Scott Murray is the SVP for the Production and Streaming Business Unit and also runs Corporate Marketing within Telestream.
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Nearly every organization today uses video for its communications. Remote and hybrid work accelerated this trend over the past few years as companies found new ways to communicate with off-site employees and customers. It’s now a requirement for organizations to communicate effectively and efficiently, which can be made much easier by using video for everything from video conferencing and live events to employee training, social media, lead generation and customer service. Now, more than ever, the quality and look of these videos define an organization’s brand image, perception and success in the market. There’s no room for half-baked, substandard video when a company is trying to make its best impression.
While many companies recently grew their video production and distribution capabilities, the speed of implementation has come at a cost for many. Organizations have found themselves with a disparate collection of siloed video tools that are cumbersome, costly to use and don’t work well together. This makes it a perfect time for organizations to reevaluate video production and distribution strategies and establish a foundation that smartly addresses current and future video needs with a single video platform.
Think About Video Holistically
Making video part of an organization’s weekly run-rate marcom activities doesn’t have to break the budget or unduly burden resources. Video production and distribution tools (aka streaming) are less expensive and more capable than ever before. And they can often be unified under one platform. Many companies will find themselves using different video tools for different uses—one set of tools for video conferencing, another for live events, another for on-demand videos and so on—which incurs unnecessary costs, both monetary and temporal, from production, content management and distribution standpoints.
Create A Cohesive Video Strategy
Before you settle on the video platform that is right for your business, it’s important to take a long view of your needs. How can video be used to engage employees, customers, prospects and the general public? Are you using video effectively now, or are there ways to expand video usage to generate more leads, close sales, train employees and communicate with key stakeholders within your organization? What are your current costs like to produce your content? Look at your video quality compared to your competitors and identify areas where properly produced content can help you compete more effectively. It’s a good idea to look outside your industry too and explore innovative video marketers, not just direct competitors, for inspiration.
Realize, too, that there are only two types of video: live and VOD (video on demand). Live video is exponentially more challenging and stressful than simulated live—or as we like to refer to it, “sim-live.” This is when you pre-produce a show or webinar and play out the VOD as if it were live and then easily add talking live Q&A at the end. As part of your cohesive video strategy, this is a fundamental step. After all, that’s how much of “live” TV is actually created—because in the end, it’s all about control.
Don’t forget to measure your results. Any effective strategy is cemented in agreed-upon and trackable key performance indicators; some specifically video-based metrics to keep an eye on include the number of unique views and repeat views, the average watch time per viewer, conversion rates from registration forms to attending a live event and many more.
Once you know what you want to achieve, work your way backward from the final product you have in mind. What do you want your videos to look like? For example, a town hall could look a lot like a Super Bowl-style production with pre-produced segments, branded graphics, live interviews or ads. Webinars or training sessions should integrate PowerPoint slides with expert videos and engaging, personalized content. Product launches deserve a charismatic on-camera or voice-over talent, with high-quality imagery and video inserts to put the new product in the best light.
After you determine the video experiences you want to create, you can identify different elements required for production and distribution. For example, a more advanced production utilizes multiple cameras, live music integration, green screens (think of a weather person standing in front of a map) to make images more interactive or other graphics. With this scope in mind, you can start to refine the requirements for your video production and distribution tools.
Produce And Distribute Video On Your Terms
The best ROI will come from your ability to repurpose and “templatize” each of your productions and processes. Not only does this return significant cost savings, but it also delivers a predictable high-quality output along with a consistent brand image. Pay special attention to your distribution channels and how people will consume your videos. One critical strategy is to own your distribution channels. For example, while YouTube is ubiquitous, it also represents a loss of control with ads that pop up (some even from your competitors), no customization capabilities and minimal content protection measures to prevent bad actors from accessing your content.
Focus on distribution channels that fully support your business. This should include live streaming to a web browser or mobile app or 24/7 video on-demand streaming through a secure website that you control.
Keep Video Tools Open And Flexible
There are many vendors in this evolving space that can deliver the video production and distribution capabilities you need, whether as point solutions or more holistic platform offerings. Look for professional-grade video tools that have an open architecture that can be expanded over time for integration with new software, hardware or services. Cloud-based tools often offer greater flexibility and security-rich features. Easy, intuitive tools also help ensure that employees don’t need in-depth or expensive expert training.
The bottom line is that video no longer needs to be a pain point or source of anxiety in your organization. Once you’ve gathered information about your production and distribution needs, create an organizational strategy to meet and exceed the requirements you’ve identified. Then devise a unified video approach that will meet your needs well into the future.
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