If your idea of “doing video” means having a YouTube channel, then you need to up your game. While a freemium player like YouTube can be an important part of an overall video strategy, it shouldn’t be the only part. We detail that and more in Forrester’s Vendor Landscape: Online Video Platforms For Sales And Marketing
 
Last year marked the first time that digital video outpaced every other online activity in time spent. It even eclipsed social media. If your customers are spending time with video, then you need to be there too. 
 
Online video platforms or OVPs used to serve media and broadcasting companies. OVPs took charge in streaming media assets online. They still do, but their roles have expanded and now they serve online sales and marketing operations, too.
 
Video is an important component in each step of the customer journey. Brand videos fit into the discover phase, while product demonstrations are important in the buy segment. User generated content and personalized videos fit into each stage of the process and OVPs support and enable them. 
Online video platforms or OVPs should be an essential part of your strategy because they support your efforts to:
 
  • Ingest and organize content. Uploading, organizing and serving video content are among some of the most basic features of an OVP. Robust tags and metadata can help surface the right content to the right viewer. An OVP can autocurate content based on tags. 
  • Automate distribution. Especially important in sales and marketing, an OVP can integrate with your customer relationship management systems and apply rules to follow up with customers appropriately. Maybe an email goes out to prospects when they watch more than 50% of a video. 
  • Execute adaptive streaming. Buffering is the time between when your customer presses play and when the video starts. A great video experience should include little to no buffering and OVPs can help deliver that. Once the video starts, adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming will deliver the best quality stream to all devices. 
  • Uncover trends through analytics. Video analytics are more than just how many people are watching. How are they engaging socially, when are they leaving, how long do they watch? Know what your customers are doing and then you can design content that serves them better. 
 
What OVP are you using and how are you using video? How did you select your OVP? Leave a comment below or talk to me on Twitter