How Wistia Grows by Taking the Time to Coast

A startup is like a car that you are building as you drive. Eventually, your car should grip the road as you scream around turns, give you the ability to accelerate dramatically when you see open space in front of you, and let you brake on a dime, so you can avoid the obstacles without slowing down too much. Some startups without good handling lose control when a surprise sharp corner comes up, and they hit a tree. Some mosey along so slowly that before they know it, they’ve run out of gas and they’re stranded. In most venture-backed companies, investors will help you build a car more quickly, but in return, your gas pedal needs to be drilled into the floor. Management tells you, “This will always go as fast as possible. Figure it out.” This mentality creates a ton of stress, and it often breeds tunnel vision. And this is why we will sometimes see speed demons veer off the road and crash.

“This mentality creates a ton of stress, and it often breeds tunnel vision.”

At Wistia, we try to keep the accelerator down. When we see something nasty coming up in the road, we can ease off the pressure and give ourselves more control and maneuverability. Then we can take some time to coast, while still moving forward, and figure out the right time to ramp back up. If my co-founder Brendan and I had been behind the wheel of a VC-backed startup, I’m convinced it would have gone one of two ways. We would have been replaced in the driver’s seat, or we would have totaled the car. We didn’t know what it would take to grow a company, and there’s no way we would’ve learned how fast enough. We had to go slow and learn it over time. In the end, that was the key reason we were able to build a strong company. ### Preparing for Success As we started to build what would become Wistia, Brendan and I dreamed of becoming a $60,000/year business, guaranteeing both of us a $30,000/year salary. That sounded amazing to two fresh college grads whose #1 wish was to not have jobs, but to have freedom. I remember proudly telling my dad of our plans, and that I thought we could get there. His response stuck with us for a long time. There’s nothing like advice from a sage guardian. “Make sure you prepare for success,” he said. He believed in us and warned us that if this really did work out, we needed to be prepared for the consequences. We hadn’t been thinking about what would happen if we actually hit our goal. We were haphazardly barreling into the first turn of a long road trip.

“We hadn’t been thinking about what would happen if we actually hit our goal.”

You’re trained to think about what you’ll do if you fail, but you’re rarely asked what you’ll do if you succeed. Success means that you could be working on your company for the next ten years or more. Success means dealing with hard HR issues, feeling financially responsible for all employees, deciding on company strategies that will impact everyone, handling hard customer issues. You’ll have to live with the consequences (both good and bad) of your decisions for a long time. You need to prepare for it by making good decisions today. We began thinking differently about growth and how we should be driving our car. We decided that we’d drive at a speed we were comfortable with and simply try to double the size of our business every year. It ended up taking just two years to get to our original goal of $60,000/year. Three years later, we were at $1M/year. Both Brendan and I are glad we put my dad’s advice to use. ### The ten year test To make sure we were building a company that would sustain itself and succeed in the long term, we started asking ourselves a simple yet powerful question every time we were faced with a difficult choice: “What would we do if we had to make a decision that we would need to live with for the next 10 years?” “Where am I going?” Brendan contemplates the next decade of his life. We started out with questions like ownership—would we want to work together through the next ten years if we split the company 70/30? 60/40? 50/50? Did it really matter who had the initial idea? Did it matter who put in slightly more hours or slightly more money? We knew that while we both brought different values to the table in the short term and that an uneven split would certainly make one of us miserable over the long term. This decision-making process became a habit. We started running every significant question we had about Wistia’s business through a kind of “ten year test”: - What if our sales experiment works, and we become a sales-driven organization over the next ten years? - What if we take money from this investor, and we have to build a company with her for the next ten years? - What if we really build out this video production marketplace and then have to sustain it over the next ten years? We knew that Wistia would take a long time to grow, and some decisions you make early on can’t be reversed. This form of decision-making was our way of making sure we were always moving in the right direction and not doing something unsustainable. ### When the walls start shaking The last year and a half was the fastest period of growth in Wistia’s history. We had the pedal to the metal. As the team grew from 30 to more than 60 people, though, we started drifting over lines and riding the rumble strip.

“The last year and a half was the fastest period of growth in Wistia’s history.”

Team members were taking on more roles and doing more unfamiliar and challenging work. We were all pushing hard to hit our numbers. Combined with massive headcount growth, folks were strained. Our culture was being put to a serious stress test. When the walls started shaking, we decided to dial it back, take our foot off the accelerator, and regain control over the steering. We slowed down hiring, decreased spending in certain areas, helped people grow into roles, reshuffled some teams, and made transparency a team priority. Interestingly, from what we’ve observed since then, it’s not necessarily the speed that causes stress at startups. Stress can be caused by: - Not knowing why you’re doing the work - Not believing that it’s possible to achieve your goals It’s not about how fast you’re driving the car—it’s about building a car that can turn around obstacles, stop on a dime, and accelerate when you have an open road. Startups need growth to survive, but to do it without burning out, you have to focus on the integrity of your car. With forethought and frequent communication with your team, you can build a dependable Ford. ### Culture is the governor of growth Culture has to be your governor of growth because it’s difficult to make hard and fast rules. Sometimes the market is moving super quickly, and you have to hustle, or you’ll miss a huge opportunity. Sometimes you push too hard, realize the consequences, and have to be willing to slow down. You can’t just rely on numbers to dictate when to do what. You have to check in with the people that you hope to play this crazy game with in ten years time. If you push your team out of an obsession with the numbers, it makes every other value you hold suddenly appear irrelevant. If you can’t preserve your values, you’ll fail. You always have to make the decisions that will set you up for growth in the future, even if that means pumping the brakes now.

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The beautiful thing about growth is that it always makes you stronger. The doors shake, things get hard, and you may even feel like you have to relearn your entire role in the company, but that experience will always leave you changed for the better. It can be hard while it’s happening, but eventually the walls do stop shaking. Everyone can take a breath and reflect on the incredible things they’ve accomplished. The exhilaration and adrenaline slowly fade away. The car’s still moving.

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Improve Video CTA Click-Through Rates by Using the Right Words

Should you tell them what to do? We have constant debates here at Wistia about how explicit we should be in guiding user behavior. These discussions surface in all sorts of places—new user onboarding in our app, CTAs in our videos, product pages, and beyond. There are basically two schools of thought. ###### School #1 says: “Let’s make the design so simple and intuitive that no explicit instruction is needed. Those instructions are just a crutch making up for bad design.” ###### School #2 says: “There is no such thing as ‘perfect’ design, so almost every situation can be helped by directing people to take the desired action.” Well, when it comes to interactive elements in videos (e.g. calls to action and annotation links), the data proves that school #2 wins. Direct language yields higher click-through rates. ### To “click” or not to “click” for video CTAs First question: does including the text “click” or “click here” increase the click-through rate for calls to action in videos? Well… in a word, yes. According to data we pulled from across all Wistia-hosted videos using calls to action, the click-through rate for calls to action that include the word “click” is the highest, at just over 15%, and “click here” comes in second, at around 11%. The average click-through rate for CTAs not using any form of “click” was just under 10%.

“The click-through rate for calls to action that include the word 'click’ is the highest.”

### Annotation links are no exception to the rule The difference is even more pronounced when using annotation links. Annotation links that included “click here” were about 4 times as effective as annotation links that didn’t include the word “click.” Using “click” was about 3 times as effective as not using the word at all. As with any data finding, it’s important to consider your context and your audience before making changes. In other words, don’t revise all of your CTAs and annotation links solely because of this data. At Wistia, we’re proponents of “data-informed,” not “data-driven” marketing. Stay tuned for more video data snacks and tidbits! If you’re curious to read more about how to craft an effective video CTA, we collected lots more data for our Guide to Calls to Action over in the Library.

LIBRARY » STRATEGY

Guide to Calls to Action in Video Marketing

The data behind highly effective video CTAs has arrived. Learn what makes some CTAs stand out from the rest.

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Onboarding + Videos + A/B Testing = Happier New Users

Successful onboarding creates more active users, and more active users means more sales and revenue for the business. So recently, we’ve been hyper-focused on increasing our new user activation rate by making Wistia’s onboarding flow more effective. Video is a big part of that strategy. In past blog posts, we’ve talked about why we like using video to onboard new customers. We like it for a few reasons. We like that it humanizes a very impersonal digital experience. We like that it accelerates learning and comprehension. And, most importantly, we like that it works. But, like many of you, we don’t always know the best videos to show to our prospects at key moments of the user journey. That’s why we test lots of different ideas and let the data guide us towards the right answers. Sometimes, it takes a few tries to get things right, so we run a lot of tests.

“We test lots of different ideas and let the data guide us towards the right answers.”

Recently, we ran a series of video a/b tests in our onboarding flow, and we learned some useful lessons that we couldn’t wait to share with our audience. Let’s start at the beginning of our favorite test so far… ### An actionable location After completing our signup form and creating a Wistia account, our new users are shown a welcome screen with two options to get started: - Upload their video - Borrow a loaner video from us Either option brings new users into their account, so they can start exploring all that Wistia has to offer. Though, if we’re being honest, we’d much rather have them upload their own videos to get up and running right away. But, we realized that some people might not have a video file handy. We wanted them to be able to see Wistia’s features in action, so we created a loaner video that they could use. Exploring Wistia’s features with our loaner video is like viewing an open house with staged furniture. New users can begin to visualize what the place could look like with their own stuff. They can match the video player color to their company’s branding, add video marketing tools (Turnstile email collectors, calls to action, and annotation links), and enable captions and social sharing options. We assumed the loaner video content didn’t really matter, since it’s job was to allow folks to explore how the product works. It was just a vehicle (or so we thought). About 20% of our new signups borrow a video during their onboarding. Here’s what their Wistia media page used to look like after borrowing a video from us: The actual video they used to borrow was a cute video of Lenny (our office dog and unofficial mascot) running around with a VCR tape in his mouth. Everyone loves cute. Everyone loves Lenny. So that’s the video we chose. We’ve embedded it below so you can watch for yourself.

 

### Our idea was born We figured adding a loaner video would allow more new users to explore our customization features, but we didn’t expect so many people to actually play and watch the video. We use a tool called FullStory to watch users interact with our software. It’s a useful way we gather feedback. We get to see areas where they get stuck, weird bugs they find, confusing user flows, etc. Watching users and taking notes is a great way to get information that people typically don’t share in written surveys. While watching some Fullstory user sessions, we noticed our users were playing the loaner video. A lot, actually. We checked the video’s engagement data and discovered new users not only played the video, they watched almost the entire thing! We had a lightbulb moment. There was a huge opportunity to increase our activation rate on the media page. It was sitting right in front of us.

“There was a huge opportunity to increase our activation rate on the media page.”

### We designed a test Our hypothesis was that using a product-related loaner video instead of a Lenny video would increase the percentage of users that took action on the media page, but we weren’t sure what that video should be. So, we grabbed our video team and brainstormed a bunch of different video concepts we could use for this test. The brainstorm ideas included: - “How to” tutorial - Product overview - Personalized welcome message - Account details walkthrough - Motivational content - Data-driven content We picked the idea we thought would have the most impact—a “how to” video focused on our media page. Since our new users would be watching the video with the Customization panel open, we thought this video concept would increase engagement the most. The video team created a script the next day. Two days later, they created a sweet new video for us to test. It was fun and informational, and it ran through the most common customization features in less than 90 seconds.

 

We were really excited to see how effective the new video would be. Our engineering team helped us divide our new signups into a 50/50 split. 50% of our new users that borrowed a video received the Lenny video, and the other 50% received the “how to” video above. ### We launched and waited Our primary success metric was the percentage of new users that used the customization features. We wanted to make sure our results were statistically valid, so we launched the test, then kicked back and waited a few weeks for the data to roll in. We tried not to peek. Not peeking is hard! But we didn’t want to get excited too soon. ### We analyzed the results After a month, we pulled the data. Our new video had increased our main metric by 30%. Holy smokes. We were thrilled. We ran the numbers through a statistical significance calculator and shared high-fives after we saw the numbers were valid.

“Our new video had increased our main metric by 30%. Holy smokes.”

30%. Our team was pumped. ### What we learned Creating a winning test is great. But understanding why it was successful is even better. When you understand why, you can do more of what works. So we thought about why this test was so successful, and we realized a few things: 1. There is no substitute for getting close to your users and understanding their pain points. 2. Never assume what you have today is finished. 3. Teaching users how to do seemingly straightforward things may seem boring, but it can be extremely effective. 4. Sometimes context informs content. We have written about the value of a/b testing with video before. What do you think? Are you testing with video? We would love to hear your stories in the comments below!

BLOG » STRATEGY

Onboarding New Users With Video

Andrew describes five benefits of using video for onboarding.

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6 Quick Tips for Looking Good on Camera

At Wistia, we’ve found that looking good on camera is mostly about feeling comfortable. As a talent under those bright lights, it’s best if you can forget about your appearance altogether and focus on being yourself. Next time you’re shooting a video, consider the following six tips to make sure you or the subject you’re shooting are looking (and feeling) good. ### Clothing

 

When it comes to dressing for a shoot, solid colors are always a good bet. In fact, in our office, we have a whole rack of solid-colored t-shirts in all different sizes, ready to be worn by anyone. Try to avoid big logos, wrinkled clothes, or tight patterns, as they can all be visually distracting to your viewer. When choosing your look, be aware that a suit and tie will send a different message than a ripped t-shirt. Also remember that when you are comfortable, you look comfortable. There’s no use in going over the top with your outfit if it means you can’t breath properly or get loose. In the end, your look should stem from your brand and whatever message you’re trying to convey in the video. There are no hard and fast rules. ###### Pro tip: When you begin your shoot, make sure your subject’s jewelry isn’t making noise. Metal bracelets can be a nightmare for audio! ### Makeup

 

If you’re preparing to be a subject in a video, do whatever you’d normally do on an average day. In our humble opinion, the best makeup in videos is the makeup that viewers don’t even notice. Getting in front of a camera is already pretty intimidating for a non-actor, and asking folks to put on special makeup for a video can add another layer of unfamiliarity. For our company videos, we don’t ask any of our subjects to wear makeup. But then again, if you’re the one stepping into those bright lights, then it’s up to you! If you’d feel more comfortable being in front of a camera after you’ve applied some powder and mascara, then by all means, go for it. The most important thing is that you feel like yourself. If you go with a look that’s totally different from your day-to-day appearance, it’ll be harder to feel genuine on camera. ###### Pro tip: We all know it can be hot under those lights. Blotting paper can help reduce oil and minimize shine. ### Camera placement

 

You may have already learned this from years of selfies, but it’s easy to forget when you’re busy setting up a shoot. Even if you’re working with a taller subject, try to keep the lens just above their eyeline. This placement will help to prevent a double chin situation and will yield a much more flattering angle. This rule applies if you’re shooting with your webcam too! Make sure to raise your laptop up off the table and angle it down toward your face, ensuring the camera is just above your eyeline. ###### Pro tip: Keep a stool or step in your studio, so raising a camera for a tall subject doesn’t mean standing on your tiptoes for the entirety of the shoot. ### Lighting

 

When you’re lighting a subject, try your best to remove all harsh shadows on their face. Consider the environment you’re shooting in and watch for unwanted shadows on the face. If your talent is standing directly underneath overhead office lighting, either shut the lights off or move the subject out from under the light. This will help to avoid the dreaded “raccoon eyes.” If you’re using video lights, make sure your lights are placed just in front of the camera and slightly above the talent’s eyeline for the best results. ### Background

 

There’s a reason we use a dark gray background in many of our company videos. We’ve found that muted blues and grays are universally flattering, whereas bright colors, like orange and red, will reflect color back onto the subject and affect the way the camera records skin color. If you’re not shooting in front of a paper backdrop, it’s key to make sure there’s nothing distracting behind the subject. You can also use a lower aperture from a prime lens, like a 50mm, to blur the background while keeping the subject tack sharp. ###### Pro tip: There’s more where this came from. Our Library guide, “Choosing the Right Background for Your Video,” explores this subject at length. ### Performance

 

When you first jump in front of a camera, it can be a bit intimidating. Try your best to focus on owning each line. Take those hands out of your pockets, stand or sit up straight, and finish each line with gusto (just not too much gusto). Also keep in mind that when you’re on camera, you’re on the whole time, so make each moment count. Sure, you can edit out some things in post, but that bored face you make between your first two lines might just make it into the final cut. If you’ve pulled an all-nighter or are getting sick, consider rescheduling the shoot. There’s only so much you can do to look great if you don’t feel great.

LIBRARY » PRODUCTION

Lighting on the Fly

A minimal and flexible philosophy for lighting your video on any budget

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6 Best Practices for Effectively Communicating with a Video Marketing Client

Ian Servin is a passionate freelance video producer and director, who’s worked with brands such as Ford and Nike on everything from small projects to complex campaigns. He is a guest writer on the Wistia Blog.

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There are a million little details that go into doing video marketing for your clients. To keep all of the pieces in place and your client informed along the way, it’s important to set up a standardized workflow for interacting with your clients and producing your video content. Having a formal process allows you to onboard new team members more easily, optimize how you do business, and give your clients a consistently positive experience. From planning to execution, here are 6 best practices to guide you as you build your system. ### 1. Establish the lines of communication Pre-production often gets overlooked, but it’s the first interaction between you and your client and one of the most crucial time periods in your relationship. A little care in this early stage of the process can lead to big payoffs down the road. Similarly, missteps here can lead to missed opportunities. During the discovery phase, you should not only learn about your client, but you should brief the client on who you are and how your team works. Clearly establishing who will be doing what clues the client into your process and brings them in as a collaborator, rather than an outsider. First, hold an in-person meeting with all the relevant stakeholders before production begins. This allows everyone to set the goal of the video together, hammer out the details, and address any potential roadblocks.

“Clearly establishing who will be doing what clues the client into your process and brings them in as a collaborator, rather than an outsider.”

Establish a clear goal and key metrics for measuring your video’s success. Who is the video intended for? What marketing goal will it help hit? Where will it live, and how will it be promoted? Don’t forget to review the budget and timeline to ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page. Next, establish a single point of contact between the client and you. Typically, this is a project manager, production coordinator, or some other manager who has a good high-level understanding of what’s going on. While it can seem restrictive to limit communication in this way, having one person on each side ensures that what is communicated is clear, concise, and consistent. Down the road, it can also streamline post-production. Your client point of contact should be responsible for organizing approvals, so that you’re not wrangling feedback from all sides. ### 2. Check in regularly before production begins At this stage in the process, it’s important to have regular check-ins so everyone knows what’s going on. Internally, this should happen in weekly or even daily status meetings. With clients, the frequency can be less long, as you’re meeting any deadlines set up in advance. Do set up quick calls or emails whenever you hit specific milestones, like completing a creative brief, drawing up storyboards, or setting a schedule. Use tools like Google Docs for script revisions and shared Trello boards for glanceable status updates. They reduce the urge to schedule excessive meetings.

“Use tools like Google Docs for script revisions and shared Trello boards for glanceable status updates.”

### 3. Coordinate during production When you’re ready to schedule shoots and coordinate production, have a well thought-out process so that you can focus on the details. Build a checklist to help you remember which elements need to get lined up at what time. This is especially crucial for more complex projects with many moving parts. This checklist should include things like finalizing your script, sourcing talent, scoping out equipment, and arranging locations. Managing locations is also a key part of production logistics. Often times, you’ll shoot at your client’s office. Make sure that your point of contact understands any needs you have, so that you feel confident when you walk in that door. When reserving space, ask about lighting (natural and artificial), any potential noise issues, and ready access to power. It always helps to do a proper location scout to confirm these things for yourself, but in a pinch, an email exchange and some cell phone photos can do the trick. Always be prepared with alternate locations. And be sure that the client factors in the time it takes to set-up and tear-down when reserving rooms. When it comes time to do the shoot, a call sheet is an extremely handy tool to make sure that everyone’s on the same page. A big budget shoot will often have a dense sheet with a ton of detail, but a call sheet doesn’t have to be complicated to be useful.

“When it comes time to do the shoot, a call sheet is an extremely handy tool to make sure that everyone’s on the same page.”

In your doc, include some basic info about where and when the shoot will take place, who will be involved and their contact info, as well as a basic rundown of the schedule. Send this out ahead of time and have a few printed copies on set. This will keep both your production team and the client well informed and confident. Internally, you can dive deeper into the schedule with a shot list to ensure you capture exactly what you need to. You can also do this in any editor or use a specialized app like Shot Lister. ### 4. Get approval while editing Once the project is in the edit, it’s easy to go dark and stop communicating regularly with the client. Instead of popping back up when you have a final product, share still frames and information about how post-production is progressing. This keeps the client engaged and informed, and leads to a better approvals process. Once you have a revision ready to go, the client is primed to react positively to your edit. It’s important to get approval before you get to finishing, so that a small change doesn’t snowball into a big time suck. However, some clients react poorly to rough cuts without the visual polish of a final deliverable. In that case, send a transcript with some stills, so they can approve the content without being exposed to the rough edges of an initial draft. You’ll still need to get the video approved before final delivery, but it’ll save a lot of time.

 

When you do get to the point of showing off a draft, it’s helpful to use a specialized tool like Wipster or Frame.io to share your edit and gather feedback. Both of these tools are designed for the revisions process and have helpful features like annotations and timecoded comments. This allows the client to give specific, actionable feedback that is easy to interpret. They’re also built to be intuitive for editors, with common keyboard shortcuts and little details like frame-by-frame playback that don’t exist with your typical video host. ### 5. Manage the video’s promotion Hopefully just delivering the video isn’t the end of the project. Managing a video’s promotion is key to ensuring that the video hits the goals that you set for it. After all, you want to make sure that the awesome content you produced is actually seen by people who will connect with it. Sometimes the client’s internal marketing team will manage this process, but it’s often much more effective to take control of the distribution as the content creator. Regardless of your team’s role, it’s important to clearly communicate what you will do to promote the video and any steps you expect the client to take on their own. If there are any credentials that need to be shared, make sure that happens before you plan to publish, not on the day of. Again, a shared Trello board can be used to coordinate content calendars, share status updates, and distribute important resources. ### 6. Share metrics and establish success Developing a robust workflow for gathering and sharing metrics is hugely important to a video campaign’s success. In pre-production, you established key metrics and goalposts for measuring your content’s success. In the reporting phase, you want to not only send status updates on these key figures, but provide insightful analysis and context for the numbers. When building reports, don’t focus on flashy charts and an overwhelming list of figures. Hone in on key numbers, and tell the client why they’re important and what they mean in the bigger picture. Be data-informed, not data-driven.

“Hone in on key numbers, and tell the client why they’re important and what they mean in the bigger picture.”

When you do reporting, gather metrics through the dashboards built into the platforms you use, like Wistia’s analytics tools. Also investigate third party options, especially for aggregating data across platforms and putting the performance of specific content in context with broader campaigns. Take the time to gather qualitative data, like feedback from viewers in comments, shares, tweets, and posts. Take screenshots of these throughout the campaign and include them in reports and follow-up meetings. These may not have the elegance of numerical data, but are great ways to probe how your audience engaged with your content. As far as reporting frequency, it often depends on the speed of the platform you’re delivering on. For social, daily internal updates are not overkill. Weekly client calls can be very helpful, in addition to larger monthly reports. For a larger evergreen web video, a monthly update might be all you need. Experiment and choose the frequency that lets you react quickly and nimbly, without being forced to act on noise and not signal.

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Client relationships form the foundation for the work we do. Good communication makes those relationships stronger and more collaborative. But good communication is also hard. Taking the time to establish a client communication workflow for every stage of the process will have huge long-term payoffs. This guide is a good start, but the best process is the one that works for you and your team. Set up something now, so you have a reference point, but experiment, modify, and optimize to your heart’s content. Communication is always a work in progress, but the effort you put in is well worth it.

BLOG » STRATEGY

6 Ways to Promote Your Videos on a Budget

Wallet-friendly tips to gain several active sets of eyes on your spiffy new videos

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The Current State of Video Conversion

A couple weeks ago, we published our guide to how people use Calls to Action in their videos. Using data from across all Wistia-hosted content, we discovered which methods resulted in the highest conversion rates. Today, we thought it would be useful to step back and take a quick look at all of the Timeline Actions to see how our current customers are approaching video conversion as a whole. We designed each Timeline Action to perform a specific job. For example: - Call to Action: Great if you are promoting a new product or feature and want your audience to go to a product page after watching the video. - Turnstile: Our email collector is useful if you’re trying to build an email list around your video content or stay in touch with viewers to nurture them after they watch. - Annotation link: Annotation links are helpful when you are giving explicit information during your video and you want to direct people to the right pages throughout. ### Analysis: how often each Timeline Action is used Calls to Action are by far the most popular Timeline Action. A full 62.1% of customized Wistia videos are using a Call to Action somewhere within the video. Turnstiles can be found in 34.5% of videos using Timeline Actions. Annotations account for just 3.4% of these videos. The data suggests that most people are using videos to promote a specific product or feature rather than to build an email list. And for good reason: Wistia Calls to Action have an average conversion rate of 11.04%. Turnstiles (7.2%) and annotation links (3.4%) appear not to convert as well, but the data is somewhat misleading. Remember that Turnstiles have higher stakes, since they ask for an email address as opposed to a click, and annotation links don’t stop the video when they appear. In general, the lower the stakes, the easier it is to promote action, so comparing conversion rates between all three isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. Also, note that a 3.4% click rate for a non-obtrusive link is pretty high regardless of the platform and medium. ### How Fleetio uses all three Timeline Actions Can you use all three at once? Certainly! Fleetio’s feature overview video uses a mid-roll Turnstile to capture emails, annotation links to offer live demos, and finally, a Call to Action to show viewers where to go next. We wouldn’t always recommend a mid-roll email gate, but for this video, it’s an effective way for Fleetio to stay in touch with people who are already pretty far along in the consideration process.

 

While this video pulls off combining all three Timeline Actions well, we wouldn’t recommend this in every case. Each Timeline Action has a specific goal, and so does each of your videos. Too many options can water down the power of any of these customizations. Whether you’re describing a new feature, promoting your brand, or teaching your audience, choose the Timeline Action that best fits the video, and let the content lead the way. ### Takeaways Though Calls to Action do have the highest conversion rates, we offer different Timeline Actions because they all perform a different job within your video: - If you want to drive people to your site from the video, or perform a specific action, use a Call to Action. - If you want to capture emails, then use a Turnstile. - If you want to quickly show people where they can get more information, use an Annotation link. For an in-depth look at which language, format, and colors are most effective in Calls to Action, read our guide to using video CTAs.

LIBRARY » STRATEGY

The Wistia Guide to Calls to Action in Video Marketing

Learn which methods yield the highest conversion rates.

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Best Practices for Instagram Video

 

Don’t have the time to read this blog post? Listen to it whenever you’ve got a free 5 minutes!

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Telling a story in 15 seconds, well, that’s tough to do. Thankfully, this past March Instagram announced an update that would change the game for all of us video-loving marketers. We said goodbye to our Vine-style videos, and welcomed “long-form” video content to the platform. Instagram users could finally upload 60 seconds of video to the platform! Huzzah. Now that we have a bit more leeway when it comes to video length, it’s time to think about how we can use video on this channel in the most impactful ways possible. From shooting and editing, to production and general aesthetics, there are a number of important factors to consider when posting video to Instagram. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty! ### Shooting and editing your video #### Using your built-in camera As you may have seen in our guide to crafting a social video strategy, you can shoot video from within the Instagram app itself or from your phone’s built-in camera. Heck, you can even whip out your fancy-pants DSLR gear! There’s no one “right” way to shoot Instagram video, as long as it fits in with your brand’s aesthetic. If you plan on shooting video from your phone, however, keep these basic tips in mind: - Shoot video vertically OR in landscape mode (only when posting on Instagram). Lucky for us, Instagram stopped cropping everything into a perfect square, so whatever way you shoot, you’ll still fit the entire shot into your ‘gram. - Maintain focus on your subject. Tap on your screen to focus on a person, or tap somewhere to the left or right of them to have the subject fall out of focus, if that’s what you’re going for. - Avoid a wobbly shot. Put your elbows down on something sturdy nearby, or crouch down on one knee and use that as a nice place to plant your elbow for the shot! #### Editing your Instagram video Our video producer Trevor recently made an awesome guide to creating a DIY camera toolbox that lives in our Library. The original tutorial video was three and a half minutes long—not exactly something fit for Instagram—but we felt like the imagery was visually compelling enough that it would still attract viewers on Instagram. We decided to trim the media down to the essentials, so viewers could still get the gist of it.

 

This clip touches upon all of the major scenes that are in the longer-form video, without compromising too much. Teaser videos for the win! Curious what the whole thing looks like? Head on over to the Library! Nugget of truth: Editing videos in Instagram can be a real pain if you’re trying to do anything other than give it a quick trim (not to mention the app tends to crash a lot when in this setting – eek!). That’s why we recommend editing as much of the video as possible outside of Instagram, and then importing it to the platform from your phone’s Library when it’s done. One major setback is that Instagram’s trim feature only lets you cut footage from the beginning or end of your video. For example, if you want to delete the middle portion of your video, leaving you with just the beginning and end, you’re out of luck! You’d have to make two copies of the video in your phone’s Library, trim one to the beginning, one to the end, and then join them together in the app. If that sounds like too much work to you, that’s because it is. Rule of thumb: Avoid using Instagram’s in-app camera unless you want to capture things that are super in-the-moment. For the most part, stick to your phone’s camera or other gear, and then upload the videos to the app from your Library. ### Production and aesthetic #### Think “no sound” Instagram was the first social platform to initiate silent, auto-playing video. When they launched this back in 2013, Facebook and Twitter followed suit and adopted this as the norm. Silent videos on social media are less intrusive and optimal for skimming. But how do you grab someone’s attention in just a few seconds? How do you get them to fully commit and tap the screen for sound? There are a few important things to keep in mind when producing a video for Instagram: - Since users have to tap the video for audio to play, any audio before the person taps won’t be heard. It sounds obvious, but you might consider starting off the video with an introduction that doesn’t need audio. When and if the user taps for audio, they won’t have missed much. - Talking head videos work well on websites and landing pages, but on social you want to be more creative. Dialogue-based videos probably won’t drive the same amount of engagement as more visually stimulating ones. Cater to the silent autoplay! - If you don’t have awesome visuals to work with, and your Instagram caption doesn’t convey everything you want it to, try to integrate text or include captions in your video so that viewers can follow along. Here’s one example of an Instagram video that performed really well for us—the angle of the shot was interesting enough to hold viewers’ attention, the text explained what the content was, and the calls to action were clear.

 

#### First impressions matter. Sort of… Just like with any video, it’s wise to put a little bit of thought into your thumbnail. For Instagram, you’ll want to select the frame that you believe will be the most engaging and exciting to your audience. Remember, though, that thumbnails are only seen by viewers when they’re looking at your profile page from the grid view perspective, not the feed. Video in a user’s feed will autoplay as you scroll through, so your thumbnail will only be seen for a split second (without audio). Make sure the beginning of your video is as attention-grabbing as possible so viewers are tempted to turn audio on. It’s also important to note that if you’re editing your video from inside the app, you’ll have to choose a still from within the footage you’ve shot. Instagram doesn’t let you upload a separate thumbnail. This means you should edit your video outside of the app if you want more control over the cover image. #### Filters and reach Maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be an inverse relationship between camera phone quality and Instagram filters—the better the camera, the fewer filtered photos we see in our feeds. When your image is already crisp and beautiful, filters tend to make them look a little overproduced. However, if filters are your thing, definitely use the same one throughout the entire length of the video; don’t switch between filters for different clips. Now that you have your video looking great and ready to go, it’s time to add some relevant hashtags to your post. Hashtags and location tags make it easier for Instagram users to find your content if they aren’t already following you. Add hashtags that relate to the content in your post and that also have the most reach. You can find out which tags are most popular by typing them into the search bar and selecting 'Tags’ before you add them to your caption. It should look something like this, for example: Hit share, and you’re in business! Watch those views roll in. But remember, some services that automatically share Instagram posts to Twitter, like IFTTT, won’t share video posts, so beware! ### Feeling inspired? You’ve got these skills locked down, and now you’re ready to rock video on Instagram. For some inspiration, take a look at these brands with memorable Instagram accounts: MailChimp: This Instagram account is already so on-brand, but lately they’ve been taking things to the next level and incorporating more video into the mix. Whether it’s GIF-like or silly or behind-the-scenes content, MailChimp has it covered. Bluleadz: Bluleadz does a great job of incorporating a little bit of post-production work into their videos before pushing to Instagram. They kick off a lot of their videos with a title slide, which does wonders for autoplaying feeds! Staples: The Staples brand relies heavily on animations and stop-motion video. These pieces of content don’t need sound to be effective, however when you turn the sound on, it’s often quite delightful! Dunkin Donuts: This Instagram account boasts a ton of creative video content. They have many animations with no sound whatsoever, but they know when it makes sense to add audio.

LIBRARY» STRATEGY

Crafting a Social Video Strategy

Tactics, best practices, and ideas for social media videos

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Free Google Analytics Tools to Help You Measure Video ROI

Both marketers and video producers are often tasked with proving the ROI of video. But how do you quantify the value of video content for a business?

 

Wistia’s integration with Google Analytics consolidates all the most important metrics in one place, so you can better understand how your video content is contributing to your digital marketing strategy. When you embed a Wistia video onto your site, playback data is automatically piped into into Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager as event data. This allows you to track your complete video performance, including Turnstile submissions and clicks on annotation links and CTAs—all within Google Analytics. In order to make the analysis and reporting processes even simpler, however, we’ve put together a couple of free Google Analytics tools, which all Wistia customers can access with just a few clicks of a mouse. ### Custom dashboard for video tracking To try and help our customers take better advantage of our integration, we’ve put together a custom dashboard template, which you can add to your own account just by clicking the link below, and then following the instructions (you’ll need to be logged into Google Analytics, and have admin level permissions for this to work). Take me to this magical dashboard! Here’s what it will look like by default, but you can move all of the different graphs and charts around according to whatever numbers are most important for you: This dashboard pulls in events for all of your video playback and conversion data, and then presents them in the way that we’ve found most useful at Wistia. The charts you get by default are as follows: - Views - Separated by raw number of views (“unique events”) and the number of visits to your website that included one or more video views (“sessions with events”) - Turnstile submissions - As with views, separated by raw number of events and the number of sessions with events - Top played videos - A list of the videos that have been watched the most within the designated time period - Top videos by number of leads generated - A list of the videos which have captured the most leads within a designated time period - Top videos by views with over 75% retention - A list of the videos which were watched more than ¾ of the way through - Top videos by annotation/CTA clicks - A list of the videos which received the most clicks on calls to action and annotation links - Video completion - A bar graph which breaks down of the number of users who started watching a video vs. those that got 25% of the way through, 50% of the way through, 75% of the way through, and those that completed 100% ### Segments designed to prove video ROI Seeing raw numbers in a dashboard is really valuable for keeping track of your performance over time and improving your video strategy, but it doesn’t really help with one of the major challenges when it comes to measuring video performance, which is proving return on investment. For (usually B2B) businesses using Turnstile to generate leads, it’s fairly easy to demonstrate ROI by tracking the number of leads captured, seeing how many eventually close, and then measuring the cost of the video against the lifetime value of the customer. However, for the majority of businesses, particularly those in the services or e-commerce sectors, tracking “leads” in this way isn’t usually very helpful. A more universally applicable way to measure the impact and financial value of on-site video is to measure its effect on conversions and conversion rate. #### Custom segments To aid you in this endeavor, we’ve also created templates for two custom segments, which allow you to break down your web analytics performance based on users who engaged with your video content, and those who didn’t. You can click the links below to add these two segments to your Google Analytics account. Video viewers segment

Non-video viewers segment There are many ways in which you can use these segments to break down performance, but one the simplest and most effective ways is to just apply both segments to a “conversions” report, and compare the average conversion rate for both segments of users. Here is an example of how this might look, using data from our GA account at Wistia (some numbers removed for privacy): Through the report above, we can say that users who watch videos on Wistia.com are around ~70% more likely to convert than those who have not watched a video. With this information, we can infer that without our video content, we would be down 1,486 conversions over the period in question. If you’re able to put a monetary figure on the value of a conversion for your business, it’s then a simple calculation to determine whether or not your investment in video has yielded ROI. More than ROI, however, this data really helps you work out whether, and where, you should be investing in more video content. With the report above, we can see that video viewers convert at a much higher rate. Therefore, we can make a strategic decision to invest time in creating more videos, and trying to get more of our site visitors to watch our videos—by optimizing play rate. I hope both the above tools help you better measure and prove the ROI from your investment in video content. Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions about tracking video performance in Google Analytics!

LIBRARY » STRATEGY

The Wistia Guide to Calls to Action in Video Marketing

Learn how people are using Calls to Action today, and what sets the best apart from the rest.

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Announcing Vulcan: Our Redesigned Video Player that Puts Your Viewers First

The player isn’t just a pretty container for your video. It’s responsible for delivering your message. At Wistia, we take that responsibility seriously. We realize that every interaction with your brand contributes to how your audience perceives you. A video that takes too long to play, buffers in the middle, or doesn’t give the viewer any options won’t hold your audience’s attention for long. It also won’t make a good impression. That’s why we’re really excited to announce Vulcan, the brand new Wistia player! It was built from the ground up on HTML5 with brand new controls and a minimal, modern look to impress your viewers, even before they press play.

 

### On the surface We’ve made some visual enhancements to the player that don’t only look great, they give your viewers more options and drive engagement with your content. #### New viewer controls Part of creating a great experience for your viewers is giving them options to watch in a way that best suits them. To support this, we’ve added new playback speed controls and quality controls inside of the player, so viewers can select the playback speed that works best for them. By increasing the speed on your videos, viewers can get through longer videos quickly and better engage with your content. As 4K becomes more popular for its additional detail and clarity, viewers will have the option of watching videos in 4K. You can adjust the quality of your videos from within the player controls, instead of having to right-click on the video. All of those Ultra HD videos you’ve been creating will look their best in Vulcan. We also made it easier for viewers to identify the parts of your video that are most important to them. The new thumbnail preview provides individual frames of your video along the play bar to help viewers find what they’re looking for. #### Easier sharing Social sharing continues to be the driving force behind video content distribution. When your viewers love what they see, and we’re sure they will, we want to make it easy for them to share with a friend. With new social sharing options right inside of the player, your viewers don’t need to leave the video to spread the word. #### Retina-ready thumbnails Including a video on a page is likely to increase the amount of time a visitor spends there. To grab their attention and encourage click-through, your video thumbnail should be eye-catching and compelling. Along with Vulcan, we’re releasing retina thumbnail support. Wistia players will now include thumbnails up to 4k resolution, which means they look great on any high-pixel density or retina display. ### Under the hood Vulcan’s beauty is more than skin deep. We’ve done work underneath all of the external changes to make sure your videos don’t only look their best—they perform better too. #### Embeds built for speed and flexibility When you’re trying to get the attention of your visitors, every second counts. We optimized Vulcan for speed by reworking our embed codes to load twice as fast. As website traffic from mobile devices begins to outpace desktop, marketers have started to design the website experience for those visitors. When you embed our player, it scales with the responsive design of your site. Our new player design will also keep the player controls out of the way on smaller screens, so your message remains unobstructed. This enables your viewers to see your videos on any screen size without any page distortion.

 

#### Accessibility updates At Wistia, we’re passionate about making video accessible for everyone. That’s why we’re proud of the accessibility updates we’ve made with this new player. Vulcan is now fully compatible with screen readers. Now, all users can use keyboard shortcuts, like tabbing, to control the player. This is an exciting step for us, and we’ll continue to add accessibility features to the Wistia player over the next year. #### Adaptive streaming with HTML5 For many people, the first thing that comes to mind when the term “Flash” is mentioned are showy, graphics-heavy websites. What you may not have known is that Flash is also used to deliver video content. Since Google announced that Chrome won’t be supporting Flash much longer, its time has passed. Vulcan is our first HTML5-only player; we’re leaving the Flash player behind. This means your videos will continue to load and play smoothly on your site, even after Google officially ends Flash support. We also improved video startup times, mobile support, and adaptive streaming experience with HLS. The HLS format allows our player to monitor your viewers’ connection speed in real time and adjust the quality of the video they’re being served as their connection changes. These changes benefit the delivery of your videos no matter how long they are and help prevent annoying buffering. HLS is the preferred format on iOS, so we’re in good company by adopting this format for your content.

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One of our favorite things about Vulcan is that its development wouldn’t have been possible without feedback from all of you. Our Betapugs tested features along the way and gave us valuable feedback that led to the player we have today. You can turn on Vulcan now by heading to Account Settings to switch over all of your videos to the new player with one click. With more and more companies incorporating video into their marketing and customer communication, the quality of the experience that you provide will be a key differentiator in growing and retaining your business. Video interaction will continue to be a valuable part of building a relationship with your audience. Providing the best video player and playback for any device type, network speed, or screen resolution will always be top priority for us. We’re going to continue to make improvements to our tools so that you can stand out among your peers and give your video content the home it deserves.

PRODUCT » VULCAN

Want to learn more?

Head on over to our product page to see what this player can do!

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Step Away from the Screen: The Value of Meeting Customers in Person

One of the main things that drew me to Wistia was how every employee valued making online business more human. Video is a valuable tool if you’re trying to humanize your business, but taking things a step further with in-person meetings can turn happy customers into brand ambassadors. ### A human touch Six groggy hours after I departed downtown Boston and landed on the opposite coast in the San Francisco Airport, I found myself rushing to the ladies room to wash my face and head to the quaint cafe where I had organized my first in-person customer meeting. Our hour-long lunch meetup went way over an hour, which no one seemed to notice. Aside from discussing these customers’ product feedback and pain points, I learned all about how this married couple built a business 30 plus years ago that still holds strong today. It was fascinating to hear about their hardships, celebrations, and plans for the future. We also found out that we shared some commonalities, as the couple happened to have some family in the Boston area (where I currently reside and grew up). As we exchanged handshakes and well-wishes, it was clear that the bond I formed by meeting these customers in person was far stronger then any client relationship I’ve had in my career thus far.

“It was clear that the bond I formed by meeting these customers in person was far stronger then any client relationship I’ve had in my career thus far.”

With communication tools like Skype, Slack, Google Hangouts, social networks, and email, it’s easy to get caught up in the efficiency of communicating through the internet, but if we look back a couple decades, we’d see that “customer service” is not at all what it once was. I’d be the first to admit that in some ways, it’s much better. Work is much more efficient now than it was in the pre-internet era, but it seems many have forgotten the power of making in-person connections with customers. ### Making a memorable and sharable experience During the same trip, I visited a customer’s office in Silicon Valley whose relationship with Wistia is longer than my own. As I learned all about her experience creating, tracking, and tweaking her company’s video strategy, I was also able to give her some helpful tips on how to take things to the next level with some hidden tricks and useful betas. When I hopped on the freeway to San Jose, I saw that she had tweeted about Wistia and our conversation to her several thousand Twitter followers. It didn’t take long for favorites and retweets to come rolling in, which further proves that these intimate interactions are well worth the effort. Meaningful conversations can lead to customers becoming advocates of your brand, and sharing their experiences with their communities.

“Meaningful conversations can lead to customers becoming advocates of your brand.”

Beyond these anecdotes, there’s lots of evidence supporting this argument. Psychologist and professor at the National University of Singapore, Dr. Richard D. Arvey, found that “77% of people believe face-to-face meetings are a necessity not a luxury; 85 percent believe face-to-face meetings are more likely to result in breakthrough thinking; and 82 percent believe that meetings bring out the best in people.” ### Building trust with high-value customers In my 5–month stint at Wistia, I’ve visited 5 customers in person. While these meetings have been coordinated around trips planned for conferences and events, they’ve all resulted in customers feeling truly appreciated by Wistia. A few weeks ago in downtown San Francisco, my colleague and I were talking shop with a small customer that was in the process of becoming a high-value customer—transitioning over 12,000 videos onto our platform. For privacy reasons, I’ll call this customer Bob. Bob had been burned pretty bad in the past through a hosting service that over-promised and under-delivered. Bob knew it was time to find a better solution, but with a sour taste in his mouth, it wasn’t easy to trust a new provider. Luckily, we were able to address a lot of Bob’s hesitations in the most human way possible—in person.

“Luckily, we were able to address a lot of Bob’s hesitations in the most human way possible.”

As our meeting wrapped up and our stomachs began to growl, before my colleague and I sprinted to the closest restaurant, Bob looked us in the eyes and said, “I can’t thank you guys enough for carving out time to visit us. It shows that Wistia truly cares about their customers.” The very next day Bob emailed me to discuss pricing. Showing your customers you have their best interest at heart, and that you care enough about them to coordinate a face-to-face meeting is 100X more valuable than clicking into a GoToMeeting without even moving out of your desk chair. As Joe Mullich from the Wall Street Journal says, “In-person business meetings let attendees develop transparency and trust in ways that are not possible with other forms of communication.” ### Creating brand ambassadors Think about that individual who changes jobs and brings your software to each and every company she works for. Or the fellow who is so delighted by your line of kitchen appliances that every gift he gives is from that product line. This can lead to a lifetime of word-of-mouth marketing, and a superfan club of customers who will stay loyal with you until the end of time. Dramatic? Maybe. But consider reaching out to a few high-value customers and saying hi face-to-face. These personalized interactions go a long way.

BLOG » STRATEGY

Building Relationships With Video

Learn how you can scale the human side of your business using the familiarity principle.

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4 Crucial Steps for Kicking off Your Next Video

There are a lot of moving parts that go into making a video for your website. Since there are so many different types of videos, there are no hard-and-fast rules on how to approach one. However, there are a few fairly universal questions and processes that need to be sorted out before you jump into scripting, table reading, and production! ### What is the goal of your video? Example 1: Do you want a person to watch this video, then head to the next stage in your sales funnel? Example 2: Are you looking for people to better understand a tricky concept related to your product? Example 3: Do you just want to delight the heck out of some customers? Understanding what your video is trying to accomplish at a high level is crucial. Not only will it impact the decisions you make at each stage in the video creation process, but it will be the key factor in knowing if your video was successful. For example one, maybe you’d want to keep an eye on the traffic flow in Google Analytics. For example two, perhaps success looks like less support tickets related to that concept. And for delightful number three, your metrics might be video engagement, social shares, and qualitative feedback, such as comments on a blog post or messages on social media. Using video in your marketing efforts is a long game. Setting goals for each video, and then taking the time to reflect on how videos perform against those goals is a key part of growing as a video marketer. ### Who is your audience? This is a simple question that’s often overlooked, but it goes hand in hand with goal setting. Is your audience familiar with your product? Did they opt in to see this video? Are they coming from a paid ad? A new audience arriving to the page via a targeted ad might need a little more introduction to your company and a whole lot of delight. An audience of superfans who arrive on the video’s page via an email can probably do without a lot of explanation. You might even get away with some “inside” jokes. Without understanding who is going to watch your video, it’s nearly impossible to approach the messaging correctly. So before you start thinking about the idea or the script for your video, be sure to get a handle on the intended audience! ### Where will this video live? Is this video going in an email? Autoplaying on a landing page? Will it be on a product page with a call to action right below it? Holy smokes. You need to know the eventual home for this video. Context is everything, and it’s a much more seamless experience for the viewer when your video is in harmony with the context around it. Take, for example, the video on the product page for Wistia’s 360 player. Since we knew the video was going to live on this sleek, evergreen product page, we decided to keep the script straightforward and concise. During production, we also made sure that we had a thumbnail image that would complement the aesthetic of the page. If we know a video will be used on our blog or social media channels, we’re confident that we can experiment with more playful, casual videos, whereas product pages and educational videos in our library tend to be more buttoned-up. Context can also inform the length of your video. There’s a lot of moving parts when you’re making a video, but the whole endeavor could end up being pretty ineffective if you forget to think about where this thing is going to live. ### What kind of timeline are you working with? Like any other project, it’s important to understand the timeline you are working with. Is this video due by the end of the week? Is it due tomorrow because it’s topical? By the end of the quarter? Coming up with creative approaches can be hard enough as it is, and we always try to embrace the limitation of time to help us scope our projects. For our annual conference, WistiaFest, we knew we had several months to make an intro video for the first day of the event. This meant we had time to plan for a complicated shoot with the whole team involved. We had the opportunity to go over the top, so we did.

 

In contrast, when we launched Timeline Actions, we were working on a tighter deadline, so we went with a simpler, straightforward concept that we were confident we could pull off in a few days. When you’re scoping your next video project, make sure your account for all the different aspects that will go into the video. - Concepting - Scripting - Rewriting - Table read - Production - Editing - Delivery Over the years, I’ve learned to add a little buffer for each stage of the process. The script will no doubt receive feedback, the talent won’t get their lines on the first take, and something about the final edit won’t be up to snuff from the product team’s perspective. If you have to move fast, consider scoping the idea to include less people, so that you don’t get bottlenecked by other people’s schedules. If you have more time, take the opportunity to brainstorm some more out-of-the-box ideas or try some more difficult production techniques. ### Now what? So let’s recap. You know the goal of your video. You’ve got the deadline. You’ve wrapped your head around the intended audience AND where the video will be embedded. Bazinga! I think you’re ready to start brainstorming some projects that embrace all of these limitations! The answers to the questions listed above will be super helpful to anyone involved with your video project, so as a tip, try to get all of this information either on a Google Doc where you are scripting, or on the Trello card for the project. Good luck with your next video!

LIBRARY » PRODUCTION

How to Shoot Video with a DSLR Camera

Learn the fundamentals and download a free cheat sheet.

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Wistia for Salesforce: The Complete Video Toolkit for Your Sales Team

Here at Wistia, we used to think of video as a tool for marketers. It’s an effective means for building brand awareness in an increasingly visual marketing landscape. However, as more businesses have adopted video and started using Wistia, they’ve also recognized the power it has to connect people. You want to use video as a tool for more than marketing, and we want to help you do it. Today, we’re announcing our integration with Salesforce as our first step towards turning video into more than just a marketing asset. We built Wistia for Salesforce with the goal of empowering everyone to use video as a sales tool. Now, you can use video data to drive valuable conversations and close more deals.

 

### Provide more context with video viewing data It may be easier for sales reps to reach out to leads without considering where those prospects are in the buying process, but it definitely isn’t as effective. Sales reps can gain a much deeper understanding of how engaged their leads are when they have access to prospects’ full video viewing histories. Every time a lead fills out a Turnstile email collector, that lead’s contact information and video heatmap are piped directly into Salesforce within a few seconds. Sales teams can see each viewer’s video interactions, like CTA clicks, right on their Salesforce lead record, alongside their viewing history. ### Alert reps of new video activities It’s much easier for a sales rep to have a warm conversation with a prospect when they’re clued in on what content that lead has seen and how much of a video they’ve actually watched. With this integration enabled, sales reps can act on new, engaged leads quickly and further their conversations using prospects’ viewing histories. Wistia’s video activities can be built into your Salesforce workflows to assign tasks to lead owners or alert them when one of their leads has engaged with another video. We’ve created workflows that notify sales reps when their lead has watched 100% of a video, as well as views of new leads generated with video viewing histories—all to help sales teams prioritize based on which prospects are most engaged. ### Equip sales with compelling content In addition to tracking your video efforts, Wistia’s Salesforce integration helps you incorporate video in the sales process. By using a video thumbnail in sales conversations, reps can increase email click-through rates and deepen engagement. Wistia for Salesforce comes with video-ready email templates that each rep can use to include product videos, personalized demos, or video voicemails. Identify the videos within Wistia that you want sales reps to have access to, and we’ll import those videos for use in Salesforce. From there, sales reps can drag and drop those videos into the existing email templates or create new ones. With every lead’s viewing history at their fingertips, reps can show them something new and move the conversation forward.

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When marketing and sales work well together, everyone wins—including your customers. From the video on your site to the video thumbnails in your nurturing emails, your customers will benefit from a well-aligned strategy. Video is more than just a marketing asset. It’s an equally effective sales tool. Wistia for Salesforce empowers sales teams to use it well.

PRODUCT UPDATE

Want to learn more?

One of our Customer Success Coaches will teach you all about how this toolkit could transform your sales process.

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