Videos are a great medium to tell your story, engage your audience visually, and drive value for your business. It’s only when you have a great video hosting platform for your business goals; your video content will reap the benefits.
There is also a slight increase in the growing number of video hosting platforms as businesses have started to adopt video. They can be broadly categorized into two:
Now, let’s take a closer look at both of these options.
Traditional video hosting is best suited for businesses that are just starting with videos. YouTube and Vimeo come under traditional video hosting solutions. They offer only basic hosting like letting you embed videos anywhere and playback. But, when it comes to analytics, they are limited to video engagement stats (aggregate figures).
YouTube is the second largest search engine and the second most popular website in the world. So, there’s a little misconception when it comes to hosting videos on YouTube. Everyone thinks YouTube is mighty and that’s where hosting needs to be.
It is great for getting the maximum number of views. However, there are limitations when it comes to hosting your videos on YouTube.
You won’t be able to do player branding that leaves us with limited brand recognition. Also, you won’t be able to drive traffic back to your website. Out of the maximum reach you get, only a few people will click on your CTA to engage with your brand. It’s a null for lead generation.
It recommends videos automatically based on your profile watch history when your viewers complete watching the video. Since the recommendations are based on your individual history, YouTube is not the right place to host your business videos. Recommendations will distract your viewers from the actual goal.
Here’s a snap of it: I typed “How to troubleshoot customer queries with videos?” which is entirely business related and look at the recommendation I’ve got. It is not related to my current search query. Such recommendations based on personal watch history will distract the viewers. And that is the reason why YouTube is not for business conversions.
A lot of businesses use Vimeo to host their videos as it provides video player functionalities for free. Since it’s free, a lot of people leech off that free service which results in a reduced bandwidth for hosting.
Reduced bandwidth in Vimeo slows down the website loading time, resulting in reduced conversion rates.
“Even a One-Second Difference can make a 20% Change in Conversion Rates.”
There is also lower searchability and exposure in Vimeo than YouTube. Also, there are not many business integrations available. Even the Pro version of Vimeo has file size limits and is probably not the best option for business.
Businesses wanting to embrace video as an integral part of their marketing strategy should be looking at using well-equipped hosting platforms to meet their changing needs.
With new generation video hosting platforms, you can achieve the following business results.
I’ve listed only a few; you can derive tons of benefits by using the right hosting platform that suits your business needs.
Vidyard provides video hosting that focuses on individual viewer tracking, making it easy to measure precisely how viewers interact with video content. It has integrations with most marketing automation platforms (including Marketo, Eloqua, Hubspot, Pardot, and Act-On) and also with a host of Salesforce products.
Sometimes, Vidyard can have a lag in putting videos into emails. Also, the user experience could be a lot better because there is always a trouble for starters to find out where certain features are and how to activate them such as changing the color of a player, etc. You have to add some custom CSS to get the video to be responsive as well. You need time to get comfortable with the features and functions. Once you become comfortable with the software, it’s easy to use Vidyard.
The average starting price per customer is $1,500 per month. There’s also a $2,000 fee to activate the marketing automation integrations.
Source: The 50Wheel Video Solutions Directory
Hippo Video is an online video hosting and marketing platform, which can help you to create video content more efficiently online. Besides, it takes care of your entire marketing funnel from video creation, professional editing to hosting, lead generation, and tracking your video performance.
Package starts at $29 only. This plan is worth the features you get if you are getting started with videos. If you want to go advanced, you can choose the enterprise plan which is $99.
Hippo Video’s pricing is reasonable and affordable for businesses when compared to its relatively expensive competitors.
Brightcove’s services and technology has been growing with the industry changes, but its complicated interface has put them behind some of their more user-friendly competitors.
However, Brightcove excels at adaptive bitrate live streaming capabilities. It also provides Ad integration into your videos which help in monetization. Also, the player API allows you to integrate the Brightcove player into any CMS and customize it to play any media, not just Brightcove video.
Besides, most of Brightcove’s features are tech savvy so an average person won’t have the patience to learn how to implement these features. Sometimes even changing the color of a button in customizing the video becomes complicated.
Plan is based on package and video plays. Pricing is labeled on their website; you have to get in touch with the sales team to get your custom quote. However, it starts at $199 per month and generally requires an annual contract. A 30-day free trial is also available.
Wistia’s video hosting platform is similar to Vimeo’s but it focuses more on business users needs. It offers video analytics, including viewer history, demographics, and engagement stats. Also, it is integrable with the most popular marketing automation software platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot.
The player isn’t as striking as Vimeo’s because they chose reliable playability over aesthetic appeal. Video categories and SEO setup will be a bit confusing; you will have to learn them by trial and error. Wistia’s hosting platform is also significantly expensive for SMBs.
Pricing is based on video uploads, so even if you have shorter videos, you’ll have to pay. Also, you must have a paid account to customize the video player’s branding.
Pro Plan: Starts at $99 per month which includes only ten videos, each additional video is charged 25 cents more. CRM integrations are charged extra.
Advanced Plan: Custom pricing. Starts at $300 per month.
JW Player’s video hosting solution provides adaptive streaming experience on all devices. Plus, the JW Player supports live broadcasts with DVR, multitrack audio, 608 captions, ID3 metadata, and AES encryption. You can quickly and easily stream live events to your audience on any device, with tools seamlessly integrated into the JW Platform. Besides, simulcast to Facebook lives right from the JW Player dashboard. Many publishers and broadcasters can benefit from JW Player’s hosting platform.
Business plan starts at $50 per month, but there are a lot of feature limitations. If you want to get JW Player’s full feature set, you have to go for their enterprise custom plan which starts at $299 per year.
Kaltura is an open source video platform that provides media companies with advanced video management, publishing, and monetization tools to increase monetization and simplify their video operations. Enterprises use Kaltura’s video tools for boosting internal knowledge sharing, training, and collaboration, and for more effective marketing.
There is a lot of trial and error involved in learning how to use Kaltura effectively. To play Kaltura videos, you need to have Flash on your system. From all the reviews that I read about Kaltura’s hosting platform, it’s said that they lack in providing reliable customer support and is also expensive.
Package levels start at $499–$1,000 per month.
I hope this blog will help you choose the right video hosting and marketing platform for your business. If you have got any suggestions, share it with us in the comments below or tweet to @thehippovideo.
Looking for more video insights and inspiration? Read Donald Chan’s blog on how Hippo Video has helped transform his Digital Agency.
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Thanks for the details. I was looking for video hosting services for one'e of my contacts. I was planning to use youtube for the same. But here I can read the issues with youtube hosting. It doesn't look good except it is free. More professional hosting services like yours appears to be a good consideration. Thanks for this valuable info.