The immediate future of the internet can be boiled to one word:
Video.
In less than 2 years, more than 80% of all consumer web traffic will be video.
Companies, even SMBs, have taken notice, and have begun adapting, rapidly.
According to Wyzowl’s recent research, 85% of businesses use video as a marketing tool, up from 63% in 2019.
But, is expanding video and video marketing initiatives in themselves enough?
How can you deem a marketing initiative as successful if you can’t gauge how it resonated with your audience? How are you supposed to know whether the video you set aside a good chunk of your budget for is hitting the mark? How do you know whether viewers, inspired by what they watched, then go on to explore your offering; or, better yet, actually purchase something on your ecommerce store or schedule a meeting with you?
Free platforms come with a price
Crafting a winning video, the kind that sparks website visitors’ attention and draws them to your virtual store is no walk in the park. Once you’ve accomplished this considerable feat, your next move will likely be to figure out how to showcase your finished product to your audience. Always a recommended practice, you’ll want to showcase it on social media, especially Instagram.
But how about on your website?
A vast majority of websites rely on YouTube when presenting their videos to the world. Intuitive, easy, and, most importantly - free, YouTube offers website operators with as close to a ‘plug-and-play’ experience as possible. All you’ll need to do is copy the video’s embed code and paste it into your CMS (e.g. WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) editor tab.
YouTube’s embed code can even be customized, to a point. If you’d like to, you can play around with the code and have the video appear without YouTube’s controls, and even add a unique, brand-consistent play button to it.
Slack customizes its embedded YouTube video, having it pop out to viewers after clicking on a purple play icon.
However, even great platforms come with a few drawbacks. Beyond surface-level vanity metrics (e.g. total view counts, and likes-to-dislikes ratios), there is essentially no way to discern how your viewers engaged with your video.
This may not be an issue if your goal is to grow your YouTube channel and generate a buzz on the world’s second most visited website. However, onsite videos typically serve different purposes.
Sure, any piece of content you have on your website is meant to generate interest and lead website visitors to become customers.
But when you know individual website visitors with specific pieces of content, the sky is suddenly the limit.
Your video is more likely to be engaged with than any other piece of marketing content on your website. Gaining insights into how each visitor engages with it can be game-changing.
How video analytics show you exactly who’s watching
SMBs looking to become intimately familiar with their videos’ audience have begun exploring video hosting solutions. A staple among savvy, modern marketing companies, these platforms are designed specifically to untap videos’ business potential.
After subscribing to the platform, you will upload your video(s) to your account. Sophisticated solutions will typically offer extensive customization features. Your video can be arranged to appear in a way that is completely synonymous with your brand and website’s feel.
Similar to YouTube, you will be presented with an embed code that should be pasted in your CMS editor.
Here’s where the fun begins.
Good video hosting solutions will have an analytics dashboard. Once you click on it, you will be entering a world of valuable, in-depth data pertaining to the viewing habits of each video viewer.
It is important to note that the proper solution will provide you with a variety of angles through which you can gauge your video’s performance and determine its ROI.
First off, you can click on a specific video and examine its audience members. You can also see each viewer’s name, the type of device that was used to watch the video, and the viewer’s geographic location. Most importantly, you can see how each viewer engaged with the video.
All of this info will be presented by good video hosting platforms in a way that’s easy to understand.
This is what Cincopa’s analytical dashboard looks like
Features such as video-heat maps, paint a clear, visual picture regarding the performance of a given video. Compiling all relevant viewing data, you will be given an aggregated perspective that will provide you with actionable data.
If there are major drop off points throughout the video, you might want to go back to the chopping block and edit those parts out.
It’ll look something like this:
Finally, you can take a look at each individual viewer’s engagement history:
How to leverage video analytics towards further interaction with customers
The information you’re privy to puts you in a powerful position. Identifying viewing patterns, you can adjust your business approach. If you find that your video is a hit with viewers from a certain, remote country, you might want to tailor your offerings to fit said country or region’s consumer preferences.
The heat maps can give you major indicators as to whether your audience finds the video too long, and point to areas that are less than captivating.
If you see that your video fails to attract a certain gender, you might want to adjust the way you present your unique offering. Unless your service or product is uniquely tailored to a certain sex, you will probably want to expand your customer base as much as possible. Your video will prove to be a litmus test of sorts. Messaging that resonates strongly with men is fantastic; yet it might lead to women and girls feeling excluded, and vice versa.
You might consider adding calls-to-action (CTA) during the video. Typically presented through simple phrasing (e.g. ‘Click here to learn more!’), CTAs will indicate buying intention.
On your analytical dashboard, you can filter viewers according to their engagement with these CTAs.
You can export the contact information of those who clicked on the CTA in the form of an Excel sheet. Then, you can send each a personalized email, inviting them to join your ‘primer customer club’. Having shown tangible interest in your store or service, many of these leads will likely transition to paying customers.
Final thoughts and takeaways
Video marketing’s star is constantly on the rise, and SMBs have taken notice. There’s a reason for this. Unlike the past, videos’ value offering to businesses doesn’t end once the production process is complete.
Instead, embedding a video on your website is merely the beginning of a long, and potentially fruitful marketing process. With robust analytics, made available through video hosting platforms, you will learn how each video viewer interacts with a given video. This data can easily be made actionable. You can adjust your product or service offerings according to viewing patterns, and reach out to viewers who show genuine interest in your video.
About the author:
Yoni Yampolsky is a marketing manager for Cincopa. A powerful video hosting solution, Cincopa helps businesses untap their videos’ true business potential.
