This practice encourages brand growth by diversifying how customers connect with your content across marketing channels.

Video content repurposing also makes it easier to maximize your investment and find new audiences who connect with your offerings. 

Learn how to leverage the full value of your video content with these examples. Here are ten powerful ideas to drive ongoing growth with video content repurposing.  

What Is Content Repurposing?

Content repurposing is reformatting original content into different mediums (video, blog post, infographic, etc.) for various purposes or channels. It allows you to extend the life of video content and expand its potential reach with content distribution. 

For example, we shared a video on 2D animation for beginners in our Video Library. We also created a companion blog post optimized for search engines. We promoted the video with a social media short and clickable thumbnail in an email to our subscribers.

The Benefits of Repurposing Video Content

Video content repurposing provides exponential business benefits. Far beyond just saving marketers time, you can use content repurposing to:  

• Leverage Your Investment: Reuse high-converting videos for additional growth.
• Reach Different Audiences: Improve reach by engaging audiences where they are.
• Increase Accessibility: Share multiple formats to suit different preferences.
• Automate Growth: Extend the life of your content and increase lead generation.  

10 Powerful Ways To Repurpose Video Content

1. Advertisement

Turn longer videos into short advertisements for distribution across your ad network. This method allows you to share a consistent message and reinforce your branding with multiple audiences. 

Identify interesting soundbites, calls to action, and main selling points from your video. Then, use a video editing program to assemble these segments into an ad.

Since video ad lengths and optimization standards vary by platform, determine where you will share the video ad before you begin. Often, what works best varies by platform.

2. Live Stream

Host a live stream to share even more in-depth information about the topic you covered in your video. Live streams provide an exclusive, close-knit experience, allowing viewers to ask questions and get real-time answers. For this reason, live streams are effective for building brand trust, which can expedite your potential customer’s path to purchase. 

Live streams require a decent time investment; therefore, choose topics based on blog posts and videos that have led to new leads and successful purchases or subscriptions. 

3. Blog Post

Extend the life of your content by creating blog posts optimized for search from your videos. This method of repurposing video content is especially useful for expert interviews, current trends, and educational content. 

However, any video can become a blog post when you find the angle that hooks your audience. The post might offer behind-the-scenes insights or reflections on what could have gone better during the shoot—your imagination is the only limit!

When possible, plan ahead so you can capture behind-the-scenes images or videos. It’s also helpful to keep notes during the process or save documents used to collaborate with your team. 

For example, we wrote about producing an explainer video for less than $4k. We shared our experience to help others do the same. By providing hands-on guidance, we became a trusted source and connected with prospective customers. 

4. Email to Subscribers

Did you know that email marketing often outperforms most other channels? After all, opt-in subscribers asked to hear from you, which may be why email has one of the highest investment returns.

Promote your video’s value with an email to your subscribers. Guide subscribers to your video content or repurpose your video into newsletter form. 

When directing traffic to your video, use SproutVideo to easily embed a clickable thumbnail within the email to encourage click-throughs.

SproutVideo accounts also integrate with the email marketing platform of your choice, allowing you to automatically track the email addresses of anyone who clicks on this embed and review them in your engagement metrics.

5. Shareable Infographic

Convert one major takeaway from your video into an infographic. Infographics are especially popular on Pinterest but can be shared across many social platforms and included within your blog post, which opens up the possibility of ranking the image with search engines as well.  

Start by planning the key concepts and data points you want to use from your video. You can use stills to visualize your idea or borrow shots directly from the video. For instance, videos with motion graphics have graphic files that you can use for your infographic.

To create an infographic, you can use many online tools, including Canva, Piktochart, and Venngage. Photoshop and InDesign are also great choices.

6. Short Social Media Video

Social media shorts allow you to edit the sound bites, hooks, and key compelling information from your longer videos into highly digestible shorts. Social shorts are most effective for generating awareness with a broader audience and reaching new leads. 

To start, select the most shareable moments. Then, optimize your short video for the social media platform where your core buying audience is likely to be found. 

For example, we repurposed our video on Getting Started with Live Streaming into a social media short that we shared across our social media channels. 

Even if you only create private video content that is either monetized or reserved for your customers, consider selecting high-value clips to share publicly. This practice will provide insight into your offerings and entice viewers to want to learn more.

7. Downloadable Resource

When a video contains unique information or actionable advice, consider creating a downloadable resource to give viewers additional, free value. 

Determine what information from your video would be most helpful for viewers. Consider how you might compile this information into a format your viewers will use regularly—checklists, templates, reference sheets, and step-by-step how-to guides. 

Apply your branding style to the downloadable content so that users think of your company while appreciating the free value provided through this resource. 

For example, the companion blog for our video on The Basics of Video Editing in Premiere Pro includes a downloadable Keyboard Shortcuts cheat sheet. We turned this resource into a lead magnet, allowing us to gain new email subscribers in exchange for the resource.

8. GIFs and Images for Social Media

Capture GIFs and still images from your videos for use in promotional materials, social media posts, or supplemental images within a blog post. 

Using the SproutVideo platform, you can quickly grab any high-resolution frame from your video. To do this, select a custom thumbnail (poster frame) for the video. Choose Download at the top of the video settings page and save the Poster Frame.   

9. Podcast Episode

Podcasts can be distributed across many platforms, giving you an opportunity to reach new people while providing your current audience with an alternative way to engage.

In the U.S. alone, 47% of adults listened to a podcast in the last month. Many popular podcast formats exist, so determine which format best aligns with your content. 

When repurposing video content into a podcast, it can be challenging to convey the information without visual aids. If the visual aids are essential to the topic, you may need to restructure its presentation so it works without graphics. 

You can also include a call to action encouraging listeners to access additional resources on your website in the form of an infographic or downloadable PDF. 

10. Drip Email Campaign

Drip email campaigns are automated emails sent to subscribers who sign up to receive information about a specific topic. Think of them like mini-classes delivered by email. 

Drip emails are effective for building trust with new leads and lend to open rates that are significantly higher (up to 80%) than single-send emails.  

You can create drip campaigns from a series of videos or a longer video cut into shorter segments. Each email focuses on delivering one piece of information or a call to action. 

While newsletters come on your schedule, you can automatically send drip campaigns at a predetermined cadence (i.e., one email weekly for two months). You can also set up drip campaigns to be triggered by actions, such as signing up for a trial. 

For example, a video on video engagement techniques could offer a drip campaign that sends subscribers a weekly email for two months, each with a video example, insight into what makes it engaging, and how to apply those ideas to future video content. 

Bonus: Start a B-Roll Library

You can never have enough B-roll! B-roll footage creates smooth edits, illustrates dialogue, provides context, and adds an artistic touch to marketing or social videos.

After creating a new video, parse out any clips to add to your B-roll library. 

Keep these video clips organized and accessible so you can easily use them in the future and know what you have available when starting a project. 

Choosing The Best Methods For Your Business 

You can repurpose video content into a dozen formats. The key is to determine what aspect of your video hooks your audience and then center that value across mediums. 

When repurposing video content into other mediums, determine the content that will add the most value to your core audience’s lives. Then, focus on the marketing channels that allow you to reach that audience and build connections. 

Discover more ways to get the most out of your video content:

• Optimizing Videos for SEO — The Complete Guide
• 11 Evergreen Content Ideas with Video Examples
• Video Content Distribution: How to Maximize ROI Across Channels

The post 10 High-Impact Ways to Repurpose Video Content appeared first on SproutVideo.

In this episode of our How to Video: Camera series, we will be discussing the history of 360 cameras, some of the current consumer cameras, and who can benefit the most from this technology.

We haven’t used 360 cameras on a regular basis so we decided to bring in an expert to chat about these cameras with us. Conveniently, Tom Pagut, SproutVideo’s customer success lead, has been using 360 cameras for years. In this video, Tom and Nick discuss his specific use case, and how others could benefit from a 360 camera.

History of 360 

Before modern-day 360 cameras, typically the only way you could create an immersive experience was by using several cameras mounted on a vehicle to capture video in every outward direction. Then, you could project them onto different screens in a circle around an audience to create a full experience. This technique was called Circle-Vision 360, a method that the Walt Disney Company refined back in the 50s. 

Fast forward to the 90s and early 2000s with improved technology and editing software, we began to see a small subset of earlier adopters utilizing 360 videos to fully immerse their audience. Also around this time, news outlets began integrating it into their programming, generally to show a full view of an area, like the wreckage of Katrina in 2008 for example. 

Evolution of 360 Cameras

Fast forward to the mid-2010s, and 360 video was on the rise again. Facebook and YouTube introduced support for 360-degree playback in 2015, which corresponded with the rise of 360 consumer-level gear. 

Camera Rigs

It was around this time that technology started making the process much simpler. For a while, the best way to achieve this look was just improving upon the circle-vision method by creating a rig that could hold multiple cameras in a circle. 

One of the most famous rigs was the GoPro Omni. This device would sync six GoPro’s together to allow users to create a full 360-degree video. Since then, companies have created spherical devices with cameras built-in for professional and consumer use. 

A huge drawback of this method was portability and price. In some cases, you would need 6 cameras to fill out the rig, not something most people have. 

360 Cameras

However, around the same time these rigs were introduced, full-on 360 consumer-grade cameras broke into the market. Typically these cameras featured two ultra-wide or fisheye lenses back-to-back. This allows for each camera to capture video at an angle just over 180-degrees, which would then be stitched together to create a 360-degree object using software baked into the camera.

Today, you’ll find a whole host of different companies with their own iteration of the modern 360 camera. GoPro and Insta360 are two of the biggest in the field, but companies like Samsung, Ricoh, Vuze, and even Garmin have created 360 cameras at one point. 

Hype Fallout

Around the time these devices were released, you probably saw 360 and virtual reality video just about everywhere. Big brands were incorporating it into their marketing, content creators were making full videos with it, even the average person could pick up a phone adapter and upload a 360 video to Facebook. Sadly, before long, the razzle-dazzle wore off, and 360 videos sort of vanished from the main stage. Big brands went back to normal videos and people’s patience for scrolling around virtual videos ran thin. 

While it’s no longer trendy, there are some more practical uses for 360 cameras that might inspire a purchase in 2020 and beyond.

Getting The Most Out of 360 Video

After our discussion with Tom, who uses 360 cameras frequently for electric skateboarding, one main point really stood out. The best use for a 360 camera is not 360 video; it’s flat video. 

It’s the perfect tool to capture everything around you, then crop to show exactly what you want in a flat video. You don’t have to worry about framing your shot, or your subjects. If you’re filming by yourself, that’s pretty major. 

Just Capture Everything

When 360 first started out, viewers had to scroll around and explore the video on their own. While that was entertaining or useful in some limited applications, all too often, you felt like you were missing the action, the narrative, or both. 

Today, it’s best used to capture the world around you and then create a video that stays close to the action. The very nature of the camera will provide you the opportunity to capture all the action, and yourself, without much thought. This makes it perfect for solo filmmakers, behind-the-scenes footage, tutorials, and many other applications. With a 360 camera, gone are the days of hoping you got the shot. 

See the Insta360 One X2 in action on Tom’s instagram.

Typically you’ll see 360 cameras being marketed toward action sports enthusiasts because of their versatility, water-resistance, and gimbal-like qualities. But in reality, anything that requires more than one view could benefit from a camera like this. From a mechanic to a baker, or even someone doing a knitting tutorial, this camera is perfect for filming yourself and your subject simultaneously. 

Where 360 Cameras Fall Short

There are some drawbacks to 360 cameras. While a top-of-the-line model like the Insta 360 X2 can record in 5.7K, it can only output in 1080p resolution. This might be okay for social media, but it won’t be suitable for all productions. 

In that same vein, since it is capturing footage from two fisheye lenses, there is a much higher chance of distortion depending on the angle you choose to output. Lastly, like any smaller sensor camera, the image quality itself won’t match up to that of a full-frame camera.

While these cameras might not be the big spectacle they were made out to be back in 2015, they can still be an essential part of your kit when used correctly. What would you use a 360 camera for? Let us know in the comments below. 

The post The Best Way to Use a 360 Camera appeared first on SproutVideo.

Studies show that wellness programs bring employees together, build camaraderie, and in some cases can increase happiness in your employees, which is great news for everyone involved. In this post, we’ll look at ways to use video to enhance your employee wellness program and track its efficacy while your team is working remotely.

What is an Employee Wellness Program?

An employee wellness program is a program that encourages employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle. These programs can take several different forms, but most tend to cover physical health, mental health, and community-oriented initiatives. While companies are not required to provide employee wellness programs, it is a great way to attract new hires and keep your current employees happy.

During the COVID-19 crisis, these ideals are even more important. Most of us can’t do the activities we’re used to, and are stuck inside. As employers, it’s all about keeping people connected and sharing the information they need to know. It’s important to help employees find a new sense of purpose on the job during this stressful time.

Getting Started

The first step is getting an understanding of what your employees need. A simple assessment or poll can lead you in the right direction. For example, if 80% of employees are leaning toward fitness-related goals, that might be a great place to start.

Once you know what your employees want, the next step is to figure out how to get it to them. Many companies create a wellness committee, or partner with a wellness vendor or company to accomplish this. These individuals will own and advocate for any and all wellness-related activities. This includes creating a wellness policy, gathering feedback, facilitating tools, and more. For more information, check out The Balance’s 11 step guide to starting a wellness program.

Using Video To Promote Wellness

Communicating your newly crafted wellness project is the next step to ensure your efforts aren’t wasted. Video is one of the best ways to announce new initiatives and generate excitement.

Video Newsletter

Adding a video to your email newsletter is a great way to distribute helpful information. Not only will this boost click-through rates, but you’ll be able to use video analytics to see if your employees are watching the videos.

While most email clients don’t support video playback, using a specific email embed code that inserts your video poster frame is a great way to encourage readers to click on your video.

As far as the actual video is concerned, film a short video chock-full of wellness tips and tricks. This could be exercise tips, online fitness classes, new wellness trends, or even just reminders of work benefits that employees can utilize. Websites like Do Yoga With Me or the American Heart Association’s Cooking Skills are good examples of the type of resources you might share. A simple straight-to-camera video will be more than enough for this type of newsletter.

Once you have a format for your video, replicating it on a weekly basis will get easier and easier. If you’re stuck at home, one of our latest How To Video episodes covers the basics of filming yourself without the help of coworkers. Head to our Video Library to watch, “How to Film Yourself for a Professional Result.”

Daily Video Meetings

While this might not be exclusively for wellness, conducting daily video meetings can be extremely helpful when it comes to keeping everyone connected. Even if it’s just a quick update, making sure that employees are interacting with their coworkers face-to-face will remove conversational boundaries while curbing the feeling of isolation.

These meetings could be quick updates about what your employees need to know, how current events might be impacting the business, or even just a break for your employees to catch up and chat.

For video conferencing, there are a variety of options. We use WhereBy for our team meetings at SproutVideo. Wired recently compared 6 very popular video conferencing tools, which is a great place to start. Once you’ve chosen your video conferencing tool, set a recurring meeting and start chatting.

Wellness Videos

While a newsletter might provide information on programs or tips for wellness, creating videos on specific topics could also be a great way to promote your program and get employees involved.

Start by asking employees to share videos of their own personal wellness tips or practices. This can take many forms, such as videos featuring stretches that you can do at home, healthy recipe videos, or mental health tips. These videos can be especially engaging during a time when so many of us can’t see our friends and family.

Equally, you could find reliable resources online to share with your employees. These videos could be posted on a company intranet, shared in a video portal, communication channels like Slack, or sent via email.

Employee Progress Vlogs

One benefit of participating in a wellness challenge at work is the accountability that comes along with sharing your goals with your co-workers, but what if you’re all working from home? This is where progress vlogs come into play. Creating short progress vlogs is one way to keep the accountability aspect of wellness challenges going. Asking your employees to participate in progress vlogs shouldn’t be too difficult considering video chatting is becoming a regular occurrence.

For example, team weight loss challenges are a popular wellness trend. While it might be hard to record yourself doing your workout, sharing a quick 5-10 second video before or after your workout could be a fun way to stay accountable and utilize video. Of course, this could apply to any number of wellness challenges, so figure out which will work best for your team.

Bonus Content

Compile all the clips your employees have sent in, or anything you have that you know will get some laughs, and create a weekly highlight reel. This will without a doubt put a smile on everyone’s face and help people feel more connected.

Tracking Efficacy

One of the hardest parts of running a wellness program is knowing whether you’re reaching who you need to reach, and how effective your program is overall. Video can help with both fronts.

First, detailed analytics let you see exactly who is engaging with your videos. You can even see how much they watched, rewatched, or skipped.

You can also easily ensure these videos stay for employee eyes only. Use allowed domains when sharing on an intranet, or enable login protection or single sign-on if using a video portal.

Additional Help

As global numbers rise, more of us will be directly affected by the pandemic in one way or another. Unexpected grief, dramatic life changes, or more could be a result of this tough time.

While your employee wellness program can help, we’d also suggest making additional assistance widely available to your employees. Recommending online therapy solutions, such as BetterHelp or TalkSpace, both of which offer video sessions, solid starting point.

We’re very curious to hear how other companies are adjusting their wellness plans to better accommodate a remote workforce. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments below.

The post Using Video To Promote Employee Wellness appeared first on SproutVideo.

Yet, there are signs of hope. More people are conscious of their impact on the environment, and making changes for the better. A large part of why many are finding new motivation to help the environment is video.

Video shines a light on the far-flung reaches of the world, where many people would never travel on their own. It creates a connection with the plight of animals under environmental distress due to habit loss or other factors. And, as a result, it inspires action in a way that few other sources of information can achieve. Keep reading for our thoughts on why video just might save the planet, and steps you can take to help.

Awareness

The first step to solving any problem is awareness that the problem exists in the first place. Video has played a crucial role in highlighting environmental issues that otherwise would not get the attention they deserve.

For example, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 was said to be on a scale greater than any other spill in history. But what does that really mean? How would you know how bad it really was if you weren’t there to see it?

There was dramatic video of the disaster unfolding at the surface, but there was also a livestream of thousands of gallons of oil gushing underwater that went on for months. That video feed made sure the catastrophe remained in the public consciousness until its eventual resolution. Footage from the disaster is still used from time to time when offshore drilling is in the news.

It’s easy to see how a serious problem bubbling under the surface could escape public notice. Video played a key role in pressuring officials and BP to solve the oil leak.

Our Planet

More recently, Our Planet, a Netflix special featuring the venerable David Attenborough, was released. A notable theme running through all the beautiful and remarkable footage was human impact on the environment. Hear from Mr. Attenborough why it was important to approach this series differently than past documentaries:

”Nature once determined how we survive. Now we determine how nature survives.” – Sir David Attenborough @OurPlanet @Netflix #ShareOurPlanet #OurPlanet pic.twitter.com/vJw5POVAf2

— World Wildlife Fund (@World_Wildlife) April 12, 2019

As animals face shrinking habitats and the consequences of a rapidly changing climate, they’re often driven into desperate and unusual circumstances. In painful, occasionally controversial moments, this series forced viewers to confront the sad reality many species experience on Earth.

Importantly, as more people viewed Our Planet and reacted to it, the conversation quickly moved to the mainstream. A simple news article about the shrinking habitats of walruses would not have been able to achieve the same reach.

Connection

By giving audiences a front row seat to the perils of environmental destruction, video allows viewers to forge a connection with places, animals, and causes they otherwise would not. The key is the emotions video can trigger for viewers.

For example, many expressed dismay and sadness over scenes in Our Planet on social media:

Me watching a baby flamingo with salt encrusted legs get LEFT BEHIND on #OurPlanet: pic.twitter.com/kaXcFxYMRE

— Taylor Armitage (@taylor_armitage) April 13, 2019

This series cut straight to the heartstrings in many scenes, as other documentaries have done before. As it turns out, emotions play a key role in forming memories. This means audiences are more likely to remember details from provocative documentaries like Our Planet. Keeping environmental issues top of mind for consumers is key to changing their behavior.

Action

By forging an emotional connection with viewers, Our Planet stands a better chance at motivating its audience to take action. There’s even concrete evidence of a so-called “Attenborough Effect.”

David Attenborough is synonymous with powerful, visually stunning nature documentaries. Recently, he’s also been associated with driving environmentally-friendly lifestyle changes amongst consumers.

A study of 3,833 consumers by GlobalWebIndex found the “Attenborough Effect” had led to a 53% drop in single-use plastics over the course of twelve months. Consumers reported greater awareness of the importance of sustainable packaging. They specifically mentioned documentaries like Blue Planet II and Our Planet as impacting their behavior.

This is no accident. Our Planet has a series of videos on its website with additional clips of David Attenborough promoting important environmental initiatives. They are not just hooking viewers with captivating and harrowing imagery, they’re also helping them take action.

So, Can Video Save the Planet?

The truth is, while video can bring greater awareness to environmental issues, and make consumers more likely to change their behavior, no single factor alone can save the Earth. Not even this amazing video from Lil’ Dicky (contains some NSFW language).

We all have to work to change our habits to reduce, reuse, and recycle. More than that, we also have to support organizations that rehabilitate natural habitats and promote environmental welfare at scale.

SproutVideo is a proud sponsor of the National Forest Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to revitalizing forests and planting new trees. This Earth Day, find a cause you care about, and if possible, support a reputable organization that addresses it.

Artwork by Heather Ivins

How are you giving back to the planet this Earth Day? Please share in the comments below!

The post Can Video Save the Planet? appeared first on SproutVideo.

Before things get out of hand, you need to start engaging with your customers in a helpful and meaningful way. That’s where video comes in.

Video can be a powerful tool to respond to your audience in a time of crisis. However, there are several keys to getting it right. From employing empathy, to adding value, and showing rather than telling, here’s our guide to fighting fires with online video.

Why It Works

Compared to other mediums, video allows you to convey more emotions more effectively. People can see and hear how you deliver your message. That’s particularly powerful when empathy really counts.

For instance, it’s one thing to write, “We are sorry for this issue.” It’s quite another to record a short video to a customer apologizing to them directly. It feels more personal, because it is.

Written responses, although concise and easier to produce, tend to feel scripted and automated. This can leave your online community feeling like they’ve been given a “stock response” rather than a genuine interaction.

In this case, it’s ok if the video isn’t totally polished. It’s ok if the camera angle is a little off. What’s most important is that you really mean what you say.

It’s unexpected.

Although nearly all companies leverage video for marketing, far fewer use it as a tool for addressing customer problems or concerns. Video responses will help your brand stand out. If done strategically and authentically, you will surprise and delight your audience.

It’s responsive & timely.

Speedy customer responses show you’re listening and eager to engage with your online community. If you’re able to share authentic and professional video replies quickly and efficiently, you might even be able to get ahead of the game.

Chances are, others are skimming the complaints, but not reading your replies to each one. Video stands out and helps draw attention to your message. People are more likely to be impressed by your attention to issues and your dedication to helping individuals.

When You Should Use It

It’s true that you don’t always need to make a video in response to every customer issue. You’d be overwhelmed, and customers would disengage.

In order to keep the video responses feeling authentic, it’s important to pick and choose the perfect situations to use them. Before you hit record, ask yourself, “How does this add value to the viewer?”

Your video should provide information that can’t be easily conveyed with the written word. It should show, and not just tell, the story of what went wrong, and how you’re going to fix it. It should leave the viewer feeling positive, friendly, and upbeat, even if things are not going well currently.

Here are some general situations where you might find video is your best not-so-secret weapon.

As a PR crisis tool.

Some things are unpredictable. Mistakes happen, and problems can occur with the services or goods your company is providing.

Whether it is out of your control or a genuine error doesn’t really matter. The key is that your customers are very unhappy.

Producing a video response is a succinct and professional way of delivering a useful explanation for the problem, and your plan of action to solve it. You may still want to cite specific complaints in order to address them individually, and be sure to provide honest and genuine apologies for the disrupted service.

As a thank you.

Not all fires are bad. Sometimes, positive messages about your company or brand spread rapidly online, and you need to jump in and participate in the conversation.

For instance, short, snappy video content can be an effective way to respond to social media posts. Perhaps an online personality or influencer has mentioned your products or services. A video response from your brand can tap into the excitement, and help engage their followers.

You could even use the video to encourage the influencer to be in touch via direct message. That way, you can send them some free swag, or discuss sponsorships, giveaways, or even affiliate programs they might be interested in.

Of course, not only the “internet famous” will be talking about your products. All platforms allow for consumers to post their own thoughts and experiences.

If you spot someone using your products in a novel or interesting way, make a short video to engage with them. All you need is a quick video to say “Hey, ABC, that’s awesome! Thanks for sharing!”

This type of video will help fuel the excitement and discussion, and increase the community’s engagement with your brand. Bonus points if your video features someone from the company they’ll recognize – like the CEO or an employee with name recognition in the community.

As a mode of clarification.

See some confusion or disagreement in a lengthy online discussion? Jump in with a quick and clear video to clarify the details and thank everyone for being part of such a passionate community. It is especially important to make sure that the video is first and foremost appreciative of the community, and isn’t singling anyone out. Just make sure your intervention helps to quell the fire, not fuel it!

This could also be used as an opportunity to quickly demonstrate a product if the confusion lies in how to best use it. Or, suggest alternative uses of the product. This is then not only an effective response, but a resource your customers can return to again and again for information.

Where to Use It

The best place to leverage video really depends on where your audience is most active, and your goal for sharing your video. You may even find a multi-pronged approach is necessary.

For example, if your audience is primarily posting about you on social media, quick video responses to individuals might be merited. Or, you can leverage tools specific to each platform, like Instagram’s question feature, or Facebook’s live streaming.

However, if you’re facing a larger crisis, your company blog might be the best place to release a more in-depth video. Then, use social media posts to direct traffic to your blog to ensure it reaches the right people.

Using the Power of Video Successfully

Different circumstances require different approaches to the video content being deployed. Here’s a breakdown of how to create several types of videos that you may need to fight fires online.

Short, snappy response style:

If you’re looking to post a quick response, whether on Twitter, Instagram, or your company blog, you don’t need much. Just find an interesting backdrop and (if you’re not doing the talking yourself) someone happy and willing to chat into a camera.

For this, production time is likely to be mere seconds. As for equipment, all you need is a phone or tablet with a front-facing camera, and a smile.

Try not to be too scripted or repetitive. However, writing out key points to cover will help ensure you don’t leave anything out.

Also, accuracy is key. You only have a few seconds, so be sure everything you are saying will help solve problems for your customers, and won’t cause any additional headaches.

Gary Vee: Valuable audience engagement

For an illustrative example of this type of video, meet Gary Vaynerchuck (@GaryVee). He’s a notorious online personality and entrepreneur. He is best known for his work in digital marketing and social media, and has published five books about entrepreneurship and social media strategy.

Gary Vee also chronicles his life on his YouTube channel with a massive 1.5 million subscribers. Whether you love him or hate him, he knows how to create an audience and keep them interested, so it’s worth paying attention.

How he’s using video

Gary Vee has been using video to respond to individual members of his community since Twitter introduced the option to post short videos around four years ago. In a blog post titled “Why Twitter’s new video feature matters for engagement, not just content,” he details the ways in which he uses Twitter videos to respond to his audience, and why these interactions are valuable. A video, for instance, is much more visual and personal without adding too much more time or effort on his part.

“It takes me nine to twelve seconds to make a video and reply, but those extra seconds hold a lot of meaning.”

These interactions are invaluable to us as the audience. It feels exciting when a celebrity, company, or influencer we admire likes a Tweet or responds to a comment we’ve posted.

To receive a video with that person speaking directly to us is much more intimate and direct. As a result, the individual has a more authentic and memorable interaction and comes away with a positive association. In comparison, a quick text response can be easily misconstrued.

Larger-scale, professional video:

For larger projects (perhaps PR apologies or big-gesture thank you’s) it might be wise to spend more time planning and scripting so that nothing important gets left out along the way.

• Try storyboarding the video so you know what needs to be shot and you or your editor has a guide to follow in post-production. This way, you can assess details such as shooting locations and projected run-time before the cameras start rolling. We have a useful guide about how and why you should storyboard videos that you can check out here.
• Script the video. This is particularly vital if you’re using video to apologize during a PR crisis. Scripting helps ensure nothing gets omitted or potentially misunderstood.
• Cast the video. You needn’t hold full-scale auditions, but it’s important to make sure your audience is seeing someone relatable. They’ll be much more likely to listen and respond. For apology-type videos, it would be suitable to have the CEO, or someone of similar status, so the community understands the video is serious and genuine. For something more lighthearted, you can be more creative.
• Go for a little more polish. You don’t need to put on a full Hollywood production. Make sure the lighting is flattering, the audio is clear, and the backdrop isn’t too busy. Keep it simple, and focus on your message.

Using video to respond to your customers and online community is a thoughtful and often unexpected form of engagement. When done well, it’s sure to leave a lasting positive impression for the individual. Whether to answer quick-fire questions, or to make a formal announcement or apology, a well-produced video will help you impress your consumers, and stand out against competitors online!

The post Firefighting: How to Use Video to Respond Quickly Online appeared first on SproutVideo.

However, corporate communications can be a real asset, especially with the introduction of video. From recruiting, to retention, and improving the efficiency of a workforce, corporate communications offers a lot of potential upside to companies that get it right.

Here’s our guide to modernizing your corporate communications strategy with video.

Transparency

First and foremost, you have to throw the old rule book out the window. Corporate communications used to be about the control of internal information. This meant a lot of the information being transmitted was opaque and vague, and centered exclusively around the firm’s interests.

Today, transparency is the name of the game. Rather than fighting the flow of information, the role of corporate communications has shifted to guiding it and shaping it. The fact of the matter is that nearly any issue will come to light eventually. Whether it’s leaked or announced intentionally, companies can count on their employees, and the general public, finding out sooner or later.

Take the VW emissions scandal. While attempting to thwart regulators on clean air regulations is bad enough, the worst aspect of the scandal was the lengths to which the company went to cover it up. It immediately begs the question: what else are they hiding?

Often, the way the company discloses a difficult truth affects the public’s perception more than the truth itself. Hearing directly from company executives can make a huge difference in the way their handling of a crisis is portrayed.

Decentralize

Sure, at times, company employees need to keep sensitive information under wraps. For instance, in the lead-up to an IPO or an acquisition, it’s typical for details to be very hush-hush.

The rest of the time, you’re better off relaxing the rules regarding who can talk about company initiatives. First of all, employees are likely to do so anyway. Secondly, you may find they are quite effective at communicating positive information about your company. In fact, the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer found that “trust in businesses and CEOs is falling; at the same time, there’s a marked increase in the credibility of a “person like me.”‘

Encourage your employees to help communicate positive company information by expanding their participation in videos. Featuring real employees who are involved with different company events or impacted by new policies will help bring authenticity to your content.

No More Internal Vs External

Related to the importance of transparency detailed above, there is no such thing as internal vs external communications. Plan for everything to be external, whether that’s how you plan to distribute it or not.

Why? In case it’s shared online, it won’t be awkward, or worse, damaging to your company’s reputation. It’s best to plan for the worst, and hope for the best when it comes to online sharing. Besides, there are usually opportunities to position your company in a positive light no matter what happened.

While it might be a bit intimidating to think about jumping in front of the camera to apologize for a major mistake or misjudgment your company has made, think about how much more personal and effective video apologies following these two PR disasters would’ve been: Apple’s 2017 battery performance issue and Uber’s 2016 customer data breach.

Adding a human element to their apologies couldn’t have done any more damage to either situation and might have helped to soften the blows.

Ok, Sometimes You Need Internal Video to Stay Internal

If you need to ensure that a particular video is not shared beyond your company’s walls, SproutVideo has specific privacy tools that can help.

For starters, login protection is an easy way to assign video permissions to individuals. You can control their access, and track it on a very granular level.

To restrict sharing to a specific network, you can whitelist your company’s IP address. Then, only viewers on approved connections will be able to load and play your videos.

Single-sign-on is another option for companies that already have an Identity Provider in place. It enables viewers to use their company credentials to access videos on the SproutVideo platform, ensuring only employees can view the content.

Meet Your Audience Where They Already Are

General Electric has been hard at work modernizing their culture, and their corporate communications strategy too.

Their CEO, Jeff Immelt, sat down for a video interview with the Senior Editor of Linkedin. Why Linkedin, and not a major news publication?

Because GE knows that’s where their audience is likely to be found. By releasing videos, company news, and even company-wide emails to employees on social media, GE is reaching not just existing employees, but prospective recruits too. All the while, they’re building a stellar reputation for transparency.

Story-Telling

When it comes to corporate communications, the old approach relied on telling just the facts. However, people often get a lot more information out of stories that provide additional context and details. And, does it hurt if they are entertained in the process?

Video opens up many more opportunities for storytelling than written announcements. You can introduce characters, create a plot, and use creative visuals to get your point across. For instance, promoting a new, generous family paid leave policy is a great opportunity to show your company really cares about its employees. It’s also a powerful recruiting and retention tool. Will a press release with bullet-pointed facts get that across?

Since you’re fighting for attention, think of video as your secret weapon to compelling storytelling. You can hook viewers and get your message across, before they even realize they’re watching a marketing video.

No matter the industry, technology has changed our work spaces and the ways we communicate. For many years now, developments like email and texting increased the appeal and expectations of quick work and communications being done. Now, perhaps somewhat in reaction to that, there is a real demand for more personable, human communications (both external and internal) and yet no one seems ready to give up the speed in which we’ve become accustomed to. Fortunately, video grants both: In-real-time communication with a human touch.

Tell us how you are using video to effectively communicate among your employees and share questions you have about how to better do this – We’re listening! Share in the comments below or catch us Twitter @sproutvideo.

The post Modernize Your Corporate Communications Strategy with Video appeared first on SproutVideo.

Today, that’s where drones come in. Increasingly affordable, and very technologically advanced, a drone might be the best purchase you make all year. This post is all about the types of shots you can only get with a drone to help inspire you once you finally take the plunge.

Car Chase

Drones are perfect for capturing driving scenes. If you program the route ahead of time, and coordinate the speed of the car and timing, you’ll reduce the chances of going off course.

If you’re using a Phantom drone from DJI, you can preprogram a route by using the course lock setting. This will ensure your drone follows a set path when it embarks on its flight.

You can use shots of a car driving to transition between scenes, as an introductory or ending sequence, as part of a montage, or to heighten drama.

Be sure that you’ve taken all safety precautions to ensure you aren’t breaking any laws or endangering anyone’s wellbeing if you attempt this. Be mindful of your surroundings, other cars on the road, road signs, overpasses, or any other potential obstacles.

Moving Low to the Ground

Although drones are probably best known for their ability to fly high in the sky, they are also extremely adept at maneuvering closer to earth. The ability of a drone to hover steadily without wavering is truly impressive.

Forget putting your tripod on wheels, buying an expensive wearable stabilizer, or setting up complex camera tracks to get smooth moving shots. You could almost leave the tripod at home!

Since capturing audio with a drone isn’t practical due to the noise emitted from the quadcopter, action scenes without key audio or dialogue are a natural fit. This type of footage might best serve as b-roll footage, to help you tell your story as it unfolds.

Think about flying under bridges, trees, or other overhanging obstacles. You can also track action happening on the ground, such as a soccer game, or two characters walking.

Over Water

The trouble with scenes happening on bodies of water is not just the risk to the camera gear if something tips overboard. You also have to worry about the natural pitch of the boat or flotation device on the water. If your camera is constantly bobbing up and down, it can really mess up your shot.

Drones obviate that issue, enabling you to capture steady shots even if you’re out to sea. In fact, they could be considered essential equipment if any of your video takes place on or near a body of water.

With a drone, you can dramatically expand the types of shots you can get in an aquatic environment. You can fly high over a boat to demonstrate the scale of a scene (or the boat), or you can hover just a short distance from the boat to capture a more intimate scene.

Of course, we recommend exercising caution and good judgment if you’re flying expensive equipment over water. Be sure to stay within range, and watch closely for any signs of trouble connecting with the drone.

Cityscapes

If you live in an impressive city, such as NYC where SproutVideo is based, a drone is your new best friend.

Footage of city life, including crowds of pedestrians, people playing in a park, boats going by on a river, traffic on bridges, or monuments the city is known for, are all great shots. The thrum of activity in urban areas makes for excellent b-roll footage.

If you need to establish a sense of place, cut to a new scene, or introduce a video, these types of shots are really popular choices.

Be sure to respect all local laws when filming. For instance, you might need to get permission or a license to fly a drone in a specific area. You also might need to get release forms when featuring people in a video. And as always, safety first. Don’t fly a drone near people if it might put them in harm’s way.

Sunsets or Sunrises

No matter where you are, there’s something about the movement of the sun that seems significant. Maybe it’s the poetic passage of time, the beautiful colors, or the gentle reminder that what goes up must come down.

Either way, there’s no better way to capture a sunrise or sunset on camera than with a slowly rising drone filming in 4K. Check out this raw footage we captured when we took our DJI Phantom drone on our company retreat to the Dominican Republic:

Gorgeous, right?

Points of Interest

The ability to program a drone to slowly circle around an object opens up a lot of possibilities. For monuments, points of interest, or even a scene as it unfolds, it has endless applications.

Showing all sides to a scene or an object helps draw viewers in, and creates a very intimate emotional connection. It can also heighten excitement, depending on how quickly the drone is moving.

Property Videos

If you’re selling a home, especially an expansive estate, what better way to show it all off than with drone footage?

You can soar over the roof, showcase a pool, or simply capture the layout of the property with a bird’s eye view. It’s also a great way to make it clear where the house is located in proximity to other properties.

Crowds at Events

Sometimes, it’s not just what’s unfolding at a crowded event that’s exciting. Sometimes it’s the crowd itself!

Showing the scale of a throng of people can really bring home the impact of the event that’s taking place. Send the drone up high, and slowly pan across the crowd to capture an amazing shot.

If you attempt this, be careful to maintain a safe distance from the crowd and the stage. Make sure to get all required permissions from the event organizers, as well as the local authorities, as applicable.

Long Continuous Shots

Since drones aren’t fixed to the earth, they can be used in more agile ways than any other camera set up. For instance, if you are transitioning from one place to another, with action unfolding the entire time, a drone might be your only option for filming.

As this video from the band OK Go shows, you can get really creative when you no longer have to pause the action, and move a tripod between scenes:

This video was filmed entirely with a drone, and really displays their versatility, unlocking all sorts of creativity!

New Perspective

Sometimes, you want to create a sense of space or drama, that only a change in perspective can bring. Drones are perfect for this because of their high-flying capabilities.

Some of the most interesting shots are those taken when a drone is hovering high up, with the camera pointing straight down.

Seeing how small something looks from that vantage point, or the amount of empty space surrounding a scene, can really change the tone and emotional charge of a video.

It’s something to experiment with. See if it fits with your particular project and message, and if so, run with it!

Do you have a drone? How do you use it? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

The post Amazingly Useful Footage You Can Only Capture With a Drone appeared first on SproutVideo.

From performance analysis, to teaching assistance, let’s take a look at video can be used to unleash an athlete’s potential, and the lessons we can put into practice off the field.

Total Recall

Sports players frequently have to learn and perfect new moves on an ongoing basis, from footballers, to gymnasts, to synchronized swimmers. The same is true for your website visitors, especially if you are launching new features, or changing a specific workflow.

Make a video detailing what’s new, and how your audience can best use it to their advantage. Using visuals rather than text can boost learning and retention significantly, making it more likely your users will change their behavior.

Remote Training

We live in a world where distance doesn’t have to be a barrier to, well, anything. When it comes to sports training, athletes at every level need to ensure that they are doing all the right things to maintain their optimal fitness level. Video enables coaches from all over the world to demonstrate techniques and share tips. Meanwhile, athletes can record themselves training so the coach can quickly remedy any errors.

Not only can you use video to facilitate remote training within your company, but you can also use it to connect with subject matter experts for interviews, panel discussions, and more. That type of content can be repurposed in many ways, such as in support of a white paper or as email-gated content for lead generation.

Recording the Athlete’s Own Perspective

When the sportsperson is out there on the field, they’re on their own. Even if they’re a member of a team, as an individual, their performance must be faultless, especially when they’re under pressure. But, it can be hard to explain why a snap judgment decision was made after the final whistle is blown.

By using video recording technology like a GoPro, athletes can record themselves and re-watch the video for instant feedback on their performance. They can see where they did well, and where they need to focus attention.

You can bring that behind-the-scenes approach within your organization, literally with a GoPro, or just with a regular camera. This could help with recruiting, connecting with far-flung teams, or celebrating a departmental victory of some kind.

Tip Top Technique

Whatever sport an athlete plays, their technique has to be nearly perfect to enable them to progress and play to their full potential. Creating a solid foundation with strong technical skills is especially important for those who are at the beginning of their career. It is far easier to correct mistakes before they become ingrained. Using video, athletes and their coaches can closely watch the mechanics of movement and concentrate on developing the right posture, form, and motion to take them to the next level.

For video marketers, rehearsing a pitch or a speech on video is a great way to ensure you’re at the top of your game before you present your material in front of any third parties. Pretend you’re talking directly to your targeted audience, and work through all of your talking points. Then, force yourself to watch your performance, and listen critically for any weak points or areas that need improvement. This process might be painful, but it’s better to catch any issues well before you take your content live.

Preventing Further Injury

Athletes who injure a specific part of their body are more likely to hurt that part of their body again. Video technology enables coaches, physiotherapists and surgeons to see precisely how athletes use their body. They can watch the athletes’ movements and see the stresses they are placing on the joints and muscles. The motions that cause the injury can be modified and recurrent injury stopped.

A less fun side to video marketing can be managing a brand during a crisis. Maybe your company had to recall some products, got on the wrong side of a Tweet storm, or misstated important numbers. No matter what the problem is, issuing a video as a statement reassuring your customers about the steps being taken to prevent any further problems can go a long way to restoring trust and confidence in your brand.

As anyone who has ever received a strongly worded email or text can attest, the written word doesn’t have the same emotional content as hearing or seeing how someone says the exact same thing, which is part of why video is so important for a brand in crisis.

Competitive Analysis

Athletes need to be aware of the competition as well as their own performance. Thanks to video, they can now see clearly where the competition is going to score points, so they can factor this information into their own strategy.

Make a point of watching your competitors’ videos on social media and Youtube to learn about their messaging and upcoming product releases. Consider how they are angling for your target customers, and think strategically about how best to counter their value propositions with your own. We’d never advocate for copying or emulating what your competitors are doing, but understanding their game is a big part of staying ahead.

Ready Replay

Match officials can make mistakes, errors that can have career-changing impacts on the players. Thanks to video, the current system of instant replay has been a feature of the NFL since 1999. In addition to reviewing play, instant replay can be used by players’ doctors and trainers to ascertain how an injury happened, especially in relation to injuries such as concussion where the player is unable to give an accurate account.

Instant replay is a great tool to use for recorded events that you then post online for attendees, or those not present when it unfolded live, to watch at a later date. Think of conferences, panel discussions, expert interviews, or day-in-the-life coverage of what it’s like to work at your company. Publishing your video online for further viewing helps get maximum value out of your content.

Promote Perfect Performances

From athletes at school looking to get their name in front of coaches for a college sports scholarship, to semi-professional athletes wishing to take their career to the next level, video gets sportspeople noticed. Record a great performance and an interview where they share their aspirations, and promote it online or email it to the intended viewer – it’s easy. Video brings their achievements to the attention of the right people.

Similarly, video is one of the best tools in your arsenal for driving thought leadership – the non-athletic equivalent of being the best in your field. Interviewing your company’s leadership in a subject matter expert series can help showcase why you’re at the forefront of your market, or why a new product will be so ground-breaking by highlighting the expertise that went into it.

Recap

Even if you haven’t set foot on an athletic field for a decade and your swimsuit is stashed in the back of your closet, the ways in which athletes use video can be meaningful for you too:

• Use video to educate your users about a new workflow or product feature to take advantage of the boost it gives to retention and learning.
• Don’t let distance hold you back – use video to facilitate intra-company training, and to connect with subject matter experts to generate valuable, multi-purpose content.
• GoPro is an effective way of recording a behind-the-scenes video. Use a GoPro to show others what happens in your office or during a Town Hall.
• Use video to record your performance during public speaking engagements and re-watch to see where you can improve.
• Mitigate damage during a brand crisis by leveraging video for important communications to bolster confidence and trust in your brand.
• Study how your competitors are using video to improve your market intelligence and to keep ahead of the game.
• Instant replay is used to improve accuracy, or to keep the buzz going after an event, whether it happened online or offline.
• Just as athletes promote themselves to coaches or to local companies for sponsorship deals, you can use it just as effectively to establish thought leadership within a given domain.

Video has so many uses, both on and off the field. Have you developed any interesting or unusual ways to use video in your area of expertise? Share below or on Twitter!

The post Eight Unexpected Video Marketing Lessons from Sports appeared first on SproutVideo.

Virtual reality is one of those concepts that has been on the horizon for what seems like a really long time. It’s been the subject of movies, TV shows, books, articles and various other forms of speculation. Even the phrase “virtual reality” has been used so often and for so long that the actual meaning has become somewhat murky.

Recently, the technology has caught up to the hype. No longer confined to films and the occasional lab or trade show, VR is actually becoming a thing that we normal people can experience—to some degree anyway—and those in the hyper-informed echelons of the media world are letting it be known that VR is going to make a big difference to our lives. But what does this all mean for your brand, and how people interact with it?

What is VR, really?

At this point, virtual reality is something that can only happen using a VR headset (like the ones by Oculus Rift, Sony PlayStation VR, Samsung Gear VR and HTC Vive) that has sensors that track your bodily movements and respond to them. This creates the potential to not just see an environment all around you, but to actually interact with it.

This isn’t the same thing as 360-degree video (which is extremely cool in its own right), because you can’t interact with the environment itself in 360 video. The most you can do is interact with the view—but the entire thing is created using cameras, not programming, which is the difference.

VR is also distinct from augmented reality, which is where programming is used to overlay data on top of video or a viewed environment—this is like what you get with Google Glass. Again, the environment around you isn’t programmed as it is in VR; what you have is a programmed layer on top that adds to your reality (hence the name “augmented reality”).

Mark Zuckerberg’s Big Plans for VR

The founder of Facebook has been a long time proponent of the importance of VR, and he recently gave an interview with Business Insider that was pretty informative about the future of VR, and how it’s going to affect our lives. You might know already that Facebook owns Oculus Rift, the most advanced, widely available VR headset; Facebook is also delivering its VR technology to Samsung for the more moderately priced Gear—not a direct competitor—in order to help VR get established in the market. But why?

“We’re betting on two trends,” said Zuckerberg. “First that people will always want more immersive ways to express themselves.” So people are bound to want VR, and use it, as it becomes cheaper to get.

The second trend, says Zuck, is that people “are going to want to capture a whole scene, a room, to be able to transport to that. To be able to stream what you are doing live and have people be able to interact in that space.” Sounds pretty awesome.

What Will VR Mean for Video Marketing?

Well, that’s not entirely clear. In one sense, if Zuck is right, most markets will be primed for VR by the time it becomes more available, because rich media makes us happy! 360 video could be read as a kind of intermediary, and look at all the amazing things being done there!

When it comes to marketing your product to audiences, it’s likely that VR could eventually be even more effective than video at contributing to your bottom line. We tend to buy when we’re engaged with content (like video), and it stands to reason that VR will be even more engaging than video.

Is it likely that your company will be using VR instead of video soon? Maybe. Maybe even sooner, depending on who your audience is. For industries like gaming or other high-tech devices, VR might make a lot of sense as a way to build publicity with your target demographic, especially if it can be tied into a bigger publicity campaign. Plenty of companies are indeed doing that already (and it’s even more common for brands to use 360-degree video in a way that simulates VR).

As a more general marketing strategy, it will probably take some time for VR technology to become affordable for the average target buyer, which is going to keep it on the back burner for most brands. Mark Zuckerberg predicts it will take about 10 years to become fully normalized.

Until then, you can prime the pump by experimenting with 360-degree video and augmented reality—and we’d love to hear about your campaigns!

Have something to ask or add? We’re listening! Tweet to us, find us on Facebook or leave a comment below.

The post Virtual Reality and the Future of Brand Experience appeared first on SproutVideo.

When someone watches the entirety of your video, you can bet that viewer is more engaged and interested in your content than those who stopped watching mid-way through. One powerful way to maintain that momentum is to leverage a customizable post-play screen – a screen that loads once your video concludes.

Post-play screens can be used in a variety of ways, and can be used for embedded videos, or videos on SproutVideo landing pages and websites, too. Here are four clever ways you can leverage post-play screens according to different goals.

1. Drive Traffic to a Landing Page

This is a great option for informational videos that showcase the very best that a product, contest, or event has to offer, or any similar instance where your intent is to drive as many targeted visitors to a page as possible. Using video for this purpose is ideal because people will be more likely to convert after watching the video than those who don’t watch anything.

This type of post-play screen can be as simple or complex as you require. In its most basic form, it would feature a simple call-to-action, such as “Learn More,” “Signup Now,” or “Purchase Today!” with a link to the page where the viewer can take the specified action. It can certainly be more complex, and you can use HTML for this post-play screen if needed. However, keeping it simple is likely best to avoid confusing the viewer, or potentially disrupting your traffic flow.

2. Capture Leads

A post-play screen is a great way to capture leads at a time when someone is highly engaged and eager to learn more about a product or service. Since your video just convinced them to do so, you don’t need a complicated signup form – the opposite is more likely to be effective.

A real advantage to this method of capturing leads is that you don’t need your viewers to navigate to another webpage – you can capture their contact information from within the video player. Since it minimizes the number of pages they need to visit, you might find this to be more effective than other lead capture tools.

Building a custom post-play screen that displays a lead capture form is really easy to do, although it does depend to a certain extent on the marketing platform you are using. Although the exact process may vary, the core steps are to copy the HTML for the signup form from the platform of your choice, and paste it into the “Post-Play Message Content” field for your video within your SproutVideo account. Be sure to select the “HTML” option when customizing the post play screen for your video within the SproutVideo platform. You can follow these detailed instructions for MailChimp here as an example of what to do.

When designing your form, keep in mind that simple forms might not only be more effective, but will likely fit better within the video player compared to longer forms with multiple fields.

3. Allow Viewers to Download Related Content

If you have a whitepaper, product spec sheet, software, or any sort of downloadable content that you’d like to convince someone to download, what better way than to use a video to do so? You can simply link to the downloadable file directly from the post-play screen, so that the download starts as soon as it’s clicked.

If you’d prefer to capture some information about who is downloading the content, you could use a form to do so in a manner similar to our previous tip, and only allow the download to start once the form is correctly submitted.

4. Display a Special Offer

There are a few different ways to display a special offer as a reward for anyone who watches your video to completion. You can simply enter it as text and link to a page where a viewer can use the code, or, get a lot fancier than that.

You could display a custom image designed to look appealing and motivate someone to click through to take advantage of the special offer. In this case, you’d likely want to create a special URL or cookie that viewer’s browsing session to enable them to use the special offer without having to copy it or remember a coupon code. This option would require careful planning and potentially some programming knowledge if you aren’t able to easily make specific landing pages for special offers.

Evaluating the Efficacy of Your Post Play Screen

An easy way to measure the effectiveness of your post-play screen, and the video you are using with it, is to evaluate the play rate and the click-through or conversion rate for your video. These metrics will indicate how many people who had the opportunity chose to watch your video, and of those people, how many decided to also click on your offer or converted after watching it.

To evaluate the play rate, you can check the analytics report for your video. The play rate represents the number of plays for your video divided by the number of impressions it received. Total impressions indicates the number of times your video player loaded on the page, while total plays represents the number of times people clicked the play button on your video.

A high play rate means more people who had the option to watch your video decided to do so, which is a good thing. If your play rate seems low, you can try switching the poster frame for your video, or revising the content around the video on the page, to try to encourage more people to click play. You can also consider the sources of traffic you are sending to the page to make sure you are sending high quality, targeted traffic to your video in the first place.

The click-through rate would just be a comparison between the number of people who clicked or converted, and the number of people who played your video the whole way through. For leads or form submissions, you would likely want to look at the conversion rate instead of the click-through rate, meaning the number of people who signed up divided by the total number of people who watched your video to completion.

To try to improve these stats, you’d want to first optimize your traffic, then check your video engagement stats to see if there are any notable drop-off points during the video, and then check the efficacy of your post-play screen. Each component can potentially be improved, driving greater traffic, downloads, or conversions, depending on what your goal for that particular video might be.

On the SproutVideo platform, post-play screens are availble for our responsive in-line video embed codes, on SproutVideo landing pages and video websites, and with lightbox embed codes, so no matter how you are publishing your video, you can take advantage of this great marketing tool.

The post Four Smart Ways to Use Customizable Post-Play Screens appeared first on SproutVideo.