People who engage in your live stream are 43% more likely to buy a premium product. Furthermore, research on student learning shows that live streaming is “highly effective” while boosting creativity and cooperation. 

However, businesses with specific goals need live streaming metrics to measure success and inform strategy improvements. Across departments — marketing, learning and development, operations — these analytics help determine ROI, meet compliance standards, and maintain security measures.

Welcome to our walk-through guide on live streaming metrics. Learn what each metric measures, why it’s important, and how to use the information to meet your goals.

Quick Look: Top Metrics to Review Performance

Quickly determine how a live stream performed with your audience. These metrics are helpful for evaluating attendance and engagement across use cases.

• Total Views: total number of viewing sessions during the broadcast
• Unique Visitors: amount of individual viewers
• Average Engagement Rate: percentage of live stream watched

Click on each metric above for in-depth information — or keep reading to find it in the full list of 15 metrics below.

Note: The metrics above are common across live streaming platforms. However, some of the metrics below are SproutVideo-specific.  

15 Live Stream Metrics to Measure Success

Live stream metrics are organized into three categories: 

• During the live stream (real-time analytics)
• After the broadcast ends (post-live stream metrics)
• Data for each viewing session (individual viewer data)

Click on any of the links above to jump to that section.

Real-Time Live Stream Analytics 

When evaluating the metrics below, higher numbers are generally favored and indicate that you successfully promoted the live stream to your audience. Additionally, more viewers equals more opportunities for people to engage and absorb your content. 

Private live streams are the exception. In this situation, use real-time analytics to ensure the audience size doesn’t exceed the intended audience. Monitoring this data helps detect security leaks during a live stream with limited access. 

Note: There is some overlap between the analytics measured in real-time and post-live stream. We discuss each metric in relation to real-time and post-live analytics when applicable below.

Monitor the following metrics during the live broadcast. These metrics are displayed directly below the live stream, so it’s easy to glance at the numbers while hosting live. 

1. Currently Watching

The number of viewers currently watching your live stream (AKA concurrent viewers). 

This metric monitors live viewing engagement. It lets you quickly see how many people are tuned in and engaging with your live stream. 

This information is most helpful when starting a live stream. It is common to begin a broadcast and wait until a minimum number of viewers have joined before launching into the prepared material. This metric helps you determine when you’ve reached that minimum.

If this number suddenly drops to zero, an issue likely occurred during the broadcast.

2. Peak Views

The highest number of concurrent viewers who join during the live stream. 

Peak views represent the highest number of viewers who simultaneously watched the live stream up to the current point in the broadcast . After your broadcast concludes, it represents the highest number of people who watched your live stream at any time.

Peak views help you measure audience engagement during the broadcast. As this number updates, it indicates whether or not your viewing audience is still growing. 

A high peak views count post-live stream suggests your content was engaging and attracted significant viewers. On the SproutVideo platform, you can use the analytics graph (pictured below) to quickly determine what part of the live stream attracted the most viewers.

Across multiple live streams, this information can guide you in tailoring your content to match the interests of your viewers better.

Note: Currently Watching viewers and Peak Views measure non-unique viewers, meaning if a user plays the live stream in two browser windows simultaneously, it will count as two viewers or views. 

3. Unique Visitors

The total unique viewers who watched your live stream during the broadcast. 

Like peak views, this information helps you compare live streams and determine what topics perform best with your audience. 

For example, a company is promoting a product launch, and 8,000 people register for the event. If 3,500 unique visitors attend (44%), it suggests significant interest in the product and successful marketing of the launch event. 

For private live streams, monitor unique visitors during the broadcast to ensure your security measures work as intended. 

4. Average Time Watched

The average amount of time viewers watch your live stream. 

This metric tracks how long viewers watch the live stream and displays the average time watched in hours, minutes, and seconds. 

If you notice the average time watched is low during the broadcast, you can employ more interactive techniques to reengage viewers and encourage longer viewing times. 

You can also use this information to create more engaging live streams: determine if new engagement strategies are effective across multiple live streams.

5. Live Chat Participation

Unlike the rest of the metrics on our list, chat participation is qualitative data. Therefore, you base your insights on audience feedback rather than objective data. 

Live chat creates a direct line of communication between you and the viewer during live streams. Direct interaction encourages audience participation and provides insights into their frequently asked questions. 

Use this information to align your content strategy with your most engaged audience. 

How to Add Chat to Your Live Stream

How Experts Turn Video Views Into Profit

Tired of videos that feel like a rigged carnival game? Discover expert strategies for turning video into a growth engine across any industry.

Get Real Video Results—Just Press Play

Post-Live Stream Analytics & Engagement Metrics

On the SproutVideo platform, post-live stream metrics are organized into two dashboards: Analytics and Engagement.

The Analytics dashboard provides an overview of how many people watched the live stream.

Analytics Dashboard on the SproutVideo Platform

The dashboard also includes graphs on the domains people watched from, what devices they used, and where in the world they tuned in from.

The Engagement dashboard features metrics on how many people engaged with your live stream and for how long; it also includes individual viewer data (more on this later).

Engagement Dashboard on the SproutVideo platform

Some overlap exists between real-time and post-live analytics. These are Peak Views, Unique Visitors, and Average Time Watched. Click on any of the metrics to review them above. We’ll discuss the other available metrics and how to use them below. 

6. Total Views

The total number of live stream views accumulated during the broadcast.

This information gives you a broad understanding of your audience’s interest in the live stream topic. A high view count suggests you successfully promoted the live stream to your audience, and it garnered enough interest for viewers to join live.

In this way, total views and unique visitors provide similar information. However, unique visitors will never exceed the total views (though they could be equal).  

When there is a significant difference between these numbers, it might suggest that a substantial portion of viewers left and returned to the live stream during the broadcast. 

However, it could also signal buffering or disconnection issues, a viewer switching devices, among other possibilities. Review individual session data by studying viewer behavior to create a more complete picture. 

7. Total Hours Watched

The total amount of time all viewers spent watching the live stream.

Higher total hours watched are generally associated with greater engagement. This information is better contextualized as the average engagement rate (discussed next). 

However, you can combine this information with individual session data to discover highly engaged audience members who spend more time watching your live stream than average. Heat maps make it easy to identify these viewers.  

8. Average Engagement Rate

The average percentage of the live stream viewers watched. 

The average engagement rate showcases the amount of your live stream that a single viewer generally watches. It’s one of the best metrics for determining audience engagement. 

The SproutVideo platform provides a graph that displays the average engagement rate at every point of your live stream. This graph is a hugely useful tool for determining what parts of your live stream are most interesting to viewers. 

Use this metric to determine what aspects of your live stream would benefit from additional engagement strategies and again to evaluate the success of those strategies.

9. Geographic Location

A map of every country where your live stream played. 

You can click each country from the world map on the SproutVideo platform to see specific regions where viewers watched your live stream.

Local businesses that market within a specific region and multi-branch companies that must communicate internally and privately often use this metric.

Geographic location is also a helpful metric when gathering customer insights for tailoring marketing campaigns and understanding your audience. 

Finally, geographic location is necessary to comply with state or federal regulations within relevant industries. Tracking geographic location is generally needed when ensuring your live stream reaches the correct audience.

10. Domains Where Viewed

Domains identify where your live stream was played on the internet. 

If you embed your live stream in multiple places, this metric is ideal for determining what channels generate views. 

Data on domains is also helpful when auditing security for private live streams: you can easily ensure only viewers from intended domains watched the live stream.

11. Device Type

Determine the device, browser, and operating system used to watch your live stream. 

This information provides insight into your audience’s viewing behavior and preferences, which is helpful when creating a marketing strategy. It can also inform how to optimize your live stream’s landing page.

On the SproutVideo platform, click on each device type to view more in-depth information.

Individual Viewer Engagement Data

Post-live stream analytics provides a bird’s-eye view of metrics for a specific live stream. Individual session data, on the other hand, provides data view-by-view.

There is some overlap between post-live analytics and individual session data. The difference between the data is whether the information pertains to the entire live stream or a single view. 

This overlapping information includes geographic location, domains where viewed, and the device type. Click on each metric to return to its section above. Check out the other available individual session metrics below.

12. Date Viewed & Time Stamp

The day the viewer watched your live stream and at what time (in your time zone).

This metric conveys when each viewer tuned into your live stream. The dates will be the same for any single live stream. 

This information is helpful for diligent record-keeping, especially in regulated industries.

13. Viewer Name with Total Live Streams Viewed (When Captured)

The names of viewers whose contact information has been tagged.

You can track specific viewers if their information has been captured or tagged. 

Log-in protection is a common way to do this. When the viewer watches a live stream after logging into their account, their name appears instead of “Unknown Viewer.”

Tagged viewers will also include a small box next to the name that indicates the total number of live streams the user has watched. 

Click on any individual session, including “Unknown Viewers,” to view all of the viewing sessions (across live streams and videos) recorded for that user, as well as their total time watched. 

The practical applications for this information are abundant. 

• Monitor participation in employee training and educational lectures. 
• Use the information to tailor or segment marketing campaigns. 
• Track individual viewers to ensure compliance in regulated industries. 

Note: When a live stream is viewed internally by a logged-in SproutVideo account user, the viewer session data will feature a small box that reads, “Internal.”

14. IP Address

The IP Address associated with each view of the live stream. 

IP addresses are collected to identify viewers and their location.

Track this information to audit the security of live streams while employing IP address whitelisting, which is a security measure that makes streaming content available only to viewers with approved IP addresses. 

15. Heat Map

A cool-to-warm visualization for individual viewer engagement data. 

At a glance, “heat spots” indicate where the viewer rewatched content. Rewatches indicate areas of greater interest or sections of information that are too dense to absorb the first watch. Portions of the live stream the viewer didn’t watch are white space.

This map also includes the percentage of the total live stream the viewer watched. This information allows you to determine how much of the live stream a viewer completed during any one session. 

Note: Download live stream data as a CSV for offline viewing and easy record management with the SproutVideo Forest plan — built for businesses and institutions. These downloadable reports are Live Stream Event Analytics, Engagement Data, and an Access Log (for log-in-protected live streams). 

5 Live Streaming Use Cases for Business + Metrics to Track

Effective live streaming starts with clear goals. Here are some common ways businesses use live streaming, alongside example goals and the metrics needed to evaluate success. 

Note: Click on each of the “Metrics to Evaluate Success” to learn more about it. 

1. Optimize customer journey & tailor marketing efforts

Goal: Create highly engaging live streams to encourage loyalty and interaction with the brand. Employ insights gained from highly engaged viewers in the brand’s overall marketing strategy.

Metrics to Evaluate Success: 

• Average engagement rate: Evaluate overall success by how much content viewers watched. Additionally, compare the engagement graph with the live stream’s content to identify successful aspects and areas for improvement. 
• Qualitative engagement data (i.e., live chat participation): Review participation to discover highly engaged individuals likely to build emotional investment with your brand.  
• Heat maps. Track individual viewer engagement to tailor marketing efforts or segment your audience based on topics of interest. 
• Domains Where Viewed: Determine what channels most effectively drive viewership to the live stream based on where viewers tune in. 

2. Influence purchasing decisions & increase activations

Goal: Engage leads by solving product-related problems to drive interest in company products or services. Track attendees’ post-live stream engagement with your website (i.e., shopping cart checkout, requesting a demo, subscribing to free resources, repeat purchase) to measure success.

Metrics to Evaluate Success: 

• Average Engagement Rate: Determine how much content average users watch to determine the significance of live stream engagement on purchasing decisions.
• Heat Maps: Discover highly invested contacts and gain insights into viewer content expectations; use this insight to improve future live stream engagement. 
• Viewer Name: Review engagement data for each session to see how the live stream influenced individual viewers. Tag users and compare these insights with your customer relationship manager (CRM). For unknown viewers, track the Viewer ID given (each viewer receives a unique Viewer ID).

3. Maintain compliance with regulatory requirements

Goal: Ensure compliance with regulations and data privacy standards in relevant industries (i.e., finance, healthcare, legal services.) Maintain records of compliance for specific users.

Metrics to Evaluate Success: 

• Viewer ID or Name: Track and review engagement data for each viewer to ensure all compliance materials are watched. Log-in protection (or Single Sign-On) through the SproutVideo platform is an easy way to do this. 
• Heat Maps: View engagement data for each viewing session visually. View all sessions for any single viewer to determine if the user started a live stream and finished it later. 
• Total Minutes Watched for an Individual Viewer: Track time input for compliance regulations that require certification or continuing education hours. Within individual viewer engagement data on the SproutVideo platform, click on the viewer to see the total minutes watched across both live streams and videos.

4. Onboard new hires and improve employee skills

Goal: Track employee or student engagement with educational materials to ensure proper training. Easily gain insights into participation and engagement for future improvements.

Metrics to Evaluate Success:  

• Viewer Name and Total Live Streams Viewed: Utilize tagging to assign viewer names to their Viewer ID (used to track sessions). Then, review session data for individual users to track engagement with live streams and completion rates. 
• Heat Maps: Use this information to determine if the user started and finished a live stream later and how much of the live stream they completed.
• Unique Visitors: Audit live stream security measures by reviewing the unique visitor metric. If this number exceeds the limited audience for a private live stream, investigate individual session data to determine the cause. 

5. Communicate across company teams privately and efficiently

Goal: Host secure live streams to communicate effectively across teams and multiple branches, inform shareholders, and collaborate on pre-launch content and marketing materials.

Metrics to Evaluate Success:  

• Unique Visitors: Ensure communications reach the intended amount of people. Investigate individual session data if the number exceeds the intended audience size for a private live stream. The SproutVideo platform identifies account users as “Internal,” making it easier to separate internal and external security breaches. 
• Average Engagement Rate: Evaluate how much live stream content viewers watched. This metric is essential for determining whether the audience received the knowledge and information from the live stream. 
• Geographic Location: Track viewer location to ensure communications reach all intended parties or branch locations. 

Note: SproutVideo accounts include security tools like password protection, login protection (including single sign-on), and whitelisting for domains, IP addresses, and geographic locations.

Ready to launch your live stream? Grab our 30-day truly free trial. Or learn more about live streaming with our other content:

• How to Build Your Own Live Streaming Website
• Private Live Stream: How to Host Exclusive Events Online
• Live Streams VS Webinars: 8 Key Differences

The post 15 Live Stream Metrics & How to Measure Success appeared first on SproutVideo.

It showcases the likeliness of videos increasing awareness, sales, and retention. Additionally, 98% of enterprise organizations credit video for better and faster employee training and improved internal communications.

However, video production is a scalability challenge for many companies and organizations because of their required resources. To address this challenge, optimize each video for viewer engagement and get the most out of your video budget.

We’ll cover ten strategies for increasing video engagement — try incorporating one or two of these ideas into your next video!

What is Video Engagement & Why Should I Measure It?

Video engagement measures how people interact with your videos. It’s one of the best ways to determine whether or not the intended audience is receiving your message. 

Commonly, video engagement is a key performance indicator (KPI) used by professionals to evaluate, measure, and improve the performance of video content. 

Here are four video engagement metrics to measure and what they reveal.

• Play Rate: how likely someone is to play your video. A high play rate percentage suggests the video grabs enough attention to encourage views. When low, consider optimizing your title, thumbnail, and whether the video aligns with the page topic.
• Average Engagement Rate: how much of the video engaged viewers. Along with its accompanying graph, this metric is useful for determining the percentage of video content watched and where viewers lose interest. 
• Heat Mapping: viewer engagement habits expressed on a cool-to-warm color scale. It visually represents what parts of the video a user watched, rewatched, and skipped over. 
• Individual Session Data: data on who viewed the video, from what device, and where. Every viewing session collects data. Use this data to tailor marketing efforts, audit secure video access, track user completion rates, and more.

For example, Learning & Development professionals will likely optimize videos for optimal information absorption and track individual completion rates. On the other hand, marketers might track the average engagement rate and incorporate CTAs to move leads down the funnel.

 Video Metrics: How to Measure, Evaluate, and Increase Engagement

10 Strategies for Improving Video Engagement

1. Understand Your Viewer’s Motivation

Viewer motivation has a measurable impact on video engagement. Internally motivated viewers produce higher engagement rates than those motivated by external rewards or consequences. 

• Internal motivation is when a viewer watches a video for enjoyment or to satisfy their curiosity.
• External motivation means the viewer is watching to gain something, such as impressing their new boss by seamlessly onboarding. 

For example, Notion is a fun productivity app built for individual customization. If a viewer is excited to learn how to use it, a 30-minute video on Setting Up Notion Step-by-Step is worth the time in the viewer’s mind. The inherent satisfaction they expect to receive will increase their engagement in the video when the value is delivered.

On the other hand, new hires engage with training videos to maintain employment and showcase their value to employers. They aren’t engaging with the video from an internal drive but rather an external desire to maintain good standing at work. 

For example, a video on Everything a New Employee Needs to Learn on Day One will be more engaging when split into six shorter five-minute videos rather than one long 30-minute segment.

Consider your audience and balance the length of your videos with

• the value of the information provided
• the viewer’s intrinsic motivation

In other words, you can inspire viewer engagement by appreciating what your audience finds valuable, insightful, and enjoyable.

2. Connect Emotionally with Viewers 

An emotionally connected audience generates 52% more value than a highly satisfied one. Empathize with your viewers to identify how to incorporate emotion into your videos. Consider the viewer’s pain points, questions, and knowledge gaps. Then, prepare viewers for the emotional ups and downs while providing calls to action.

For broad appeal, many brands use light-hearted emotions, such as surprise (like the Generic Brand Video by Dissolve) and humor (or this TrueCar welcome video).

However, incorporating heavier emotional tones like grief, loneliness, and struggle (such as LifeStraw’s thank you video) can be especially powerful when the emotion is transformed in the video. 

Here are examples of how you might use emotion and storytelling to drive engagement:

• Highlight or emphasize an external or internal conflict and showcase the resolution
• Use The Hero’s Journey to inform story beats and create a satisfying story
• Give the video (or main character) a goal: follow the journey to reward and share it
• Align video topic (or the character’s fears and desires) with those of your audience

You can incorporate storytelling elements in every type of business video to contextualize the content and build emotional investment in a product or service.

3. Add Subtitles or Captions

Viewers are 80% more likely to finish a video with subtitles. They also increase information absorption by enabling people to watch and read the content. Finally, subtitles are important for viewer accessibility.

 How to Add Subtitles to Your Videos Easily

4. Hook Viewers in the Opening or Introduction

Encourage engagement for the entire length of a video — whether it’s 15 seconds or 30 minutes — by centering, teasing, or jumping directly to the core valuable idea. 

Consider, “What about this topic is enticing, valuable, or entertaining?” Use the introduction to explain or illustrate the core idea helpfully or satisfactorily to the viewer. 

A video’s introduction should be concise and relative to the video’s length. Here are some examples of how to use the introduction to keep viewers watching:

• Discuss what they will learn and how it will unfold (i.e., a brief table of contents)
• Open with an engaging shot or sequence that teases or encompasses the core idea
• Expand on the title’s hook and contextualize the pay-off 
• Create a short skit that is relevant to the core idea of the video

Deliver on the promises of the video’s introduction to create viewer satisfaction.

5. Expand Video Reach with SEO 

When a viewer is looking for specific information and finds your video, they are more likely to engage actively. Organic discovery puts your content in front of people who are directly seeking it.

Learn how to rank in search with these video SEO best practices, then use this guide on video metadata to get started.

6. Use Sound, Visuals, and CTAs to Hold the Viewer’s Attention

Elevate your video with thoughtful sound design, cinematography, and actionable takeaways. Think of it this way: every movie and television show builds an emotional atmosphere to create an experience. Everything from the casting, script, and storyboard to the location, camera angles, and color grading focuses on building the right vibe. 

You may not have the resources or budget to mimic movie studios, but you can refine how you use sound, visual cues, and calls to action to bring dynamism to your videos.

Video creators commonly add onomatopoeia (i.e., “boing” or “ding”), b-roll video or gifs, background music, and on-screen text to maintain viewer attention. Utilize these ideas if they align with your brand and audience. Here are some other ideas for how you can use sound, visuals, and CTAs to engage and maintain viewer attention:

• Create effective calls to action by providing a resource or solving a problem
• Use sound and music to set pacing expectations for the viewer intentionally 
• Add supplemental visuals wherever relevant to stoke interest and expand learning
• Include on-screen presentation slides, whiteboard sketches, or screencasts
• Combine these elements into a consistent tone to build audience trust

Much like a stage play in a black box theatre, the possibilities are endless. It’s about what you do with the tools and skills you have while being open to trying new things.

7. Create Effective Thumbnails

Effective thumbnails increase the likelihood that a user will click on a video. Thumbnails can be a still image from the video, an eye-catching custom image with subtitle text, or even an 8-second animated gif pulled directly from the video (available on SproutVideo). 

Certain thumbnail elements, like faces and bright colors, lend to views. The end goal is to establish a brand-aligned look that consistently encourages clicks.

8. Optimize Videos for the Intended Distribution Channels

Where you embed or share a video greatly influences how you optimize it for engagement. A recruiting video, for example, will be different from a product demonstration, which is different from a social short (which also varies by platform). 

Yet you could repurpose elements of a recruiting video or product demonstration to share on Instagram or TikTok, lending to diverse content and added value. In other words, consider tailoring your videos to match each intended distribution channel. 

Our first episode in a three-part series on color grading.

If you plan to share a video across multiple platforms, consider creating separate versions of the same content to optimize engagement for each channel.

Making multiple marketing assets from a single video is not a new concept. Just like B2B video marketing has different best practices than video marketing for e-commerce, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to effectively repurpose content. In other words, don’t compare your audience to another. Find out what your audience values.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SproutVideo (@sproutvideo)

The condensed social media version of the long-form episode above.

Here are some examples of producing multiple versions of a video to tailor it for specific distribution channels:

• Share compelling 30-second or less clips from a longer-form video (i.e., promote a podcast episode by making several shorts from the most watched moments).
• Create a 2-minute, 1-minute, 30-second, and 15-second version of an advertisement and A/B test to determine what performs best in different situations. 
• Provide part of a paid online video course for free to generate interest in the course and build trust in the level of information provided.

 Four Secrets to Optimizing Video for Social Sharing

9. Include Interactive Elements for Deeper Learning

Quizzes, checklists, and discussion questions are examples of interactive elements that lead to improved information retention. Quizzes, for instance, improve information retention by 25%. 

Interestingly, interactive elements increase engagement in B2B and B2C scenarios. Lead generation, web traffic, sales, and referrals all increase alongside overall video engagement. 

Create interactive elements by considering the next steps your viewer needs to take. Provide solutions for the viewer with supplemental resources (such as a downloadable PDF summary) or tools for applying the knowledge learned (like a step-by-step checklist on what to do). 

You can also use interactive elements to direct viewer attention during or after a video with in-player CTAs and post-play screens.

Engaging Educational Videos Made Simple

For Ethan Anderson—Director of Product with NOLA Education—video engagement is the difference between student success and failure.

Watch: The Video Strategy That Delivers 95% Success

10. Edit, Refine, and Replace Videos Based on Engagement Data

So, you published a video on your website that didn’t perform as desired. Instead of returning to the drawing board, use video engagement metrics to determine what parts of the video aren’t resonating with viewers or where they lose interest. 

On the SproutVideo platform, the Engagement dashboard features a graph showing the percentage of viewers engaged with your video throughout its duration. The graph lets you pinpoint the parts of the video that people engage with most and where you’re losing them.

You can view the average engagement rate to determine how much of your video people watch. A low overall engagement rate suggests that viewers aren’t receiving the value intended from the content. 

Here are some ideas for evaluating the data to improve engagement:

• Look for spikes, which highlight areas with increased audience engagement or rewatches. Drop-offs highlight a significant decline in engagement or parts of the video viewers skipped. 
• Engagement above 100% indicate video rewatches. Rewatches highlight heightened interest or information too complex to absorb on the first watch.
• Play rate (impressions/views) tells how likely people are to click on your video. A new thumbnail, title, or video placement can improve a low play rate.

You can also review heat mapping data collected for every individual view session on the SproutVideo platform. Heat maps visually display what parts of your videos individual viewers watched and rewatched. This data is ideal for reviewing student or employee engagement and spotting sessions from viewers who shouldn’t have access. 

Once you’ve determined how to improve the video for increased engagement, you can easily replace the old version with the new one. SproutVideo preserves all historical analytics data.

Dissecting a Video That Nails Engagement

Content creators rely on engagement to generate income. While a business’s applications and goals may differ, organizations can incorporate engagement strategies from highly successful videos to elevate brand content. 

Take this video by YouTube creator Phil Edwards, for example. Phil combines many of the strategies above in his video production, resulting in a video that’s hard to stop watching.

Here are three ways the video above successfully employs engagement strategies:

1. The video opens with a skit related to the core idea.

2. Phil hooks the viewer by relating the trend to world history. He teases this information and circles back later.

3. Sound, visuals, and editing create dramatic effects throughout the video.

Any of these elements can be strategically incorporated into business videos. Consider your goals, review the data, and make informed choices to improve video engagement.

Video best practices, like trends, are in a constant state of change. Fight the urge to follow fluctuating advice.

Focus on what your audience craves from you. Doing so won’t just increase your video engagement — it’ll increase viewer satisfaction and your bottom line.

The post Video Engagement: 10 Strategies to Grab & Hold Viewer Attention appeared first on SproutVideo.

In the rush to create content and keep up with consumer expectations, it’s important to press pause and check that what you’re doing is actually working. In this post, we’ll show you different ways to tie revenue back to a specific video.

Why Track Revenue Per Video?

When it comes to the bottom line, revenue is the metric that counts. It allows you to clearly demonstrate the value your videos are providing to your business and marketing efforts.

This data can be used in numerous ways. For instance, you can evaluate video ROI, and set benchmarks for comparison, either to other videos or to other types of marketing collateral.

How to Analyze Revenue Per Video

There are several different approaches to calculating the financial impact of a specific video. The right method for your business depends primarily on how you’re sharing your videos.

Below, we’ve broken out the most common ways businesses leverage video as a revenue driver, with clear instructions for each.

Video On Marketing Website

Most websites have at least one video these days, but far fewer attempt to tie their video directly to revenue. Think explainer videos, testimonials, product features, and similar marketing videos. The accepted wisdom is that these types of videos help boost conversion rates, but it’s important to try to quantify their impact to ensure your content is actually effective.

The best approach for this type of video focuses on conversion rates. Ideally, you want to compare your website conversion rate with video to its performance without video, or with a different video.

Known as a/b testing, this type of comparison is designed to isolate variables and demonstrate the impact of a particular piece of content. You can devise this type of test in a few different ways.

Historical Data

While not the most accurate format for a test of this nature, looking at historical data can give you a sense of whether changes you made to your video are moving in the right direction. You’ll need a website analytics platform, like Google Analytics or similar, to conduct this analysis.

1. Navigate to a report that shows conversion rate data for your website. In Google Analytics, a good choice is the Channels report under All Traffic in the Acquisition section.
2. Select a time frame that includes your video on your website in its current format. Aim to include at least one month of data.
3. Select a traffic segment to focus on if you want to exclude certain segments from this analysis.
4. Use the variable drop down menu to select a Goal Conversion Rate. This is usually a custom goal that you’ve set up with your analytics platform. For example, it could be free trial signups, purchases, or form completions, etc.
5. Compare this time period to a previous period without video, or with a different video. You’re looking for an improvement in your conversion rate following the addition of your current video.

True A/B Test

If you have a website testing platform available, you can run an a/b test of the traffic on your site to directly compare a specific video against an alternative, or no video at all. Most platforms allow you to pick conversion rates as the metric to use to evaluate your test, and automatically calculate the significance of the result.

For example, VWO, Google Optimize, or Optimizely are all popular a/b testing platforms that support this kind of test. Note that this option might require the assistance of a developer to implement.

The general idea is the same no matter which platform you use for your a/b test. One variant in your test is your website or landing page with your current video. The other variant(s) would be the same exact page, but with a different video or no video at all (consider using an image instead).

Once you have your a/b test setup with the platform of your choice, you’ll have to wait for the data to roll in. You’re looking to see which performs best based on the conversion rate.

Tying Back to Revenue

A higher conversion rate means a higher percentage of your traffic is making a purchase, completing a form, or scheduling a call. If your goal metric is a purchase, the tie-in to revenue is straightforward.

For example, if the video resulted in a 10% conversion rate compared to a 5% conversion rate for the segment without video, all you need is the total traffic per segment, and your average order value to estimate the revenue boost from the addition of your video.

To illustrate, say you had 1,000 website visitors in each segment. The segment with the video converted at 10% whereas the segment with just an image converted at 5%. If your average order value is $50, the video segment will generate $5,000, while the non-video segment will generate only $2,500. Summing it up, the increase in revenue attributable to the video would be a total of $2,500 over the control group.

Video As A Product

If you’re selling video as your product, analyzing revenue generated by a particular video is usually fairly simple. Most e-commerce platforms report units sold per SKU, or similar data that make it clear how much of each product you sold.

If you’re selling subscriptions, you can simply tally up the total revenue generated by your subscribers in a given month, and divide by the total videos included in their subscriptions. For example, if your monthly subscriptions total $1,000 and you have 10 videos in your subscription plan, each video is generating $100 in revenue.

Alternatively, you could adjust this calculation according to the popularity of each video. This could be useful to evaluate which videos are keeping your subscribers engaged and more likely to renew. It can also help inform decisions about what types of videos to create for the future.

First, get the total number of plays for all videos in a month. Then, calculate the percentage of plays each video is responsible for. Finally, use the percentage of plays to calculate the share of revenue each video represents.

For example, say you have three videos and earned $1,000 in a month. One video is much more popular than the other two. Here’s what that might look like:

Video For Lead Generation

The right approach here depends on your business. There are two main ideas. You can calculate the value of each lead generated by each video, or you can track the full conversion pathway from lead to paying customer. The former is useful for forecasting, while the latter is more accurate.

Video can be used to capture leads in multiple ways. For starters, you can enable lead capture on a video, and send contact information straight to the marketing platform of your choice. Or, you can use a post-play screen to display a call-to-action, signup form, or link to a lead capture landing page.

Calculating Lead Value

One approach is to work backwards from your customer lifetime value. Simply multiple your customer lifetime value by your lead conversion rate.

For example, if you know your customer lifetime value is $500, and you convert leads to customers at a rate of 20%, the value of each lead would be $500 x 0.2 = $100 based on their likelihood to convert.

Another option is to calculate the value of a lead based on the revenue generated by closed leads. You can look at this data for a given period of time or from a particular source of leads.

For instance, if you converted 100 leads in a month and earned $10,000, each converted lead is worth $10,000 / 100 = $100. Then, to get the value of each lead (including those that didn’t convert), multiply your converted lead value by your lead conversion rate. Say those 100 closed leads represent 20% of your total number of leads (500) in a month. Each lead is therefore worth $100 x 0.2 = $20.

Tracking Full Conversion Pathway

In order to do this, you need to be able to identify the cohort of leads who signed up after watching a specific video. There are different ways to track leads in this manner, from using dedicated lead capture pages for each video, to flagging their contact record with viewing activity by using a marketing integration. The right method will depend on how you are generating leads.

No matter how you identify your cohort, the important takeaway here is to set it up from the get-go. It’s much easier to analyze your leads if you tracked them properly in the first place.

Tying Back To Revenue

If you’re basing your estimates on lead value, once you know the value of a lead, you can calculate total estimated revenue from your video. Simply multiply the number of leads generated by the value per lead. If you acquired 500 leads with your video as in our example above, and they’re each worth $20, you can estimate that video will generate 500 x $20 = $10,000.

If you’re tracking the full conversion pathway, you will have to wait for the actual data to roll in. Track each lead by source, and see if they convert to a customer. Then, tally up the total revenue generated by each video. If one video generated ten leads, and two eventually converted, simply add up the revenue for the two converted leads.

Dependable Data

Underpinning all of these calculations is reliable data. SproutVideo provides powerful marketing integrations on all subscription plans which are essential for lead capture and tracking. On top of that, our exportable reports, detailed analytics, and viewer engagement metrics can help you understand the value of video to your business.

Questions about leveraging your video data? Curious to see what video can do for your business? You can test out the tools we have to offer while on a 30 day free trial of our platform.

The post How to Tie Revenue to a Specific Video appeared first on SproutVideo.

While traction is primarily used in the context of early stage startups, it also applies to companies in any stage of development. For instance, when launching new product lines, rebranding, or continuing to expand at a healthy rate.

In this post, we’ll share video metrics that are helpful in measuring and improving traction for each stage of growth. These tips apply whether your company is barely more than a daydream, or already a well-established brand.

Stage I: Pre Product-Market Fit

Marc Andressen, who coined the term, defines product-market fit as, “being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” Once you’ve achieved product-market fit, your company should begin to take off.

Before your company reaches product-market fit, it is important to start tracking metrics to measure traction over time. That way, you can evaluate whether you should stay the course, or pivot.

Kickstarter is where many early stage companies get their start. Not surprisingly, many of them leverage video to get potential investors excited about their product. Consequently, it’s a great place to find brands making videos that can give them insights like these, such as CYCL’s successful campaign.

Using this example, let’s identify the video metrics that will help you to measure traction metrics:

Repeat Views

Average Video Engagement indicates which parts of your video get repeat views, and where your viewers drop off. It’s part of SproutVideo’s viewer engagement metrics reporting. What can this data tell you?

If a lot of viewers rewatch a particular segment, it could be because they don’t understand something and you should provide more information in the video, in another video, or on your website.

For example, CYCL does a stellar job of explaining why their product is needed and how it works. However, a legitimate concern of a cyclist watching their video might be, “Well, do these fit on my bicycle?” since not all bicycle handlebars are the same size.

If this was the case, CYCL might notice that a lot of viewers rewatch the part of the video that shows how the product fits onto bicycles starting at minute 1:08. It might be worth it to edit this video to be more explanatory about that aspect. They could also create additional content (video or otherwise) that addresses the concern.

Retention

If a viewer drops off – and especially if you notice many viewers dropping off around the same point in your video – it could be that they are bored or that your video is too long.

If you think it’s the former, try creating a new video with different information to see how it affects viewer engagement. For the latter, try breaking up your video into segments and creating a playlist. You could also test simply shortening your video.

Referrals or Word of Mouth

At this stage, and especially for newer brands, referrals are extremely valuable. New brands haven’t yet built the brand awareness or brand recognition that can make people automatically trust what they’re offering. However, it’s no secret that people tend to trust  recommendations from people they know.

Social sharing is already built into our player so that viewers can easily share your videos with their networks. You can also kick it up a notch by including a Post-Play Call-to-Action that encourages your viewer to share via social media or email.

Revenue

It’s possible in the pre product-market fit stage that your offering is not yet available and tracking revenue isn’t possible… or is it?

CYCL’s Winglight’s were not going to be available for another six months when they first shared their video on Kickstarter, but that didn’t stop them! They eventually raised twice the amount they’d hoped for prior to launching their product.

Using our Post-Play Call-to-Action feature, you can lead people straight to an pre-order page or form for your product. If you’re not comfortable doing that before you’re able to begin delivering on it, you can use the Post-Play Call-to-Action feature to encourage people to sign up for email updates and announcements so that they’re the first to know when your product is available.

Whatever you use it for, track the rate at which traffic and conversions from your Post-Play Call-to-Action grow over time.

Stage II: Growth Stage

The growth stage comes once your start-up has, well, started up, and is beginning to generate revenue from sales. It’s still vital to track as many metrics as possible to analyze traction and growth. You need to ensure that your consumer base is expanding and your business tactics are working effectively.

For example: Uber.

There are few cities worldwide that Uber doesn’t operate in. It has climbed to the top of efficient transportation across the United States. It’s safe to say Uber is no longer in the early stages of its development.

However, their earlier promotional videos, such the one above from early 2013, zero in on their mission statement, and introduce people to their goals for the business. At the time, the service was beginning to expand to other countries and gaining a lot of attention.

This type of video helps position the company for growth in new markets by explaining its value proposition. Notice that they address not just passengers, but drivers too.

Metrics to Track

All of the traction metrics we discussed in the pre product-market fit stage (repeat views and retention, referrals, and revenue) still apply in the Growth Stage. In addition, you also want to closely monitor Unique Impressions, Unique Views, and Viewer Location. All of this data is available in SproutVideo’s analytics reporting.

Seeing growth in Unique Impressions and Unique Views week over week means that more people are becoming aware of and are interested in your product. In other words, you’re gaining traction.

While not a growth metric on its own, Viewer Location trends can still provide you with valuable insights as your company expands to new markets.

For example, Uber might have noticed that a lot of traffic for their video was coming from a particular city that wasn’t previously on their radar. Looking at the data, it might be worth a second look.

Or, say Uber ran an on-the-ground marketing campaign in a particular location at the same time they launched this video. They could use use Viewer Location data to determine if that marketing effort drove traffic to their video. If it did, that on-the-ground marketing campaign might be worth replicating in other places.

Stage III: Revenue Generation Stage

As the name suggests, the revenue generation stage is the point at which your business is consistently turning over profit and steadily growing as a company. At this stage, you should focus on retaining existing customers while continuing to grow.

Metrics that matter in the revenue generation stage include acquisition costs, customer lifetime value, and churn rate. By accompanying these metrics with analytics data from your videos, you can get a clearer picture of what’s working.

A little company named Facebook comes to mind for this one.

Facebook is a great example of a big name company using a video campaign to measure business traction while in the revenue generation stage. This April 2018 video was released worldwide in the interest of damage control after the recent Cambridge Analytica scandals.

The video serves multiple purposes. It reassures the public that their data is safe, reminds them why they use the site, brings the purpose of the site back to its roots, and helps retain its user base. Facebook can consequently compare the analytics of the video – how many times it has been seen (and in which countries) – with the loss/rise of active account users.

By leveraging video data, you can better understand whether you are gaining or losing traction at different stages of your company’s growth. Now that you know some of the video metrics that are most useful for measuring traction, tell us what you’ll be monitoring in your next video. Let us know in the comments or on Twitter @sproutvideo!

The post How to Use Video Analytics to Measure Traction In Each Stage of Growth appeared first on SproutVideo.

For still others, it’s a matter of not knowing how to measure their video marketing return-on-investment. After all, if you can’t track it, how can you be sure you’re getting your money’s worth?

Today, we’re going to focus on this particular challenge by analyzing five different B2B video marketing goals, and looking at real world examples along the way.

Defining Success for B2B Video Campaigns

The right metrics will help you determine if your video campaign was successful or not, but you have to know what to track. The right pieces of data to pay attention to will be determined by your video marketing campaign goal and where it falls in your customer lifecycle. Video metrics you might look at include:

• Impressions: how many people visited the page where your video is located
• Plays: the total number of times your video has been viewed
• Play Rate: the percentage of website visitors that click play
• Engagement Rate: the percentage of a video that the viewer watched

For more nitty gritty details on these metrics, refer to our help documentation for our analytics and video engagement metrics.

Other important data points to track are more variable in how they’ll be tracked or calculated because they depend on how you’ve set up your campaign. For our purposes, you’ll likely want to pay attention to the following:

• Conversion Rate: the percentage of people that complete an intended action
• Social Shares: the number of times your video is shared on any given social network

Whatever your campaign goal, with clear data, you can evaluate your success.

Below, we share five common examples of B2B video marketing campaign goals. We’ve laid out related video ideas, as well as the metrics required to help you determine their efficacy.

Goal #1: Establish Your Brand as a Leader in Your Industry

Thought leadership campaigns are an excellent way to reach new audiences and to establish your brand as a trusted household name.

These particular campaigns are not really about immediately converting buyers. Instead, they’re focused on creating awareness and name recognition.

They also rely heavily on trust. Viewers need to have confidence your expertise, and authority on a topic.

Once your audience begins to trust and respect your brand, it will spill over to the products and services you offer. Ultimately, it will also result in more business. Here’s an example of how you can approach this with video.

Showcase Customer Challenges and Opportunities

Customers are often facing similar challenges when they seek the solution your business offers. On the surface, their problems might look really different. But, when you dissect the real issues at hand, there’s often a lot of commonality you can explore with targeted video content.

In a captivating and well-produced series of videos, Square, a payment processing solution for businesses, really sets the standard for this type of video. Here’s our favorite, but you can watch the other videos in this series here.

It’s emotional, it’s inspirational, and it’s extremely real. It also speaks directly to Square’s target audience – independent entrepreneurial business owners. After watching, you walk away thinking, “If they can do it, so can I!” And, what a powerful message that is.

By demonstrating that they truly understand the challenges their target market is facing, Square establishes trust and drives brand recognition with this engaging video series.

Metrics to Track

For awareness-focused campaigns, it’s all about building a trustworthy reputation as an industry leader. That means reach, and how viewers respond, will be key indicators of success.

To establish reach, look at the total number of impressions and plays your video received. You’ll also want to track social shares for this video.

In addition, if you’ve enabled commenting, look for emotional indicators in the language used in the comments. Are viewers happy? Sad? Angry? Understanding their reactions will help you know if your video hit the mark.

Goal #2: Generate New Leads

One of the most important functions of any marketing team is to generate qualified new leads for their sales team to pick and run with. Here are several ideas, and the corresponding metrics that will help you to determine whether your campaign is effective or not.

Gated Premium Content

Sometimes, your company has the luck, or budget, to make a truly spectacular piece of content. It might be an interview with an industry thought-leader, or an exclusive sneak peek at something. Either way, it’s heavy-hitting and can’t be found anywhere else.

Gating your video requires that viewers share their email address in order to view the video. Once you’ve captured that lead, you can send it straight to the marketing platform of your choice. From there, you can deploy targeted messaging to nudge your leads along in your sales funnel.

An Engaging Product Video

A product video is your opportunity to pitch your value proposition straight to a potential customer. If a customer watches your product video the whole way through, their level of interest and engagement is likely very high. It is therefore safe to assume that they’re very intrigued by your product, and would be amenable to contact from your sales team in order to learn more.

Importantly, product videos don’t have to be boring! Here’s a fun example from Zendesk about their customer support platform:

Zendesk skillfully uses humor to show off the importance of providing good customer support. By keeping their brand in the background, they make it all about the end result for the customer. After all, that’s what Zendesk’s customers care about the most!

To capitalize on your viewers’ interest, use a post-play screen to display a signup page, or to direct traffic to a sales page. Visitors might make a purchase on the spot, or enter contact information to get in touch with sales.

Metrics to Track

The key metrics to keep an eye on here are the engagement rate, and the conversion rate and ROI on your call-to-action.

The engagement rate will indicate how much of your video your viewers actually watched. The closer to 100%, the better.

The conversion rate calculation will vary a little depending on the action you’re asking viewers to take. The simplest way to calculate it is to take the number of people who took the action, and divide that number by the number of people who had the opportunity to do so. For instance, if 10 people visit your landing page, and 5 of them sign up for your email list, your conversion rate is 5/10 or 50%.

Evaluating ROI is more complex. If your CTA is to make a purchase, you’ll want to look at number of sales, average order value, and whether a customer is new or returning. If you’re just gathering leads, you can assign a value to each lead, and use that to calculate your ROI instead.

Goal #3: Re-engage Lost Leads

Nobody likes to lose a hard-earned lead, but it happens. Leads might leave their position and be replaced by new people you don’t know; they can end up on the wrong email list and unsubscribe; or they might simply become too busy and overwhelmed at work to respond to your offers.

Whatever the explanation, there’s no reason to be dismayed. A cold lead is better than getting a hard “NO.” After all, you still have an opportunity to win them over.

So what kind of video marketing campaigns are likely to be successful in re-engaging leads that have gone radio silent?

Product Releases and Updates

Use new products or updates to remind customers what they’re missing, and entice them to make a purchase. Events like these are exciting, and your video should reflect that.

For example, a few years ago, Apply built a whole campaign around the excitement of newness for the iPhone 6S.

It’s memorable, it’s hilarious, and, importantly, it’s shareable, even by non-techies who don’t obsess over every new feature. Don’t be afraid to tap into consumer holidays, humor, or even a sense of drama with your B2B videos.

Personalized Video

Personalized videos show your audience that the people who make up your organization are listening, understand their needs, want to provide them with solutions, and are thinking ahead on their behalf. This can go a long way in building customer rapport, and in being viewed as a trusted and reliable source for information.

After all, who doesn’t like to feel special?

Metrics to Track

Here, the engagement rate and conversion rate are helpful metrics. You might also use this campaign to drive social shares. After all, why not add new prospects to your funnel while re-engaging your existing leads?

Goal #4: Improve the Customer Experience.

Contrary to what some may think, video marketing still plays an important role once your lead becomes your customer. Retention can be as key to growth as new customer acquisition.

In order to keep your customers happy, you will want to keep them updated and engaged. Here are some ideas for using video to improve the customer experience.

Product Hacks and Tips

These videos serve to keep your customer in the loop about your current offering. It’s possible your existing customers could benefit from new features, or new ways your products can be used. Be sure to include helpful updates and offers that don’t always require them to spend more money.

For instance, Zendesk is often used by companies to handle email support, but they also have phone support options as well. This part of their product isn’t as well-known, but they’ve done a great job coming up with humorous content to advertise it.

By showing the other side of phone support, and highlighting the experience of the agent, Zendesk’s video highlights how ridiculous the average phone support call can be. It also speaks to their target audience because every company wants to provide good customer service over the phone.

Behind-the-Scenes Videos

Help your customer see you and your team as not just another vendor, but as a passionate team working hard to help them to be successful. Focus on showing them the ways you are helping them to stay ahead of their competition. Here’s our guide to making successful behind-the-scenes videos.

Customer Stories and Testimonials

Hearing from other customers can help create a sense of community. These videos can be used to highlight your offerings without coming across as too sales-y. We have some great tips for getting customer testimonials on camera.

Salesforce offers a wealth of examples. One of our favorites is the Amazon Web Services customer story.

Metrics to Track

Play rate and engagement rate will be helpful to you here. Pay attention to the engagement rate to better understand what matters most to them.

Goal #5: Shore Up Our Reputation

Crisis PR can benefit greatly from video marketing. Rather than rely on a press release or social media update about a serious issue that may affect your reputation and bottom-line, use video to start a dialogue with your online audience.

Direct Addresses From C-suite Executives

Acknowledge and apologize for the problem, and share next steps for solving it. While it can be painful to admit failure, videos like this provide reassurance to your audience and allow you to move forward.

For instance, British Airways suffered a major technical glitch that grounded planes and caused significant travel disruptions for people and businesses alike. The CEO of British Airways published a video on Twitter apologizing for the situation, and explaining how they were handling it.

pic.twitter.com/E7B5im0C09

— British Airways (@British_Airways) May 27, 2017

When the buck stops with you, it’s important for your customers to hear from you when things go wrong. British Airways gets bonus points for their direct, frank, and reassuring approach.

“How We Solved the Problem”

Release videos that show your team working hard, and explaining how you’re instituting practices to avoid similar issues in the future. These types of video are great to use in addition to the direct addresses from your executives because they provide proof of your commitment to improve. Put another way, seeing is believing.

Customer Testimonial Videos

Try featuring a client who discusses how they were affected by the problem. More importantly, showcase how your company went above and beyond to rectify it. Third-party accounts like this can be especially powerful.

Metrics to Track

Ideally, you want to reach as many affected customers as possible with your message. The metrics you will want to monitor are social reach, play rate and engagement rate.

As with any PR crisis, monitoring social media for consumer sentiment is very important. Try to respond directly to anyone having immediate issues, and direct others to resources that can help. Save the data analysis for an internal post-mortem, and focus on providing assistance in the moment.

The play rate and engagement rate will show you how many people actually received your message. You’ll especially want to use the engagement data to ensure your viewer makes it to the portion of the video that shows you’re making headway on resolving the issue, and whatever led up to it.

No matter your B2B marketing goal, or where it falls in the customer lifecycle, video can be the best tool at your disposal. Set clear goals, and track the relevant data to measure your success.

If you have questions, or are about to launch a new B2B campaign, we’d love to hear about it! Please share in the comments below.

The post How to Determine the Efficacy of B2B Video Campaigns appeared first on SproutVideo.

As a business that relies heavily of word-of-mouth and referrals, auto body shops in particular suffer from a lack of consumer education and transparency. What’s really happening to your car, possibly the most expensive thing you own, after you drop it off?

Video, a highly effective teaching tool, can help bring transparency to your business, and educate your customers. In this post, we’ve come up with impactful, engaging tips for using video to share your expertise and services.

Before you get started, spend time with your data.

If you don’t have time for questionnaires or guesswork, Google Analytics is THE place to learn about your customers. Once you know more about the demographics of your ‘best’ customers, you’ll be able to develop an effective content marketing strategy and apply it to video.

Who are your best customers? Look for those who spend the longest time on your website, and who book or buy online, if you provide these services.

Then, look at popular mechanical videos for inspiration on what fascinates viewers. Combine the specific needs of your audience, with a format that’s working well elsewhere, and you’ll have a winning concept on your hands.

Your research might even highlight large gaps in terms of potential customers who are not engaging with your service. Learn how to reach out to new customers with our blog How to Stay Relevant: Using Video to Reach a New Audience.

Too technical? Make it interesting and memorable using video.

People remember what they like. Let’s look at an imaginary customer, John. He has little interest in auto repair, and his vehicle is running just fine right now. Who will he contact when his car does break down? The auto body repair shop that made the hilarious but educational video he enjoyed watching. 

Of course, it’s important that viewers understand you and your team are experts. But, a video that focuses only on the inner workings of a carburetor might not have the mass appeal you’re seeking. 

Here’s where you can use video to entertain as well as educate. This could be as simple as a video showing your team quickly repairing a vehicle to allow a busy mother to collect her children on time from school. Make a video that’s memorable and interesting, and you will soon see your referrals growing.

Always be testing.

Working out what your audience will respond to is an art. The best way to understand which video works best is to carry out A/B testing.

You can test the title, the length, the voiceover artist, or even the font size. The list of things you can test is endless! For your auto body repair shop, you might find it useful to test the type of car your mechanics are working on (perhaps the audience might respond better to a particular brand), or the actor who is getting their vehicle repaired (would gender make a difference to viewers’ responses?). Find out more about A/B tests in our blog How to Maximize Engagement by A/B Testing Videos.   

Try a new video campaign every month.

If you offer a wide range of services, don’t try to shoehorn them into every single video. Instead, run a video campaign that focuses on one of your services each month. This is where you can show off your team’s expertise to viewers.

How-to videos are really popular. Tap into that online enthusiasm with a series of videos on basic car maintenance. The idea is to educate and inform consumers about the everyday things they can do to improve how their cars run. Not to show them how to take an engine apart!

There’s no reason to worry this could help potential customers repair their own vehicles rather than coming to you. The specialized equipment and experience required for actual car repair is clearly out of reach for the average person. Let’s be honest – it takes a trained professional to do a great job.

Make a feature of how you’re different.

If you’re located in a town where there’s a lot of competition, it’s even more important to ensure customers know how you’re differentiated. Use video to show how you’ve set yourself apart from the other auto body repair shops.

Do you offer a bilingual service? Perhaps you’ve just invested in super fast wifi in the waiting area. Maybe you offer a free shuttle service to nearby shops while customers’ cars are repaired. These features will translate well to video.

There’s nothing quite like a happy customer.

When it comes to showing new customers that your auto repair shop is the best, there’s nothing quite so persuasive as a video featuring a happy customer.

It can be difficult to find someone who is confident appearing on camera, so try approaching long-standing, loyal customers who will have plenty to share and have already developed a relationship with your business. Everything else you need to know about making an effective video testimonial is right here: How to Get Great Customer Testimonials on Camera!

Conclusion: Video helps you develop a relationship with your audience.

From the latest sports car to an older car that’s traveled many (many) miles, your customers treasure their vehicles. They will use the services of an auto body repair shop that they trust.

Video is an ideal medium to show that your shop is a hub of auto knowledge, filled with personable, trustworthy mechanics. It’s a way to build relationships, and ultimately, to build your business.

Is word-of-mouth providing enough referrals for your business? Do customers often have basic questions you wish they understood better before engaging with you?

If you’re a small business owner and are looking for actionable suggestions on using video to promote your organization, get in touch below or on Twitter. We’d love to help!

The post Video Marketing Lessons From Auto Body Repair Shops appeared first on SproutVideo.

In this blog post, we’re going to share tips on doing exactly that. We’ll walk you through how to define what your brand stands for using video; reflect your customers’ needs; and when and how to communicate with them using video.

(Re)Define your true voice

Do you have a sneaking suspicion your brand has lost its voice or become confused about what it stands for? Or, you might feel that you simply don’t know how to find and connect with a new audience.

The good news is that with a little thinking, some research, and a carefully planned video marketing campaign, you can reclaim what your brand stands for.

We’re going to let you into a secret – producing a video makes you sit down and consider what your brand is all about. It sounds basic, but during the day to day running of a business, it can be hard to find time to consider your core message.

It’s natural that as a business develops, its message changes. The pre-production phase of creating a video is an opportunity to think about your brand, products or services, your target audience, and their interests.

Understand your audience

To make your video relevant, you need to understand your audience. If you’re struggling to understand what makes them tick, then get out there and talk to them! Conducting audience research will be invaluable not just for your video, but for your brand’s marketing strategy.

As a general rule, being a brand that’s relevant to your target market means speaking their language. It also means your video should aim to reflect their interests, hopes, and needs.

Once you can confidently answer the following questions about your audience, then you’re ready to start planning your video:

• What age range does my audience fall into?
• What do they enjoy doing?
• Where do they hang out online and offline?
• What are their values?
• What are their aspirations?
• How will they use my product / service?
• How will my brand make a difference to their lives?

When you’ve cracked understanding your audience, you’re perfectly placed to produce a video that appeals to your target market. Use your video to capture leads for your business by educating your audience, connecting with them, or converting them from prospective customers into buyers. Whatever type of leads you want to create, just make sure that your message matches your viewers’ needs and interests.

Videos are lead magnets. In fact, 70% of B2B marketers think that video is more effective than any other content when it comes to converting leads.

To ensure that you have a good understanding of your audience and are targeting the right leads, it’s a good idea to track your videos’ performance, know how many leads converted into paying customers, and the revenue that was generated. Our Definitive Guide to B2B Video Marketing ROI has lots of detailed information on keeping tabs on your ROI.

Reach out to your audience

Once you understand your audience, you’ll have a pretty good idea of where they can be found online. It goes without saying that having a social media presence is absolutely essential. There’s lots of info on how people are using social media platforms to consume video in our post The State of Social Video in 2016. 

With SproutVideo, you can easily post your video to social media sites. Thanks to the sheer volume of content competing for users’ attention on social media, it’s more important than ever to ensure your video connects on a emotional level with your audience.

Whether it makes them laugh, cry, or even feel angry, it must say something that grabs their attention within seconds. Do this and viewers will engage with your message. Head over to Completing Your Social Media Plan with Video for 11 good reasons why you need a prominent video presence across social media.

Reaching out to your audience at the right time can make the difference between making and not making a sale. With one of SproutVideo’s marketing platform integrations, you can send email addresses captured by the SproutVideo email gating feature straight to your account. Then, you can set up a highly targeted marketing campaign based on your prospects’ viewing activity. One great example of using this integration is to send out an ebook containing a discount code after someone watches a product demo video on your website.

In Conclusion

No business wants to be considered irrelevant. No one wants to keep sending out a message that isn’t resonating with their target market. For business owners who want to stay relevant, evolve and connect with their customers, it’s essential to get in front of their target market and listen to them. Understanding what makes them tick is one of the most important elements of an effective, engaging marketing campaign.

Using video, it’s possible to show your target market that you’re in touch with their needs. What’s more, you can engage with them at just the right time and place. It’s a great way to make an immediate, personal connection; rather than communicating at the customer, you’re communicating with them.

If you have any thoughts to add on using video to stay relevant, share them with the SproutVideo community in the Comments section below or on Twitter! 

The post How to Stay Relevant: Using Video to Reach a New Audience appeared first on SproutVideo.

Why should I a/b test my video? I know it’s great!

You might think it’s an amazing video, but what about your audience? You could be convinced that your call to action works best at the start of the video, but what if it works even better at the end? Or maybe you should include two calls to action?

A/B testing videos definitively answers the questions we ponder during the editing process.

Yes, you did the best you could and think you made the best decisions. But, conducting a test is the only way to be sure the video is as effective as possible.

What should I test?

What you test depends on the elements that comprise your video. It also depends on your gut instinct. You might have a feeling that a particular part of the video isn’t quite right. Perhaps it might be too long, the font might not look right, or you’re following best practices but it doesn’t seem to flow.

Here are some aspects of your video that could be perfect for A/B testing:

• Title (even something as small as the use of capital or lowercase letters can have an impact on engagement)
• Length
• Font
• Font size
• Script
• Any promotion offered during the course of the video
• Your interviewee (might a different person engage the audience more?)
• Voiceover actor or actress
• The placement of the video on the page
• Call to action
• Music

As you can see, you can test pretty much any element of your video. Never dismiss any element of your video as being too insignificant to make a difference. You will be amazed at the impact something small can make to engagement.

Interesting, can you give me some ideas?

To help you identify some areas to split test, we have put together some sample case studies. Note that in each of them, we have recommended something different to measure – engagement, conversions, or views. Since video content can vary so widely, it’ll be up to you to define success for your project.

Testing the Length of the Video

Video length 6 minutes.

Why so long? The content is great, it’s informative and interesting.

What’s the problem? We think the video ticks all the boxes, but the engagement rate is fairly low. We’ve been wondering if it’s to do with the length.

What’s the solution? Create another, shorter version, around three minutes long. Firstly, measure the engagement rate for the longer video over a week (longer if you want more data). Then, take it down and upload the shorter video. Measure the engagement rate over the same period of time. It should be clear which video is more effective at hooking viewers.

Testing the Call to Action

What’s the call to action? “Enter the code FREEBIE1 to get a free hand towel with any purchase over $50.”

Where is it in the video? At the end.

What’s the problem? People are watching the video but no one is responding to the call to action. We’re not sure whether the offer isn’t appealing enough, or the call to action needs to be repeated.

What’s the solution? Create three new videos. The first one should change the call to action to a more enticing offer (“Get a free hand towel with any purchase.”) The second should consist of three calls to action, placed throughout the video. The third should include both of the changes (new offer and more calls to action).

Test each video for two weeks, measuring which video drives the most conversions. By using distinct discount codes or landing pages for each video, you’ll be able to easily tabulate the results. 

Testing the Content

What’s the story? We created a video to promote our new range of nursery furniture. We produced two videos – one that focused more on the furniture, and one that focused more on a baby (because who doesn’t love a baby!).

What’s the problem? We’re uncertain which video would be more effective for our forthcoming marketing campaign.

What’s the solution? Test each video on social media and our website’s homepage. It should be made available for one week and promoted equally (same number of posts featuring the video, using the same wording and posted at the same time). The video that generates the most views and traffic is the one that should spearhead the new marketing campaign.

I’ve finished a/b testing videos, got the results, end of.

It’s not time to put away your lab coat quite yet!

When you’ve carried out your split tests, you might get the outcome you expected, or you could get a surprise! Whatever the result, that’s not the end.

If there are more elements of the video you can change – which is more than likely – then go through the same process again. You will need to identify the area which could be improved, come up with an alternative approach, then test it against the original version.

For video marketers, making sure a video is effective is essential to maximizing engagement. Designing A/B tests is an activity that every marketer should carry out regularly. Remember – Always Be testing!

Have you uncovered any surprising results through A/B testing videos? Let us know on Twitter using #abtest or in the Comments section below!

The post How To Maximize Engagement by A/B Testing Videos appeared first on SproutVideo.

Clearly, you missed the mark somehow. We all have at some point. The key is to learn how to avoid falling flat with your video content.

By researching your audience, and understanding your target viewers, you can ensure you only create engaging content they’ll return to time and again. Here is how to get to know your audience, build targeted viewer personas, and use that knowledge to improve your video marketing strategy.

Understand Your Audience

A great way to understand why people visit your website, and to find some inspiration for video topics, is to examine your search terms report.
You can look at your search terms report in either Google Analytics, Webmaster or Adwords.

To access this report in Google Analytics, go to your main website profile, and open the Keywords report under the Acquisition section, and look at the Organic Keywords report. Sort them by Total Visitors, New Visitors, Conversions or Conversion Rate to get a sense of what different people are looking for when they click on your page.

In Adwords, go to the Keywords tab for your campaign, click on Details, and select “All” instead of “Selected” to see all the search terms that are triggering your ads. Sort by Clicks, Click Conversions or Conversion Rate to get a sense of what is working and what is not.

With Google Webmaster, under Search Traffic, click on Search Queries, and review total Clicks and Click Through Rate, as well as your site’s Average Position for different terms. If possible, use all three tools to get a clear picture of how your website is performing against different search terms.

This type of insightful analysis can help guide your content optimization strategy. You can take a deeper dive by also looking at behavior by traffic source rather than just search terms.

The key questions to answer include the following:

• What are people searching for? Do you specifically offer it?
• If they search for your product, are they clicking through to your website?
• Are they clicking through, but not converting?
• Are most people who convert searching for specific characteristics of your product or services?
• Do specific sources deliver higher quality traffic than others?

Build Viewer Personas

Detailed and accurate viewer personas are a tried and true cornerstone of successful content marketing campaigns. It helps you clarify who you want to reach, and how to reach them.

A viewer persona is a visual or written depiction of a prototypical person who might view your videos. By identifying different groups of viewers you want to target, and pinpointing their demographics and interests, you’ll be better able to make content that appeals to them.

A persona can be as detailed as you need it to be. You could even select a stock photo, or profile of an actual customer, that best represents who you are trying to reach.

Naming and visualizing the viewers you are trying to target can help define how you might speak to them. For example, when you have someone specific in mind, you can ask yourself, “What would Brenda want to watch?”

If you don’t want to go that far, you might stick to abstract demographics and topical interests to guide how you shape your videos. This is still very valuable information.

However you define your personas, be consistent across each separate group you’d like to target. Then, try to figure out what type of content they engage with and share online. This will help you understand how best to reach them with a message they will connect with.

Design Your Content

Using this information, you can design video content specific to your viewers’ interests. Ideally, you can use these targeted videos to drive engagement, lead generation, or conversions on your website.

For instance, do a lot of your site visitors search for a specific product or service offering? Make an explainer video, or an introductory video for your company and services. Provide video subtitles to improve accessibility, and to help with your search rankings by improving keyword density on the page. Optimize the title and description of the video against the specific search terms you are targeting. If possible, coordinate the landing page URL with these tags as well.

For another example, are a lot of people who search for a particular product or service bouncing off the page before they can find it? Video has been shown to improve time on the page. If you target those specific site visitors with video content, you will help them find what they are looking for. Place it above the fold, and consider auto-playing it to grab their attention.

If, rather than a specific group of keywords, you found that a lot of your conversions come from email offers, you might want to focus your video content on growing your list. You can use email-gated videos, or a post-roll call-to-action to drive lead generation on your site. Depending on the video they watched, you might want to design your email campaigns differently. Or, include additional video content to improve click through rates to your website.

It’s challenging to truly optimize against specific viewer personas. Keep testing different ideas for videos, landing pages, and lead generation to see what works.

How do you optimize your video content? Please tell us about it in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

The post How to Understand Viewer Personas to Drive Video Engagement appeared first on SproutVideo.

Here’s a brief overview of the metrics that we think will help you a) judge the success of each video, and b) create videos that perform better.

Plays (and Unique Plays)

What is it?

This metric is pretty self explanatory. The number of plays tells you how many people watched your video.

Plays are different from impressions. An impression occurs when your video is loaded on a webpage. Impressions will indicate the number of times your video is displayed to a site visitor, whether it’s played or not.

Note: “Unique” refers to the number of times a brand new user played your video. If the same viewer were to watch the video several times over any period of time, they would only count once towards the unique plays metric.

How Does It Help You?

The plays metric makes it simple to determine which of your videos are being watched the most. It helps you nail down what your viewers are looking for so you can produce consistently fantastic videos. In the same vein, this metric will also tell you which videos are duds. Hopefully, you can then avoid making similar mistakes in the future.

High Performance

Judge performance by comparing the performance of an individual video against the aggregate video analytics for your account. Use the aggregate analytics as a benchmark. Then, identify the videos that are doing significantly better, or worse.

As you track your progress, and take steps to make your videos more engaging, judge performance of videos by increases in plays over time. If you’re trying to attract new visitors, look at unique plays instead.

Play Rate

What is it?

The play rate is the percentage of people who see the video on a page and actually click the play button. We calculate this by dividing the number of plays by the number of impressions. If your video was displayed 100 times last week and 50 people watched it, your play rate is 50%.

How Does It Help You?

This metric will help you determine what works in terms of getting people’s attention, and actually getting them to click the play button. Being able to track play rate over time allows you to see if changes to your website or video impacts the play rate.

Essentially, the play rate metric allows you to make informed decisions about how your videos are displayed on your site. Is the poster frame eye-catching enough? Is the surrounding text appealing?

There are some common fixes you can try to move the needle on play rate. Make sure your video is prominently displayed on the page, and above the fold. Try auto-playing it, changing the poster frame, or adjusting the text on the page. If you include a specific call-to-action asking people to watch the video, you might be surprised by how many more people actually will.

High Performance

The average play rate across every single video on SproutVideo is around 17%. If your videos have a play rate much greater than 17%, you’re probably doing really well.

You may find that your play rate is substantially different from the average of our customers depending on how you’re using video. For instance, auto-playing videos are usually close to 100%. Take a look at the aggregate play rate for all your videos to see which are performing the best.

Average Engagement and Engagement Over Time

What Is It?

Unfortunately, your viewers have busy lives and plenty of things competing for their attention. As a result, they often don’t watch a video to completion. Engagement metrics tell you how much of the video your viewers have seen. They can also indicate the parts viewers skipped, or when they stopped watching.

How Does It Help You?

If the average drop-off point is early in your video, you can use this to evaluate several elements of your video. For instance, consider whether your video is too long, or if certain parts might be a bit dull. Then, you can make edits accordingly.

Conversely, pay close attention to the videos that people watch all the way through. Try to figure out what you did right — and keep doing it.

Other elements to test include the music, the pacing, and the voiceover for your video.

High Performance

The average engagement across all videos uploaded to SproutVideo with over 50 plays is nearly 63.5%. This should help give you a good sense of what to expect.

More important than average engagement, however, is making sure people are actually getting to the important parts of your videos. If most viewers are dropping off before you get to your call to action, your video is not performing well.

Device Breakdown

What Is It?

This metric breaks down the viewers by what type of device they’re using. For the most part, people either watch on a Desktop or Mobile device. On occasion, you’ll see someone watching from a game console like a Playstation, XBox, or Wii.

How Does It Help You?

The device breakdown is useful for determining how you should be optimizing your videos. If your audience is primarily on mobile, for instance, responsive video is key. Luckily, SproutVideo websites and landing pages are mobile-optimized already. We also offer responsive embed codes out of the box to make it easier to cater to mobile viewers.

High Performance

This depends on the audience you’re targeting with your videos. If you’re targeting a mobile device audience, make sure the percentage of plays on mobile devices is high and vice-versa if you’re targeting desktop audiences.

Geography Breakdown

What Is It?

This metric tells you from where, in terms of country and region, your viewers are watching your videos.

How Does It Help You?

If you’re interested in tapping into an international market or increasing your global visibility (and who isn’t these days?), the geography breakdown will help you monitor your progress.

High Performance

This all depends on where you want your market to be. While many international companies shoot for US visibility, it’s also a benefit for American companies to grow awareness internationally. Choose markets that have a gap for your product or service (provided it’s exportable), and develop your seeding strategy to get your video watched in those places.

Domains Breakdown

What Is It?

This metric tells you where on the web people are watching your videos. Are they engaging from your website? From another site where your video is posted? This feature breaks it down.

How Does It Help You?

The domains breakdown will tell you whether having your videos available on bigger sites, or in multiple locations, is beneficial to driving views. It will also tell you where on the web your video is getting the most views, info you can use in your seeding strategy.

High Performance

The performance of your video in terms of reach (total viewers) is dependent on it being available and attractive on sites with high traffic. Tracking your success in individual domains will help you create a high-performing video.

Sometimes, you don’t want to grow your reach. In fact, if security is a big concern, this report can be useful in a very different sort of way. It enables you to ensure your videos aren’t being shared on websites that don’t have permission to share your content.

Ultimately, the metrics you use to determine what is and is not a high performing video will depend on the goals of your video campaign. Hopefully these metrics will help get you pointed in the right direction.

If you want to test these features out for yourself, we offer a free trial of our hosting services. There are no commitments, no credit card required, and you can try out our platform for free!

Do you have any questions about our features that we didn’t answer here? Feel free to leave a comment below, or you can catch us on Twitter @SproutVideo.

The post What is a High Performing Video? appeared first on SproutVideo.