Video Hosting: choose a reliable and flexible platform

As already mentioned, free video hosting sites earn their keep by keeping viewers on their websites, and so design their algorithms with that intention in mind. We all know the examples of Nike videos running Adidas advertisements, and vice-versa.

The best video hosting sites, on the other hand, are designed to entice viewers to keep watching your videos and stay on your website, ensuring that your leads don’t slip through your sales funnel.

Want to encourage viewers to binge-watch your video content? Private video hosting sites let you create a playlist that showcases your video content exclusively. No ads (other than your own). No “related videos” that recommend your competitors’ content. This time you make the rules. And your viewers will love your brand more for it. Furthermore, you can experience high-quality streaming, various marketing tools, HD video, ad-free video, own branding among other features.

A simple video library becomes a pain to manage as your videos grow in number. To get more out of your videos, you need a centralized, searchable video library to meet your end-to-end video management needs. And one where you can work together with your entire organization, giving unique roles to every user or department. The best video hosting sites let you upload, store, organize and distribute your video content from one central location so you can spend less time organizing and more time producing.

A video hosting platform with robust video management features, can:

• Advanced video searches to help you find the right content fast (already loved by our previous clients, such as Boom Beroepsonderwijs)
• Collaborate with multiple users (and set custom user roles & permissions)
• Create custom playlists
• Create your own video players
• Get real-time insights from each video as you sort through them
• Do more refined searches with the help of metadata tagging

Your videos need to create a lasting impression to keep viewers coming back. And there’s no better way to pull that off than staying on brand. Relying on free hosting sites, however, dilutes your brand presence with distracting logos and third-party ads, so much that your viewers may not remember you exist the next day.

The best video hosting sites allow you to customize your own branded video player so it matches the look and feel of your brand. You take full control of your users’ viewing experience, from the logo and color palette to player controls and thumbnails. This allows you to immerse your viewers in your brand identity and story so that in the end it’s your brand that only matters to them.

Want to keep creating engaging videos that will get them to convert down the road? Understand your users’ viewing behavior by tracking key viewer metrics.

All free video hosting platforms offer video analytics to keep you informed about the viewing behavior of your visitors. However, some metrics are more revealing than others and free platforms don’t provide the deeper analytics that shows a complete picture of why viewers behave as they do.

With free video hosting platforms, you’re getting barebones user and video analytics. They can help you understand viewing behavior, but only up to a point.

The best video hosting sites, on the other hand, have in-depth analytics that gets to the heart of what resonates with your audience, giving you the insights you need to refine and optimize your video marketing campaigns.

If you want to keep your viewers interested long enough to buy what you have to offer, keep them engaged. After all, every view and click that takes them to the next step in their buying journey is a good thing, right?

So, how do you keep your viewers engaged? By making your videos interactive. 70% of marketers said interactive video engages viewers “well” or “very well.” 68% of marketers claim interactive video will remain a key marketing strategy.

How do you add interactive elements to your video? By using paid hosting platforms, of course.

Here are the benefits of using interactive video:

• Personalized viewing experiences. When viewers interact with your interactive video, they select the path that is relevant and interesting to them. This results in higher customer satisfaction and increased conversion rates.
• Higher brand recall. Studies show that adding interactivity not only expands viewers’ attention span but also improves knowledge retention.
• Deeper audience insights. The actions your viewers take when interacting with your video can be captured, revealing insights that help you determine what’s working and what’s not for your audience.

Interactive video elements come in many forms, including:

• Button, links, and product overlays
• Branching
• Contact forms
• Video quizzes

Want to learn more? Read this blog post on the state of interactive video as well as the trends and some useful tips and tricks.

You need to cash in from your videos at some point. But if you think it’s easy to make money on Youtube or Facebook Live, think again. For your video marketing efforts to pay dividends, capture and hold the attention of your audience. Once you have their undivided attention, your next step is to monetize it. The great thing about professional video hosting platforms is that they give you a lot of freedom on how you monetize that attention.

Here are ways to generate revenue from your videos using professional video hosting platforms:

• Transactional Video-on-Demand. Make money off your videos by charging viewers a fee for each stream, renting a video for 48 hours is a good example.
• Subscription Video-on-Demand. Charge viewers a weekly, monthly, or annual fee in exchange for giving them access to your videos.
• Ad-Supported Video on Demand. Give viewers free access to your videos and earn ad revenue.
• Hybrid Model. Use a combination of any of the above monetization models to maximize your revenue potential.

If you are looking for a more extensive guide, read our guide on how to sell videos online here, where we outline the different steps and revenue models.

Your videos may contain confidential information or copyrighted material. If you want to protect them from unauthorized use or manipulation, you can do better than relying on free video hosting sites. While free hosting services offer you “private” privacy options, your video content is not completely safe from bad actors who use highly-sophisticated hacking tools. Besides, if you upload content to a free hosting sites as Youtube or Vimeo, you grant them a non-exclusive right to copy, distribute, promote and sell your content. Basically, you give away rights to your content that you might not want, especially when it’s about sensitive content.

In fact, hackers have been hijacking thousands of high-profile Youtube channels over the past couple of years. If you want to keep your videos safe from cybercriminals, use a professional video hosting solution instead. They not only make your videos well-protected, but they also add layers of protection at the domain level. Most of these platforms offer sophisticated encryption technology to make the platform secure end-to-end. Read on this page how we ensure your videos are safely protected with us.