Introducing The Business Video Playbook, an expert-backed original series that reveals how business video is used to efficiently train teams, deepen customer relationships, and accelerate sales cycles.

Join host Tim Ryan, Head of Marketing at SproutVideo, as he launches into must-watch conversations that will elevate every aspect of your business video strategy.

4 Key Takeaways from The Business Video Playbook (Ep. 1–3)

1. Business Video Converts First-Time Buyers and Breaks the Seal on Momentum

Autumn Manning recalls her earliest “send me the order form” moment. It was at an HR tech startup, YouEarnedIt. After months of daily customer immersion and thoughtful video outreach, Manning landed the first sale. She believes that first milestone generated more than revenue: it “broke the seal” for employees who’d labored over tiny product tweaks and investors watching from the sidelines.

“Once you’ve built a product that truly fits a real pain point, landing your first paid client ‘breaks the seal’ on momentum. From there, you can expand to external audiences, keep investors informed, and reveal the vision you’ve championed internally. It’s a thrilling but demanding phase of company building.”

— Autumn Manning, Founder & CEO of FAANA

Manning’s new venture follows the same playbook: record raw customer conversations, distribute rapid-fire demos and customer interview recaps, and scale outward once the internal team is convinced of product-market fit.

Watch her GTM playbook now

2. Authenticity Outweighs Production Value in an AI-Saturated Landscape

Perfection gets in the way of authenticity. This theme is echoed by every expert we’ve interviewed.

Joe Siciliano, Managing Broker at Compass Lincoln Park, has built a 35-year career in real estate by nurturing neighborhood ties. Early on, he realized that waiting weeks for a polished marketing piece meant missing the moments when clients actually needed to hear from him.

“As long as it’s truly authentic, it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect. If it’s you, that’s all that matters.”

— Joe Siciliano, Managing Broker for Compass Real Estate

Joe recommends sending two-minute, iPhone-shot videos to clients: “Hey Tim, great seeing you at the Halloween parade…stay in touch.” This personal touch helps build long-term relationships.

Watch his episode now

3. Invest Wisely in Business Video Production and Distribution

Not every video needs high production value, but it’s important to know when it does.

Siciliano differentiates between authentic, off-the-cuff content and professionally filmed property tours, especially when promoting luxury properties or reaching new heights in your career. Think about the videos you’re making and give each the level of polish it needs.

Regardless of your budget, Siciliano recommends committing to a regular publishing cadence (weekly updates, monthly market insights, or microlearning bursts) and housing everything on a dedicated video website or vlog to build branding and searchable authority.

Learn more about SproutVideo-hosted video websites

4. Know Your Customer (or Learner) Inside and Out, Then Speak Their Language

For Ethan Anderson, Director of Product Management at NOLA Education, video engagement is the difference between student success and failure.

He extends a lean market research process to educational videos: conducting user research with just five observations to uncover 70 percent of usability insights. Then, he designs videos to match students’ screen-time habits, attention spans, and expectations for speed, contrast, and interactivity.

“Talk to your users directly: ask what they liked, didn’t like, or found confusing. It’s a simple step that surprisingly few take, yet it yields invaluable, unexpected insights.”

— Ethan Anderson, Director of Product Management with NOLA Education

Paired with hands-on learning tools, Anderson’s formula drives real academic gains.

Discover his strategy for 95% success

Coming Soon: Expert Insights You Don’t Want to Miss

SproutVideo’s Business Video Playbook empowers you to craft videos that convert, engage, and build lasting relationships with no Hollywood budget required.

Don’t miss our next episode, where former reality-TV producer Alex Hoff pulls back the curtain on what makes video storytelling truly binge-worthy.

He’s sharing the same insider tricks that supercharged his career, including:

• How to build tension and anticipation so viewers can’t click away
• The simple storytelling beats that turn customer testimonials into edge-of-your-seat narratives
• Pro tips on pacing and hook placement that keep your audience glued for the full runtime

Plus, you’ll get early access to future deep dives on:

• Demand Gen Marketing: How top growth experts weave video into the buyer funnel
• AI-Powered Authenticity: Speed up production and ditch that “stock footage” feeling
• Private Video Sharing: Secure, invite-only video techniques for clients, investors, and teams
  

The post The Business Video Playbook: Proven Tactics to Boost Sales, Engagement, and Retention appeared first on SproutVideo.

Even without video, email marketing earns an average of $36 per $1 spent across industries. But add video? Click-through engagement triples. To leverage the power of both, we asked marketing experts and business owners to share their tips. 

Use this short guide to fuse the power of video and email for seamless delivery, higher click-throughs, and results you can scale.

The Do’s & Don’ts Of Embedding Video In Email

What Not To Do

Do not directly share a video file in an email. Most email clients do not support video playback within emails because of potential security risks (such as phishing scams) and slow email loading times due to large video files. 

“Many email clients don’t fully support embedded videos, which can lead to deliverability issues, slow load times, or playback failures. A well-designed thumbnail grabs attention and encourages recipients to click without risking technical hiccups.” 

Linn Atiyeh, CEO, Bemana

What To Do Instead

Share a thumbnail preview (whether static or animated) that links to your landing page or website. This approach allows you to insert a video into your email campaign while providing a superior user experience. 

“Instead of embedding the video directly, we used a thumbnail with a play button that linked to the video on our website. This not only preserved the design of the email but also funneled traffic to a landing page where users could take immediate action.” 

Alexsandr Borkin, Co-Founder, Coastline Gutter Pro

You can also create a branded experience, share videos securely, and track engagement insights by integrating a video host with your email marketing platform. 

3 Ways To Embed Video In Email Marketing Campaigns

Regardless of the method you use, the video thumbnail in your email will direct traffic to the landing page where your video resides.

1. Animated GIF Preview As Video Teaser

Brands that use animated GIFs in email often see a higher return on investment, jumping from $18 to $37 for every dollar spent. Furthermore, GIFs are supported across email clients (except for Outlook 2007-2019), making them a highly engaging way to catch viewer attention and entice click-through engagement. To use a GIF in your video email marketing: 

1. Upload the GIF to your email marketing platform and insert it into the email. 
2. Hyperlink the animated poster frame to your video’s landing page. 
3. Ensure the video and landing page are ready for traffic, then schedule the email. 

Keep animated poster frames under 1 MB so your email loads quickly and displays properly. 

You can use SproutVideo to generate poster frames (animated and static), then download the thumbnail (JPG or GIF) alone or with a custom-colored play button overlay. 

2. Static Thumbnail with Playbutton Overlay 

Static images provide faster loading times and improve accessibility for some readers. Certain brands may also prefer the stark professionalism of static images. In general, it’s best practice to test and see which type of poster frame performs with your audience. 

The process for using a static image is the same as uploading a GIF. You can also overlay a play button on the thumbnail to distinguish it as a clickable video thumbnail. 

Learn More: How To Generate A Video Thumbnail With a Custom-Colored Play Button

3. Embed Code via Video Hosting Platform

Simplify the process with a custom email embed code. Skip creating a GIF or adding a play button overlay with external software. Instead, you can easily generate your static or animated poster frame, add a brand-colored play button (or hide it), and add your destination URL. Insert the generated embed code into the email and you’re done!

Additionally, using a custom embed code allows SproutVideo to track email contacts and display their viewing data in your engagement dashboard. 

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

Best Practices To Embed Video In Email

Now that you know how to execute video in email with flawless deliverability, let’s cover more expert-backed best practices to help you generate repeatable results.

1. Test Animated vs Static Video Thumbnails

“I use a short looping motion graphic (2-3 seconds) as the email thumbnail, paired with a play button overlay. It tricks the brain into thinking, “This is a video,” but technically, it’s just a lightweight GIF or APNG. When clicked, it leads to a landing page where the actual video plays–no rendering issues, no lag. I tested this animated poster frame against static thumbnails and saw a 21% lift in click-through rate” 

George Pettigrew, Creative Director, InboxArmy

Build curiosity and showcase the video’s value with a teaser thumbnail. “I always recommend choosing a clear, high-contrast image with a strong focal point–whether it’s a person, a product, or an eye-catching scene,” shared Yaniv Masjedi, Chief Marketing Officer for Nextiva. Choose the most engaging frames from your video for the thumbnail image, whether static or animated.  

2. Optimize For Mobile

“One critical factor is to ensure that your email design and embedded video are responsive, meaning they are mobile-friendly and customized for different devices for an enhanced experience.” 

Aaron Whittaker, VP of Demand Generation & Marketing, Thrive Digital Marketing Agency

Ensure your video thumbnail and email design scales across screen sizes. Known as responsive design, optimizing for mobile is crucial for replicating the same viewing experience, whether your audience views the email on a phone, tablet, or computer. 

An email embed code ensures your image scales properly because the HTML is responsive. When you add a static or animated thumbnail directly to your email builder, its responsiveness depends on your email template and platform.

Note: Email embed codes generated through SproutVideo are responsive by default. 

3. Use A Video Host For Smooth Playback 

“Use a video hosting site such as YouTube, Vimeo, or SproutVideo—some email clients do not support embedded video files or may experience deliverability issues. These platforms track viewer behaviors, too; therefore, they provide video performance data in addition to ensuring smooth playback.” 

Tristan Harris, Sr. VP of Marketing, Next Net Media

A video host allows you to provide a fast, buffer-free viewing experience, gain in-depth engagement data, and easily protect your intellectual property.

While your email marketing platform provides data on email open rates and click-through, a video hosting service can tell you the percentage of people who pressed play on the video, how much of the video they watched, and much more. It also allows you to protect the video content you share. 

Learn More: 7 Reasons Businesses Use Private Video Hosting Platforms vs YouTube

4. Add Play Button Overlay To Encourage Clicks

“Adding a play button overlay to the thumbnail is a strategy that worked. With the play button overlay, the video thumbnail looked like a directly embedded video, even though it linked to our site. That small change increased video clicks by 31.2%” 

Daniel Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, Lava Roofing

Focus your audience’s attention on clicking through to the video with a play button overlay. The play button is an additional cue to your audience that the image is a clickable video thumbnail rather than just a static or animated image within the email.  

Using the SproutVideo platform, you can easily add a play button with your custom brand color. You can download the thumbnail (JPG or GIF) with the custom play button overlay, or grab your custom email embed code to simplify the process. 

5. Refine Strategy with Performance Tracking

“Track performance. Click-through rates, engagement, and conversion data will tell you if your video works. If people aren’t clicking, tweak your thumbnail, subject line, or CTA. Testing different formats can help you refine what resonates most with your audience. Video can bring your emails to life, but it has to be seamless, engaging, and actionable.” 

Josh Bluman, Co-Founder, Hoppy Copy

Use the combined power of your email marketing analytics and video engagement insights to determine what’s working and where you can improve.

For example, you can integrate your email marketing platform with SproutVideo to see what email contacts watched your video and for how long. Then, you can use this data to determine the most engaging video lengths, find your warmest leads, and segment your list to personalize their experience. 

6. Include “Video” In The Subject Line

“Seeing “Video” in the subject line sets an email apart and suggests a more dynamic experience, making recipients more likely to click. We tested this with one of our email campaigns. When the subject line included “Video: How to Handle Electrical Emergencies,” the open rate jumped by 22% compared to previous emails on the same topic. This increased engagement and led to a 15% rise in service inquiries that month.” 

Daniel Vasilevski, Director & Owner, Bright Force Electrical

Experts across the board agree that including “video” in the subject line of emails with video helps to boost open rates. This makes sense! After all, 78% of consumers prefer to learn about a product or service through short videos over ebooks, text-based articles, and sales calls. 

7. Don’t Overlook Accessibility 

“Add alt text to the thumbnail for screen readers and include captions or transcripts for the actual video. Test your email across multiple devices and clients to confirm the thumbnail or GIF displays properly. This approach boosts click-through rates without risking broken elements or huge load times in the inbox.” 

Salman Saleem, Marketing Strategist, Rapyd Cloud

Accessibility goes hand-in-hand with frictionless deliverability and a seamless user experience. Salman Saleem, Marketing Strategist for Rapyd Cloud, provides a great checklist:

• Add image alt text: Ensure your thumbnail message is conveyed in every scenario.
• Include captions in your video: Allow viewers to watch the video without sound.
• Test email across devices and clients: Use a tool for email client testing. 

It’s generally recommended that you test your email before each campaign—or, at minimum, after updating the design or making significant changes to your template. 

8. Experiment With Video Placement

“When the video was placed at the top, we saw a 12% increase in click-through rates. But when we placed a short introduction first and then the video, engagement went up by 18%. That small shift gave people context before they watched, making them more likely to take action. The way people interact with content varies, so testing placement helps fine-tune the experience.” 

Ann Monis, CEO & Co-Founder, Medical Anti-Aging

Video placement is important to optimizing click-through engagement. Most experts recommended placing your video at the top of your email, but every audience and business differs. Run your tests to figure out what performs best. 

9. Include A Call To Action

“We ditched the generic “Watch Now” CTA; instead, we tried “See How We Dialed In This Brew” to tie it to our story—our open rates jumped 15% when we got specific.” 

Wes Wakefield, Founder & CEO, Pro Coffee Gear

Don’t assume readers know the next step they should take. Choose a CTA that makes it clear why they’re clicking through to your video. Additionally, consider experimenting with plain text hyperlinks versus buttons to see what your audience gravitates toward. 

Storytelling Is King In Video Email Marketing

“Email marketing is a tough game, and video makes it even trickier. The biggest mistake? Forcing a “watch now” moment. Customers rarely click just because a video is there. They click because the email makes them want to see more. The trick is writing the email as if the video doesn’t exist. If the copy can’t sell the idea on its own, the video won’t save it.” 

Jay Soni, Founder and Director of Sales and Marketing, Yorkshire Fabric Shop

It may be tempting to rely solely on your video content when adding it to emails. But every element—from the subject line and video to design and copy—should work in concert toward your business goals.

Video is a highly effective tool in email marketing. However, sparking curiosity and providing actionable value are required for repeatable results. Continue learning with our other resources on video marketing:

• Video Marketing for Real Estate: Ideas from a 30-Year Industry Veteran
• 10 High-Impact Ways to Repurpose Video Content
• 7 Reasons Businesses Use Private Video Hosting Platforms vs YouTube

The post How To Embed Video In Email: Expert-Backed Best Practices appeared first on SproutVideo.

Some users are on your email list, some follow one of your social media profiles, and others are looking for solutions using search or AI.

Yet video needs to engage your audience across marketing channels and stages of the buyer’s journey, regardless of the type of video content you create. 

For good reason: 91% of people use video to learn more about products and services.

But how do you distribute video content to produce the results you want? 

This guide answers that question with a video content distribution strategy to maximize the longevity and reach of your videos without expecting you to have unlimited resources.  

You’ll learn how to effectively utilize social media for video, fuel organic discovery via search engines, and infuse video into your sales funnel to attract new (and engage current) customers. 

The Challenge of Catering to Every Channel

Big and small companies produce videos to promote their brand, build relationships with a core audience, and generate leads. But how do you center those goals when creating videos? 

One common practice is to share a single piece of content across various marketing channels. However, the challenge with this approach is that every channel has its own optimization standards.

Most companies and creators don’t have unlimited resources to create a video optimized for each channel or platform.

The alternative: Strategically optimize one to three versions of your video, catering to your highest-value channels or those with the most growth potential. 

This approach allows you to optimize your video content for the channels that provide the greatest return on your investment while building a presence across relevant channels.

8 Video Content Distribution Channels That Work

Engage your audience across multiple channels with varied content — from product demos to educational videos — to effectively meet your audience at every stage of their journey. 

We’ve organized the video content distribution channels below with the buyer’s journey in mind, starting at the top with awareness and closing with after-sale content for loyalty and retention.

Reach New Communities with Paid Advertising

Paid video advertising lets you break out of the algorithmic bubble social media often locks users into. You can target specific audiences based on demographics, user engagement with similar content, and other profile information (depending on the platform). 

Many marketers run their video ads on advertising platforms like Google or Microsoft (see pro-tip below). Others may run their ads on streaming platforms like Hulu or Amazon.

There are also native video advertising networks like Taboola and Outbrain that support video formats. Finally, many marketers use social media platforms with video advertising, including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Spotify, and many more. 

Align the platforms where you promote paid video advertising with your core purchasing audience. 

Most social platforms allow you to promote previously published content, which is a great way to test how well your video converts before paying to promote it broadly. 

Pro Tip: Video can also be part of your Google ad campaign. For example, when someone clicks on your Search ad, Google may retarget that person on YouTube with your video ad.

 Google’s Performance Max campaigns allow advertisers to upload materials in various mediums. Google then compiles the ads and distributes them across its ad network, allowing your advertising to meet potential customers wherever they are online.

Expand Organic Discovery with YouTube

51% of all YouTube visitors want to learn how to do something. 

For this reason, businesses use YouTube as a social channel to share thought leadership and educational content or showcase how real people use a product or service. 

Furthermore, while video-based, YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world — second only to Google itself, which also displays YouTube videos in its search results.

Therefore, sharing your video content on YouTube can support your approach to SEO by increasing the potential for discovery on the YouTube platform and within search results. 

Note: The YouTube platform displays video recommendations for other creators and competitor ads during and after your videos. Therefore, when considering your video content distribution strategy, remember that YouTube is often a social channel rather than a video hosting platform, which allows you to create a distraction-free, branded experience. 

Broaden Discovery with Video on Social Media 

Social media algorithms push content with high user engagement to broader audiences. 

Therefore, the algorithm is likely to promote your video to new potential leads when more people interact with your content for longer periods of time.

When effectively distributing video content, the challenge is that every social platform prioritizes different audience signals to determine how it will promote content.

To broaden your audience with social media, optimize video content for the social platform that will help you connect with your core buying audience. 

Ideally, this starts in pre-production, allowing you to optimize multiple marketing assets created from a single video strategically. You can repurpose old video content in a pinch. However, you may encounter limitations when optimizing video content for social sharing. 

The table above showcases the technical challenge of posting video content across social media. Take note of the varying aspect ratios and maximum video length when ideating content.

For example, a B2B software company produces a 2-minute case study featuring a happy customer for its marketing website. The company wants to broaden the video’s reach beyond its marketing website using social media. It creates a version optimized for Instagram Reels with a 9:16 aspect ratio and then shares the video across all social channels that support this ratio.

Generate Traffic with Companion Blog Posts

Provide another way for your audience to engage and encourage organic traffic from search engines: repackage the video’s value into a blog post and embed the video as the main content. 

This approach is especially effective for educational and how-to articles because this content is often evergreen and can be optimized for search engines, providing consistent organic traffic to the blog post and video. 

These blog posts with embedded videos also have the potential benefit of generating organic traffic, providing an overall ranking boost with search engines.  

For example, a denim jeans brand creates product videos for its e-commerce site. The company publishes an educational blog post, Finding the Best Jeans for Your Body Type, and enhances the reading experience by inserting product videos into the companion blog post. This improved user experience encourages engagement, lending to a higher rank in search and, consequently, increased sales.  

Spark Interest on Your Website and Landing Pages

Some videos, like your homepage hero, are designed for a website. 

These “above-the-fold” video overviews introduce visitors to your brand and product offerings, conveying why your company exists in an engaging format.

Make the rest of your website more interactive by peppering in video content throughout relevant pages. In doing so, you’ll increase on-page time and provide more opportunities to convey your brand messaging to consumers.

For example, SproutVideo is an annual sponsor of the National Forest Foundation (NFF). This year, we made an Earth Day video to celebrate our environmental commitment and promote the NFF. After distributing the content on our video library and social channels, we added it to our Trees page, which discusses our environmental commitment. 

Pro Tip: Test additional in-video features, like In-Players CTAs or Post-Play Screens, on your embedded videos to encourage viewers to further engage with your brand. 

Enhance Access and Rankings with a Video Library

A video library provides a central portal for viewers to watch your content. It is especially beneficial for indexing video content with Google search, which can be challenging due to its specific and, at times, demanding guidelines. 

One challenge is ensuring Google recognizes the video as “main content.” A public video library solves this issue by creating standalone video pages, making it easier for search engines to index the video content. You can then distribute video content elsewhere without the risk of duplicate content penalties, thanks to the canonical URL.

Some video hosts (such as SproutVideo) and content management systems (like WordPress) offer themes or plugins and essential video SEO tools that make creating and ranking a professional video library easy. 

SproutVideo-hosted websites are ideal for creating a fully customized, distraction-free private or public video library with your branding. Build yours now with a free trial. 

Learn More: Guide to Video Metadata for SEO

Engage Your Current Audience with Email

Email subject lines with “video” in the title are opened 7% more often. Even more impressively, emails with video have up to a 300% higher click rate than those without. Therefore, email is another high-value way to get the most out of your video content. 

To effectively share video content by email, focus on ‘why’ the information is valuable to your audience in your email copy, preview text, and subject line. 

Generate an email embed code to feature the video in your email communications and drive traffic to its location on your website, video library, or social channels. 

Videos can be shared as part of your regular newsletter, featured in a product launch or update, strategically placed within lifecycle emails, or added to drip campaigns for additional value.

For example, we recently curated a beginner’s how-to video course on Adobe After Effects for our email subscribers. The email copy centered the course’s value with phrases like “learn to create impressive effects for videos.” 

We paired the videos within the email with a concise description and a clear “Watch Now” call to action. This approach nearly doubled our email click rates, driven by helpful explanations that inspired the reader to explore further.

Pro Tip: Need help gaining traction on social media and have a loyal email following?

Use email to drive engaged traffic to social content, boosting its watch time and encouraging the social platform to push your video to a broader audience.

To effectively accomplish this, center the value of your video and include a call to action (CTA) to encourage clicks.

Offer Additional Value with Private or Help Videos

Have you ever experienced the joy of receiving a free bonus after purchasing a product? It was likely minor, like a sticker, postcard, or free accessory. 

Take this concept to the next level with Help or private video content for your customers.

In many cases, these videos extend the relationship with the user beyond the purchase, helping them navigate features and accelerating their time to value (TTV). Indeed, 90% of customers say the post-purchase experience is as important as the product or service. 

You can use post-purchase content within your video content distribution plan to: 

• facilitate a smooth customer onboarding experience
• provide surprise moments of joy with bonus content and actionable advice
• encourage customer loyalty by helping them overcome challenges

What’s next for your customers after purchasing your product or subscribing to your service? When this answer is clearly defined, you’ll know exactly what kind of videos would delight buyers at this journey stage.

Depending on your services and products, customers might access this material through a public-facing Knowledge Base or within a members-only portal. 

For example, one of our customers is a medical device manufacturing company. Clinicians who purchase their medical devices also receive access to private training videos hosted on a customized video website with login protection. The hands-on training helps medical professionals use the devices, improving patient experiences and clinical effectiveness. 

Bringing It All Together

Let’s briefly review the video content distribution strategy. The most effective way to distribute video content is to:

1. Identify the channels that align with your core audience or offer growth potential. 
2. Create two or three video versions optimized for your highest-value channels.
3. Share your content across relevant channels to reach people throughout the buyer’s journey.

Providing value to your audience is paramount, regardless of the content medium (written, audio, visual, etc.). And the video statistics don’t lie:

• 87% of consumers say video quality impacts their trust in a brand
• 82% of people bought a product or service because a video convinced them

Never underestimate the ability to reach your audience where they already are. A video content distribution plan allows you to receive those benefits throughout your buyer’s journey. 

Ready for more? Continue expanding your reservoir of video knowledge:

• Guide to Optimizing Video for Social Sharing 
• Video Engagement: 10 Strategies to Grab & Hold Attention
• 10 Clever Ways to Make Video Using Just a Laptop

The post Video Content Distribution: How to Maximize ROI Across Channels appeared first on SproutVideo.

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.

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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.

Whether it’s a tear-jerker or a fall-off-the-sofa funny advertisement, there’s something wonderfully evocative about festive ads. We’ll look at the very best holiday marketing videos throughout time, consider why they went viral or became a classic, and discuss tips that you can use to create a great holiday marketing strategy. Prepare your tear ducts. 

Top Holiday Marketing Videos of All Time

10. Christmas Advert (Apple, 2019)

For many people, the holiday season is a reminder of family members who have passed on, underlining the joyous festivities with grief. In this video, we follow a family getting together for Christmas. It’s soon revealed that this is the first year since Nana died. Feeling their grandfather’s sadness, the children have a creative idea for his holiday gift. 

Why It Works: Apple is great at creating holiday videos with a lot of product placement that (barely) manages to not feel pushy. We are accustomed to Apple products speckling the background of our lives, and Apple uses this to their advantage. Therefore, it’s easy to forget this is an advertisement and become engrossed in the family’s story, one that is widely relatable. Consider how you might position your products in the greater context of your holiday marketing video without directly promoting it. 

9. Crazy Target Lady (Target, 2010)

In 2010, Target hired comedian Maria Bamford and released a whole series of short commercials promoting its two-day Black Friday sale. These videos were inescapable for anyone who had cable that year, and you’ll likely remember at least one of the silly sketches. 

This video highlights the way advertising has shifted over the years as well. It’s significantly younger than the classic commercials on our list that rely heavily on nostalgia, and much older than the story-based, viral videos we’ve become accustomed to brands releasing. Yet, it’s just as effective (especially in 2010).

Why It Works: Much of the success of the video is down to the character played by comedian Maria Bamford. She’s a ‘love her or loathe her’ character. But whatever your opinion, she’s certainly memorable! Target featured Bamford in more than ten holiday commercials; meaning, viewers knew it was a Target ad as soon as they saw her. From this we can conclude that using a character who appears in each of your videos is an effective way to immediately connect viewers to your brand.

8. Kindness, The Greatest Gift (Amazon, 2021)

This tear-jerker acknowledges the rise of anxiety, particularly in young adults, as a result of the pandemic. We follow a student as she navigates life in a big city alone…until a bond with a neighbor begins to take root, and then is strengthened by an act of kindness.

Why It Works: Few companies have chosen to address the collective grief the world is still grappling with from the pandemic. This ad doesn’t shy away from that. Instead, it focuses on the immense feelings of isolation that were overwhelmingly present as we entered the 2021 holiday season. As a result, there is something here for everyone. 

The takeaway? Involving current events in your story that are broadly relatable is one way to create a meaningful connection with viewers. Keep in mind that current events tend to have a certain weight behind them, so approach this type of video carefully and sincerely. 

7. Northern Lights (Coca Cola, 1993)

One of the sure signs that the festive season is upon us is the annual Coca-Cola holiday video. But how on earth do you choose the best one? Choosing our favorite resulted in a lot of debate in the office! In the end, the 1993 Northern Lights video won, thanks to the legacy that it inspired — though it’s fair to question what that legacy will ultimately be.

The mark of a truly innovative video is one that’s not just an immediate hit but has a lasting impact on the videos that follow it. In fact, this groundbreaking commercial influenced the technology that was used in subsequent commercials and movies.

Why It Works: The standout message is not that cute animals are popular with viewers (which is true!), but that taking a risk can pay off. This can involve using exciting new technology that you might not be familiar with, or sharing a bold message that’s a little different to everything else out there. The holiday season is the perfect time to get creative. 

6. Reindeer Games (Microsoft, 2018)

As the video opens, we see a boy running down the street calling to every child on the block, “He’s gonna do it!” A crowd of children gather and join him as the kids race down the street. They burst through a front door to cheer on their friend, Owen, who is using an Adaptive Controller to win the video game. They all do a celebratory dance when he does. 

Why It Works: The Adaptive Controller allows people with various disabilities to enjoy the full gaming experience. This is one of the few ads we’ve included that promotes a specific product and it does so brilliantly. The product is inclusive, created specifically for gamers with disabilities. The entire neighborhood of children is excited to see their friend win, and the sense of belonging is felt from start to finish. Promoting your values as a company is one of the strongest ways to align with those who will appreciate what you have to offer.

5. Share Your Gifts (Apple, 2018)

With its annual holiday ads, it may not come as a surprise to see two Apple videos on our list. The two ads could not be more different, however. In ‘Share Your Gifts’ we follow Sophie — an incredibly creative girl who enjoys writing and hanging out with her dog. Throughout the video (full version above), we see her struggle to share her creativity with others. That is until her dog opens the window and lets her work fly into the bustling town square. 

Why It Works: A lot of love was put into this video and it shows. The production (see the behind the scenes video), music, and combination of real sets with animation tell a wordless story that, once again, showcases the main character using Apple products while centering her journey. 

It leaves the viewer feeling inspired and encouraged, making this ad feel like a message meant for the viewer that goes beyond the products being sold. This video, ultimately, showcases a company indirectly promoting the use of their products by encouraging their users, which can be applied to various different brands across industries.

4. “They Do Exist!” (M&M’s, 1996)

I have no doubt you’ve seen this M&M’s holiday commercial once upon a time. As the red and yellow M&Ms sneak into the classically Christmas decorated living room, they startle Santa who is laying out presents. Both declare that the other does exist, then Santa faints. 

In this video, the use of symbolism associated with the season creates a decidedly holiday atmosphere, letting the viewer immediately know this is a Christmas commercial. If you want to create a marketing video that evokes an immediate response in this way, be sure to use imagery the audience expects — which can vary greatly depending on the community or culture and its traditions.

Why It Works: There are lots of festive videos that tap into nostalgia. But, this classic ad stands out because it injects fun into the message. Moreover, the humorous spot is consistent with the brand. Which is especially impressive because humor is difficult. It can so easily fall flat, confuse, or even offend. When using humor, make sure everyone else gets the joke too. 

3. Christmas Miracle: Uniting Through Traditions (WestJet, 2019)

This unique holiday ad went viral in 2019. In the ad, WestJet surprises three different groups of people with unexpected visits from loved ones who live far away. As a Canadian airline, the theme of travel is easily on-brand while revolving the story around the joy of reunion. 

Why It Works: The internet loves a positive social experiment and this fits the bill perfectly. Travel is a core component of the video, yet it focuses on why we generally travel during the holidays: to visit those we love. If your team is feeling stuck on how to craft a marketing story, consider how your brand can make someone else’s holiday brighter.

2. Let It Snow (Campbell’s Soup, 1994)

This classic holiday commercial is one you may remember seeing on TV in the 1990s and 2000s. A snowman outside in the cold goes in for soup. At the table, the snowman begins to eat and melt, revealing a young boy. The narrator chimes in, “nothing melts away the cold like a delicious bowl of hot Campbell’s soup.” 

Why It Works: The brand solved the question of how to promote an ‘everyday’ product and make it appealing during a time when many people allow themselves a degree of excess. The marketing team behind the video looked at the properties of their product —  the comforting, warming attributes of soup — and worked out how these could fit in with the season and the message they wanted to share (eat our soup, it’s tasty!). 

There’s a place for every product over the festive period, and it doesn’t have to be costly or ostentatious either. A successful video comes from highlighting what makes a product special, important, and sincere. 

1. The Beginner (John Lewis & Partners, 2022)

The most recent holiday marketing video to go viral is also our favorite on the list. It’s one of the rare videos that succeeds at selling a brand without outwardly selling any products. The video opens with a couple clearly excited and preparing for something. The husband is slowly (emphasis on slowly) but surely learning how to skateboard. The ending is a heart-warming surprise, promoting a specific cause. 

Created by John Lewis & Partners, the UK brand sells everything from clothing and homegoods to sports gear and insurance. However, the company releases a story-based video ad every holiday season, with fans who now await the new video each year. Another viral hit from John Lewis & Partners features Elton John and moves chronologically backwards through his life, to the day he received a piano as a Christmas present when he was child. 

Why It Works: With over 3.5 million views at the time of writing, this advertisement not only feels wonderful to watch, it created a lot of positive public perception of the brand. Instead of carefully crafting a video to remind viewers to buy their products, the company chose to uplift a cause and create indirect buzz around their brand. As a holiday video marketing strategy, this approach embraces the parts of the holiday season that can’t be bought…and will likely sell a whole lot of products in doing so. 

How to Create a Great Holiday Marketing Video

We’ve featured some of the most memorable and viral holiday marketing advertisements. But a phenomenal marketing video doesn’t need to be from a big brand or have a large budget to be impactful. These tips will help you craft a video marketing strategy for the holiday season that connects with your audience.

Key tip: Don’t compare your commercial to corporations. Instead, focus on showcasing the important qualities of your products and the values of your brand. 

1. Center the Viewer’s Experience

Whether the commercial was funny, nostalgic, or heart-warming, all of the videos we featured centered the viewer’s experience. In other words, none of the videos directly sell a product. Some create a certain atmosphere, others rely on humor we can all appreciate, and many modern commercials touch on universal themes that are widely relatable and emotional. 

Whatever approach your holiday video takes, remember who it’s for and what it intends to convey. Unlike traditional advertising that showcases the reasons a customer should buy a product, holiday marketing is about creating an emotional connection. Even when the theme is sad, holiday ads are generally uplifting or jubilant as they conclude.

2. Include a Call-to-Action

As I’m sure you noticed, this list features mega brands with large marketing budgets. Aside from the Target ad (which had a very clear call-to-action), most of the videos focus on creating brand awareness, reminding customers of their existence during the holiday season. For medium and small businesses, create specific goals for your marketing video and ensure it aligns with the desired results. 

The Microsoft video, for example, promoted a niche product. But moreover, it buoyed public perception of the brand during a season that is focused on goodwill and kindness. The brand’s goal was likely not to sell a million Adaptive Controllers; rather to spread awareness of the product and convince consumers that Microsoft is a good company to buy from. 

For holiday marketing videos in particular, your call-to-action does not need to be direct.  For example, the Target ad directly promoted a 2-day sale, while the Apple commercial ended with, “share your gifts.” This is a very generally uplifting statement that implies you would create and share those talents with Apple products. 

3. Tell the Story of Why

Whether you want to pull on people’s heartstrings, make them laugh out loud, or sink into the fun of nostalgia, use your product or brand’s ‘why’ to determine what kind of story you should tell. For example, in the videos we featured above, every single ad focuses on why their existence matters to the viewer in some way: 

• The Coca-Cola ad showcases the comradery of witnessing a beautiful view with friends and family (and who doesn’t want a refreshing drink for the occasion). 
• The Apple ads promote the ways that people use technology and how that impacts their life and those around them.
• Even the series of Target ads with Maria Bamford pokes relatable fun at holiday sales while promoting one (at a store that will make your holiday shopping easier, of course)!

Consider your values as a brand, who your products matter to, and why your company exists. There’s a relatable story there that will warm hearts or make others giggle. 

If you’re inspired by these holiday marketing videos, there’s no time like the present to get started. Even if you’re working by yourself, you can achieve a professional result for your holiday video. For more helpful information, check out How to Produce High-Quality Videos on Your Own — perfect for solopreneurs and companies with a small team — and Create an Entertaining Holiday Video in Less Than a Week.

The post 10 Best Holiday Marketing Videos (and Why They Went Viral) appeared first on SproutVideo.

Fortunately, the brain has some favorite ways of helping us to overcome the issue of choice overload and when properly understood, smart video marketers can leverage these common cognitive shortcuts to better-serve their audience. Today, we’ll review the six principles of persuasion, taken from Dr. Robert B. Cialdini’s book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion”. We’ll take a look at the psychology behind each principle and share examples of how each can be effectively incorporated into your marketing videos.

Authority

Very early on in life, we are taught to listen to authority mainly in order to ensure our safety but also as a sign of respect. After all, parents and teachers know more than children not to mention they’re the ones controlling the rewards and punishments. As we get older, the authority figures we listen to may change (from parents and teachers to employers, police, and political leaders for example) but the societal stability and setting of expectations it affords us generally continues on and so we carry on in respecting authority figures.

We want to feel confident when we are choosing between different options. When we’re making a decision about something we don’t know very much about, we’re usually willing to listen to someone who does in order to bolster our decision-making confidence. This is true in any industry and you’ll often see it employed in fields like medicine and law where the stakes can be quite high if the wrong decision is made. There are three common ways you’ll see authority incorporated into brand messaging: Position of power, clothing, and trappings. Take a look at the following video to see how each can be incorporated:

In this video, Dr. Nichols immediately introduces herself using her various titles and sharing her professional experience. As a video marketer, simply including titles and experience as text overlays or directly in your script signals to your viewers that they can trust the knowledge and experience you offer, making them feel confident in the decision to purchase your services.

Additionally, Dr. Nichols presents herself extremely professionally – It’s no accident that she’s wearing a crisp white doctors coat or that in the shots of her working on patients, the coat is buttoned up so that you can see her name and title.

Perhaps the most subtle of the three ways to show authority is trappings but if you know what you’re looking for, you’ll notice it in this video: the b-roll shots of the beautiful, bright office and the subtle mention of her previous work experience in the high-end Upper East Side neighborhood. In just under one minute, Dr. Nichols has established that she is an authority in the practice of dermatology.

Likeability

Here’s a shocker for you: We are more likely to say yes to something when the person making the request (or pitch) is someone we like. Therefore when creating a video, the important question to ask yourself is “How do we make our audience like us?” Luckily for advertisers, social scientists have been on the case for decades and getting people to like you (or your brand) breaks down like this:

1. Physical Attractiveness: Good looks suggest other favorable traits such as integrity, humor, and dependability
2. Similarity: We like people we can relate to in terms of interests, opinions, personality, and background
3. Compliments: Receiving praises makes us feel good so we tend to like those who give it to us
4. Contact & Cooperation: There is a sense of commonality and community when we’re working to fulfill a common goal
5. Conditioning & Association: We like to support values and ideals that are similar to our own

The American bohemian apparel and lifestyle company Free People knows what makes their audience like them and their “Love What You Do” series proves it (without selling anything in particular in the videos). Instead, the brand features personable people who echo the interests, values, and aspirations of their customers. And yes, the featured people are good-looking.

Reciprocity

When we are offered something free first, we tend to feel a sense of indebtedness which leads to a specific action. In his book, Cialdini quotes cultural anthropologists Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox by including that “this ‘web of indebtedness’ (ie reciprocity) is a unique adaptive mechanism of human beings, allowing for the division of labor, the exchange of diverse forms of goods, the exchange of different services, and the creation of a cluster of interdependencies that bind individuals into highly efficient units.”

In short, it’s practically innate for humans to feel obligated to repay favors or freebies given to them and this is how we’ve gotten to where we are today.

Just like the other five principles of persuasion, once you know what to look for you begin to see this tactic being used everywhere in marketing by brands large and small. Free resources like e-books and webinars, free trials, and free samples are just some examples.

Incorporating reciprocity into your video marketing is as simple as including a call-to-action that encourages your viewer to download your insight-packed free e-book or, like the Netflix example above, to sign up to receive a free trial. Like Netflix does here, if you are requiring payment information from the video viewer, be upfront about it if and how you will use it so there is no confusion.

Consistency

Generally speaking, human beings prefer consistency. There are two explanations for this: We don’t have to think hard about an issue anymore in order to make a decision or we can avoid answers we’d prefer not to have to face by remaining consistent in our previous decision.

It’s easy to imagine how remaining consistent for consistency’s sake could go wrong but automatic consistency is useful in allowing us an economical and appropriate way of behaving most of the time. While some may use shady tactics such as “throwing a lowball”, there are ways in which honest marketers and salespeople can leverage the principle of consistency.

For instance, whenever a person takes a stand that is visible to others, there arises a drive to maintain that stand in order to look like a consistent person. Testimonials, already one of the most effective types of marketing videos, are a great vehicle for this. Even if the video doesn’t help to bring in a single new customer, the featured customer in the video is more likely to remain loyal to your brand once they have shared their support for your brand so publicly (and even more so if they share that video with friends and family on their own online channels!)

Another way to leverage the consistency principle in your video marketing efforts is to simply ask people to share your videos or to create videos about your brand, perhaps as part of a contest. Again, by publicly aligning themselves with your brand, people are likely to want to remain consistent in that public support (even if they don’t win the contest).  

Social Proof

The social proof principle states that we tend to have more trust in things that are popular or endorsed by people we trust. Social proof is an especially powerful motivator for people who are uncertain or unfamiliar with a product or service because instead of having to learn more about it, they can take their cue to purchase (or not) from those they see.

Some of the most popular ways to incorporate social proof into your marketing videos are to include approval from credible experts in the field, approval from large groups of other people (especially your viewers’ peers), approval from celebrities, and approval from past or present customers. These can come in the form of testimonials or, as the above example from Ancestry.com is, a customer stories.  

Scarcity

Last but not least is the principle of scarcity and perhaps the easiest way to think of this principle is in terms of “quality versus quantity”. That is, people tend to assume things that are difficult to obtain are better than those things that are easily available. The idea of missing out on something deemed “exclusive” or “limited” is enough to inspire action from many people.

So how can this be utilized in your video marketing efforts? Incorporate “limited number”, “limited time”, “exclusive” and “one-of-a-kind” language into your scripts, include the same information as text overlay on your videos and emphasize it when your call-to-action appears in the video. The goal is to create a sense of urgency and excitement so that your viewer feels moved to act. If you’re running a competition, use video to regularly update your audience of how many people have entered and how many days are left for them to enter; not only will this help to generate buzz but people have an inclination to want things more simply because other people also want them.

If getting people to say yes to what you’re offering was easy, we’d all be out of the job. As new technologies emerge, marketers have enormous opportunity to reach buyers in interesting and effective ways. However, competition is intense and buyers are inundated with offers. So what is a video marketer to do? Our advice: Keep up with evolving technologies but always trust the fundamentals of marketing to speak to your audience.

How do you use the six principles of persuasion in your video marketing? Is there a principle or two you find especially effective? Please share with us in the comments below or on Twitter @sproutvideo!

The post How to Use the Six Persuasion Principles in Your Video Marketing Campaigns appeared first on SproutVideo.

What if we were to tell you that there are some very good arguments for incorporating long-form videos into your video marketing strategy? What if we were to tell you that some of the best corporate videos out there are 10, 20, and 30+ minutes long? And, what if we told you that these types of video could lead to more engagement?

Below, we share five reasons that long-form video is a growing trend. Learn when to use long-form video (with examples), how to best measure the efficacy of your long-form video, and how to get the most mileage from it.

Long-Form Video: A Growing Trend

Before we dive in, what exactly do we mean by long-form video?

Long-form video is a video with a longer duration than is typical for its distribution channel. Some standards place the cut-off at eight minutes, but there is no universal rule for exactly how long a video has to be before it earns the designation of long-form.

For instance, a 100 second TV ad feels a heck of a lot longer than a 30 second spot. However, a two minute educational video might feel rushed, depending on the subject matter. As TED Talks have proven, up to 20 minutes might be optimal for complex topics.

Consumers Are Device-Agnostic.

In a world of ubiquitous wifi, unlimited data plans, and a premium on free time, the preferred device for watching video is generally the closest at hand. As consumers are becoming more and more device-agnostic, the expectation is that the same high-quality content will be available no matter where the user decides to watch it.

In fact, you’d be hard-pressed not to find someone watching video on any rush-hour metro commute or sitting in the reception room as they wait for an appointment. It has become the norm to access media wherever we go.

Improved video processing technology, and improved video delivery methods, mean that longer videos are no longer a problem on mobile devices.

Long-Form Video Is Everywhere.

For better or for worse, it’s safe to say that what becomes the norm on Facebook eventually becomes the norm everywhere online. Since early 2017, the social media powerhouse has been making the push for long-form video.

Facebook’s main interest is the ad dollars that can be generated from long-form video. But, they are also shaping online behavior in doing so. Facebook is now investing substantial amounts of money into long-form content series.

Beyond social media, long-form video is cropping up in unexpected places. Arguably, a 100+ second TV commercial from Toyota could be considered long-form. Longer videos are also proving more popular for B2B videos, as in-depth educational content becomes central to many marketing plans.

The Differentiator for Buyers Is the Connection.

Long-form video provides more opportunity for relationship and community-building. The strength of this connection to viewers might be the only differentiator between competing brands in the buyer’s eyes. Because consumers have the ability to easily compare prices and reviews of an item or service online, connecting with them emotionally is imperative to making the sale.

Especially for B2Bs, this is an important point because they must reach all of the people on the team who are part of the decision-making process. Long-form video grants the flexibility and the scope that is necessary to address complicated business challenges from a lot of different perspectives in a way that no other medium can.

It Can Be an SEO-Godsend.

Longer videos present specific advantages for video SEO. An in-depth video is likely to cover a topic very comprehensively, meaning it’s appropriate to include more long-tail search keywords in the video’s metadata.

Further, you’ll be keeping visitors on the page for longer periods of time. This sends positive engagement signals back to search engines, indicating your page is relevant for targeted search terms.

Finally, although this is far from a guarantee, a substantive, detailed resource is likely to earn more backlinks than a lightweight take. Not only are those potentially good sources of traffic in their own right, backlinks from authoritative websites can help boost your SEO standings.

It Can Be a Great Lead Qualifier for You.

Someone interested in a 10+ minute long video is less likely to be “kicking the tires,” so to speak. They’re much more likely to be a “hot” lead ready to make a purchase soon.

Using engagement analytics will tell you who who these leads are, where they are, and what parts of the video they’re most engaged with. You can use this information in your follow-up emails and phone calls to help focus the conversation on their specific interests.

Depending on how you are using video, it could make sense to automate much of the lead capture and follow up process. SproutVideo’s email capture feature, and customizable post-play screens make it possible to pass interested leads straight to the marketing platform of your choice.

Long-Form Video: Best Uses

United In a Dream: Documentary-Style

Everyone loves a good story. Long-form video presents unique opportunities to build a compelling story arch. You don’t have to rush the details. You can spend time getting to know characters. In this example, REI knocks it out of the park with the tale of Paul’s Boots.

This almost 40-minute long video is genius. It not only tells Paul’s story, but also those of everyone who helps to fulfill Paul’s dream. It’s entertaining all the way through.

As each enthusiastic hiker attaches Paul’s boots to their pack and hits the trail, you connect with the brand’s community through the challenges and life lessons each hiker shares. By weaving together so many different stories via a pair of boots and the long Appalachian Trail, the sense of camaraderie really shines through.

Although no REI product, except Paul’s boots, is specifically mentioned, it can be inferred that in addition to a tight-knit and active community, the brand also offers quality goods that can withstand nature and the elements.

Talk the Talk AND Walk the Walk: Culture Videos

People love to buy into a brand’s ethos, and video is the most effective way of communicating it. Additionally, people like to feel part of a community. It’s simply the way we’re programmed.

Hands-down, the best example of a company authentically doing this is Patagonia in their almost 28-minute video, “Worn Wear”.

They introduce us to Patagonia founder/rock-climber/environmentalist, Yvon Chouillard, and briefly share how the brand was started. The rest of the video features several of their customers who are living vastly different yet equally aspirational lives. Each customer tells us about their day-to-day existence through stories of a well-worn and clearly-loved piece of Patagonia clothing they own.

Between the music, stunning outdoor scenes, down-to-earth and passionate Patagonians’ stories, and environmentally-focused messaging sprinkled throughout this video, you understand that Patagonia is much more than a clothing brand. They’re a diehard community who value our earth.

It’s worth noting that Patagonia’s video collection features several long-form videos just like this one, all of which have thousands upon thousands of views.

It’s Easier To See Than To Explain: Educational Videos

Although slightly shorter than 10 minutes, GE’s “How GE Uses Wind To Help Power Nearly One Million German Homes” is just one video in their “Into the Wild” series of educational videos. The series helps to show all that the power company does.

At one point in this video, a GE employee says, “It’s easier to see than to explain,” which really sums up video marketing nicely! While it would be difficult (not to mention extremely dry) to explain what they do merely in words, sharing via long-form video allows GE to provide an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at some of the work they do.

Along the way, they explain difficult concepts using animated graphics, and answer questions from the video hosts. By using everyday people as hosts, the video helps humanize their brand. These educational videos may not tug at your heartstrings like Patagonia’s videos. However, they are certainly enlightening and more engaging than a simple blog post.

Long-Form Video: What Gets Measured Gets Done

You’ve seen a few examples of long-form video and are likely considering making your own. You may be wondering how to evaluate whether or not your video will be a success.

As always, it’s going to depend on the goal of your video. Here are some of the goals long-form video is especially suited for, and the corresponding metrics we think will be most useful to you.

If your goal is to increase brand familiarity, you want to get your video seen by as many people as possible. Use total video impressions and video plays to gauge your reach. To increase your reach, be sure to share your video with appropriate influencers, email lists, and on social media channels.

If your goal is to increase engagement, metrics like average video engagement are going to be your best friend. Why? Because the heatmap will show you exactly where viewers drop off and what they re-watch. This can inform your offerings and future video marketing efforts.

Another metric to keep an eye on regarding engagement is where and when your video is being shared. Is it being shared via social media, and if so, which platform? What blogs or discussion forums? Are people forwarding it on via email? Are you receiving questions from viewers via comments or email?

All of this counts as engagement. Any trends you can extrapolate should be factored into your video marketing strategy going forward.

Long Term Success with Long-Form Video

A lot of time, effort, and money goes into long-form video. So, we want to share a few ways for you to get as much mileage out of it as possible.

• Turn your first long-form video into a series. Use the same characters to build upon a story, topic, or theme.
• Speaking of characters, move those in your long-form videos across different channels to familiarize your online audience with them. People connect with people, so if you can feature a familiar face, you’ll likely see success.
• Atomize your long-form video content. Can you create shorter video snippets to share as teasers on social media or in a blog post?

Remember, the key to creating an engaging long-form video is storytelling. Each of the brands featured above found interesting angles and protagonists to work with. Replicating their success requires similar efforts to find the right hook, and the right people to deliver it.

Ready to make your first long-form video? Have questions? We’re always listening and would love to check out any you create. Drop us a line in the comments below or tweet at us @sproutvideo!

The post Long-Form Video: A Growing Trend in Marketing appeared first on SproutVideo.

Rather, you have to take into account a wide range of elements. From lighting to hyperlinks, special guests to authenticity, here’s a checklist of things all vloggers need to get right.

1. Rambling.

Consider what you want to say before appearing on camera. Learn the art of storytelling with The Secrets of Storytelling: 11 Ingredients for Better Videos.

2. Imitating your favorite vloggers.

There’s probably a long list of vloggers who have influenced you. But, coming up with your own content and style is by far the best homage you can pay to them. Be true to yourself and what you’re interested in, and you might just end up being someone else’s vlogging hero!

3. Failing to interact with your audience.

This doesn’t mean responding to each and every comment made by viewers, but from time to time it’s good manners to engage with feedback. Plus, it makes you more relatable. It’s win win!

4. Not being true to yourself.

If you try to assume a persona, your audience will know. The reason you started vlogging is because you have something to say, so focus on the message and your personality will shine through. The Best Way to Make Authentic Videos has lots of tips you won’t want to miss.

5. Inviting the wrong special guests.

These are guests who don’t have a message that your audience will be interested in. For example, if you’re a beauty vlogger, your best friend who’s a bug expert won’t have anything to say that’s of real value to them.

Super-vlogger Cassey Ho, who vlogs at Blogilates, understood the anxieties of her viewers and invited the ultra-talented musician and dancer Lindsey Stirling to make this vlog:

6. Not making time to set goals.

Decide what you want to achieve from vlogging and how you’re going to achieve it. A certain number of views? Becoming an influencer? Working with brands? Set milestones and deadlines to see if your content is achieving this.

7. Forgetting to include a CTA.

What should viewers do after watching your video? You could ask them to share it, signup for notifications of new posts, subscribe to a newsletter, or follow your brand on social media.

Whatever you ask them to do, make it as easy as possible for viewers to do it by linking to the relevant page right after your video concludes. Here’s how to include links in a post play screen using SproutVideo.

8. Following trends just to get views.

Unless you’re first to market with a breaking story or a really unique take, you’re unlikely to get traction. A wiser approach is to consistently make videos about topics you’re truly interested in. You’re more likely to attract a strong core audience.

Likewise, if everyone else is using a particular editing technique or special effect, ask yourself if this will add to your brand.

9. Negativity.

People want to be uplifted by video content. Vlogger Grace F. Victory creates hugely popular content that leaves viewers inspired and confident:

10. Poor lighting.

Because what’s the point if viewers can’t see you properly? Everything you need to know about lighting is in Video Production 101: Lighting.

11. Making long videos.

How long is too long? There’s no definitive answer, but evidence does show that people’s attention spans are decreasing – the average human attention span is now just eight seconds.

If you’re just starting out, we recommend making vlogs of a variety of lengths. Spend some time with your platform’s video engagement metrics and see how long most of your audience watch.

That analysis will give you the duration that is most appropriate for your viewer demographic. It’s possible it could vary by topic as well.

Our post Stop Right There! 11 Easy Ways to Grab Your Viewers’ Attention has some great pointers for engaging your audience from the outset.

12. Inconsistent posting.

If you’re going to be absent for a while, let your viewers know. Otherwise, they might assume you’re no longer vlogging and lose interest in your content.

13. Not making a vlogging plan.

This relates to the point above. Work out how many videos per month you realistically have time to make, then try your best to adhere to it. Have an idea of the content you want to cover on a monthly basis, leaving plenty of flexibility to address relevant topics when they crop up.

14. No social media plan.

Publicize new and older content on all relevant social media platforms. Don’t be shy about promoting videos that have been made some time ago, just be sure they are consistent with your brand.

15. Worrying about having the right tech.

You really don’t need to spend much to make great vlogs, we promise! Everything you need to know is in our post 6 Hacks for Making Great Video on a Tiny Budget.

The best vloggers are the ones who make it look easy, as if they’ve just turned on the camera and talked about what’s on their mind. But, it takes a lot of time and practice to make it look so effortless. Laying the groundwork with a vlogging plan, a solid understanding of your audience demographic, and great lighting will help to build your vlogging reputation.

Are you a vlogger? Share your top tips on making video with the SproutVideo community! We’d love to hear from you on Facebook or Twitter.

The post 15 Mistakes Vloggers Can’t Afford to Make appeared first on SproutVideo.

In this post, we share actionable tips on producing great content for the silent screen. We’ll take a look at the very best silent videos online and discuss how the brands got it right.

Soundless video: hurdle or opportunity?

As marketers, creativity is in our blood. That’s lucky, because when it comes to video making, there can be lots of hurdles to achieving great engagement. One of these hurdles arises from many viewers’ preference for silent video.

Rather than regarding silence as an obstacle, consider it an opportunity to showcase your video making skills. Thanks to the absence of distracting music, the audience won’t just be focusing more on your message. They will also be paying closer attention to the shots you choose, every expression made by the actors, and even Easter eggs you’ve hidden throughout the videos!

Soundless video is a means of communicating with viewers whose first language is different to your own. This is especially useful for organizations who are marketing in different territories. There’s no need to make videos in another language – just make it silent (and of course, ensure it’s culturally relevant and appropriate).

Top 10 Tips for Making Soundless Video

1. In the planning phase, distill your key message into visual elements.
2. Emotive storylines will help to hold viewers’ attention. We share our expertise in narrative in The Secret of Storytelling: 11 Ingredients for Better Videos.
3. People are interested in people, so start your videos with lifestyle shots featuring your product or service. We recommend checking out Anatomy of a Killer Establishing Shot if you want to get to grips with what makes an opening shot truly great.
4. A vivid background can grab viewers’ attention. If you’re interested in learning about proper set design, our post Setting the Stage for Your Video is a must-read!
5. Experiment with different editing techniques to spark interest.
6. Use graphics.
7. Captions are important, but should not compete with visual imagery. Don’t rely on the captions to tell the story. We explain exactly how to add captions using SproutVideo here.
8. Avoid using talking heads – this would require too much text.
9. You’ll have to be ruthless when you’re editing. If it doesn’t enhance the story, delete it!
10. Use split testing to boost comprehension, engagement and brand recall. How to Maximize Engagement by A/B Testing Videos has lots of helpful advice.

Our Favorite Soundless Videos

We challenge you to watch these videos with the volume muted. In this way, you’ll appreciate the methods used by the brands to make them engaging.

Huggies: Hug the Mess – Glitter

Thanks to the complete absence of dialogue, the need for captions has been removed. The visuals are bright and appealing, and who could fail to be charmed by the mischievous flying creatures!

Tasty: Four Ways series

The Tasty videos are instantly eye-catching thanks to their bright colors and use of hyperlapse style. There’s no preamble – they launch straight into cooking and deliver the facts quickly. Captions are minimal, so they don’t distract from the visuals.

Hotels.com: Silent Ad

A brave choice – it takes a gutsy marketing team to make a video that sets out to annoy its audience (watch this with the sound on and you’ll see what we mean)! This video hooks viewers by embracing silence rather than trying to work around it.

Mode: 100 Years of Fashion campaign

An engaging soundless video doesn’t have to be complex or packed with special effects.  This video has a simple backdrop and an uncomplicated, engaging story. If budget is a concern for your organization, spend some time watching this campaign for inspiration, then get filming!

Conclusion

With so many people choosing to mute videos, every video you make should speak for itself. The visuals must tell the story quickly, drawing viewers in with eye-catching production techniques and a simple storyline. Appeal to your viewers’ emotions with a storyline they can easily relate to. If captions are necessary, they should not distract from the visuals.

Whether you’re planning to upload your next video to your own website or social media (or both), consider how your audience will consume it. What’s the best combination of techniques to get your message across quickly and silently?

Share your favorite silent videos with the SproutVideo community on Facebook or Twitter!

The post How to Make the Perfect Soundless Video appeared first on SproutVideo.