted the help of action star Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Ahrefs Educational Content

Educational videos help businesses fully understand and utilize your product or service. This is a great example of an educational video that gets right to the point and solves a problem. 

Zendesk Advertisement

This light-hearted ad likens the relationship of an older married couple to that between a business and its customers. It also manages to explain the value of Zendesk in one minute.

Quick Tips for Your B2B Video Marketing Strategy

• Pick The Right Video: Align your content with your goals. The secret ingredient for success is to speak to your target persona.
• Think Outside The Box: Your video is an opportunity to differentiate yourself from potential competitors. Creativity creates engagement.
• Be Mindful of Customer Time: Make a series if you have a lot to share. Each segment can highlight your business and go into more depth about philosophies or products.
• Curate Supporting Content: Buyers don’t make big decisions or large purchases based on one persuasive video. Create a spectrum of content for your audience.
• Let Your Customers Do The Talking: Client testimonials are seen as more credible and more authentic than any traditional pitch. They also demonstrate real results.
• Encourage Video Sharing: An engaging, creative video is primed for sharing, through social media and old-school word-of-mouth. Also, include a call to action.
• Don’t Fret Over Production Quality: A polished video doesn’t have to make a huge impact on your wallet. These free resources will help you make professional videos.

The post B2B Video Marketing: How to Build A Successful Strategy appeared first on SproutVideo.

Companies use video to easily share internal announcements, coordinate projects, onboard team members, and train new employees. From small businesses to large corporations, video enables teams to stay informed and coordinated. 

Yet businesses need the ability to share videos privately. Security is essential for numerous video applications, from proprietary information and trade secrets to upcoming projects and marketing videos. 

So, understandably, businesses are concerned about the privacy and security of the videos they share. Secure video sharing, unlike social media platforms, puts you in control of your content.

Top-notch private corporate video features include password protection, video login, and signed embed codes. We’ll cover six easy steps to securely share videos as a business in this complete guide.

The Importance of Sharing Corporate Video Privately

Video security and privacy is essential for maintaining the boundary between external and internal video content. External videos are used in marketing campaigns, landing pages, social media, and more. 

Internal videos, on the other hand, are almost always intended for a specific group within the company. This group might be the executive team, a specific company location, new hires, freelancers, or anyone who needs secure access to your company’s videos. 

A video hosting platform focused on secure video sharing for businesses will include password protection, dynamic watermarking, single sign-on, and viewer tracking features.

The Three Pillars of Secure Video Sharing

The difficulty in keeping video content secure is due to the multiple access points and potential privacy leaks. Therefore, your video security plan must address the following pillars.

Control Access

There are two access points at which you need to restrict access:

• Videos: Directly restrict access with password protection, login protection, IP address and location restriction, and single sign-on.
• Video Hosting Account: Use two-factor authentication (2FA) for all account logins to secure access to your video hosting account.

Prevent Leaks & Theft 

This level of video security seeks to prevent those with legitimate access to videos from leaking or sharing content outside the organization.

• Secure Embed Codes: Prevent embed code redistribution with allowed domains or signed embed codes. 
• Deter Theft: Dissuade screen recording by displaying the viewer’s information on-screen.

Audit Regularly

Regular auditing is essential. It will allow you to ensure unauthorized people haven’t gained access to video content and that those with access permission haven’t changed video privacy settings.

• Engagement Metrics: Real-time information on who is watching your videos and for how long.
• Viewer Access Logs: Track login behavior for login-protected videos.
• Account Audit Logs: Keep track of team member account activity.

This information should allow you to consider video security and how you might implement it for your business or organization. We’ll discuss how to implement this information for secure video sharing next.

How to Secure Video Content in 6 Steps

1. Determine the Level of Security You Require

The video security demands of every company will be unique because no two companies require exactly the same features. Use the following questions to determine the types of security and privacy features your business needs.

• How sensitive is the video content? How would your business be impacted if these videos leaked? 
• Do you already have a website where you can embed these videos, or do you need a secure portal for your videos as well?
• Should viewers be able to access your videos seamlessly? Should videos be password protected or require login?
• Where do viewers need to access the video? Do viewers need access on the go or should access be restricted to certain locations, like the office?  
• Who should have access to these videos at your company? Should videos be restricted to specific teams or locations?

The answers to these questions will largely determine the features you need to look for when shopping for a video hosting provider.

2. Choose Your Video Hosting Platform Wisely

Online video hosting services are not one-size-fits-all solutions.

Popular free options, like YouTube and TikTok, are designed for social sharing — the opposite of what you need for private, corporate video. A video hosting platform that focuses on video for business will offer greater control over your content.

Review the essential features of a secure video platform below, then make a list of the solutions your business needs. All of the following features are found on the SproutVideo platform.

Important Features of a Secure Video Platform:

• Two-Factor Authentication: Enable double account verification for login. 
• Password Protected Video: Require a password to access video content.
• Secure Video Login: Create login credentials that are required to view videos.
• Signed Embed Codes: Prevent embed code theft. Once expired, the video can no longer play where embedded. 
• Whitelist Access to Content: Control what IP addresses, domains, and geographic locations have access to your content. 
• Single Sign-On (SSO): User authentication with one set of credentials. Connect your hosted video website (such as SproutVideo) with your Identity Provider.
• Dynamic Watermarking: Display the viewer’s email address, IP address, and session ID on the video to deter theft.
• Account Audit Log: Review team members’ changes to videos and privacy settings.
• Viewer Access Log: Track individual viewer engagement; see who accessed your videos and how much they watched.

3. Restrict Video Access 

There are two levels of restricting video access:

• Restrict access using credentials
• Restrict access by location or network

Restrict Access to the Video

Your approach to restricting video access will depend on how you plan to share your video content.

• On your own website, including an intranet, Sharepoint, Squarespace, WordPress, etc. 
• Video website via a video hosting service, like SproutVideo.
• A third-party location, like Notion, Confluence, or Asana. 

If you plan to share videos on your website: does your website portal include page access controls?

If yes, manage your employees’ access credentials or profiles from your company’s content-sharing portal. This will create a more seamless viewing experience.

Additionally, consider whether those access controls are sufficient: will you require additional security measures for more granular access permissions? Combine additional restriction features such as:

• Login protection
• Password protection

Need a website for your videos? Hosted video websites provide a dedicated portal for your content.

Use login protection and password prediction to restrict access. Or, for serious security with a high-quality user experience, bring your Identity Provider and use single sign-on (SSO) with our hosted video websites.

Restrict Access by Location or Network

Once you have restricted access to videos directly, consider whether or not you need additional restrictions. For example, your website may require log in credentials. But anyone could still access the content if those credentials were shared outside the company. 

To prevent this from happening, use IP address and geographic location restrictions. Doing so ensures that no one outside your organization can access the content even if they have the password or login credentials to load the page or video. 

Example: A company might whitelist its computer network and the IP addresses of any remote employees. Computers outside those networks will be blocked from loading videos or live streams.

4. Deter Screen Recording & Downloads

How do you protect video content once someone has access? Deter screen recording and download theft with dynamic watermarking. The watermark changes positions regularly and displays the viewer’s email address, IP address, and session ID.  

There are multiple ways to customize a dynamic watermark on the SproutVideo platform. You can alter the opacity of the background, select the position change interval, prevent the watermark from covering center-focused content, and more.

Example: A video embedded on a landing page intended for new employees could include password protection, dynamic watermarking, and IP address restriction. This stack of security measures ensures the viewer must have a password to watch, the watermark deters recording by revealing the viewer’s information on-screen, and only whitelisted networks of computers will be able to play the video.

5. Safeguard Embed Codes

Unless preventative measures are in place, it is relatively easy to locate an embed code on a webpage to copy and paste it on another site. There are two major ways to prevent this:

• Domain restriction automatically checks the URL where your embed code is located to ensure it’s approved. The video won’t load if it isn’t approved. 
• Signed embed codes require a unique signing key to play the video. The video won’t load if the signing key is absent or incorrect.

While more technically advanced, signed embed codes can be used in more complex scenarios than allowed domains.

6. Track Viewer Activity

The final step is to audit your viewer records and account access logs on a regular basis. This will ensure your video privacy controls are continuing to work as expected.

Video hosting platforms with robust analytics, like SproutVideo, make it easy to periodically review who has been accessing your videos.

Firstly, tag viewers who have permission to watch the video. This will make it easy to identify them. Viewers accessing the video through login protection or single sign-on (SSO) are automatically tracked.

Regularly review your access log to check for anomalies. Look for unusual email addresses, locations, IP addresses, or viewing patterns. If anything sticks out, temporarily revoke viewer access by changing the video password, privacy settings, or removing it from the page.

Note: In addition to engagement tracking, periodically review account audit logs. This information shows what team members have uploaded videos, edited privacy settings, and more.

As a communications solution, securely sharing video is easy, effective, and can potentially increase your company’s bottom line. Yet to be beneficial, strong video security and privacy are essential.

A video hosting platform built for businesses, like SproutVideo, includes everything you need to securely share video, monitor users, and improve viewer engagement. 

The post Best Practices to Securely Share Corporate Video appeared first on SproutVideo.

You can share an explainer video across marketing channels; it is the most valuable content asset for the top of your sales funnel. 

Whether creating an explainer video in-house or writing a creative brief for a production company, brainstorming video ideas can be challenging. That’s why we put together a list of the 10 best explainer video examples — some of which you may even remember. 

This complete guide will also cover the types of explainer videos and how to make one (step-by-step). Here’s everything you need to create a stellar explainer video.

What Is an Explainer Video?

Explainer videos showcase a product or brand and the problem it solves, generally in less than 90 seconds. 

They build brand awareness, explain how the product works, and include a call to action.

Businesses use explainer videos for their homepage, landing pages, email campaigns, paid advertisements, sales outreach, and on social media. 

Think of the explainer video as your company’s elevator pitch. What experience does your product or service create for your customers? How are their lives transformed? 

An explainer video succinctly illustrates the value proposition of your product. It answers ‘why?’ — instead of focusing on features (the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of your product). 

For this reason, explainer videos more easily persuade consumers by presenting the ‘before’ and ‘after’ transformation they will experience with your product or service.

The Benefits of Explainer Videos

Video is one of the most powerful marketing strategies a company can use to build awareness and sell products or services. Explainer videos inherit and amplify these benefits.

• Landing pages with embedded video get 86% more conversions than text-only pages. 
• In a survey of nearly 600, 96% of people said they have watched an explainer video to learn about a product or service.
• 66% of people prefer to learn about a product or service by watching a short video. 
• Adding video to a campaign increases conversions by 34%.
• 52% of marketers cite that video produces the highest ROI for content.
• Viewers retain 95% of a message when conveyed by video, compared to 10% when read in text. 

Types of Explainer Videos

There are three major types of explainer videos: live-action, animation, and screencast. When choosing the type of video to create for your brand, consider which type will showcase your product best. 

Note: Alternatively, you can combine animation and live-action for the best of both worlds. We did this at SproutVideo to introduce our hosted video websites!

1. Live-Action Explainer Videos

Live-action videos use actual footage and are generally more expensive to create. Producing a live-action explainer video can require hiring actors and crew, choosing a location, shooting the footage, editing, and more. Some businesses choose to hire a video production company because of this complexity.

These types of videos tend to encourage more engagement than animated explainer videos. If brand awareness is a primary goal, producing a more significant return may be worth the added expense. Every company’s product or service is different, and live-action video may not be the most effective way to tell every story.

2. Screencast Explainer Videos

Screencast explainer videos highlight the user experience and how a product (like software) works. The screencast demonstration may incorporate animation or live-action footage to add versatility and personality to the video.

While this may be the most accessible type of explainer video to produce, it’s still important to focus on creating a high-quality result. 

3. Animated Explainer Videos

There are many types of animations an explainer video might utilize: motion graphics, 3D, 2D, and even whiteboard animation. Depending on the animation style, this can be a professional yet low-cost option for creating an explainer video. 

For some brands (like the Grammarly video featured below), combining live-action with on-screen animation helps tell the whole story. 

10 Best Explainer Video Examples

Writing a winning script and knowing your audience are the elements that matter most when creating a successful explainer video. To help spark inspiration for your brainstorm, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best explainer video examples. 

10. Slack

Creating a wordless explainer video is a challenge. But wordless videos can produce a genuinely interesting and versatile result for the right product. This Slack video, for example, relies on animation and music to tell its story. 

From the moment our main character wakes up, the speed of modern communication overwhelms them, and the music reflects this frantic pace. Yet when they open the Slack app, everything changes. 

The video illustrates how it feels to use Slack for communication. Slack recognizes that overwhelming communication is a common pain point for its users. Without a word of dialogue, this video promises viewers an emotional transformation if they use Slack. 

9. Amazon Go

The first Amazon Go store opened in Seattle in 2018. But a year prior, the concept of a cashierless store was unheard-of. Amazon needed to explain the idea to future potential customers. And they did a great job with this video by showcasing what it would be like to shop in an Amazon Go store.

The video also generated a lot of conversation, both about the technology and societal implications. While the success of these stores is still to be determined, this explainer video perfectly illustrates the vision Amazon has for cashierless shopping. 

8. Crazy Egg

Now 10 years old, this Crazy Egg explainer video introduced a lot of businesses to the idea of heat maps for increased conversions. It’s rare for a B2B marketing video to go viral, but this one did because it solves a major pain point. Businesses of all sizes can quickly relate to the frustrations outlined, and the video thoroughly showcases its solution. 

7. Grammarly

This Grammarly explainer video targets a specific segment of its audience: students. The video combines on-screen software previews with real-life student situations to show how the program helps students present their ideas professionally. 

It also showcases that schools support students using Grammarly to help with their workload. In this way, the ad uniquely advertises Grammarly to both students and universities that might offer discounts on or free use of premium accounts for students. 

6. Dissolve

Another B2B example is Dissolve’s award-winning explainer video, which went viral in 2014. The ad features various stock footage examples with a tongue-in-cheek voice-over originally published as a poem by Kendra Eash on McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. As the video concludes, we learn that all the footage is from Dissolve’s stock library. 

It’s arguably risky to poke fun at the people (i.e. marketers) who will buy your product, but Dissolve’s video pulls it off with flying colors. The video worked so well that the company launched a follow-up ‘Generic Millenial Ad’ a few years later, which also garnered significant success. 

5. Nest

Nest’s video showcases an understanding of its audience’s pain points and highlights the product’s features as a solution. The video is a 2D animation that includes real images of Nest’s products. The juxtaposition of these elements creates a viewing experience that is novel and more engaging than illustrations alone. The video is slightly longer than the average B2C explainer, but Nest uses that time to showcase the in-depth automation of a Nest-connected home. 

4. Ahrefs

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a confusing topic. Furthermore, it can be difficult to showcase the value of SEO in a way that business leaders will appreciate. The way Ahrefs’ explainer video tackles this challenge is exactly what makes it so impeccable. 

Within the first 15 seconds, the video showcases the power of SEO: increased traffic to your website equals more sales. The video continues by highlighting some of the specific aspects of SEO and how simple it is to improve the SEO of your company’s website with the software.

3. Dollar Shave Club

Personality is everything in this video. The production setup is minimal; filming occurs in the Dollar Shave Club offices and warehouse. Mike, the founder, moves through the building describing the product’s benefits while silliness ensues all around him. 

The video concludes with Mike, a bear (well, a person in a bear costume), and one of the warehouse employees having a dance party in front of the American flag. Ultimately, it’s a great example of combining entertainment (specifically, humor) and information to sell a product. Seven years after Dollar Shave Club released this video, it sold for $1 billion.

2. Lyft

Sometimes, the non-traditional approach wins. This video highlights the importance of explaining a product’s existence rather than showing off its features. Lyft ran its seven-minute short film of an explainer video as an advertisement, and thousands of people in the video’s comment section said it made them stop and watch instead of pressing ‘Skip Now’. 

1. Poo-Pourii

We’d be remiss not to include the best explainer video ever made. Poo-Pourii was already a successful product when this advertisement launched its brand awareness into the stratosphere. 

The video received tens of millions of views (currently 44 million). To capitalize on this success, the brand released multiple other ads with the same actor over the next few years. Poo-Pourii went from being a best-kept secret to one of the most popular air fresheners on the market. 

How to Make an Explainer Video (Step-by-Step)

Let’s walk through each step of making an explainer video. There is no correct way; remember who you’re communicating with and why your product or service is important. The best explainer video is sincere and effective at presenting your company’s solution to a problem. 

1. Determine Production Budget

Before you even brainstorm explainer video ideas, it’s essential to determine the budget. We broke down how we spent $4,000 creating our explainer video. But there are various options depending on what type of video you want to make and the money you can spend.

How Long Should an Explainer Video Be?

Video production costs are estimated per minute. The typical explainer video will be 60-90 seconds long, while B2B explainer videos tend to run a little longer at 2-3 minutes. Therefore, it’s essential to consider this aspect of creating your video when writing the script or getting quotes from production companies. 

How Much Do Explainer Videos Cost?

Companies with larger budgets may hire a production company to create the video. A production company works with you on the best way to highlight the most critical information about your product and make it stand out engagingly. 

The average cost per minute in the industry is $1,000-$10,000. However, this can significantly vary depending on the company, with the average quote hovering around $8,500 for a 60-second video.

Alternatively, a company may hire a professional animator or use its in-house video production team. While these alternatives present some lower-budget options, a company should expect to invest in its video to produce a return on that investment.

2. Write the Script (or Creative Brief)

The script sets the tone for the entire video. In the explainer video examples above, we saw many approaches. Some brands, like Match.com and Poo-Pourii, use shock value and humor to delight and surprise while selling their product or service. 

Lyft takes a different, emotional approach by catching viewers’ attention with music and good vibes, leading to a heart-warming and engaging story that keeps viewers watching for seven minutes. 

Other companies recognize the need to convey a pain point or problem directly. Ahrefs, for example, immediately starts the video with, “Here’s the problem…,” and quickly outlines its solution. On the opposite end, Dissolve showed off its product rather than discussing it. In this case, the product reveal at the end feels like another punchline within the funny video.

The script is a vital piece of the project to get right. Even if your company plans to produce the video in-house, consider hiring a professional copywriter to write the video script. 

What Should an Explainer Video Include?

Four main elements are needed to successfully convey your message when writing your explainer video script or outlining the creative brief. 

1. Illustrate the problem or pain point.
2. Showcase the solution: your product.
3. Explain further details and how it works.
4. Present a call to action.

Even if your video takes a non-traditional approach, like the 7-minute dialogue-free Lyft video, hit these four beats to create a compelling explainer video.

Combine a well-written script (even if it includes no words) with an insightful understanding of your customers’ pain points and your company’s inventive solution to create a successful video. 

3. Produce the Explainer Video

There are multiple options when producing an explainer video. Let’s consider the differences between a business that hires a production company versus one that creates its explainer video in-house.

Working with a Production Company

If you’re working with a production company, part of the pre-production process will include aligning on the creative vision and determining the steps to bring it to life. 

Once this process is complete, the production company may take 4-6 weeks to film or animate the video before producing a first draft. 

Once the project moves into the editing stage, it will be time to collaborate on music (unless already decided) and record a voice actor if needed. 

Live-Action In-House Videos

This stage will be more intensive for companies producing live-action in-house video. You must:

• Hire a director, actors, and film crew.
• Choose a location and ensure proper staging.
• Create a filming schedule and shoot the footage.
• Hire and record a voice actor (if needed).
• Edit the footage and add music.

There are many creative ways to stay on budget when producing your video. Check out our crash course on video production to learn more. 

Animated In-House Videos

Companies producing animated videos must choose the type of animation: 2D, 3D, motion graphics, whiteboard, etc. Whether working with an employee or hiring a freelancer, create a storyboard for the animated video before spending the money to have it animated. 

As with a live-action video, you may need to record a voice actor. You will also need to edit or hire a professional editor to add music to the video and ensure a quality final result. Read our guide on producing high-quality animation videos to learn more. 

4. Market Your Explainer Video

When your video is complete, it’s time to create and launch a marketing plan. Follow these three easy steps to launch your explainer video. 

1. Choose A Video Host

Where will you upload the video?

Many companies upload videos to YouTube for the general public and their video hosting platform. A video host allows a business to embed the video on its marketing website ad-free with customized branding, in-player calls-to-action, and post-play screens. Learn more about the marketing tools included with a SproutVideo account here.

2. Create Your Marketing Plan

Plan to share your new explainer video across marketing channels. Celebrate the launch of this video by debuting it to your audience on your: 

• Homepage or landing page
• Email newsletter
• Blog
• Social media 
• Community thread (i.e. Discord, Meta Group)
• Live stream event
• Paid advertisements 

Make a list of all the channels your business uses to communicate with both customers and your target audience. Choose a launch date and create marketing materials to celebrate the launch of this new explainer video. 

The most important part of this step is determining how you will direct traffic to this video. Using past and current data to estimate views and set conversion goals can be helpful. If your website is capable, consider performing an A/B test with and without the video. 

Note: When filming your video, consider whether you will crop the video for social media platforms. Read our article on optimizing videos for social sharing for helpful tips.

3. Launch Your Video Across Channels

When launch day arrives, it’s officially time to integrate the explainer video into your brand and website. Before launch, ensure your team has coordinated marketing materials and publishing times. Once published, it’s time to celebrate. 

It’s highly likely that many people worked hard and put a lot of effort and love into creating this video. Don’t be afraid to share that journey with your audience. Consider creating a behind-the-scenes (BTS) video or blog post to bring your audience into the experience. 

4. Measure Video Success 

An explainer video can provide value to your audience for years. For this reason, consider measuring the initial engagement boost you receive from launching your video across marketing channels. Compile this data within the first couple weeks of launch. 

Then, continue to periodically measure the success of the explainer video as part of your ongoing marketing plan. You might use a few different analytics tools to do this:

• Google Analytics: A tried-and-true way to review the success of your content, especially when embedding video on your website. 
• YouTube: This social media hosting platform provides basic analytic data for tracking general video engagement.
• Your video hosting platform: Detailed video analytics and data provide a lot of valuable information. Private video hosting platforms often include tools that make measuring the return on your investment easier. 

SproutVideo, for example, allows you to view the usual data (i.e. impressions, plays, watch time, engagement, and more). However, we also collect engagement data for every single video play. This data allows us to provide you with a heat map of video engagement to investigate what people watched, re-watched, or skipped.

Quick Tips for Explainer Videos

Looking for some quick advice? Here’s the TL;DR on how to make a great explainer video:

• Get to the point. Present your product’s main value proposition within the video’s first 30-45 seconds. 
• Focus on the value proposition. What is the ‘why’ behind your product or service? Showcase the benefits and transformation rather than features (in most cases).
• Invest in the explainer video. This video is the most valuable content asset at the top of your sales funnel. Produce a professional product to see a return on investment. 
• Launch across marketing channels. Include an explainer video on your homepage, sales pages, social media, newsletter, paid ads, and more. 
• Measure your ROI. A private video hosting platform, like SproutVideo, provides detailed information about video impressions, engagement, and much more.

The post The 10 Best Explainer Videos & How to Make One appeared first on SproutVideo.

However, one thing has stayed consistent this year: an outpouring of holiday-themed commercials from the world’s biggest brands. Some ignore our current situation completely, others dazzle with special effects, while others lean into the pandemic head-on to build their story. 

In this post, we’ll be reviewing a few that we believe have just the right amount of holiday spirit that you can use to inspire your own videos.  

Effects of the Pandemic

While video can often provide a welcome escape from our current realities, relatable stories will almost always hit home. This is exactly what Amazon is capitalizing on in their holiday spot, ‘The Show Must Go On.’ 

This concept works well because it dives headfirst into something that is on everyone’s mind and wraps a heartfelt story around it. Instead of focusing on pitching products, it focuses on the story of overcoming a tough situation. They also include an, oh, so subtle touch of ‘boy meets girl’ as a way of justifying the young gentlemen making an Amazon purchase of a spotlight. This little detail is great product placement because it also helps to complete the journey.

Garnering an emotional reaction from the viewer is generally a foolproof way to produce a hit when it comes to holiday videos, or even videos in general. Emotions are key to motivating viewers to take action, whether it’s share, comment, or buy. It doesn’t really matter what time of year it is. To learn more about using emotions in your videos, explore our post on the science behind emotional videos. 

The Power of the Right Spokesperson

While this might not be obtainable for most companies, bringing in a heavy-hitting celebrity or thought leader in your space is a great way to push your message and build trust in your product or brand. SodaStream went with a huge celebrity for their spot called ‘The Small Things’ by enlisting help from Snoop Dogg. 

Instead of pushing the narrative using a strictly SodaStream theme, they lean into the humor that surrounds Snoop Dogg’s personality. This ad certainly would not have worked with just anyone: Snoop Dogg is the star.  

Still, they packed a lot into this 60-second spot. They pitch the product, subtly address COVID-19, and promote environmental causes. While the latter may seem a bit of a stretch for a sparkling water company, it’s likely to resonate with environmentally conscious millennial consumers.  

This works well because many people absolutely love seeing a familiar face in advertising. Celebrity endorsements are one of the oldest and most used forms of advertising for the simple fact that people form deep connections with celebrities, even if they’ve never met them before. From this, it’s an easy jump to trust them when they are promoting a product or service. 

One thing to note is that the feeling goes both ways. If people love your spokesperson, the ad will resonate. However, if feelings change because of a scandal or misconduct, you can assume it’ll have a negative effect on your business. 

Going for Gold

Our next example takes elements of the Amazon and SodaStream advertisements above, and ups the ante. Xfinity addresses the struggles of 2020, and they have a familiar face as the lead in Steve Carrell playing Santa himself. “The Greatest Gift” puts Santa and his elves in our shoes, adjusting to one of the most bizarre years to date. 

Where this video holds its own is the hilarious and heartwarming parallels to our “new normal.” Zoom calls with co-workers, working from home, frustrations when rethinking business strategy: all things many of us can relate to. 

Seeing Santa, one of the most beloved characters of all time, deal with the stress of this year’s events humanizes him in a way that will bring a smile to your face. The relatable jokes pile up over the course of the video, and end on an endearing note that wraps this video up like a Christmas present. 

Unlike the example with Snoop Dogg and SodaStream, Steve Carrell isn’t the entirety of the video’s focus. His star power certainly enhances it, but he is just part of a bigger story that unfolds throughout. 

The length of this video is important to point out as well. Typically, advertisements are 30-60 seconds. This ad is over three minutes long. Instead of trying to shove the full story into a small box, Xfinity chooses to go for a longer-form ad to help the story unfold naturally. This allows plenty of time to build on jokes, as well as time to explore the depths of the problem they ultimately end up solving. 

Typically a lot of video creators may shy away from longer ads but this proves that with the right story, it may be worth the extra minutes. If you decide to go with a long-form holiday video, look at our post on ways to use it to generate multiple marketing assets to get the most out of your efforts.

Get Extremely Creative

In general, when it comes to luxury advertising, anything goes. This can result in some insanely unique advertisements. Burberry takes creative freedom to a new level with their video, ‘Singing In The Rain.’

This holiday video starts off very subtly, then explodes into a choreographed masterpiece. The stars of the show are four young dancers, draped head to toe in Burberry. They take to the streets, seamlessly dancing whilst playing off each other and interacting with enormous hail stones. 

The creative decisions of this film make it really stand out. For instance, remixing a familiar song helps set the wintry tone. Most of the video is shot from relatively close vantage points to build excitement while the dancers progress down the street. However, ending with some dramatic wide shots help bring the performance home in epic style. 

The lesson here is one that can be borrowed from many luxury advertisements: don’t be afraid to let the creative juices flow. This ad works so well because it mystifies the audience and creates a world of wonder. It really stands out from the crowd of other holiday videos because the concept is so artistic. While tried and true methods are important, thinking outside the box every now and then can really pay off. 

Connecting Your Video to a Bigger Initiative

Without a doubt, John Lewis is the holiday ad heavy-weight champ. Each year, they spend millions of dollars crafting a story that melts the hearts of those around the world. We even did an analysis of their previous holiday ads to highlight what can be learned from their past successes. This year is no different, with their ‘Give a Little Love’ spot already earning millions of views.

This video does a great job of spreading some holiday cheer whilst presenting a beautiful ad. They enlisted the help of nearly a dozen different designers and specialists to help create one of the most unique ads out there.

However, what they do better than most is expanding the concept into a full campaign. Earlier this year, John Lewis was unsure if they would even create their annual holiday ad, but then decided to use it as an opportunity to create awareness for their charity partners. Considering how many people are in need of some kind of assistance this year, the whole ad is essentially an awareness piece for their ‘Give a Little Love’ charity initiative. 

On a dedicated landing page, you can learn about all the ways John Lewis is giving back this year. The thoughtful campaign includes donations for every purchase at John Lewis, a number you can text to donate, physical installations in stores, a page to read about the video production process, and merchandise where all proceeds will be donated to families in need. Pushing the video and these messages through social media also helps round out the campaign and reach as many people as possible. 

By making their video part of a much greater whole, John Lewis really exemplifying the spirit of giving around the holidays. Think of ways you can tie your videos to larger initiatives, or other elements you can incorporate beyond video that will complete your campaign.

Which holiday ads have you seen that have been particularly heartwarming or outstanding? Let us know below. 

The post How Major Brands Crafted Holiday Videos in 2020 appeared first on SproutVideo.

In this post, we dissect the approaches of Salesforce, Mailchimp, Microsoft, and Google to find important takeaways for your own campaigns.

Leadership Lessons for Crisis Management

Many companies have been faced with significant crises this year, and navigating them has not been easy. Being in a leadership role can be especially stressful and trying when dealing with so much uncertainty.

Salesforce recognized this need, and launched a series of live videos with different thought leaders to provide inspiration to those in need of guidance. Their Leading Through Change: Helping Business Manage Through Crisis playlist contains dozens of in-depth, hour-long interviews that are packed with insights.

One favorite is an interview with Marriott to discuss how they adapted to a dramatic drop off in sales.

The travel industry has been badly hit by the pandemic downturn. Many changes were immediately required to ensure the health and safety of workers and travelers alike. Hearing how Marriott grappled with these changes directly from the source can provide companies in similar situations with a pathway forward out of crisis.

The Takeaway

Many companies are struggling with similar issues. Find the common threads to share messages that resonate.

The Human Aspect

If you’re stuck at home, staring at screens all day, it can be easy to lose sight of the human connections behind all the headlines. A few different outlets have tried to remedy that in different ways. One effective approach is to shine a light on stories from frontline workers or those impacted directly by the pandemic.

Mailchimp tackled this head-on in their Essentials series. They partnered with Vice to showcase small businesses and frontline workers who confront the realities of the pandemic on a daily basis. This hard-hitting series succeeds because of the authenticity that underpins the storytelling.

Most of the videos are told from a first-person perspective. Often, nothing is more powerful than hearing a story told by those who lived it.

The Takeaway

If you’re looking to tell someone’s story and have an emotional impact on viewers, have the subject narrate in their own words to let it unfold naturally.

Focus on Home Life

At this point, many of us are used to seeing coworkers in their homes on video chats. And of course, all the interruptions that home life can bring too.

Rather than turning away and pretending it’s not happening, some brands have found that inviting more viewers into the homes of their team members has helped foster a more human connection with audiences. Microsoft’s Home Cooked video series is a perfect example.

All the videos are filmed by Microsoft employees from their homes. The concept is very simple. The employees prepare a favorite recipe for viewers, and share a little about what it means to them. It’s a surprisingly soft touch from a technology giant like Microsoft.

The production value of the footage is very DIY. Each video appears to have been filmed by the employees preparing the recipes. Still, Microsoft ensured the videos come across as being part of the same series by using a few key touches in post-production.

First, they used a relatively tight edit to cut out any unnecessary segments and keep each video under ten minutes. Then, they added a consistent intro and used the same formatting for all text overlays throughout each video. Finally, they added subtle music tracks to help the videos feel more polished and professional. Our favorite is the recipe for empanadas, but they’re all very endearing.

The Takeaway

Consistent editing and text formats help user-generated videos feel more professional and on-brand. Of course, our guide to filming yourself solo can help those in need of some guidance.

Focus on the Future

With the fast pace of the news cycle, and few events to look forward to, it’s easy to forget that a new day is on the horizon. While it’s not exactly escapism, thinking about the future can be especially comforting at times like these. After all, there’s every reason to think it will all eventually be behind us.

In that context, Google decided to tell the stories of those who are very future-focused: the high school graduating class of 2020. Entitled Our dreams won’t wait, this series features a mix of video journals and professionally produced videos. It shares some of their experiences of the pandemic, as well as their hopes for the future.

Picking a path after high school is difficult and stressful under any circumstances. Still, you can hear the well-earned pride and hope in each person’s voice as they share what they’re looking forward to.

The page where Google shared these stories also features contextual mentions of different technologies that empower students as they embark on their next adventures. While it’s borderline sales-y, it doesn’t feel totally out of place. After all, remote education would not be possible without technology. Google is behind many of the tools teachers currently rely on.

The experiences of the young adults feel very universal, while their individuality still shines through. By adding home video journals from the students, Google’s storytelling comes across as very authentic. This is especially key because of the product plugs. Looking to the future can help give people hope and aspiration when they sorely need it.

The Takeaway

If you can find an angle that fits, future-focused content can help audiences stay positive and find something to look forward to.

How has your video marketing changed over the course of 2020? Did you try anything new?

The post How Major Tech Brands Responded to the Pandemic with Video appeared first on SproutVideo.

Live streaming a company event is easier than you think, and can even save money compared to in-person meetings. It’s an important technological investment to make to future-proof your company and to ensure your entire workforce can participate, regardless of their location. Here are the important steps to take, and the technical resources you’ll need to live stream your next event.

Online Company Event Planning

Online events turn regular event planning on its head. Rather than bringing everyone to a particular location or venue, you’re bringing the event to them. The key for corporate events is to do so securely while ensuring all stakeholders have the access they need.

1. Selecting a Location

The location is really about where you’re sharing your video. Your event landing page could be just one video, or it could be an entire website containing multiple broadcasts. It all depends on the nature of your event. 

A suitable location for sharing your event could be on your existing website, company intranet, or a landing page or microsite hosted by a third party. Each option has implications for video privacy and viewer access.

Sharing On Your Website or Intranet

If your audience is exclusively made up of employees with access to your company’s intranet, or a secure logged-in area of your website, embedding your live streams is likely the way to go. That way, your attendees would simply log into their employee portal to view the event videos. 

Many internal company events cover proprietary information that must be kept under wraps. While publishing your content in an intranet will limit your audience to existing employees, there are extra steps you can take to ensure the video embed code can’t be shared beyond your intranet, and that the videos will only load for employees on approved connections.

For instance, a domain whitelist enables you to specify the websites where your videos can load and play back. If someone attempts to share the video embed code on another site, it won’t work. Signed embed codes are a similar, more technically advanced option.

For even more security, you can restrict access to a specific IP address or a range of IP addresses. In other words, if the event is only for people connected to a VPN or company IP, this doubles down on security and ensures anyone on an unapproved connection will not be able to load the event video. 

Third-Party Landing Page or Microsite

If you need to allow people outside your organization to access your videos, you may need to consider sharing your broadcast outside your intranet or your website. In that case, you’ll want to explore third party hosting options for sharing your event.

For instance, SproutVideo offers video websites that support single sign-on, secure viewer logins, or site-wide passwords. Depending on the level of security your event requires, any of those privacy options could be a good fit.

2. Attendees

For attendees, think through the entire online event flow. It might be as simple as sending a link to your whole team, or you may want to create a specific list for the event, or ask attendees to register.

If your event is for employees only, and you already have your list, great. Otherwise, you may need to create a landing page with a registration form to build your list.

Once you have your list of attendees, they need to know the usual key event details, including the start time, run time, speakers, topics, and the URL where the video will be shared. Sometimes that information is included on the event landing page or microsite, but it can also be shared in a calendar invite, email, or PDF as well.

You may also want to provide guidance on internet speed requirements or browser recommendations if applicable. Note that a professional video hosting platform will ensure browser compatibility, and automatically adapt streaming for viewers’ connection speeds, so this is unlikely to impact you. Finally, if your company event requires any software to be downloaded and installed to view, getting attendees to handle it ahead of time is ideal.

3. Presenters

For presenters, while you don’t have to consider travel needs, you do have to think about their technology needs in order to participate in the event. Some people may need cameras, microphones, tripods, or even a loaner laptop. Due to inventory shortages and extended shipping times, the earlier you can assess the equipment needed, the better.

If you’re not sure of the exact gear to use, we shared the details of the camera equipment we used for our own live stream, and we have guides to cameras, microphones, and lights in our “How To Video” series.

If presenters aren’t able to speak live during the event itself, you can still stream pre-recorded video as part of a live broadcast. Ask anyone unable to make the main event to film themselves ahead of time. For certain important messages, this might even be preferable to allow for editing and higher production value.

Also, if your on-camera talent has to set up by themselves, be sure to share our guide to filming yourself solo with them. It contains tips for framing your shot, lighting, and delivering lines on camera while working solo.

4. Scheduling

Just like in-person events, scheduling should be one of the top priorities when it comes to planning your online event. You and your team will want to make a concrete schedule you can turn to throughout the planning, execution, and post-event stages. 

Typically, this would include pre-launch communications, the event itself, deliverables, post-event communications, and more. Especially with a primarily remote workforce, a solid schedule will keep everyone coordinated and on track. 

If possible, make time for several practice rounds with your presenters to fix any flaws in their broadcasting setup ahead of time. The more run-throughs you can squeeze in, the more smoothly it will go on the big day.

5. The Main Event

Now that you have your location, attendees, and presenters squared away, it’s time to launch your company event.

To go live, you need the video and audio feeds from the presenters, encoding software to allow you to mix in the different video sources, and a video hosting platform that supports live streaming.

With SproutVideo, you’d first set up your video sources in the encoding software of your choice (a popular one is OBS, but there are many others). Then, in the SproutVideo platform, create a new live stream and configure its settings for embedding or for sharing on a SproutVideo landing page. Next, add your SproutVideo stream key and RTMP URL to your encoding software settings.

Finally, once your live stream player is published and shared with attendees, you’re ready to go live. It’s really that simple.

We have guides with detailed instructions on creating a live stream, using a switcher, and a behind-the-scenes example from our own live stream with more than one presenter if you want to take things further.

6. Post Event

When it’s all said and done, you’ll need to sit down and go over how the whole thing went. Usually, a meeting with event organizers can be really helpful. This is intended to dissect and investigate what went wrong, what went right, and how you can improve performance going forward.

Another important post-event practice is to survey attendees and presenters for feedback on their experience. It will help you pinpoint any issues your audience or speakers encountered, and identify areas for improvement for next time. We use Typeform, and there are plenty of other survey tools out there, but this could be as simple as emailing a couple questions to everyone. The important part is to be sure to ask.

In addition to reviewing the event itself, you’ll want to take a look at the numbers for how the video performed during the broadcast. With SproutVideo, you not only get real-time reporting during your broadcast, but you’ll also get analytics and engagement metrics from the stream immediately afterward.

Finally, if anyone missed the event live, share the recording with attendees so they can review it as needed. If any editing is required, you can download the recorded live stream, and replace it with the edited version when ready without needing to share a new link or update the embed code.

Switching from an in-person event to a virtual live event isn’t quite as complicated as it may seem on paper. We’d love to hear how it’s going if you’re making the leap to live streaming! Share your tips in the comments below.

The post How to Live Stream Your Next Company Event appeared first on SproutVideo.

1. Skipping the Technical Side of SEO

Video sitemaps, metadata, and structured data are essential for search engines to locate and index your video content correctly. Video is a unique content type that search engines can’t scan and read like text, or increasingly, images.

If you don’t take the time to update your page with the right metadata or create a video sitemap, you risk missing out on many of the video SEO benefits we’ve laid out in this article.

2. Multiple Videos Per Page

You might be thinking, “Well, if one video is great for SEO, why not add more?” 

More video does not necessarily equal more organic traffic to your page. In fact, if you have lots of videos on the page, it can have the opposite effect.

Search engines will usually only highlight the first video on your page in search results. Therefore, adding more videos to the page will not help your website stand out to people conducting searches online.

Also, if you have multiple videos, you risk slowing down your page. To be clear, you would have to have dozens of videos for this to be a significant page load speed factor, but it is something to keep in mind nonetheless.

If you’re looking to add that much video content, the focus of the page comes into question. Are you really just addressing one topic? The site visitor experience will suffer if your page is sprawling and disorganized, and you’ll see your bounce rate go up.

You are likely better off creating dedicated pages for each topic than trying to cram it all into one massive page. That way, each video can be indexed correctly against the most relevant search terms.

3. Adding Low-Quality Video

While adding video is almost always a plus for SEO, that won’t hold true if you don’t invest in your video content. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend a fortune on every video. It’s very possible to make a compelling video without a large budget. 

What it really means is taking the time to think through your message and goals for the video. Who is the intended audience? What do you want them to walk away with?

Ensuring your answers to those questions are crystal clear will help you produce quality, engaging how-to content for viewers.

Of course, production value does count. For tips on improving your videos, check out our How To Video series.

4. Skimping on Surrounding Text

While it’d be nice to be able to just share a video on your blog with little to no text, and still rank for search terms, that’s pretty unlikely. The surrounding content is very important to your overall SEO profile.

Your page should be descriptive and include relevant content that helps visitors understand the topic you’re addressing. Especially for how-to videos, visitors should be able to follow all the steps in the video without actually watching it.

Why? There are several reasons. Everyone has different learning styles. Some people may not want to watch any videos at all, and prefer to read instructions instead. By including written content as well as a video, you’re helping to ensure that everyone visiting your page will find it useful, not just those who choose to watch a video. This is key for earning shares and backlinks to your page.

In addition, you’re likely to improve your keyword density for related search terms when you add written content. That way, search engines will know your page is a thorough resource focused on a particular topic. In turn, that will increase your chances of ranking highly for your targeted keywords. 

5. Only Optimizing for Search Engines

At the end of the day, real human beings are the ones who will judge your content and deem it useful or forgettable, not Google. If you only optimize against search engine requirements for your page, you’re unlikely to wind up with an enjoyable user experience.

It’s true that SEO has become more human-centric in recent years. For example, the changes to standards for mobile, page load speeds, and pop-ups are all reflect and encourage a better user experience online. However, there is still a difference between what matters to people, and what matters to algorithms. 

Knowing your audience, and creating great content for them, is key to video marketing. The SEO should follow.

6. Creating Overly Similar Content

Maybe you really like a particular subject, a lot. That doesn’t mean you should flood the airwaves of the Internet with video after video on the same topic.

If it were up to Google, each page of your website would have one clear purpose, and be distinct from all your other pages. You should approach your video content in a similar manner. 

Each video you create for SEO purposes should be focused narrowly on answering a specific question. It should address a particular need of your audience.

If your content overlaps significantly, you run the risk of competing against yourself for backlinks and shares. Those remain important ranking factors for search results.

7. Assuming Video SEO is “One and Done”

For video SEO to be effective, the simple truth is that you can’t just create one video, put it on your homepage, and call it a day. It’s incredibly unlikely that you’ll move the needle in terms of organic traffic with just a single video. 

When done correctly, video SEO increases your visibility for targeted search terms. So, why stop at just one or two keywords? By implementing video more broadly into your marketing content, you’ll build significantly more organic traffic over time.

8. Only Sharing on YouTube

YouTube definitely has a role to play in video marketing. As a social network, it’s ideal for reaching a really large audience, whether through paid video ads or viral moments. 

However, when it comes to video SEO, YouTube can actually steal your thunder. While it’s free to use, YouTube makes you pay by branding the player, and actively driving traffic back to YouTube by showing ads or related videos before, during, or after your video plays. After putting lots of effort into optimizing your page for SEO, it’s a big mistake to use a player that is purposely designed to drive traffic off your site.

9. Not Actively Promoting Your Content

The beauty of organic traffic is that once you’ve earned it, it will continue to build over time at no extra cost out of pocket. However, the key takeaway here is that you do need to earn it.

Outreach is an essential part of search marketing. By engaging with other experts, thought leaders, and renowned resources online, you can build not just backlinks, but your network of expertise.

When done correctly, you’ll have more places to turn when you need a quote for an article, or help replacing a broken link.

10. Ignoring Images

Your video is unlikely to be the only media on the page. The header image, your video’s poster frame, and any other images that help break up the content and enhance the user’s experience shouldn’t be overlooked.

While it’s important to include images for the reasons above, adjusting your alt text is highly recommended as well. Alt text, or alternative text, is an attribute applied within the <img> HTML code and is used to describe the contents of the image. When done correctly, this improves the chances of your images appearing in search results, which ultimately improves the page’s SEO ranking.

SEO can be the gift that keeps on giving when all the proper steps are taken. If you have any additional tips and tricks on maximizing the effects of video SEO, let us know in the comments below.

The post Ten Common Video SEO Pitfalls to Avoid appeared first on SproutVideo.

Today, we’re cutting through the noise to look at a proven, evergreen method for driving organic traffic to your site that you can easily replicate for your company. It’s all about how-to video content. Here’s a deep-dive into why it’s such an effective SEO strategy, and how to use it to attract your target audience.

Why ‘How To’ Video Content Works So Well For SEO

The “why” is truly simple. The first thing people tend to do when they don’t know how to tackle a problem is to search for an answer online. By providing those answers, you can attract organic traffic to your site.

This strategy has a lot of appeal. For starters, when offering solutions, you can plug relevant products and services. And, you not only have the opportunity to improve your brand recognition, you can position yourself as a thought leader to boot. Finally, by solving an issue for your audience, you’re providing value, which improves brand affinity and helps establish your website as a useful resource online. 

Why Adding Video Boosts This Strategy

You might be thinking that you could just write out answers in a text-based article and call it a day. However, adding video provides specific SEO benefits that you would otherwise miss out on.

Video Helps With Onsite SEO

Searches that begin with “how to…” signal a specific type of search intent. A search engine choosing which content to deliver for that type of query will be looking for certain attributes in the results.

A thorough, structured article that fully answers the targeted question is definitely a cornerstone of this strategy. If you also include multimedia, your page stands a better chance of being ranked highly by search engines. Adding video indicates that your page is high quality and is likely to be more useful to visitors than pages without video content. 

Including video also enables you to enhance your keyword strategy by optimizing all the video metadata on the page. That will help improve your keyword density and overall relevancy to your targeted keyword phrases.

And, a video sitemap can help your page get indexed against specific search terms. It also increases the likelihood your site will appear in multiple search listing tabs for a query (example below).

While video metadata and sitemaps sound very technical, here is a video guide that shows just how easy it is to set them up using SproutVideo’s built-in SEO tools:

Finally, video also helps improve average time on page, which sends a signal back to search engines that visitors are finding useful information there. By providing engaging video content, you’re reducing the chances they’ll quickly scan your article sections and bounce.

From our own blog, of our top twenty-five articles for organic traffic, nine include original video content. The average time on page is 17% higher on average for those articles.

Video Helps With Offsite SEO

A solid backlink strategy is an essential part of growing your organic traffic. Video content can help with that because it is highly shareable. It adds an engaging, personal touch and boosts the perceived value of your page.

If your article and video are high quality, you’re more likely to earn backlinks to your content because other websites will link to it as a resource in their own articles. Of course, outreach is always recommended as part of your backlink campaign efforts.

Video Helps Your Search Visibility

Of course, the number one goal is to appear at the top of the first page out of all results on Google. However, using multimedia in your content helps improve your visibility beyond page one.

Here’s an example from our own blog, where we are currently ranked in the number two spot for “studio lighting best practices” in the All Results tab in Google:

However, if you click over to the Videos tab, we are in the number one spot:

And we’re also ranked number one for the image results as well:

This example shows that by adding rich content to your article, you can improve the overall visibility of your website across the different types of search results. In turn, that increases the chances someone will click through to your website.

So how can you get this to work for your website? The trick is knowing which questions to answer, and doing it in a way that stands out from the crowd of other answers.

Which How To’s Are Right For You?

There are endless options for the types of questions you could answer for your audience. So how do you know which are worth spending your time on?

It’s important to pick a subject that is closely related to your business. It’ll be easier to grow leads and sales from that traffic if your site visitors are ultimately looking for answers related to something you offer.

Inspiration can come from many places. Check your customer support channels to see what types of pre-sales or implementation questions people have before signing up. Or, look at competitors and thought leaders in your space to see which subjects they’re addressing. Events and conferences can also provide ideas. Check the topics of keynotes to see what’s top of mind for industry experts.

Once you’ve got some ideas, there are a few key factors you have to consider when planning your video SEO strategy. First up is your authority on the topic, next is search volume and relevancy to your target audience, then the search intent of the user, and finally, your competition.

Authority

When deciding which results to show on the first page, Google and other search engines try to determine which sites can be considered an authority on a given topic. In this context, authority is another word for expert, or thought leader.

It’s important to play to your strengths. If your company is uniquely positioned as an authority on a subject, even if it’s fairly specific, you can attract a lot of organic traffic by focusing on that niche.

If you’re just starting out, you can build authority by publishing consistently on a given subject, and earning backlinks from other websites with content on the same topic. Featuring or linking out to other experts and high authority websites is another tactic to try.

There are very few shortcuts to building authority. Usually, it just takes time and sustained effort.

Volume and Relevancy

The next factor to consider is the search volume for your target key phrases, and their relevancy to your audience. The goal is to ensure you’ll actually hit your mark when producing your content. After all, if your area of expertise is not relevant to your target audience, or is something hardly anyone searches for online, it won’t be worth producing videos about it.

Usually, it’s a bit of a trade off. Typically, you’ll find that search volume is lower for “long tail” and highly specific keywords, but the relevancy will be high for certain segments of your audience. Conversely, search volume will be higher for broader, shorter phrases, but the relevancy to your specific audience will be lower.

For example, searching for the term “home repair” will deliver very broad results online. In contrast, searching for “how to repair windows” will deliver much more targeted results. Although more people search for “home repair” in total, if you are selling window repair services, you’re much better off optimizing against the more narrow term to reach your target audience.

Ideally, you’ll identify a topic that fits your expertise, with sufficient search traffic from your targeted audience.

Search Intent

In the past few years, Google has changed up its algorithm significantly to reflect the ultimate goal of the user typing the query. Today, search intent is one of the biggest ranking factors for SEO. 

For example, if someone searches for a specific product, Google understands they are likely shopping or looking for reviews. If someone starts a search with “how to…” Google knows they are looking for guides and step-by-step articles. The results pages will reflect that. 

The key here is framing. How you frame your content around your chosen key phrases has to match the intent Google understands for that search. If there is a mismatch between the search intent and the type of page you’ve built, your chances of ranking are very low.

Basically, your blog post about your product is unlikely to rank for a search to buy that product. Your product landing page will rank instead. Your homepage is unlikely to rank for comparison research. And so on.

When researching your how-to topic, make sure your content is a close match to the intent of the search. You’re not necessarily trying to imitate the other results, just making sure your page will be a fit for that particular type of search. By focusing on the ultimate goal of the person you are trying to reach, you’ll be much more likely to get it right.

Competition

With SEO, your competition might not come from other companies you actively compete with for customers. It comes from other websites that have already published content on a subject that’s ranked highly by search engines.

When planning your content, start by searching the Internet using phrases your audience is likely to use when researching a question related to your niche. What does the first page of results look like? What kind of content is being displayed?

Ideally, you’re looking for results that indicate low competition for that particular key phrase. Low competition is usually evidenced by sites with low authority being ranked for the term, content that is inaccurate, outdated, or no longer being updated, or content that could easily be improved upon by a new or more thorough approach.

You can also use tools specifically built for this purpose to evaluate ranking competition for keywords. We use Ahrefs and Google Keyword Planner, but there are many other options out there. 

Although low competition is ideal, it’s somewhat rare for search terms that aren’t incredibly specific. Of course, you can successfully target high competition search terms with your video content. You just have to ensure you’re offering something better and differentiated compared to existing search results.

Where To Share

To maximize the benefits of your how-to video SEO strategy, you should share your video content on your own website. And, use a professional video hosting platform with built-in SEO tools to host and embed your videos. 

The best place for how-to video content is usually a blog or a knowledge base, but it could live elsewhere on your site. It really depends on the type of content you produce, and the layout of your website. Then, be sure to take these four steps for technical SEO.

1. Make sure the page on which you’re embedding video is indexable by Google and other search engines.
2. Update or create a video sitemap. This is where all the video metadata lives, and will make it easy for search engines to find it. 
3. Add any relevant open graph tags to encourage sharing and help with backlinks.
4. Use structured data to enhance how your content appears in search results.

To build on that last point, you can either follow the guidelines for structuring “how-to” content (if your article is a series of sequential steps to achieve a specific task) or for video (applies more generally to video content), whichever is a better fit.

We have a guide with seventeen video SEO best practices if you want to take things even further.

Measuring Success

Unless you have a perfect understanding of Google’s algorithm, you’re not always going to get this right (even Google doesn’t). Despite your best efforts, not all of your how-to content will rank as highly as you’d like. And, search trends can change over time. A post that doesn’t rank initially can suddenly start attracting a lot of traffic, while a popular one can fall out of favor.

The key to success is to get the fundamentals right, and make a sustained effort to improve over time. Track your results to see what is working, and where you can improve. 

Ideally, you’ll start to see patterns like this chart, taken from one of our own blog posts about color grading in Adobe Premiere Pro:

At first, this post did not attract much in the way of organic traffic. However, around October of 2019, it started to gain some traction. Finally, in February, right after we redesigned our blog, it really started to take off.

This illustrates why you can’t just publish one how-to and call it a day. If we’d only made this one post, we might not consider our strategy to be much of a success. However, by targeting multiple niche queries with compelling how-to video content, you can see how the organic traffic really starts to add up.

Have you had recent success with video SEO? Share your tips in the comments below, or ask questions to get expert advice!

The post Why How-To Video Content is SEO Gold appeared first on SproutVideo.

At the core of a durable business continuity plan is an effective communications strategy. Of course, it should include video. In a time of crisis, video provides the ability to communicate fully and with nuance, which is essential when so much is unknown. Here’s how to incorporate video into your continuity plan to prepare your business for anything.

What is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan is your company’s roadmap for maintaining productivity in the face of adverse events beyond your control. Usually, you only turn to a continuity plan when a serious disaster of some sort strikes. Think floods, pandemics, earthquakes, or even armed conflict.

It’s easy to assume you’ll figure things out when and if the time comes. However, it’s far more advisable to have a plan ready to go so you aren’t scrambling. 

A basic business continuity plan consists of guidelines for adjusting key business processes when everyday resources are not available. For instance, a solid plan should account for losing access to your office space; moving employees to remote work; postponing, rescheduling, or relocating major gatherings; reassigning roles if essential personnel are indisposed; managing supply chain disruptions; as well as many risks related to technology, software, and cyber crimes.

Why You Need Video

Beyond answering the basic question of, “how will work get done?”, your continuity plan should also address your communication strategy for when things are going belly up. 

Video is an essential tool for both fronts. For both internal and external purposes, video is the glue that can help hold an organization together and keep things moving forward.

Displaying Leadership

If you’re turning to your business continuity plan, you’re dealing with some sort of crisis. In times like these, strong leadership is essential. 

A faceless email can only do so much to reassure anxious coworkers. Seeing a familiar face, with the right tone of voice and nuanced delivery, can really enhance the impact of a message. 

Internal Communications

Regular messaging from executives can help align teams and keep employees focused on your company’s mission. Try to set a cadence you can maintain, assuming a busier-than-usual workload. 

This is a perfect opportunity to take stock of the situation, offer reassurances, and provide critical updates company-wide. 

To ensure your videos remain for employees only, video privacy features like single sign-on, IP address restriction, or requiring viewers to login are easy ways to control access. 

Public Relations Messaging

Remember, it’s not just your employees who might look to you for leadership. It’s also your customers, and potentially the general public. By displaying leadership in a crisis, you can help ensure others will think of your brand as reliable.

Customers will want to know whether your company will continue to provide goods and services going forward. If you anticipate disruptions of any kind, it’s best to be transparent since most customers will understand there are mitigating circumstances at play. Further, leaving people to wonder what’s happening when their order doesn’t ship or they can’t reach anyone on the phone will only make things worse.

If your company is taking special steps to help those in need during the crisis, video is the perfect way to explain what you’re doing, and encourage widespread sharing of your message. Video helps make dense information easier to digest, and people are more likely to share information if they have an emotional reaction to it.

To reach customers, embedding a video on your website or blog, or including a video in an email campaign is a great way to get the word out. To reach the general public, sharing your content on social media or in a press release are excellent options.

Reaching Remote Employees

In this day and age, not coming to the office is hardly a reason to stop working. However, there are challenges to remote work that video is uniquely suited to solve.

Video Resources

When you can’t just wander over to someone’s desk for help with a problem, you need somewhere else to turn. Creating video resources for employees to answer quick FAQs about key business processes, especially ones newly enacted to deal with changing circumstances, is essential to helping people adapt to the new reality.

If you are scrambling to put these resources together, our guide to making video with just a laptop might help. We also cover how to make a professional screencast in our How To Video series.

Once you have your content in place, create a video resource center by embedding video in your intranet, or by creating a secure video portal with a third party. For instance, SproutVideo’s websites offer single sign-on, password protection, and more privacy tools to ensure only employees can access this content.

Video Chats and Messages

While Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other professional messaging apps have displaced email significantly, it’s hard to replace face-to-face meetings in lots of circumstances. Video chats are essential when you can’t be in the same place at the same time and need to discuss something important.

The key to ensuring everything moves online smoothly in a crisis is already having a tool in place. Introducing new tools when teams are already dealing with extraordinary circumstances can lead to confusion and lost productivity.

Slack, Zoom, and Whereby are all popular choices for video chats. No matter which tool you use, setting an agenda, avoiding interruptions, and noting key takeaways and action items, are essential to keeping video chats productive.

Sometimes, you can’t even manage to schedule a video chat. However, video can still be used to share important messages with your team. For instance, providing feedback using a screen capture instead of typing it up could be more efficient. 

Online Events

In situations where large gatherings are no longer possible, conferences, big meetings, and similar events can be a headache and a half to cancel. Online video offers alternatives that can save the day.

Try to get recorded presentations from the participants to share, or use webinars or livestreams to showcase the presenters instead. You might not be able to get the whole lineup on camera, but hearing from some of the experts will still feel valuable to erstwhile attendees.

Failing that, our tips for leveraging video for public relations above should come in handy if the event needs to be delayed or canceled outright.

Putting it All Together

No matter where you are in your disaster recovery planning process, it’s never too late to make changes for the better. Review (or create) your plans today to identify the points at which video can be leveraged. Then, ensure the teams involved are aware of the communications strategy you’ve put in place, and that they have the resources they’ll need to produce and share video accordingly.

In trying times like these, we are here to help with any of your video questions, large or small. Share them in the comments below!

The post Business Continuity Plans: Why Video is Essential appeared first on SproutVideo.