What would you do if 24% of the population feared your business, you only saw your customers twice a year (on average), and there were competitors on every block of your city? If you’re a dentist, these challenges probably sound familiar. Luckily, digital marketing and video are at the ready, just waiting to fill reclining chairs with new patients. Along with tools like referral programs, reviews, and social media, video has become a highly effective marketing tool for many dental practices. By building trust among potential clients, educating and retaining current patients, and harnessing the unique benefits of on-site video, savvy dentists are edging out their competition and growing their businesses. We spoke with dentist, Dr. Courtney Lavigne, all about her video marketing strategy. ### Knowledge is power. It’s also comforting. There are a lot of unknowns involved when you’re going to the dentist. How much will it cost? How painful will it be? Are they nice? By eliminating just a few unknowns for potential patients, you can lower mental barriers, relieve anxiety, and convince new people to try out your office. “I’ve had a lot of new patients join our office because of the feel they got from our website,” explained Dr. Lavigne. “Patients have commented that they felt like they knew me before booking an appointment. It’s scary to choose a new provider, whether it’s a dentist, an internist, or a hair stylist! The more they know about me and my practice, the more educated a decision they can make in deciding if we’re the right fit for them.”
In this video, Dr. Lavigne highlights her new, state-of-the-art office and her overall philosophy. The statement, “I’m going to be giving patients an experience with dental care that they haven’t had before,” is supported with gorgeous shots of her practice. Lines like, “I’m not telling them what they need, I’m listening to what they want,” underline her values and work to assuage people’s fears. Stellar Yelp reviews and friendly website design don’t hurt, but creating an emotional connection through video is hard to compete with. “In 2016 patients want to be educated and informed about your practice, you and your team, and your philosophy,” said Dr. Lavigne. “We’ve given a web personality to our practice and set ourselves apart through the use of video.” ### Build relationships to retain patients When it comes to building any sustainable business, retaining current customers and creating meaningful relationships with them is just as important as finding new ones. In order to educate her patients and stay top of mind, Dr. Lavigne creates tutorial videos with titles like, “The Proper Way to Brush Your Teeth” and “What Toothpaste Should I Use?”.
“I started making learning videos because it’s not uncommon for patients to totally forget what we discussed when they were in the chair,” said Dr. Lavigne. “I know, because I’m that patient when I’m on the other side!” Patients are often inundated with information, so educational videos like Dr. Lavigne’s serve as friendly and useful follow-up tools. These types of videos can also help foster relationships with patients who haven’t visited in a little while. Dr. Lavigne explained, “As new products come to the market, I often want to tell all my patients about them, but not all of my patients are due for an appointment. Video helps me deliver these messages to patients in their homes, rather than waiting until they’re in the dental chair.” With increased exposure to Dr. Lavigne, her patients can become more familiar and comfortable with her practice. Why wait 6 months (or more) to talk to your patients when video can scale personal communication? ### Build your business #### Rank higher than your competition The truth is, as a dental practice (or any small business), if you don’t have a strong web presence, your competitors will outrank you. It’s as simple as that. Seeing that more and more potential customers are searching the web to book appointments, effective marketing tools, like video, can go a long way. By optimizing your videos (and your webpages) for search, you can share your brand with the world and drive more traffic to your website. Luckily, if you’re using Wistia, our embeds will automaticallyhelp improve your video’s ranking on search engines. #### Measure and improve With Wistia, you can track how viewers are engaging with your content in real time, figure out what’s resonating (and what’s not), and improve your videos as you go. “It has helped me to know what areas of each video might be especially interesting, or when a video may be a little too long,” said Dr. Lavigne. With Wistia’s analytics, Dr. Lavigne is also able to tell where her viewers are located. This empowers her to make informed decisions about her marketing strategy. For example, if most of her viewers are in Sudbury, MA, she can optimize the page where her video resides for the keywords “Dentist in Sudbury, MA.” ### Types of video to make In addition to the videos that Dr. Lavigne has used to market her practice, there are tons of others that you could try out. The following list is just the beginning. Think of video as a way to scale personal communication—the possibilities are endless! - About us. Give potential customers a reason to trust the people behind your business. Smiling faces and some sincere introductions will do the trick. - Testimonials. Ask some happy customers to answer a couple of questions for you on camera, then insert some B-roll of you chatting with them. Voila! - Follow-up thank you videos in emails. After someone visits your office, send them a follow-up “thank you” video via email. - Hyper-targeted videos to patients. Do you have younger patients who were super afraid to come to their appointments? Send their families “good job” videos to reinforce those positive vibes. Take ten minutes and - Educational videos about larger procedures. Larger dental procedures can be nerve-racking. Why not make a quick video about all the steps involved and send it out to your patients days before their appointments? There’s nothing like a little mental preparation. - Oral health awareness videos. Videos like the following one remind people that going to the dentist isn’t all about the cleanings. Screening for oral diseases is an important part of a regular dentist schedule.
As a former communications student, I am no stranger to the SMART acronym. When I was first introduced to this framework, I thought most business acronyms were cheesy and lame. Then, one day for an entrepreneurship class, I was tasked with running a small on-campus business for a semester. You better believe I set up some SMART goals before diving into that one, and boy was I grateful for it. Now, as a young professional, I still use this framework on projects ranging from devising a social media campaign to creating a video. So without further adieu, I’d love to share with you our process for setting SMART goals around video. Let’s dive on in! What do you hope to achieve with your video? If you want to use video to promote a webinar, for example, then the goals you set will look a lot different than if you were making a long-form, educational piece of content. First, outline what it is you want to achieve, like gathering leads or driving more traffic to your site. Then, make this goal extremely specific. When it comes time to evaluate the performance of the video, you’ll have a much easier time gauging success. One video isn’t likely to tick off five unique goals, so be strategic about what it is you want to accomplish. So, what does a successful video look like? Well, it depends on what you measure! When it comes to measuring video, it’s important to consider both quantitative and qualitative metric. If you wanted to capture a certain amount of leads with your video, then setting quantitative benchmarks makes sense. Let’s say you made a teaser video to promote an upcoming webinar. Your goal is to collect leads from that video, so you can add them into a drip campaign. How many leads would you like to get? 50, 100, 200 leads? That’s your measure for success.
“When it comes to measuring video, it’s important to consider both quantitative and qualitative metrics.”
On the other hand, if your goal is to generate buzz or awareness around a new feature or get people excited about a product launch, then you’ll likely want to include qualitative feedback into your reporting. By paying attention to what people are saying about your content, you can generate new ideas and better understand what it is your audience wants. At the end of the day, most of us have to provide some measure of success to the rest of our team on resource-heavy projects. Think about that specific goal you established, and set some measures for what you’d like to see happen. So, you’ve decided to make an awesome video. What might hold you back from doing so? Don’t set yourself up for failure by neglecting to consider all of the moving pieces involved in the process. Do you actually have the time and resources you need? It’s easy to put the cart before the horse, especially when you’re excited about starting a new project, but try to be as realistic as possible.
“Don’t set yourself up for failure by neglecting to consider all of the moving pieces involved in the process.”
First ask yourself—how committed am I to tackling this project? If creating a video from scratch seems impossible to you, then hold it right there! Maybe it’s time to recycle and update an old video instead. Perhaps you need some additional help from a freelance animator. Whatever the case may be, it’s always wise to step back and fully consider the scope of the project. If you do decide that it’s reasonable and can be achieved, then continue on. Wait a minute, why are you doing this again? Ask yourself if making this video actually aligns with other projects you’re currently working on. If you have a small team that’s focused on overhauling your marketing website right now, then you might want to factor that into your goal planning. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the video. Instead, it might mean making a shorter, simpler version of what you first set out to create. For example, a one-shot, talking-head video (like the one below) works well in this instance, as it’s light on post-production.
Okay, fine. We also added some background music. The whole production from start to finish only took about 15 minutes. These types of videos should not be overlooked when you’re in a pinch. On the flip side, if you know that incorporating video across your new website is a top priority for you and your team, then this is a great time to start dipping your toes into those video marketing waters! Relevant goals move your team forward, because they’re naturally aligned with other projects you already have in the works. Who doesn’t love a good deadline? Sometimes you need to give yourself a due date in order to get things done. Make sure you set a concrete due date and hold yourself accountable by letting other members of your team know. On your average marketing team, people wear many hats, so it’s rare that you’ll spend an entire day working on just one thing. That being said, you don’t want your video to fall by the wayside when other tasks sneak up on you. Day-to-day tasks can often outweigh things that are “nice to have” and not super pressing. For some folks, video falls into this category. When you tie your goal to a specific timeframe, however, it’s harder to let it slip. For example, if you know you want to include a video in a blog post that’s going live on Thursday morning at 9 am, then you better have that video ready on time! Even without a hard deadline, it’s important to create a sense of urgency around your video. Think about check-ins and timing for both the short and long term. ### Goals for life So there you have it! SMART goals for creating video in a nutshell. And what’s better? You can apply this framework for both personal and professional goals. Keep this in your goal-planning arsenal and set yourself up for success time and time again.
BLOG » STRATEGY
From Conversions to Connections
3 levels of video strategy: converting, teaching, and scaling feelings
In an ideal world, we’d all proactively track our videos to see if they’re succeeding. But sometimes, instead, we’re caught by surprise by a “metric” that’s rarely seen as a metric at all: bandwidth usage. Learning that you exceeded your bandwidth limit might seem worrisome at first glance, but it’s actually a good thing. More bandwidth used means more people have been watching your videos. ### What is bandwidth, anyway?
The briefest explanation is that bandwidth is the data that gets passed to a viewer when they watch a video. For a Wistia-hosted video, that means the data is being passed from Wistia’s servers to the viewer’s browser. Bandwidth doesn’t just include pressing play. It can also include other things being passed from Wistia to your viewers, like the player and thumbnail image loading, the video being loaded and played by you internally, and the video being downloaded. ### How is bandwidth calculated? Wistia creates multiple video derivatives to ensure smooth video playback across browsers and devices, and the bandwidth used will vary depending on the derivative served. For example, a high-quality video at an HD resolution will be a larger file, so it will use more bandwidth, while a lower-resolution render will use less bandwidth. You can read more about how Wistia bandwidth and related pricing works in our Help Center. ### Beyond bandwidth: measuring success with analytics While bandwidth usage is a metric of sorts, we wouldn’t recommend using bandwidth as your sole measure of video success. Instead, you might want to dig deeper into other video metrics, such as: - Play count: How many people did your video reach? Is your video driving awareness? - Video engagement: Are people watching most of your video, or do they drop off at a specific point? - Play rate: How many people who landed on your page also played your video? Does your video work in context? - Leads collected: Did your video drive signups through a Turnstile or on-page form? - Time on page: Are people staying on your page longer as a result of including video? - Bounce rate: Does video make visitors more likely to navigate to other pages on your site? For a deeper dive on video metrics and measuring success, our Guide to Video Metrics is a good resource! ### Preventing bandwidth overages Even though bandwidth overages are technically a sign of success, it’s still unpleasant to be caught by surprise with an overage you didn’t plan for. While there’s always the possibility of an unanticipated runaway success, you can use our handy bandwidth predictor tool to estimate your monthly usage based on your average video length and plays. You can trim bandwidth by taking some of the measures listed in our Help Center: - Change your default video quality. In your Account Settings, while logged in as an Account Owner, change your “Video Quality” from “Auto” to “360p”. You can always undo this change later! - Break longer videos up into shorter chunks. This way, viewers who just want to watch part of a video won’t end up downloading a larger file than necessary. - Minimize your own views. Internal views also count towards bandwidth, so if you’re scrambling to cut down bandwidth usage, cutting down internal views might help. - Cut down on autoplay. Autoplaying videos automatically start using bandwidth, while other videos start downloading when a viewer presses play. - Update the “videoQuality” embed option for a single video. If one video is the culprit, rather than your entire account, you can change the videoQuality embed option for that video instead of changing your account default.
LIBRARY » STRATEGY
Wistia’s Guide to Video Metrics
How to measure the impact and effectiveness of your next video.
I started at Wistia last December, and after a few months of working here, I realized I had only scratched the surface of the product. As I watched my coworkers help our customers and manage our own videos, I noticed they were using some shortcuts and tricks that I hadn’t picked up yet. I figured that if I could be in Wistia HQ and missing out on the little tips that would make my life as a marketer easier, then you might not be privy to all of Wistia’s lesser-known features. In this post, I’ll share six hacks that have made my Wistia workflow more delightful and efficient. ### Marketing hacks #### Chapter your videos with embed links With longer form videos, like webinars or other educational content, it can be helpful to break the content into different sections. This makes it easy for your viewers to skip around to the parts of your video that are most relevant to them. If your viewers are looking for information that you don’t mention until 15 minutes into your video, there’s a big possibility they’ll lose interest before they find it. That’s a bad experience for your viewer and a loss of engagement for you. Using embed links, you can create custom links for specific points in your video. Check out embed links in action in the example below.
“Using embed links, you can create custom links for specific points in your video.”
Make French Toast @ 0 Make French Toast @ 10 Make French Toast @ 20 Make French Toast @ 30
This works well if you’re looking to link to various points in your video in the middle of some written content, or if you simply want to direct a viewer to a specific part of your video. #### Use a call to action to play the next video Marketers often want to make sure that their viewers are aware of relevant content that could entertain or inform. Using a CTA on your video is one way to encourage your viewer to take the next step. If that next step is another video, you can adjust your CTA to automatically load the next one on the same page. You can set this up in the Customize panel under Timeline Actions. In the CTA field, you’ll want to add in #wistia_ along with the video’s “hashed ID.” You can still use any message you want for the CTA, and the Wistia player will automatically pull in the linked video when your viewer clicks on it. #### Use email merge tags to learn about your audience Without Wistia, when marketers wanted to send an email and direct people to a video, they would take a screenshot of the video and add the linked image to their emails. Using Wistia’s video thumbnails, you can get the same visual effect, but also integrate with your email tool to start identifying which contacts are watching your videos. Wistia’s video thumbnails contain email merge tags. These little snippets of code associate the views on your Wistia videos with email addresses. You can view all of this data on the audience page in Wistia or integrate with your CRM to have access to it there.
“These little snippets of code associate the views on your Wistia videos with email addresses.”
To create a video thumbnail, navigate to the media’s Embed & Share menu and select Link in Email Campaign. You can select the email provider or marketing automation platform you’re sending the email from, adjust the size of the thumbnail, and then copy the embed code. Next, add that code into your email, and send to your list. As your contacts click through on the email and press play, you’ll see heatmaps associated with their email addresses and identified viewers on the audience page. ### Organization Tips #### Organize your account with Move & Copy This is a feature that I have used over and over again when I’m repurposing the same video and I need two versions. For example, let’s say I want to keep my video ungated on my website, but I want to add a Turnstile email collector to generate leads on a landing page. I need two copies of the same video. I want to keep my lead gen videos separate from the videos I’m using for awareness, and I need to keep the analytics separate too. Once I’ve made a copy of my video, I move it to my “Lead Gen” project, use the Customize panel to add in my Turnstile, and make any other changes before embedding it on my landing page. The Move & Copy feature allows you to move your videos from one project into another or make a copy of a video that is already in your Wistia account.
From Project Actions, you can select Move & Copy, and you’ll see a list of your projects. From there, you can drill into them to find the video you’d like to move, and drag it to the correct project. If you hold down the Command or Control key when you drag, it will create a copy of the video in that project. This is a really helpful tool for video agencies using Wistia, because you can transfer videos from your account (where you may want to keep them for proofing) to your client’s. #### Get into your account with a right click Have you ever been working on getting a video embedded on your site and wanted to check the settings in Wistia? Did you know that you can right click on your video and jump right back into your Wistia account? Neither did I. I discovered this while working with one of our customer champions. I noticed how quickly she was able to navigate between her video on her website and her account, and realized that it was thanks to this sneaky trick. The Open video in Wistia option is waiting to bring you back to your account in a flash. Try this out the next time you’re working in Wistia, and be amazed at how much faster you get your work done.
### Video creation #### Record a video with Wistia’s webcam This is a more recent feature that has made making videos much easier. Our community manager has used this to record quick introductions for our community members and has found it really helpful. We even used it to record a portion of our monthly product update! You can record a video with your webcam from within Wistia and have it ready to share right away. From any project in Wistia, you can click on Project Actions, then select Record. Your webcam will immediately turn on and begin recording. Using your webcam can work for company meetings you might want to record and share with other members of your team. It’s also great for sales reps who may want to record a short personalized message to reach out or say thank you.
“You can record a video with your webcam from within Wistia and have it ready to share right away.”
These are only a few of the tips I’ve discovered in the past five months, and I’m sure there are plenty more. I’d love for you to try some of these features out and let me know in the comments how you’re using them. If you’re using any cool hacks that I didn’t mention, let me know that too. We can create a follow-up post with some of the shortcuts you’ve figured out!
There are many things you need to make a DIY music video on a budget, besides creative friends with camera gear. Producing your own music video takes creativity, a willingness to get scrappy, and above all else, ideas that are centered around attainable goals. So, if you’re a musician looking to promote your hot new jam with a music video, or a video producer looking to try your hand at something new, I’d love to share four creative directions I’ve taken with my own music videos. I’ll cover some pros and cons for each type of video, and offer some tips for how to make your next DIY music video TRL quality. ### Stripped-down live performance If you haven’t explored NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert video series, I’d highly recommend checking it out. What I love most about stripped-down live performance videos is that they’re relatively simple to shoot. They require a minimal audio setup, and they leave you with an authentic, intimate version of the song you’re promoting. What’s not to like?
Although we cut to a lot of different camera angles in this video, it was actually shot by one videographer (my wife Sasha) on multiple takes. I knew I wanted this performance to have some B-roll, but I didn’t have access to multiple shooters. With some strategic thinking and some patience, we figured out a plan of action. To start, my band and I performed the song a few times, while Sasha focused solely on me singing and playing guitar. Lip-synced lead vocals and guitar strumming hardly ever look natural (trust me), so it’s best to use footage from the take of the performance that you end up using for the audio. Once the band got the performance we liked, we offloaded the audio track from our H4n Handy Recorder and played it loudly through speakers. We then lip-synced and played along a bunch of times, so that Sasha could focus on getting some of the artsier B-roll shots (hands and feet tapping, close-up shots of instruments, and so on). See if you can find the shots that were from the actual performance take we used for the audio, and which ones are sneaky lip-synced fakes. Not every song will work for this direction, especially if you don’t have a folky band like me, but get creative! People love to hear acoustic versions of their favorite songs. ### One-shot video A lot of people are embracing one-shot music videos, and some of them are absolutely incredible. What I love most about this direction is that the actual video production can be fairly low-key. The music video is nearly finished the second you get a good take of the performance. One-shot videos almost always rely on capturing some sort of compelling concept. It’s not about the gear you have, it’s about the concept and the performer’s execution of it. At Wistia, we shoot tons of talking-head videos in front of seamless paper backgrounds. Not only is it a minimal setup, but it was one that I had available to me (pro tip: always find creative ways to use what’s available to you). As I re-watched Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” one evening for the umteenth time, I had the idea of paying homage to the monologue in the opening scene.
Once we tracked down the costume and Chris Lavigne (Wistia’s video producer and my friend) mimicked the lighting treatment, we were prepared to shoot. The hardest part of pulling off this music video was nailing the performance. In this case, I had to memorize and recite the monologue while slipping in lyrics from my song, in time. Another colleague of ours did a little post-production work to mimic the color treatment, grain, and text… and voila! Video done. Don’t overlook one-shot videos. They’re a smaller favor to ask of your video-savvy friend. They’re also a wise approach if you or a band mate are going take a stab at filming yourselves. ### Storyline video I came of age in the 90’s. “November Rain,” “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”… yeah, those 90’s. No amount of veteran indie musician status or real-world understanding of the phrase “over budget” will diminish my love for the plot-driven music video. However, when you’re producing your own music video, this direction can be very tricky to pull off.
Choosing the “storyline” path often comes with a lot of extra work. Not only will there be ample pre-production involved to solidify your idea, but most storyline videos come with an array of logistical complications. For the two-day shoot we planned for “Young and Free,” we had to lock down multiple locations, try our hand at set design, track down a bunch of board games, cast and schedule actors, worry about directing, continuity, and of course… create and execute on an extremely long and thorough shot list. The storyline approach was also a much bigger ask for the video producer I was working with (you guessed it—Wistia’s own Chris Lavigne). Chris was down to help make my video happen, but he had to commit to a lot more time for shooting and editing when we chose this route. Do you have someone on board for that? Can you afford to pay someone? Storyline videos are awesome if you have the idea, the budget, the time, and the pool of talent needed to pull them off. If done right, they can elevate your song and brand to a higher level. That being said, from my experience, a storyline video that misses the mark seems to fail a lot harder than the other approaches I’ve taken. ### Lyric videos The lyric video is a sneaky, low-pressure approach to a music video. Although technically it’s not a music video in the traditional sense, it’s very easy to make and can result in an immersive experience for your audience. This type of video highlights the writing behind your song and can add interesting contextual layers to your lyrics, so take the time to think of unique and meaningful visuals when you’re brainstorming your video. The following are three visual concepts we’ve experimented with: #### Camera trick:
#### Repurposed old home movie:
#### Simple iPhone shot on a subway:
### Conclusion Let’s call a spade a spade. None of my music videos would have been possible without my network. So my absolute, biggest piece of advice would be to build your network! Music videos are awesome projects for aspiring film-makers and videographers. Look to nearby universities for starters. Find people that are actually interested in making a music video with you, and be willing to approach this project as a collaboration. And for all you video folks reading this post—go find yourself a local artist who needs a music video! Head to an open mic or a local acoustic coffee house. Who knows? Maybe the artist will repay you with some background music for some of your upcoming video projects :).
Kindra Hall grew up going to storytelling festivals. Now, she spends her days teaching executives how to bolster their brands with strategic storytelling. Before Kindra started doing storytelling as a career, she thought that it was something everyone innately had—after all, it’s how we naturally communicate. But as she worked with more businesses, she learned that many didn’t know how to harness the power of stories. “They didn’t know that what they were talking about was actually a story that could be developed and be used, that could communicate all of this breadth and depth about who they are and what they believe in. They just had no idea that was even in them.” We’re excited that Kindra will be joining us for our business video conference, WistiaFest, in a few short weeks, since storytelling is central to a great video strategy. In the meantime, we had her stop by the office while she was in the neighborhood for a pre-‘Fest interview, chock-full of suggestions for organizations of all kinds to find and hone their stories!
### There’s no story too small Instead of focusing on finding the most emotional story you possibly can, or worse, fretting that your company doesn’t have a story to tell, Kindra suggests focusing on increasing the surface area of connection with your audience. “The exciting thing about what your product does for the client isn’t actually what it does for them. It’s the problem that they had in the first place. It’s that solving of the problem that makes the product exciting.” According to Kindra, too many businesses start from the solution. Instead, she suggests figuring out your audience’s pain points and meeting them where they are with your story. One example is a customer testimonial video. When telling client stories, organizations often lead with their solution: how the client uses their product and what it does for them. But they leave out the entire beginning of the story, the problem that the client had in the first place. Instead of focusing on the story behind your business, focus on the customer’s story to build deeper connections. “From a business perspective, and especially on video, you can have endless content that is really meaningful, and that people will look forward to. And when you start to shift towards that storytelling default, it requires awareness of your own life, but then you give the gift of awareness to other people. I feel like that’s a stopping point for a lot of people. They’re like, my business wasn’t founded because of some huge tragedy. It’s like, no, there was a day that you made a decision. And somebody needs to hear that story.” That said, you don’t have to completely shy away from emotional stories, either: “If you have an emotional story, tell that emotional story—as long as that story doesn’t control you.” #### Case study: fundraising for a hospital
“I worked with this hospital, and they had a big fundraising event for the foundation that supports the hospital. Everybody comes in, and they’re in ball gowns, and they sit down to this wonderful dinner. And then somebody gets up on stage and starts asking everybody for money. And it’s kind of awkward, because you just don’t know how it’s going to go.
The year before, they had some physicians get up on stage and say what the funds would be used to purchase. "We need this piece of equipment. We need this piece of equipment.” And it did not go over well. It just didn’t connect with the people sitting in the room, because it didn’t matter to them. It’s hard to care about a piece of equipment.
When I worked with them the next year, we found three people who had been positively impacted. And I worked with each of them to craft three-minute stories. And they weren’t huge tear-jerkers. Because I feel like that’s another misconception, that it’s not a story unless you make somebody cry. You don’t have to make somebody cry. You just have to make them see the story and imagine themselves in it.
The first guy got up and told his story. And they asked for money, and paddles went up. And then, just as the emotion was kind of wearing off, we brought the next person up and asked for paddles. They raised double what they had the year before. And it was just for three very specific, really intentionally-told stories.“
### Anticipate your audience’s objections Once you’ve defined the benefits of your offering and how it can help solve your audience’s problems, Kindra suggests figuring out what objections they might have: "Why might they disagree with this? Why might they be opposed to it? Why might they not want to take the action that I want them to take? Can I weave those objections into my story?” “What are the different objections your audience might have? Why don’t they hire you? Why don’t they buy?”
/> Since Kindra’s business is selling her own expertise, she’s spent a lot of time thinking about how to address the objections an audience might have to *her*. “What preconceived notions would people have about me? When they pull up a video, and they see me in that first millisecond, what are they thinking about me that I have to deal with? And can I deal with that in a story?” A mentor suggested that she open with a story defining her expertise to counter assumptions that people might make about her because of her youthful appearance, hair color, or gender, but Kindra decided to take an alternate route: she starts many of her talks with a story about when she was younger. “If I tell a story of when I was younger, every person in that room goes back to when they were younger. When we’re younger, we’re all a little awkward. We’re all trying to find our way. And we look back on that time with a certain cherishedness. So, if I can introduce them to that person, they like me more for the person standing in front of them.” ### It’s not you, it’s them Whether she’s speaking to a live audience or to a camera, Kindra remains hyper-aware of the actual humans she’s communicating with. “If you imagine the people who will be viewing this story, who will be moved by it, it will make you so much better on camera.” “That’s really all I’m thinking about, is my relationship with them. [With speaking engagements], it’s easy to do, because they’re right there. When it’s to a video camera, I think of the video camera the same way. I’m looking into the lens, but what’s happening in the back of my mind is all of the people who are watching it.” The biggest question Kindra asks before producing any story is: “What do I want my audience to think, feel, know, or do as a result of hearing this message?” Throughout your entire storytelling process, from honing in on a message to writing a script to producing a piece of content, don’t lose sight of the people you’re talking to. “Anything that makes it about me has got to be eliminated from the equation.”
We had a ton of fun chatting with Kindra at the Wistia office, and we learned a ton over the course of an hour with her! We’re relieved to hear that even the pros get nervous on camera, but you’d never know by watching Kindra’s videos. We hope you were as inspired as we were to keep honing your business’s story. And we hope you’ll consider joining us at WistiaFest in a few weeks!
Want to learn more from Kindra Hall and other business video experts? Join us at WistiaFest!
Chances are you’ve heard of Periscope, Twitch, and Meerkat. These apps allow users to broadcast live video content on the web. With this trend surging in popularity, it came as no surprise when Twitter acquired Periscope last year in an attempt to keep users engaged on their platform. It shocked us even *less* when Mr. Zuckerberg decided to invest more of Facebook’s energy into improving the Facebook Live experience after Twitter’s success with Periscope. So, now that Facebook has its own sophisticated live streaming capabilities, you’re probably wondering if your business should try to get a piece of the action. Before taking the plunge, there are some key facts to consider. How are live streaming videos different than produced, not-so-live video content? Can this content be repurposed elsewhere? Questions, questions. Let’s walk through it. ### It’s more about conversation than conversion Like any social media channel, Facebook’s goal is to keep users active and engaged on the platform itself. Facebook Live is similar to YouTube in this sense, in that it helps brands extend their reach within that channel, but won’t necessarily drive tons of traffic to your website. Engagement clearly becomes one of the key components of a successful Facebook Live strategy. While it might be obvious, you can’t just “set it and forget it” – it is a live broadcast after all. With Facebook Live, users are able to interact with the broadcaster by commenting and liking a stream, much like with any other video posted to Facebook. This creates an immediate conversation, where suddenly super fans are able to chat with their favorite celebrities on the web in the most IRL way possible (aside from actual real life interactions… what are those again?). Facebook was wise to roll out this new offering with celebrities first – as the old adage goes, “If your social network attracts celebrities, it’s probably going to attract users.” Now that you know what it’s all about, you might be wondering if Facebook Live is right for your business. Chances are you probably don’t have a Justin Beiber-like following on social media, so should you even bother? ### To stream or not to stream It’s an Internet world, and we just live in it. There are algorithms, pixels, search terms, keywords and more all cramping your marketing style on a daily basis. Remember when you could make a Facebook post, and anyone who liked your page would see it in their timelines? Those were the good old days. Fortunately, Facebook’s algorithm actually favors live streaming videos. In fact, Facebook gives video content of *any* kind better real estate in the news feed. According to Marketing Land, when it comes to ranking in the news feed, “Facebook started parsing signals such as whether people activate audio or click to open a video in fullscreen.”
“Fortunately, Facebook’s algorithm actually favors live streaming videos.”
When it comes to live streaming videos on Facebook, it seems the odds are in your favor. So, what are you waiting for? ### Tactics and tips for Facebook Live If you’re convinced that Facebook Live is worth a shot, it’s time to start thinking about the types of videos you’ll be creating. Keep in mind that live streaming videos are much different than pre-recorded videos and should be treated as such. Here are some tips to get you started: #### Types of Live Videos - Company culture or slice-of-life-style content - Q and As, interviews with special guests or live webinars - Behind-the-scenes footage - Breaking news #### Best Practices - Mention your name and business throughout the stream (without overdoing it). Viewers will be tuning in at random times, so it’s important that you regularly introduce yourself! - According to Facebook, the longer you broadcast, the more likely people are able to discover and share your video. - Live stream your video for at least 10 minutes (the maximum stream is 90 minutes). - When the live stream is over, the video will remain on your Page just like any other video. Repurpose this content by writing a recap post for your blog! You can even edit the video, so that it’s a little more polished and ready for your site. ### Video for the win Facebook Live does a great job of democratizing the video-making process. Facebook users around the world are now shooting and watching live streaming videos. You can take a look at this world map to see just where the streams are happening at any given moment! So, are you ready harness the power of live video?! See you on the web.
LIBRARY » STRATEGY
Crafting a Social Video Strategy
Tactics, best practices, and creative ideas for social media videos
There has been an explosion of tech in the world of aerial photography. As a result, video producers can now get shots that historically only the Hollywood cinematographer elite could afford. Here at Wistia, we got a drone, and to be honest… we don’t use it all that often. It’s loud, it’s intimidating to fly, and we’re a business that operates largely indoors. So how in the world can a software company like Wistia use a drone with a camera to help tell their story?
Over the year and a half that we’ve had a flying friend at Wistia, we’ve added new perspectives to our videos and discovered some interesting uses for this nimble machine. If you’re searching for some drone inspiration, try out one of these four shots in your next company video. ### Group shot Getting a group shot with a drone can be a memorable party trick, but it’s also just a practical way to get a large crowd in a photo.
So at your next company outing or event, get everyone outside for a group shot! You can think of the drone as a tripod in the sky. Let it hover in the air just in front of the group, or if you’re feeling ambitious, take it to the sky, and capture the scene around the group. Either way, you won’t have to be as strategic with placing shorter and taller people. Not to mention, it’ll offer a pretty interesting bird’s-eye perspective of the group! We stumbled upon this technique while shooting an attendee photo for WistiaFest 2015. The footage ended up being super useful when we were cutting together a video recap of the event—we reused this shot for B-roll in multiple videos. While getting your drone group shot, we recommend capturing a combination of photos and video footage. You’ll never know when you might need a video clip or a high-resolution image of the crowd! ### Handheld stabilizer The biggest advancement in drone camera technology is the addition of the stabilizer. It’s what makes drone footage look silky smooth, even if you’re not so smooth on the control sticks. So let your drone do double duty, and use it as a handheld steadicam rig!
You can make the drone easier to manipulate by removing the propellers. Power it up, so the camera and gimbal are active, and then treat it like you would any other camera stabilizer. It may not be the most ergonomic thing to hold, but you’d be surprised what kind of shots you can get on the ground! This is great for quick shots around your office, where a handheld DSLR would be too shaky, and a DSLR stabilizer would take too long to balance and set up. ### The reveal The reveal is one of those awesome shots that you can take to the next level with a drone. The basic idea is to either start close up to a subject, and then ‘zoom out’ (fly the drone away) to expose the surroundings, or vice versa.
In this shot, we revealed what Cambridge looked like during a snowstorm. We started by hovering the drone on a medium shot. After a few seconds, we flew the drone up and away from us to reveal the larger snow scene. What a beaut. Best part: the reveal works in reverse, too! We used the reverse reveal for a WistiaFest speaker intro video. To start out, we focused on a wide shot of the Boston skyline. Next, we panned the camera down 90 degrees and directed the drone to land.
The shot ends with a close up of the Harvard Business Review magazine (where the speaker is the Senior Editor), placed on a table in a park. Bet you weren’t expecting to land there when you first saw that skyline! The reveal has to be the most popular shot in drone photography. For some reason though, it just never gets old. You could even combine the group shot with a reveal for a visual magnum opus.
This delightful surprise tactic is a powerful tool to have in your video production toolbox. So let your mind run wild with what kinds of scenes and scenarios you can reveal by flying the drone up, up, and away! ### Neighborhood view If you have the space to take flight around your office, you can shoot compelling footage of your office’s surroundings. By adding these types of shots into your videos, your viewers can gain a better understanding of your office’s location within a larger community or town.
We’ve filmed an aerial shot of Wistia HQ during the golden hour, pumped up WistiaFest attendees with a Boston skyline shot, and even documented a Wistian kickball game in the park outside our office. This type of footage is ideal for quick social media video snacks or culture-focused videos. But for our video team, capturing moments like these have offered us opportunities to practice our flying techniques.
Similar to what the DSLR, GoPro, and iPhone did to the video space, drones are revolutionizing the types of shots and videos that smaller video teams can produce. The shots in this post would have been nearly impossible for us to pull off four years ago! If you’ve used a drone to capture footage from a unique vantage point, please share it with us in the comments. As the public has adopted new drone technology, increased regulation has been introduced. So please be mindful of FAA regulations and local restrictions when flying your drone and capturing footage… and also of powerlines. ;-)
BLOG » COMPANY NEWS
Wistia’s New 360 Player and Heatmaps
Explore a new medium while benefitting from the customization options and in-depth stats that Wistia is known for.
This post was originally published on Infusionsoft’s Blog. Most small businesses are already using video and marketing automation in their marketing and sales strategies. But unfortunately, they’re done separately. Videos live on the marketing website to attract and educate new leads, and marketing automation campaigns follow up with those new leads to drive more marketing qualified leads (MQLs) to the sales team. Tracking leads on Wistia’s Audience page. While these two communication methods are effective on their own, they can work harder for your business when they’re used together. By combining video and marketing automation, you can achieve compounding benefits and grow faster. In this post, we’ll share our video marketing automation formula, with step-by-step instructions and example emails to help you get started. Before we dive into the details, let’s take a quick step back, so you can understand why we’re so excited about this concept. ### Why use video with marketing automation? Video is great for a lot of reasons. It’s entertaining, scalable, digestible, shareable, and helpful for lead generation. But most importantly, video reveals the human side of your business in an increasingly digital world. Marketing automation is perfect for following up with new leads and qualifying them for your sales team. It allows you to send the right content, to the right leads, at the right time. When done correctly, marketing automation should help nurture those new leads into new qualified sales opportunities. By combining the two communication tools, you can leverage the human power of video with the perfect timing and segmentation that marketing automation provides. Don’t take our word for it. Data suggests that companies that excel in marketing automation generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost! Video helps amplify how powerful your emails are. At Wistia, we’ve found that emails with video thumbnails produce 200% higher click rates! Clearly, combining these two strategies is a winning combination. At this point, you’re probably convinced that marketing automation and video are a dream team. If you’re not, please re-read the previous paragraph a few more times. But, getting started can seem overwhelming at first. There are so many campaigns you could make. That means lots of video, lots of planning, and (if you’re like me) analysis paralysis. Rather than focus on specific campaigns, and get bogged down in the details, let’s instead focus on a step-by-step process, which can be applied to your next campaign. ### The video and marketing automation process #### Step 1: Start with your lead generation campaign You can’t nurture leads if they don’t exist. How are you generating these leads? Are they from a trade show or event, a downloadable resource, or a free trial or demo? #### Step 2: Identify where in the funnel your leads are We view the funnel as having 3 distinct stages: awareness of a problem (researching), consideration of potential solutions (browsing), and a decision to buy (from a short list of vendors). You wouldn’t ask someone to marry you on the first date, would you? Then you shouldn’t try to pressure a lead to purchase when they’re in the awareness stage. Context is really important. By understanding where in the funnel your leads are, you can identify the right content to share with them. #### Step 3: Set a specific goal for your marketing automation campaign Every marketing automation campaign should have a clear goal to help you determine what content will be most useful to include. Your goal will most likely be to move your leads to the next stage of the funnel. If your leads are in the awareness stage, a great goal is to get them into the consideration stage. If they’re already in the consideration stage, try to get them into the decision stage. Already in the decision stage? Get them to buy! Setting goals will make it easier to identify the right content to send, and help you measure the success of your campaign. #### Step 4: Plan out your email content strategy Many marketers get stuck trying to brainstorm what content should be included in their marketing automation emails. We like to take a simple and effective approach. For our emails, we like to include the following: - Related content. - Acknowledgement of their stage in the buying process. - Info and opportunities to take the next step in the buyer’s journey. A few questions you’ll want to think about: - How many emails should I send? - How long should I wait in-between each email? The answers to those questions will be specific to each business. But if you’re new to this, we would recommend 3–4 emails going out over 2 weeks. At a high level, your email strategy should look like this: Email 1: Acknowledge how they became a lead and share relevant content. Email 2: Acknowledge where they are in the buyer’s journey. Email 3: Provide information for leads to take the next step in the buyer’s journey. Email 4 (optional): More information to take the next step.
#### Step 5: Add videos to your marketing automation campaign Now that you’ve planned out your email strategy, it’s time to add videos to make each email more impactful. If you already have existing videos that are included in relevant, helpful content, those are your best bet. If you don’t, take the content you were going to write for the email, and draft a short script for a video. Try to keep it short and simple with a focused message. Place it on a landing page, and link to it from the email.
If you want to learn more about using video and email together, you can check out this comprehensive guide (and download some video-friendly email templates). Here’s an example of an email from one of our automation campaigns: #### Step 6: Activate your campaign Now that you’ve set your goals, planned your campaign, identified the right content, and added video, it’s time to turn it on! ### Let’s walk through an example Let’s pretend you’re working for a small HR software company and just published an e-book: “How to Increase Employee Happiness.” The e-book was published on your website, and it generated 500 new leads. Now you want to create a marketing automation campaign to follow up and qualify these leads for the sales team, and you want to include video. #### Step 1: Start with your lead generation campaign Your campaign will be centered around the employee happiness e-book. #### Step 2: Identify where in the funnel your leads are These new leads are in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey. They are likely researching how to increase their employee happiness and probably not thinking about HR software. #### Step 3: Set a specific goal The goal for your automation campaign is to move these leads from the awareness stage to the consideration stage. Since your company sells HR software that helps with employee happiness, you want to get these leads to view your product-related information or download your product brochure. #### Step 4: Plan out your email content strategy Your email strategy looks like this: Email 1: Acknowledge they just downloaded the e-book on employee happiness, and share some other relevant content, like a related article from your blog. Email 2: Acknowledge there are many ways to increase employee happiness and suggest that HR software might be a solution they haven’t considered. Offer a link to a product page, so they can learn more about your offering. Email 3: Promote your product brochure. #### Step 5: Add video to your campaign Each email above should have a video in it! Email 1 video: A short 30-second video from the creator of the e-book, thanking the user for downloading their copy, and congratulating them for focusing on such an important area of their business. Link them to a blog article that could help them improve employee happiness. Email 2 video: This can be a personalized video from a member of your sales team. Let them know you understand they’re not ready to buy today, but they’d be crazy if they’re not researching software solutions to help them increase employee happiness. Suggest they check out the product page on your website to further their research. Email 3 video: This is where your product overview video is perfect to promote alongside your downloadable brochure. At this point, you’ve learned how impactful marketing automation campaigns with video can be. Now go create your first campaign. Your leads (and sales team) will thank you!
STRATEGY
How to Use Video in Each Stage of the Buyer’s Journey
Download an interactive guide by HubSpot and Wistia!
**This post was co-authored by Jenny Mudarri and Meryl Ayres** Studies suggest that office dogs can reduce stress, improve retention rates, and contribute to a more casual environment. At Wistia, we’re thankful for our own office dog, Lenny, who adds a touch of humor to our work weeks.
In celebration of all the hard-working pups out there, we’re incredibly excited to be teaming up with Humane Society International to host a unique competition for other startups with beloved, canine teammates. Announcing StartPup. ### About the contest In order to enter the contest, all you have to do is shoot a short video about your very own office pooch and send it our way! If your pup wins the grand prize, you’ll get: - Free ‘500 Video Plan’ (usually $100 per month) from Wistia, for life! - $500 donation to a local Humane Society branch - GoPro camera - GoPro dog mount (for your dog to record his or her travels around the office) - Wistia dog bandana - Frisbee If your dog is RunnerPup, you’ll receive: - $300 donation to a local Humane Society Branch - Wistia bandana - Frisbee Heck, even if your furry friend wins a regional prize, you’ll still get a sweet collar. ### Who’s judging? #### Matthew Gilbert, The Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert is a lead TV Critic and a columnist for The Boston Globe. A Massachusetts native, Matthew has been reviewing TV for the Globe since 1998, and has met and interviewed a wealth of celebrities and authors. He is the author of Off the Leash: A Year at the Dog Park, an ode to the simple pleasures of having a canine companion, and a recounting of his transformation from reluctant first-time owner to joyful member of the dog park club, along with his yellow Labrador, Toby. #### Marta Sjörgen, Northzone Marta Sjögre is an investor with Northzone, the early investors in Spotify, Avito, Trustpilot, and over 100 other tech companies. Marta’s focus areas include gaming, deep social, edtech, and security, and her interest in VC stems from a passion for innovation and a desire to make an impact in the world. Prior to VC, she was a researcher and strategy consultant, working with governments to shape entrepreneurial policy. Her welsh corgi, Katherine (aka Käffi), is six months old, and is currently working on befriending her cat. #### Tamara Kartal, Humane Society International Tamara Kartal is the Campaigns Coordinator for Humane Society International, and is working in the field of street animal welfare. She has an 8-year-old female dog called Jazz, who is proudly the HSI office dog, and enjoys the daily treats and affection the office environment has to offer. #### Chris Lavigne, Wistia Chris Lavigne is Head of Video Production at Wistia and best friend of Lenny Lavigne, a brownish-reddish labradoodle who loves baby carrots. In a bid to gainfully employ his Dog, Chris found Lenny a job at Wistia, where he helps with recruitment, acts as on-screen video talent, and occasionally writes for the blog. Chris is known for coining the term “lighting on the fly,” and thrives on using creativity to work around constraints (think 'video for boring industries’). When he’s not camera-in-hand, you can find him behind the wheel of a backhoe, drinking whisky, or reciting lines from Jurassic Park (in any order). ### More on Lenny, our own StartPup Like every dog, Lenny has his own idiosyncrasies that separate him from the rest. For starters, Lenny opens sliding doors like a human—he frequently interrupts meetings and leaves without giving notice. Lenny barks at seltzer machines, drones, and our motorized projection screen. He hacks up hairballs at inopportune times and sports a devilishly handsome beard. But don’t just take our word for it. Take a look at what other Wistians have to say about this labradoodle.
For more context around who Lenny really is, you can read a candid op-ed piece he wrote, all about his daily motivations, biggest regrets, and dreams for a future full of crumbs.
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I want to enter the contest!
Head over to the StartPup page to get the hairy details.
“Content” is definitely trending right now, and many businesses feel obligated to churn out blog post after blog post just because they’re supposed to be doing it. But what gets lost in the process? All too often, it’s perspective on the audience that will be consuming the content and how it can help them. That’s why we’re huge fans of Ann Handley, whose formula for great web content is “Utility x Inspiration x Empathy.” A reminder we could all use every now and then. Ann’s book, Everybody Writes, is a helpful resource for anyone hoping to communicate better. Ann has also spent time educating marketers about the written word as Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, in her column for Entrepreneur magazine, and as a co-founder of ClickZ. Ann gave a delightful talk on storytelling at our business video conference, WistiaFest, last year, and we were excited to catch up with her in this interview on the role video plays in content marketing. ###### Wistia: **As a content expert, how would you suggest that brands integrate video into their marketing campaigns? What’s video’s place in the content landscape right now?** ###### Ann Handley: Any brand or company that isn’t using video in some way is missing out on a tremendous opportunity to bring its brand to life. Video adds a pulse to your content. It makes your story tangible and real. So why wouldn’t we all embrace it? Maybe some of you are looking at me askance and saying to yourself, “Well, sure… Ann *would* say that to Wistia. Because Wistia is in the business of video. And this is on their blog. So.” But to those doubting types I’d say that you really should have more faith in people. In this case, you should have more faith in me. Because even if a non-video content company bought me a puppy to say that video is a terrible waste of time… I wouldn’t do it. I can’t be swayed like that. And I really really really love puppies. ###### Wistia: **What is the relationship between video, text, and other visual elements in content?** ###### Ann Handley: I’m glad you brought this up. Because I almost mentioned it in my last question. Video works best when it’s integrated into a content marketing program. So text, graphics, audio, and video are all part of the same Content Circle of Life. In our annual content marketing research, we found that 79% of B2B content marketers are using video in their content marketing. And it’s the fifth most effective tactic they use. What’s more, the most effective B2B marketers use an average of 15 content tactics, so video isn’t being used in a silo. Thank Cheez-its. The biggest opportunity? Make your video program subscribable. Only a fraction of companies using video are thinking of a subscription program for their videos. That’s a stat with more than a whiff of opportunity.
Text, graphics, audio, and video are all part of the same Content Circle of Life.
###### Wistia: **Do you have any favorite content examples you can point to that use multiple mediums well? What’s great about them?** ###### Ann Handley: Marcus Sheridan (TheSalesLion.com) is a master at this, because he uses video to reach new audiences in different ways, yet also has a robust blog and podcast(s) that extend the same themes he discusses throughout his site. That’s the key to using video, or any great content, really. The best content tells a bigger story and extends a bigger theme. Marcus does that well, because his content isn’t about him, it’s about the audience. There’s probably no one who is more helpful to people who want to understand inbound marketing. GEReports.com is killing it with all of their content, including their seamless incorporation of video into so much of their content. Part of me hates to use an example like GE here, because their content program is funded by a jillion dollars. But I spoke to a science group last week, so I spent some time on the GEReports.com site, and I came away with a deep appreciation for the brilliance of it. I don’t think I could name a better branded content site. So there you go. There are many others I really like. The answer to this question could go on for days, because I *love* calling out great work. But I’ll stop here because I really need to get moving on these other questions… ###### Wistia: **You’ve written a lot about how writing isn’t actually that hard and ways that everyone can get started. What are some of your favorite suggestions for building a consistent creative practice, whether it’s writing, video, or something else?** ###### Ann Handley: * Make writing a routine practically daily. My friend Jeff Goins says that something practiced once a week isn’t a routine, it’s an obligation. Frequency matters. * Writing is about making your ideas understood. Focus on the audience—not yourself. (This isn’t a “suggestion,” per se. But it’s a necessary mindset for great work.) * Create for one single person. I love marketing personas for marketing, because they are useful. But sometimes they can get in the way of the creative process, because we are still focused on a “market segment.” I like to think of one single person who will benefit from my writing or content or video or whatever. Doing so can make it so much easier to create effective content. And you can have a little fun doing it, too. (Because if you aren’t having fun creating content, you’re doing it wrong. Or you’re in the wrong job.)
I like to think of one single person who will benefit from my writing or content or video or whatever.
###### Wistia: **What are some of the most effective content campaigns you’ve seen in the recent past that include video?** ###### Ann Handley: In the B2B space: DesignDisruptors.com (from InDesign) is genius, and I couldn’t love Barbie’s “Imagine the Possibilites” more:
###### Wistia: **How do you balance quality and quantity in your own content production, and what advice would you give to other businesses struggling with this question?** ###### Ann Handley: Quality and quantity are not enemies. Good content *can* scale. And it should. But you need to get the basics right. So: invest some time in the basics of creating what I call bigger, bolder, braver content. ###### Wistia: **Your formula for quality content is “Utility x Inspiration x Empathy.” How can brands build empathy without coming across as pandering or inauthentic?** ###### Ann Handley: Empathy is about adopting an audience-centric point of view. Here’s a filter than can be a handy test for that: Would your audience *thank* you for this? ###### Wistia: **What are your content or video predictions for 2016? What trends do you think we’ll see emerge?** ###### Ann Handley: I’m going to answer this with a scenario and a story. It goes like this: In the harsh morning light of 2016, Content Marketing realized that somewhere along the way… it got lost. It got distracted. Content Marketing admitted to itself that it had been impulsive and immature and short-sighted and (sometimes) lazy. Content spent its parents’ money on crazy experimental things that may or may not have been good choices. It prized quantity over quality. It boasted too much about itself, instead of considering what its audience needed. It couldn’t exactly explain what its Snapchat strategy was doing for its B2B brand. It didn’t say No. Content was letting people down. More importantly, it wasn’t fulfilling its true promise and real potential. And right then and there—full of regret for the advertising it tried to pass off as “storytelling,” for the content farms, for the lack of intent and strategy—Content Marketing grows up. Just like that, Content exits its exuberant college years. “Maturity comes when you stop making excuses and starting making changes,” Content Marketing thinks. So that’s pretty much what I think 2016 holds: Content Marketing will become a little more strategic and real. That means getting the necessary planning, processes, frameworks, creativity, and metrics in place to legitimize itself. It’s time for Content to be taken seriously. We’ve got this. Grown-up doesn’t mean boring and staid, though. Quite the opposite, because Content Marketing still has the heart of a storyteller, the soul of an artist, and the playful spark of spontaneity. Because isn’t that why we’re all here, anyway?
Uncovering Your Most Authentic Stories
In her WistiaFest 2015 presentation, Ann highlights the need for companies to start creating not just more content, but better content, providing details and specific examples for how you can nail each of these qualities by continually striving to know your customer better.
A couple of weeks ago, we hosted a webinar with our friends at Litmus. They’re experts in all things email, so we teamed up to discuss video and email. I was joined by Justine Jordan and Kevin Mandeville for a discussion on what works, what doesn’t, and what to measure. There’s one thing that both of our teams are pretty passionate about: the power of using email and video together. We’re firm believers that email is one of the most personal ways to reach people. After all, people are letting you into that most sacred of spaces: their inbox—often the first place that many of us look, upon waking up or before going to bed (despite the guidance of sleep experts!). Using video and email together makes communication in the inbox that much more personal and authentic: suddenly, there’s a face and a voice behind the message you receive. ### Video in email vs. video with email My favorite part of the webinar was the distinction Justine made between using video in email, versus using video with email. It may seem like a mere semantic difference, but in fact, the implications are huge: - Using video in email is dicey at best: many email clients don’t support it, so you’re giving some of your recipients a poor user experience. There are ways to mitigate this, such as specifying a fallback image, but this can force you to water down the CTAs that you use elsewhere in the email. And even when it is possible, using video in email can get you (unfairly) blocked as spam. - Using video with email works like a charm. The workflow is a little different: rather than embedding the video in the email itself, use a video thumbnail image that redirects to the page where the video lives. More on this below!
### Now for some questions (and our answers!) Attendees asked some great questions, some of which we didn’t get to answer, so we’re posting them (and our responses) below. We appreciate hearing your feedback and questions, so we can refine the way we teach people to use video. #### 1. I know you can do both, but do you feel it is better to use video with email to drive clients to a landing page or to your website? What is your preference?
#### 2. Does video work on iOS? Yes. In fact, Wistia videos work particularly well on iOS because we’ve implemented HLS (HTTP live stream) which makes it much quicker to load and play long videos. It’s worth noting that annotations don’t work on iOS—for Wistia videos, YouTube videos, or any videos you view natively on an iPhone or iPad. Our Turnstile email collector and CTAs do work on iOS, but the viewer is taken out of the player. In my humble opinion, video on iOS is a pretty nice user experience because people so often have their earbuds in already, so they’re in an optimal position to view video. #### 3. What is the best online source for creating a gif? Folks from both the Wistia and Litmus team love GIF Brewery. They make it super easy to create and use GIFs. If you’re interested in learning more about how to use GIFs, read Litmus’ guide all about using GIFs in email. #### 4. Do you have blog posts that talk about how video is helpful from an SEO perspective? Absolutely! We love this topic, so we’ve written about it a lot. The short answer is that video can be very helpful from an SEO perspective, provided that you’re embedding the video sensibly and making it easy for Google to recognize the video content on your site. If you’re using Wistia to embed videos on your site, video SEO is an easy (and automatic) part of the embedding process, so you don’t even have to think about it. Curious how Wistia stacks up against YouTube? Or how video and duplicate content can impact SEO? We’ve covered that too! #### 5. Is it becoming more common to use a video thumbnail image in email? Yes! This is the best way to implement video in email. It makes the user experience as intuitive and positive as possible and decreases the risk of getting blocked as spam. You can even use selective autoplay for those coming from the email, so that the viewer has to perform no additional clicks to see the video. In order to make your CTA crystal clear, we suggest using a thumbnail image that includes a play button. Using video in this way is likely to yield a much higher click-to-open ratio than any other CTA you can choose for your email. Not to mention that this strategy will give you data on who, what, and where people are watching, re-watching, and skipping: analytics that would be lost, were you to embed the video in the email directly. ### Watch the live recording If you happened to miss this webinar, you can watch the entire recording along with some special bonus footage that wasn’t available during the webinar itself. We recorded it live, so you’ll see us discussing video and email live from the Wistia studio. Plus, our video producer, Chris Lavigne, shot some 360 footage during the webinar, if you want to check out our recording space. We’re excited to push the boundaries of how we do webinars by leveraging this live footage, so please let us know what you think in the comments below if you watch it!
Download 3 free email templates for using video in your emails
