Are you fed up with low open rates and stagnant conversion numbers of your HubSpot email campaigns? Traditional text-based emails are often lost in the noise of today’s digital world.

The solution? Personalized video emails.

By leveraging the power of video, you can grab attention, build trust, and skyrocket engagement with your leads and customers. But what if you could create and send these personalized video emails directly within your existing HubSpot workflow?

This guide will show you exactly how to do that with the powerful Hippo Video and HubSpot integration.

What are Video Emails?

Video email is a powerful communication tool that combines the reach of email with the engaging nature of video. By incorporating captivating video content into your email campaigns, you can dramatically increase audience engagement and drive conversions.

Videos have the unique ability to make your message more compelling and memorable. Imagine turning your email from a static text block into a vibrant visual story. They can showcase your products or services in action, explain complex concepts clearly, and build a stronger connection with your audience. Ultimately, video emails help you stand out from the crowded inbox and achieve better business outcomes.

Benefits of Video Emails

Video emails offer a multitude of advantages for businesses. By leveraging the power of video, you can elevate your HubSpot sales and marketing efforts and achieve better results.

• Boost engagement: Videos are inherently captivating, grabbing attention and encouraging viewers to spend more time with your email.
• Increase click-through rates: A well-crafted video can significantly improve the likelihood of recipients clicking on your call-to-action.
• Enhance conversions: Video can effectively convey your message, build trust, and ultimately drive more sales or leads.
• Improve brand awareness: Videos provide a platform to showcase your brand personality and values in a compelling way.
• Personalize your message: Video allows you to create tailored content that resonates with specific audience segments.
• Enhance understanding: Complex information can be easily explained and absorbed through video.
• Improve email deliverability: Video content can boost email open rates, which positively impacts deliverability.

Text Email Vs. Video Email Campaigns

Text-based emails have long been a staple of email communication strategies. But with the rise of video content, a new question emerges: Is it time to ditch the text-heavy email in favor of video? Let’s dive into the pros and cons of both to help you decide which approach is best for your audience and goals.

The table below outlines the two modes of email campaigns better: 

Clearly, video emails are a great option if you’re looking to reap great business results. However, a combination of both can make your HubSpot email campaigns a great hit.

That said, let’s see why you should opt for Hippo Video for your next HubSpot campaign.

Why use Hippo Video for HubSpot Video Emails? 

The integration of Hippo Video with HubSpot offers a wealth of benefits to their mutual users. From seamlessly enhancing sequences with personalized videos to gaining valuable insights through account-level reports, the possibilities are limitless. Customizing follow-up workflows and effortlessly embedding videos into landing pages and email templates has never been simpler—it’s just a few clicks away.

Benefits of Hippo Video and HubSpot Integration

Add Videos to Sequences Automatically

Automatically personalize your HubSpot outreach sequences with personalized videos. With Hippo Video, create thousands of variations from one original video and seamlessly integrate them with respective contacts to see your engagement soaring.

Turn Video Viewers Into Customers

See how potential customers interact with your videos, all within HubSpot. Get data on video performance and engagement patterns to understand prospect intent. Understand how accounts engage at a deeper level to identify high-intent leads and accelerate your sales cycle.

Create Targeted Lists and Workflows

Go beyond basic contact lists. Segment your audience based on how they interact with your videos. Create targeted campaigns and automate follow-up messages for different groups, boosting engagement and driving conversions.

Add Videos to Landing Pages and Emails

Captivate your audience with videos on your HubSpot landing pages and email templates. Our drag-and-drop feature lets you embed videos in seconds; no coding is required. The power of video can increase engagement and conversions.

Create Videos Without Recording

Hippo Video’s AI Avatar technology provides a quick and stress-free alternative to creating videos to influence your sales conversations. Choose an avatar from our library (or create your own), upload your script, and generate a video.

How to Craft Email Video Content?

There has been a meteoric rise in the use of videos in email communication. In fact, top brands like Uber, Grammarly, and Daily Insider have seen a positive impact on their email video campaigns. 

However, there’s no success in emails without a well-developed video strategy. Here’s what we recommend: 

Write a Great Script

A compelling video script focuses on your prospects. Therefore, every script should be tailored to their needs, guiding them towards their goals. For example, an introductory video email should begin with a personal introduction and then clearly articulate how your product can help them achieve their goals. Support your claims with data and success stories.

Throughout your email journey, tell stories that resonate with your prospects’ objectives. Share use cases and case studies to demonstrate value. Position your brand as a valuable partner, not just a product or service provider.

Use Mobile-friendly Videos

With almost 1.7 billion people checking their emails on mobile devices, it’s crucial that your video content is optimized for the small screen. A poorly optimized video can lead to instant email abandonment.

Creating separate videos for every device can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. That’s where Hippo Video comes in. Our platform ensures your videos look and perform flawlessly across all devices and operating systems, saving you time and boosting engagement. Don’t let mobile users miss out on your message – make your videos mobile-friendly today.

Hook your viewers in the first few seconds

Capture your audience instantly. Your video script must pack a punch right from the start. Grab viewers’ attention with a compelling question, a relatable problem, or a shocking statement.

First impressions matter. Don’t waste precious seconds on a blank screen or a dull visual. Burst onto the scene with a vibrant image and a strong, confident presence. Whether it’s your own face or a captivating human-like AI avatar, make sure your video opens with a bang.

Plus, connect with your audience on a personal level. Ditch the impersonal voiceover and let your on-screen presence do the talking. Your energy and charisma will be the real stars of the show.

Use the Call-to-action 

Maximize your video impact with strategic CTAs. Every video, from a welcome email to a review request, is an opportunity to engage your audience. Seamlessly integrate clickable CTAs throughout your videos to guide viewers towards desired actions 

Hippo Video’s customizable in-video CTAs like Book a Demo, Visit Website, and more, can significantly boost conversion rates. Remember, the key is to present CTAs as polite suggestions rather than forceful demands. By carefully crafting your calls to action, you’ll enhance viewer experience and drive results.

How to Create Video Email Sequences in HubSpot using Hippo Video? 

While you have followed the tips for crafting video email content, it’s time to use these videos in your HubSpot video email sequences. 

Here’s how you can set the workflows and create triggers in HubSpot using Hippo Video: 

1. In the HubSpot marketing hub, click on the Automation tab and select ‘Workflows.’

2. Click on the Workflow type, whether you want to choose from a template or start from scratch. Follow the subsequent steps like choosing type of workflow (contact-based, company-based and more)

3. Next, enter your workflow name and description. The description should define what you expect from this workflow. 

4. Next, click on set up triggers and choose the criteria for the trigger. You can choose multiple or single triggers based on the use cases. Here’s an example of the enrolment triggers that you can select: 

5. Choose which video you want to send based on the following trigger. You can choose the video name and set up trigger criteria. For example, select ‘is equal to any of’ option, enter the value, and click Apply Filter.
   

6. Now, you can test these workflows by choosing a test contact. 

7. Click on plus icon and choose the action you want to take. 

You can also set up the contact inside the Hippo video and initiate the action based on these triggers. 

How To Track Video Success using Hippo Video? 

Hippo Video lets you track your video performances across all channels. With this integration you get detailed insights into user behavior like video views, plays, watch percentages, and unique views in your HubSpot. What’s more? You can even get demographic-based insights such as location, device, video share, reaction report, etc. 

Here’s an example of a demographic report generated by the Hippo video:

Conclusion 

Text emails are boring. Videos can’t be undermined. Hence, video email integration like Hippo Video and HubSpot can set a rock-solid foundation for businesses. You can push personalization to another level and maximize HubSpot conversions by incorporating videos into your email sequences. 

So what are you waiting for? Combine the power of your HubSpot with AI-powered Hippo video and increase conversions with video email.

The post Create & Send Personalized Video Emails Directly within HubSpot with Hippo Video appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

Account-based marketing is a strategy in which sales and marketing collaborate to target a specific set of stakeholders. The ultimate purpose of account-based marketing is to create full visibility of your buyer’s demands and to build strong connections with specific groups and targeted accounts.

Incorporating video into an account-based marketing strategy is the most rapidly rising trend. Combining the two through ABM videos creates a powerful force for generating conversions, leads, and new clients. According to Wyzowl, 86% of marketers say video has helped them generate leads, 81% say video has helped them directly increase sales, and 87% say video has helped them generate positive ROI.

If the word “video marketing” conjures up images of pre-roll advertising that you automatically avoid, it’s time to reconsider. Video marketing is about creating a personalized experience focused on what your prospects want to watch and listen to. It is the most engaging way to convey your brand message to your prospects. Looking at the rising popularity of videos, this medium is no longer considered an “emerging” platform.

Cisco reports that 82% of worldwide internet traffic in 2022 will be from video streaming or video downloads, demonstrating the prevalence of video content.

It’s here, and it’s becoming an increasingly effective approach for marketers to tell your brand’s narrative, convey your value proposition, and establish connections with consumers and prospects.

Why Personalized Videos Are Crucial in ABM

1. Increased Engagement

Personalized videos increase engagement and effectiveness by allowing salespeople to interact with your consumers. It is a creative and successful engagement tool for delighting, engaging, and converting viewers into consumers. Personalized videos are interesting, engaging, and persuasive.

2. One Medium, Multiple Results

In several ways, the video may play a distinctive role in account-based targeting. There aren’t many other strategies that will help you stand out from the crowd, generate interaction, and track statistics all at the same time. You may accomplish this by creating a video and uploading it on a corporate video platform.

3. One-to-One Interaction Opportunity

Making personal contacts is an essential aspect of an account-based marketing approach (ABM). You must make the prospect feel visible while targeting accounts. What better method to accomplish this than with a tailored video message embedded in a prospecting email?

4. Better Opportunities to Connect Decision-Makers

Prospects are five times more likely to connect with a tailored LinkedIn video message than with a typical text-based email, increasing the likelihood that they will engage and convert. Video prospecting is a reasonably simple and accessible method. You can also get a hint about the buyer’s intent based on their video interactions and actions.

However, to hyper-personalize the video, you should know the decision marker, firmographic data, technographic data, and, most importantly, the buying intent. There are very few B2B data providers who can provide you with all these required data sets with human verification. Many depend on machine verification. So even if machine-verified data providers provide more data, the data quality decreases.

What Types Of ABM Assets Can You Create?

Your account-based marketing campaigns might include a range of content types, including emails, online adverts, customized landing sites and webinars. Video assets, in particular, may play an extremely crucial role in your ABM campaign since they allow you to create trust and make a personal connection with your audience. After all, when prospects and customers can see and hear you talking, your message will have a greater emotional impact on them.

Are you looking for some ideas? Here are a few ways you can start using video in your ABM strategy:

1. Employee Bio Videos

There are tools that will help you create Meet-Your-AM (account manager) videos in which your account team members introduce themselves to customers, define their roles, and highlight how their products and services can help grow their businesses. The goal of these videos is to nurture and expand your existing customer base, and you can leverage these assets in various ways. Account managers incorporate this content into their signature lines and email signatures, and you can also use these videos in your ABM advertising campaigns that target the customer base.

Bio videos are beneficial if you are looking to:

a. Humanize your brand

Make your team comfortable and accessible to the audience before the actual interaction

b. Build deeper connections with your audience

Help your leads and prospects get a deeper understanding of your company and work culture on a more personal level.

c. Increase brand awareness and leads

These videos can be widely used in a variety of ways to make your firm appear relevant, familiar, and real—the type of company that people want to support.

2. Interactivity

Interactivity is another technique to apply dynamic personalization to your ABM videos. At its most basic, this technique may simply shout out the target’s name, account name, or industry. These small details may make a video appear to have been created expressly for this target account and use case. However, you can take it further by including CTAs, links, polls, forms, chaptering, and other features.

Fortunately, including these features in your video content has never been simpler. With Hippo videos, you can add a host of interactive elements to the videos, such as:

• In-video meeting links
• Polls 
• Lead generation forms
• Quizzes
• Annotations
• CTAs – eg: reply with a video

These customized videos put the viewer in charge of the content experience, resulting in improved engagement and a stronger emotional connection.

How to Use Video Analytics in your ABM Strategy

The beauty of working with video is the back-end analytics you can view and use for ABM.

Companies may use video analytics to track what their prospects have viewed, skipped, or repeated. Knowing the viewer’s intent is crucial so you can decide or plan your next steps. With a video platform like Hippo Video, you can know the pulse of your audience with video analytics.

This information may be fed into marketing and CRM systems for segmentation, scoring, and cross-functional collaboration.

For example, with Hippo Video, you can access various reports such as the overall report, the demographic report, the shared report, the reactions report, the timeline action report, and the campaigns report.

In the Overall Report, you can check how many people viewed and shared your video. You can also see how many people watched your videos all the way through.

Demographic report gives you the location and how many people from that particular location viewed your video.
In the timeline action report, you get the total number of users, annotations, lead generation, custom poll, promote playlist, and CTA, as well as user data such as IP and location.

Retarget Based on Video Views or View Time  

Create account-specific “tailored videos” that may readily address a specific pain issue. Then, embed the video in marketing emails and target retargeting advertisements to leads who watch 50% or more of the video.

Allow video analytics to drive your automated channels and enhance funnel velocity by delivering relevant advertising to your target account. Based on the stage of their journey, the video material they interacted with might inform you just what to give them next.

This guarantees that you’re displaying the correct information to the right audience at the right moment, rather than wasting ad dollars on leads that are too cold to convert.

Personalize Direct Mail Gifts at Scale

Direct-mail gifts are undoubtedly one of the most personal marketing strategies. However, is there a way you can scale them?

To begin, let each of your sales reps make a personalized video to assist in putting a face to their name when gifting presents to target clients.

Then, as a follow-up message, have sales reps create a one-of-a-kind unpacking video of the direct mail gift to personalize the follow-up even more. Also, showcasing the acknowledgement of the present in the video thumbnail (of the sales agent showing it to the camera) will undoubtedly boost views!

Next, track each video message view and send a tailored asset to people who see and accept it. This will keep them going through the funnel.

Final Thoughts

The increasing usage of account-based marketing by B2B organizations is sufficient proof that it works. You have the best chance of boosting your return on investment (ROI) by concentrating your efforts on a limited number of high-value accounts.

Video content as part of ABM to connect, engage, and convert B2B prospects can provide greater outcomes. Begin your video journey today and see how quick and easy it is to efficiently use videos in your account-based marketing campaigns.

The post ABM in 2023: Real Account-Based Personalization with Videos appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

There is also a slight increase in the growing number of video hosting platforms as businesses have started to adopt video. They can be broadly categorized into two:

• Traditional Video Hosting Solutions
• New Generation Video Hosting Platforms

Now, let’s take a closer look at both of these options.

Traditional Video Hosting Solutions: YouTube and Vimeo

Traditional video hosting is best suited for businesses that are just starting with videos. YouTube and Vimeo come under traditional video hosting solutions. They offer only basic hosting like letting you embed videos anywhere and playback. But, when it comes to analytics, they are limited to video engagement stats (aggregate figures).

Why is YouTube Not For Businesses?

YouTube is the second largest search engine and the second most popular website in the world. So, there’s a little misconception when it comes to hosting videos on YouTube. Everyone thinks YouTube is mighty and that’s where hosting needs to be.

It is great for getting the maximum number of views. However, there are limitations when it comes to hosting your videos on YouTube.

You won’t be able to do player branding that leaves us with limited brand recognition. Also, you won’t be able to drive traffic back to your website. Out of the maximum reach you get, only a few people will click on your CTA to engage with your brand. It’s a null for lead generation.

It recommends videos automatically based on your profile watch history when your viewers complete watching the video. Since the recommendations are based on your individual history, YouTube is not the right place to host your business videos. Recommendations will distract your viewers from the actual goal.

Here’s a snap of it: I typed “How to troubleshoot customer queries with videos?” which is entirely business related and look at the recommendation I’ve got. It is not related to my current search query. Such recommendations based on personal watch history will distract the viewers. And that is the reason why YouTube is not for business conversions.

What About Choosing Vimeo as Your Hosting Platform?

 A lot of businesses use Vimeo to host their videos as it provides video player functionalities for free. Since it’s free, a lot of people leech off that free service which results in a reduced bandwidth for hosting.

Reduced bandwidth in Vimeo slows down the website loading time, resulting in reduced conversion rates.

“Even a One-Second Difference can make a 20% Change in Conversion Rates.”

There is also lower searchability and exposure in Vimeo than YouTube. Also, there are not many business integrations available. Even the Pro version of Vimeo has file size limits and is probably not the best option for business.

Moving On From Traditional To New-Gen Business Video Hosting Platforms

Businesses wanting to embrace video as an integral part of their marketing strategy should be looking at using well-equipped hosting platforms to meet their changing needs.

With new generation video hosting platforms, you can achieve the following business results.

• Extend brand reach.
• Generate more qualified leads.
• Double the conversion rates.
• Improve content engagement.
• Provide personalized content experience.
• Build incredible trust.
• Send personal video emails.
• Increase ROI.

I’ve listed only a few; you can derive tons of benefits by using the right hosting platform that suits your business needs.

Six Best New Generation Video Hosting Platforms For Businesses

1. Vidyard

Vidyard provides video hosting that focuses on individual viewer tracking, making it easy to measure precisely how viewers interact with video content. It has integrations with most marketing automation platforms (including Marketo, Eloqua, Hubspot, Pardot, and Act-On) and also with a host of Salesforce products.

Sometimes, Vidyard can have a lag in putting videos into emails. Also, the user experience could be a lot better because there is always a trouble for starters to find out where certain features are and how to activate them such as changing the color of a player, etc. You have to add some custom CSS to get the video to be responsive as well. You need time to get comfortable with the features and functions. Once you become comfortable with the software, it’s easy to use Vidyard.

Pricing

The average starting price per customer is $1,500 per month. There’s also a $2,000 fee to activate the marketing automation integrations.

Source: The 50Wheel Video Solutions Directory

2. Hippo Video

Hippo Video is an online video hosting and marketing platform, which can help you to create video content more efficiently online. Besides, it takes care of your entire marketing funnel from video creation, professional editing to hosting, lead generation, and tracking your video performance.

• Video Hosting: You can host, share videos with password protection enabled, organize all your videos as categories, cloud video transcoding, user management, etc.
• Player Branding: You can customize the video player to resonate with your brand, increase brand reach, awareness, and engagement. Upload logo, favicon, change the custom domain, thumbnail, title, and end screen, etc.
• Video Email Campaigns: Send personalized video campaigns with Hippo Video’s Gmail Add-on, automate mailing sequences and track campaign performance metrics inside Gmail.
• Lead Generation: Drive leads and boost conversion. Add annotations, call to actions, lead generation forms, custom CRM forms, polls, quizzes, and promote a playlist.
• Video Analytics: Dive into the individual viewer’s action with advanced viewer profile analytics. Watch where your viewers show interest in your video, where they skip and exit. Also get the IP address, location, device used and number of CTAs clicked.
• CRM & Business Integrations: Pardot, Mailchimp, Hubspot, Google Suite, Slack, Intercom, Trello, Facebook Workplace, Jira, Salesforce, and more.
• Collect Video Testimonials: You can build customer trust and brand credibility by collecting video testimonials, surveys, and feedback quickly.
• Video SEO: Add video titles, tags, descriptions, subtitles to help Google crawl your videos and rank them.

Pricing

Package starts at $29 only. This plan is worth the features you get if you are getting started with videos. If you want to go advanced, you can choose the enterprise plan which is $99.

Hippo Video’s pricing is reasonable and affordable for businesses when compared to its relatively expensive competitors.

3. Brightcove

Brightcove’s services and technology has been growing with the industry changes, but its complicated interface has put them behind some of their more user-friendly competitors.

However, Brightcove excels at adaptive bitrate live streaming capabilities. It also provides Ad integration into your videos which help in monetization. Also, the player API allows you to integrate the Brightcove player into any CMS and customize it to play any media, not just Brightcove video.

Besides, most of Brightcove’s features are tech savvy so an average person won’t have the patience to learn how to implement these features. Sometimes even changing the color of a button in customizing the video becomes complicated.

Pricing

Plan is based on package and video plays. Pricing is labeled on their website; you have to get in touch with the sales team to get your custom quote. However, it starts at $199 per month and generally requires an annual contract. A 30-day free trial is also available.

4. Wistia

Wistia’s video hosting platform is similar to Vimeo’s but it focuses more on business users needs. It offers video analytics, including viewer history, demographics, and engagement stats. Also, it is integrable with the most popular marketing automation software platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot.

The player isn’t as striking as Vimeo’s because they chose reliable playability over aesthetic appeal. Video categories and SEO setup will be a bit confusing; you will have to learn them by trial and error. Wistia’s hosting platform is also significantly expensive for SMBs.

Pricing

Pricing is based on video uploads, so even if you have shorter videos, you’ll have to pay. Also, you must have a paid account to customize the video player’s branding.

Pro Plan: Starts at $99 per month which includes only ten videos, each additional video is charged 25 cents more. CRM integrations are charged extra.

Advanced Plan: Custom pricing. Starts at $300 per month.

5. JW Player

JW Player’s video hosting solution provides adaptive streaming experience on all devices. Plus, the JW Player supports live broadcasts with DVR, multitrack audio, 608 captions, ID3 metadata, and AES encryption. You can quickly and easily stream live events to your audience on any device, with tools seamlessly integrated into the JW Platform. Besides, simulcast to Facebook lives right from the JW Player dashboard. Many publishers and broadcasters can benefit from JW Player’s hosting platform.

Pricing

Business plan starts at $50 per month, but there are a lot of feature limitations. If you want to get JW Player’s full feature set, you have to go for their enterprise custom plan which starts at $299 per year.

6. Kaltura

Kaltura is an open source video platform that provides media companies with advanced video management, publishing, and monetization tools to increase monetization and simplify their video operations. Enterprises use Kaltura’s video tools for boosting internal knowledge sharing, training, and collaboration, and for more effective marketing.

There is a lot of trial and error involved in learning how to use Kaltura effectively. To play Kaltura videos, you need to have Flash on your system. From all the reviews that I read about Kaltura’s hosting platform, it’s said that they lack in providing reliable customer support and is also expensive.

Pricing

Package levels start at $499–$1,000 per month.

I hope this blog will help you choose the right video hosting and marketing platform for your business. If you have got any suggestions, share it with us in the comments below or tweet to @thehippovideo.

Looking for more video insights and inspiration? Read Donald Chan’s blog on how Hippo Video has helped transform his Digital Agency.

The post Six New Generation Video Hosting Platforms For Businesses in 2023 appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

The ideal video hosting platform will provide you a space to create or upload videos, edit them to perfection, customize the player, generate leads, and report back to you on how your videos are performing.

In this blog, we break down the top features you need to consider when signing up with a video hosting platform, and how to make the right choice for your marketing agency.

Top Features To Consider While Choosing the Best Video Hosting Platform For Your Online Marketing Agency

Not all video hosting platforms are the same. Different platforms have different features and are going to be the perfect fit for different kinds of businesses/video strategies. Here are some of the top features to look out for before selecting a video hosting platform for your marketing agency.

Branding and Lead Generation

A complete customized video will help you in generating leads, attract prospects, and drive more traffic to your site.

If your focus is to drive brand awareness and generate leads, you should be looking for a platform with complete video customization features. Top video customization features include changing logo inside the video player, changing video player theme to match your brand color, customizing thumbnail to increase video click rates, etc.

Adding a call to action (CTA), lead generation forms, and CRM forms inside the video will help capture your viewer’s email address, name, and phone number. By obtaining the gated information, you will be able to analyze your audience, send personalized emails, and close deals quickly.

Once you’ve generated leads with your videos, you should be able to deliver the desired ROI with your video marketing campaigns.

Video Analytics

While your goal is to engage prospects and drive better conversions, you get a whole new perspective when you look at your video performance analytics.

With detailed analytics for your video, you can find out – who has watched your video and for how long, the demographics, the device used, call to actions clicked, etc.

By tracking this engagement data on an individual lead level, you can understand which video content resonates with your viewers and optimize all other future videos to increase engagement and attention span.

Integrations with CRM and Sales Tools

While the video analytics and dashboard reporting features are excellent, you should be able to act upon the data to derive its real benefits.

Your video hosting platforms should have seamless integrations with marketing, CRM, and sales tools. By pushing video performance data directly into the marketing tools that you use every day, you will be able to qualify your leads easily.

If you notice, for example, that a lead has watched five explainer videos in the scope of a few hours, you can automate the email follow up targeted to their interests at the perfect moment.

It’s about extending the value of your existing solutions and helping your sales team close more deals based on your video content.

Cost

When it comes to video hosting platforms, it’s not just about the money you’re spending. It’s about what you get for it. Although free options, like Youtube, Vimeo are tempting, you have to consider whether it is the right choice for your marketing agency. If you properly evaluate your agency needs, and what you want to achieve with online video, you will find it is worthwhile to invest in a professional video hosting platform.

Youtube and other free hosting providers depend on Ads revenue. Ads and related videos interfere with the viewer experience, impacting engagement, resulting in fewer sales.

If you choose a paid video hosting platform, you won’t have to worry about ads or related videos. Instead, you’ll get the branding, lead generation, analytics, and security tools your agency needs at an affordable cost.

Six Best Video Hosting Platforms For Digital Marketing Agencies

1. Vidyard

Vidyard is an online video platform that can help you can host personalized videos for agencies and get video performance insights. It allows player customization that includes changing the logo, themes and thumbnails, and lead generation through videos.

It integrates with top marketing platforms like Salesforce, Hootsuite, and Hubspot. These integrations allow you to track how your videos are performing and see the effect it has on your overall marketing strategy.

With Vidyard’s personalized video feature, you can customize your videos including their name, email, and more.

It has an extensive list of integrations that include Marketo, Eloqua, Act-On,  Pardot, Adobe, SnapApp, SalesLoft, and MailChimp amongst many others. But, Vidyard charges an additional $2000 fee to activate marketing integrations along with the monthly subscription charges of $1500.

2. Hippo Video

Hippo Video is an easy to use online video hosting and marketing platform for small to medium-sized marketing agencies. It makes it easy to create/upload video content, customize the video player, generate leads through videos, add security features, embed video to a website or playlist, and track video engagement and analytics.

• • Video Creation and Editing – Create marketing videos, video from images, GIFs, etc., and edit with professional Hippo Video editor.
  • Video Hosting and Branding – Customize the video player that includes changing the logo, themes, favicon, custom domain, thumbnail, among others.
  • Lead Generation – Add call to actions, lead generation forms, CRM forms, playlists, polls, and quizzes inside the video to collect email addresses.
  • Video Analytics – Dive into the individual viewer’s action with advanced viewer profile analytics. Know where your viewers show interest in your video, where they skip and exit. Know your user’s IP address, location, device used, and number of CTAs clicked.
  • Email Campaigns – Send personalized video campaigns with Hippo Video’s Gmail Add-on, automate mailing sequences and track campaign performance metrics inside Gmail.
  • Video SEO – Add video title, tags, description, and subtitles to help rank up your videos.
  • Video Testimonials – Collect video testimonials, surveys, and feedback from your customers by sharing a link.
  • Privacy Options – Password protect your videos.
  • Team Collaboration – Assign user roles and give permissions to your team members to collaborate.
  • Integrations – Integrated with Pardot, Mailchimp, Hubspot, Google Suite, Slack, Intercom, Trello, Facebook Workplace, Jira, Salesforce, and more.

Pricing starts at $29 per month, while the advanced enterprise plan costs $99 per month. Hippo Video’s pricing is affordable for businesses when compared to its rivals. Here is a short story of a client doubling his sales volume.

3. Sprout Video

SproutVideo is an online video hosting platform that offers video marketing features with analytical capabilities. You can capture leads, take care of video SEO, and integrate with marketing platforms easily. You can customize the video player. It’s better than average, although it can be somewhat harder to comprehend by first-time clients.

Basic plan starts at $59.99 a month and goes up to $499.99 a month.

4. Wistia

Wistia is a video hosting platform that provides video uploading, customization, and video sharing capabilities. After you upload the video and customize your player with sharing icons, you can embed it anywhere. It integrates with marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, and Zendesk.

This platform has some drawbacks. It lacks live streaming functionality for the cost they charge. Wistia platform can only host a maximum of 500 videos. Reviews in Capterra say there are noted bugs in the marketing integrations platform. The analytics and reporting are detailed. However, users report difficulties in manipulating analytics into actionable information.

Basic plan starts at $99 per month with standard features that include ten videos, each additional video is 25 cents. For an advanced plan, you have to contact their support to get the quote.

5. Cincopa

Cincopa is a video hosting platform that provides video uploading, customization, and video sharing capabilities. Additionally, it provides in-depth analytical tools through which you can clearly identify critical viewing data. Knowing who is watching what videos and each prospect’s viewing tendencies can be then used toward segmenting and nurturing leads. This data can prove especially useful when incorporated in marketing automation. It integrates with marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot and Sharpspring. It is important to note that Cincopa offers image and audio content (such as podcasts) hosting services as well.

The basic plan starts at $99 per month with standard features that include five videos, 50 audio files, and 500 images. For an advanced plan, you have to contact their support to get the quote.

6. Vzaar

Vzaar offers video hosting services for sharing on-demand content. It allows users to upload and store content on their servers. The platform sometimes experiences caching issues. Users have to reboot to use the platform. Users must manually style CTAs at the end of videos using Java. This is too technical for a marketer to work on. It seems to be an inelegant platform when compared to the other superior hosting platforms.

Basic pricing starts at $209 per month. The Premium plan costs $419 per month.

I hope this blog has given you a clear picture of how to choose the best video hosting platform for your marketing agency.  If you want to have a look at the best video hosting platform for business, click here. 

Got any questions – from video creation to hosting to email campaigns – let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter!

The post Six Best Video Hosting Platforms For Marketing Agencies in 2023 appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

99% of email marketers say email personalization can advance customer relationships. 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase when brands offer them personalized experiences. Plus, it’s the number one tactic to increase engagement rates.

And I could go on.

In short, every marketer knows how effective personalization can be to their marketing efforts. However, only a few email marketers know how personalization works. 

It goes beyond mentioning your subscribers by their name. That’s what we’ll check out in this post. Let’s get started.

Email Targeting

You already have a significant number of email subscribers. But how sure are you that you’ve got the right people who are interested in your product/service?

To answer that question, you need targeted email marketing. It’s a modern technique that leverages digital technology to identify a specific part of your list for personalized email campaigns.

In other words, email targeting narrows your audience through segmentation and understanding their demographic. Once you’ve done that, you create framed messages that fit everyone’s context.

It’s not only effective in personalization. Email targeting also improves your brand’s relevance, creates better relationships, and guarantees longer customer retention.

There are multiple ways to create targeted campaigns. But we’ll only give you two of the most effective methods.

Gender Targeted Emails

“Gender marketing” is a common word in the marketing industry.

However, most brands only use it on specific days and events like women’s day, men’s day, father’s day, and mother’s day.

What if you could implement it every single time in your email campaign? 

The result is that your email marketing efforts will be perfect 85% of the time which can record a high click-through rate.

For example, Coyuchi, an innovative manufacturer of organic linen, uses this type of targeted email marketing to communicate to their female and male subscribers with unique offers.

In one of their earlier campaigns, they had a man as the hero image of the male variation of their product and no individual in the female variation of their email.

They later noticed that although the clickthrough rates were almost similar for both campaigns, the men’s side was slightly higher.

So they changed their strategy to showing different colors: grays and blues for men and pastels for women. 

This campaign saw a massive click-through rate because each subscriber was targeted based on the colors they resonated with as females or males.

Geo-Location Targeted email

As the name hints, this kind of targeted email is dependent on knowing your subscriber’s location.

Now imagine that you’re out for a quick stroll around your city. You then get an email from your favorite clothes shop with a one-day offer as you walk around. 

But that wasn’t your plan. So you do what everyone would do – ignoring it while regretting losing such an offer.

Now, what if the brand had a store near you and included a map to that store on the email. It changes everything. You wouldn’t think twice.

That’s what geo-targeted email marketing does. It segments your list based on location which allows you to send framed messages that resonate with their address.

Knowing your subscribers’ location is quite simple. You just have to look at the delivery address, purchase history, and zip codes. Suppose you’re not getting valid information, you can try an email enrichment service to get their location. 

Using Dynamic Content

If you don’t have the time to segment your list for a targeted campaign, you can use dynamic content, which is equally effective.

As the name hints, dynamic content is presenting multiple types of content that appeal to different subscribers based on gender and preferences.

This means that you get to present everyone with multiple options of what they might need. At the same time, you can make sales without breaking a sweat which is a win-win.

The reason why dynamic content is so effective is that it’s purely based on data. Luckily, most email service providers provide vital insights like CTR, open rates, and close rates.

With the data, you’ll know what to present to your audience, the kind of texts, call to action, and visuals to employ.

Here’s a welcome email Help Scout sends to all their new subscribers.

Since it’s the first interaction with new subscribers, they don’t have much data for robust dynamic content.

But to close that gap, they don’t send you a welcome email as most other brands do. Instead, Helpscout sends you to a blog post that directs you to other valuable content that you’ll choose.

This type of dynamic content gives new subscribers insights about their company while at the same time allowing subscribers to engage with multiple contents.

Let’s look at another example of a brand that harnesses the power of data to create compelling dynamic content.

You don’t have to look further. Here’s how Netflix is winning the game.

The streaming service monitors the type of movies and series you like watching. They’ll then use this data to recommend the multiple shows you’ll automatically love.

Finally, using dynamic content for your email marketing doesn’t mean that you should always create new emails from scratch. You can still come up with personalized email templates to make the process easy.

Create Automated Triggered Emails

Automated triggered emails come in handy when you want to employ real-time reactions to your audience’s behavior.

They have a higher open rate than regular emails and are the backbone of personalization. Examples of triggered emails can be welcome emails, reminders, and lead nurturing emails. 

Here’s an example of an automated triggered reminder email.

Another example you must have come across is Facebook. They send you a reminder email if you’ve not logged into your account for some time.

SEO analytics tool, Moz, also has a robust automated email. After creating a new account, they start monitoring what you’re doing during the free trial.

Later, they’ll send you an email with new data about your account and add a link to the resource. Just below the email, you’ll see a conspicuous CTA that asks you if you’re ready to get started. 

That’s not the only approach. Moz changes the messaging based on which part of the marketing funnel you’re in.

However, it targets one thing – to take you back into using the product based on what you want. While it does, Moz still creates pictures that it’s there and has value for you as the customer. 

Use Personal Email

You’re probably thinking that using personal emails for your email marketing campaign will put you in jeopardy. You’re worried that you might face legal implications because you’re not giving users an option to opt-out of your campaigns.

As much as all these are true, there’s still room for sending emails using your personal email without breaking any law.

Still, you need to be extra careful when doing this. You can only use personal email when you don’t have a huge list or want to communicate a special offer to a small segment of your list. Plus, you should only use it once in a while.

That said, research has it that 68% of Americans open emails by just looking at the name coming after “from.”

This means that if you use a real person’s name after the word “from” instead of a logo, business name, or avatar, you have a higher chance of getting your emails opened. Using personal email adds that special touch which is very effective in marketing.

Check their browsing history

This comes in handy for eCommerce stores because their subscribers check out their website regularly. Luckily, multiple tools can track how your website visitors navigate your website. 

These tools will try to understand how users behave on your site, the kind of products they’ve shown interest in, and how they feel when scrolling through your page.

If you don’t need a tool that will cost you, you can use cookies. Cookies monitor your audience and remember certain information about them.

Either way, the data the tools provide comes in handy when you want to create super-targeted email marketing to recommend products your customers were checking.

Here’s an example.

This type of personalization is also highly effective when you want to personalize cart recovery emails. If you know how to use them well, you can also contact customers who purchased products that need accessories.

For instance, if a customer purchases a TV or home appliance like a fridge, you can later reach out to them, reminding them that you also have power guards which go hand in hand with the product they purchased earlier. 

Conclusion

Email marketers who want to see the full potential of their email marketing efforts should do more for personalization.

The market is getting tougher by the day and people need more attention to even show interest in your product. 

Therefore, your email personalization should dive deeper into their needs, not just calling them by their first names.

The post How to Effectively Personalize Email Marketing Campaign Beyond the First Name appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

According to Statista, the total amount spent on video advertisement in the United States accounted for over 24.5 billion U.S dollars in 2019, with the figure projected to double by the end of 2022. It shows a wider acceptance of video content in paid advertising and how videos positively affect your campaigns. With so much digital content present online, it has become increasingly necessary to reach subscribers with material that captures their attention and keeps them interested for as long as possible.

It is the reason users today prefer to view their content in the form of videos, as opposed to static texts and even images. Videos are a more attractive interactive format, with a combination of audio, images, colors; all of this together create an environment that lets you connect with the public at a deeper level. Videos are a great way to improve your visual communication and communicate the right kind of messages to your customers.

Video has become one of the most significant ways to connect with your consumers in the digital world, and it is best-rated as the king of content marketing. We recommend that you get onboard with inculcating videos in your campaigns along with other marketers and become a part of this overwhelming trend!

In addition to helping you reach a wider audience, Videos on the internet, according to statistics, have a 58% success rate of reaching a younger audience than advertisements on TV. If your product/service caters to the younger audience, videos can serve as a valuable asset in influencing parents’ buying decisions.  

Videos in your Email Marketing Campaigns?

Email Marketing is surely one of the most profitable ways to reach out to your customers. Combining videos and emails, the two most formidable weapons turn your email campaigns into an ultimate weapon of mass sales. Let’s look at some of the points on why including videos in your email campaigns make sense – 

• Increased open rates

Studies have found that just by including the word “video” in your subject line is enough to have a positive impact on your email open rates by 7% to 13%. 

Adding the word “video” to the subject line piques the reader’s interest, compelling them to find out what the video has to offer? Or when put in simple words they want to know what’s inside the video?

Now you must be thinking how is this possible? 

Psychologists agree and they reason that people are naturally curious beings leading to this increase in the open rates. 

• Increased reach and visibility: Through greater social media shares  

The more people your business can reach, the more sales you can make, and with increased sales, you are guaranteed good profits. And profit is the ultimate goal of any business.

In addition to being super attractive and captivating, videos can be moulded, and curated to match any objective you might have. From promotional campaigns to video tutorials to brand celebrations videos are the right way to reach your set objective and win at your goals.

Whether you want to retain your subscribers, increase your sales or welcome a new lead, videos can be a great way to achieve these objectives, thanks to its great versatility! 

When you include videos in your email campaigns, there is a higher chance of getting recognition on social media, hence reaching a broader audience. Videos generate 12x more social shares than any other form of content.

• Stay longer in the minds of your subscribers

 From research, it has been found out that humans usually retain 10% of what they read or hear, interestingly, they retain 50% of what they see.

From the findings above, it is evident that visual information is much more effective than reading a text, and if you want your Subscribers to remember your message, adopting this approach will bring enormous results.

One of your main objectives, of every business, is to make a brand presence in the minds of your customers or potential buyers. You must find a way into their heart, videos help in retaining your brand in the mind of your prospects when making a purchase decision. 

Each subscriber is different and you want to understand their habits of going through inboxes too. One way to do so is by sending them emails at their preferred time. 

If you want to be remembered more, add a short video to your Email Marketing Campaigns,  and since humans are inclined to remember 50% of what they view, you have strong guarantees that your subscribers will never forget you!

• Increase Conversions & CTR

According to a study carried out by eMarketer, the use of videos in Email Marketing Campaigns increases the CTR by up to 55%.

In addition, it can increase the time spent by your subscribers while interacting with your emails, by up to 44% and the chances increase by 41% that this content will be shared on Social Networks.

We all need fact checks and a day of perfect bliss, this is what videos will do for you. With 41% chances of your business being shared on social media, you get a dozen free advertisements from your customers, without paying an extra fee for it. 

Including videos in your email campaigns reduces your unsubscribe rates by 75%

• Increase the virality of your pieces

If your goal is to excite & engage your subscribers, empathize with them or even make them laugh with your content, video is the best way to achieve this goal.

This format is much more likely to be shared than others, owing to its ability to reach the innermost fibers of consumers and when you do this right, you can hit a goldmine. Customers are quick to share products with friends and family, especially when products give them the satisfaction they desire. 

This word of mouth advertisement is one of the greatest secrets to a successful business. Another reason that tilts favourably in this direction is trust, people are 80% likely to buy products recommended by persons they trust and love. So, ensure to include videos in your email campaigns and micro-target them using autoresponders. 

Furthermore, 90% of the videos that are shared succeed in moving  users in a funnel and ultimately lead to a purchase, so utilize your creativity and share the best stories to your subscribers through your email campaigns, with fascinating and breathtaking videos.The results will wow you!

• Videos help you build customer loyalty 

There is nothing as beautiful as having a loyal customer base, this will accelerate your business growth and of course, keep you in business for a long time. Video marketing is one of the best ways you can achieve brand loyalty from your customers. 

“It is better to have a hundred people who love your product, than a thousand people who like it”. – Jeff Bezos

Video will not only be useful to attract new customers but also help you achieve greater engagement with your subscribers, these subscribers are your loyal customers and in Jeff’s words “They are your partners that love your business, they are your greatest assets and so you must build loyalty with them.”

Content marketing is the perfect strategy to retain your subscribers, but if you also use a format that enhances the interest of your contacts, like video, you will break all barriers and keep them for a lifetime.

Video marketing will differentiate you from your competition.

Being able to offer your customers an added value above what your competitors provide, will position you in a much-privileged place, this is a place of trust and loyalty, and once you get here, your business will skyrocket.  

Despite all the benefits that come with incorporating videos into your Email Marketing Campaigns,  some companies are yet to take advantage of this fabulous tool.

For you who is about to tap from this goldmine, it is your chance to get ahead of others and get that lead advantage! And there is a reward that comes with setting the pace, you will always take the lion’s share and once you acquire this status, it will be difficult for your competitors to match the value that you already offer.

• Video Marketing will increase traffic to your website

If you insert a truly interesting and attractive video into your email campaign, the chances that your subscribers will visit your site enhances enormously, and with more visibility, prospects to make a sale increases rapidly.

Video is a great resource to drive traffic to your website, which will in turn, lead to better SEO positioning and greater chances of increasing your conversions.

Let’s wrap up!

If you are looking to create effective Email Marketing Campaigns, with surprising CTRs, the first thing you should do is subscribe yourself to amazing tools like HippoVideo to captivate the attention of all your subscribers.

Inculcate the videos in your emails, and you will be amazed by your results.   

The post Benefits of integrating videos in your Email Marketing Campaigns appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

Although an exceptional product or service is the fundamental building block of a company’s success, start-ups can’t depend solely on their offerings to achieve significant and rapid growth.

Nowadays, robust marketing is the only solution that helps start-ups thrive in this highly competitive market. However, it is hard to find and employ marketing initiatives that would be consistently impactful and effective, like video marketing. 

Growing Video Trends

A few years ago, people used to think of video marketing as one of the most expensive advertising methods. It was only in 202 that a whopping 92% of the digital marketers stated that video marketing is a vital part of marketing activities. 

The question is: what are the video marketing trends that have evolved for the last few years?

Various businesses and companies are now using video marketing immensely, which has made consumers watch more and more videos every year. As a result, studies show that by 2022, an average individual would spend at least a hundred minutes watching videos every day.

Nevertheless, these changes do not indicate that the trend of video marketing has been stabilized. The industry of video marketing would continue to change and experience constant shifts in advertising options, platform offerings, and viewer preferences. 

Source

Here we will guide you through some of the most prominent video marketing trends that are here to stay.

Snapchat Stories

Snapchat was the first social media platform that launched the “story.” Other social media networks had followed it instantly for fear of missing out. 

The story did not change form and could be uploaded in GIF, photo, or video form, but the users’ perspective changed.

What made users take it as the ultimate social media activity is its availability feature that allowed the story to stay up only for twenty-four hours; otherwise, it’s gone. And just like that, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook excited the ‘story’ trend and opened up multiple new marketing opportunities.

Source

Stories have also evolved and are now used as vlogs that will continue to be like shortly. However, stories taken as vlogs are captured as “in the moment” videos that are also low in quality. 

Hence, overall, viewers’ expectations are also common. However, stories also open more space and opportunities for advertising with effective results.

Instagram Videos

Among the various social media platforms, Instagram has become one of the most popular and most prominent social media platforms among consumers worldwide. 

As stated by Backlinko, Instagram has more than 1 billion active monthly users, where 250 million among them post stories daily and almost 500 million use Instagram daily. 

One can only imagine the marketing potential that Instagram holds. Over 65% of online marketers use Instagram in 2021 for posting their videos.

Source:

Besides videos and stories, Instagram also introduced its IGTV feature in 2018. They aimed at creating an alternative solution to YouTube, but it would only support videos with a duration of up to sixty minutes. 

Although IGTV did not start well, added features and recent updates like regular appearance on Instagram feed and horizontal videos, IGTVs is expected to be more popular by the end of 2021.

LinkedIn Video Marketing

LinkedIn is the perfect place where one can present their brand and business to their professional network. LinkedIn videos are now widely used as marketing tools. Two out of three online marketers aim to use videos on LinkedIn in 2021, as stated by Wyzowl.

LinkedIn videos can range from three seconds to up to ten minutes and even thirty minutes if it is an ad video. 

However, short videos tend to get more attention on LinkedIn. You should, therefore, talk about your objective at the video’s beginning. 

LinkedIn’s Digital Marcoms Manager, Jane Fleming, recommends capturing viewer’s attention within the first three seconds in an article that explains the dos and don’ts of a LinkedIn video.

There are multiple uses of LinkedIn videos. It would help you present your company, business venture, features, or products within a network of potential clients or other professionals.

Video Authenticity in the B2B Markets

You can now use videos in various industries and not just visual businesses like traveling and fashion. Although understanding Return On Investment can be challenging, different new video platforms make it easier for people to measure their viewer engagement.

Individuals can check the parts that interest their users enough for a rewatch and even link their marketing platform to direct the viewers to the sales funnel.  

When it comes to video marketing statistics of the B2B industry, they suggest that the B2B video content campaigns leave more impact compared to others. 

As millennials have the maximum control over business decisions these days, a good video marketing campaign has the power of changing the way your business would access market space.

Almost 72% of B2B researchers and buyers watch videos that would help them make better buying decisions, as stated by a Google research conducted a few years ago. 

Moreover, considering the rapid growth in the number of millennials running business decisions in the B2B sector, this percentage is expected to rise even high in the upcoming few days. 

Source

Furthermore, researchers also state that buyers do not watch only videos and skip the content midway. Nearly half of those buyers watch a minimum of thirty minutes of content.  

Therefore, it is vital to create original B2B videos. B2B should have a more specific outlook like customer care instead of a typical mill demo that features a tedious product description. Some of the good examples of B2B videos are when enthusiastic hosts capture’s peoples’ attention to a particular product. 

Even Taulia’s funny videos are also a good example. It uses modern, relative pop culture for massively increasing video appeal.  

TikTok

In 2019, TikTok won the “most downloaded non-gaming app” title on Apple Store. Having more than 800 million users, TikTok has caught the attention of many marketers. 

Hence, one can only imagine that advertising on TikTok can gain a lot of attention and popularity.

Initially used for video-sharing, TikTok started encouraging their users to upload short videos that would mostly last for 15 seconds.

The growth of TikTok videos, both numerically and in popularity, leads to a variety of videos and a diverse user base. But most importantly, TikTok has successfully brought the attention of marketers to Gen Z and consider them as active and essential consumers.

Nevertheless, TikTok users show a significantly higher engagement rate compared to other users on other platforms. TikTok users have an engagement rate of 52.1%, as stated by the research conducted by CloutMeter. 

Although almost 41% of the Tiktok users range between 16 to 24 years, TikTok will remain at the top of the marketing ladder and keep shaping the future of video marketing trends. 

Here are five reasons why you need to adopt a video marketing strategy if you are a start-up and wish to rope in the Millenial generation. 

Reason 1: Effective Storytelling

It is undeniable that videos are one of the most effective methods of communication. It is just as the saying goes, “A good product without a good story is like a good engine without a steering wheel.” 

If you want to tell your target audience about your brand story, videos would be the best content form for you to choose from. Videos are now the favorite content medium of consumers. 

This is because human emotions and sentiments are easily appealed to by visuals. You can surely invest in generating excellent sales copies but connecting to your existing and prospective clients to ensure that they purchase your products is more important than just throwing some pretty sales words around.

This further helps in differentiating the consideration, awareness, and buying decision stages that consumers go through. 

While written content is needed, without high-quality videos complemented with suitable background music and visuals that would explicitly convey the message, your business would find it challenging to grow. 

Reason 2: Improve brand awareness

The best way to make your brand known to everyone is by using videos. Compared to the other digital advertising methods, videos have the potential to acquire more attention. 

Optinmonster conducted a study that found that videos help in increasing bread recognition by nearly 54%. This is because internet users tend to experience a decrease in their attention span with time, which reduces their ability to go through long written content.

Hence they are more interested in watching, commenting, liking, and sharing short video clips that would only take them a click of the button within split seconds. This means that videos would help in getting your business more brand awareness.

Furthermore, Oberlo predicts that video marketing would drive nearly 82% of the internet traffic worldwide. 

Source

Such a figure is expected as it is easier for the consumers to consume video content rather than written content. In addition, videos help in displaying deliverables that make them appear tangible and authentic to the consumers.

Nowadays, consumers want businesses to show instead of telling them what their brand or business is all about. 

Therefore, it does not matter to the consumers whether they come across your videos on your blog posts or YouTube. 

Even the laziest consumer would watch these videos than engage in the tedious work of reading paragraphs of pretty words stating what your brand is offering.

You can be sure of getting social shares once your marketing video seems appealing to your target audience. Moreover, videos also help in increasing your competitive advantage.

Reason 3: Expand audience reach

As more brands and businesses are engaging with their target audience via social media, blogs, and email, it would be a wise decision for you to use one of these methods for staying afloat in the middle of this intense competition. 

Sometimes videos may be capital, energy, and time-intensive, but they are worth giving the best ROI. It helps in providing your brand expos to your large target audience.

Studies also show that almost one-third of worldwide internet activities involved downloading and watching videos. In addition, consumers care for more than five billing videos on YouTube daily, with 53% of the viewers requesting more videos.

Your start-up can significantly benefit from one viral video and give your brand engagement all the boost needed.

For instance, the Dollar Shave Club grew from a start-up to a billion-dollar company by just one viral video. By 2015, the video by the Dollar Shave Club had more than 22 million views. They crossed a valuation of US$615 million along with a 1.1 million customer base in 2015.

Thereby, just like that, your start-up might also be just a viral video away from turning into a billion-dollar company.

Reason 4: Boost sales

You can use the exposure that your brand has gained from adopting video marketing and channel it into your sales funnel to increase your conversion rates. 

For example, an average internet user tends to spend at least 88% more time going through a page with video, which improves the engagement ratio of your website. 

Hence, when you have videos embedded in your website, your views would automatically stay longer and engaged. That way, you would be able to capitalize on this traffic for generating leads and boost your sales on the website. 

Hence, do not make the mistake of undermining the potential of videos in a buyer’s journey. On the contrary, videos play a significant role in the decision-making process of a buyer. 

They have the power to increase an individual’s purchase decision by nearly 93%, as well as brand engagement by almost 139%. 

According to recent statistics, 8 out of 10 people make their purchase after watching a product video. Moreover, the video content’s quality also helps in increasing lead generation. 

Reason 5: Videos Are Informative And Educative

Through videos, you would convey complex information into simple, bite-sized pieces that would be easier for the consumers to recall. For instance, you can use specific short-form videos on the FAQ pages of your website for reducing inquiries. It also benefits you by allowing you to help you, consumers, without paying for customer service. 

Over 75% of customers purchase after watching a video on a particular product or service. Hence, if you think your services or products are complex, you can explain your target audience the same by using video content. 

To help your target audience make well-informed and happy purchase decisions, add relevant video content on the website’s landing pages. 

For instance, if you are offering real-time locating systems to your consumers, you can have an explainer video. 

This would help beginners in understanding this slightly complex system. You can even simplify your explainer videos further by using animation.  

Your video marketing strategy can include 

• creating customer reviews
• product demos
• how-to-videos
• promotional videos and 
• vlogs in the initial stage. 

Then, you can upload these videos on multiple distribution channels such as your email broadcast list, website, and social media handles.

Conclusion

Hence, it is evident that video marketing is an effective digital marketing tool that your business can significantly benefit from. 

When you plan to launch your brand, product, or services online, making videos about them is the best way to reach your target audience. 

Although you can still make blog posts and web articles, incorporating video marketing in your overall marketing strategy would work as the icing on a cake.

The post How Startups Can Target Millenials Using Video Content appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

According to OptinMonster, 80% of video marketers believe that producing video content can boost sales. 

Maybe you’re good at promoting your videos using various platforms, but here’s the thing: Video marketing can be a whole new beast.

For one, it takes time and resources to produce a single video. Second, your content must be high-quality, compelling, and resonating. Mind you, embedding videos on your landing page can help increase your conversions to up to 80%! 

Therefore, investing in video content product and marketing can be worth it. But you still have to put in the effort to make it stand out and help your online business get ahead of the competition. 

What is Video Marketing?

In a nutshell, video marketing uses videos to promote the products you sell on your e-commerce website. 

Here are some data we pulled from the Adelie Studios Report:

• Videos help increase your organic traffic by 157%.
• 74% of millennials state that watching a video first before they purchase something.
• It is estimated that customers prefer watching a product video instead of reading about it. 

What Makes Video Marketing So Effective?

Video marketing allows you to tell a story about your products and engage them so that your videos will bring your products to life. 

Although a high-quality photo with a succinct description can describe your products well, a video is a great way to demonstrate how to use them.

It can be as simple as showing how your product is used or interviewing a past customer about what they can say about it. To make video production easy, You can also upload your creations on a video hosting site like Hippo Video.

It is an all-in-one video platform wherein you can record, edit, and host your videos. Hippo Video also provides a straightforward way to embed your content on various websites.

Regardless of the platform you use, though, it is vital to incorporate elements like storytelling or humor to your content. That’s because evoking emotions can compel a person to take action.

This explains why video marketing is integral in boosting your e-commerce fulfillment conversions. 

That said, here are the twelve creative ways how you can utilize video marketing for your online store: 

Create How-To Tutorials

Utilizing how-to videos is exceptionally well in showing your customers the real value of your products. 

With the help of videos, you’re not only conveying to your customers what your products can do. You’re also trying to make them understand virtually all the aspects of your products.

Apart from that, you can highlight the various uses of your product. This is especially great for products that have multiple uses or haven’t been in the market previously. 

Create Product Review Videos

Utilizing videos to take your products to another level helps you reach a considerable boost in sales. According to MediaKix, 62% of customers are seeking testimonials and reviews before they buy a product. 

It can be written customer feedback on the product page or a review posted on your social media pages. However, you can partner with YouTube influencers and let them create an unboxing or product review video.

Regardless, all this customer feedback and product video reviews can be part of your social proof. And this can boost your online store’s reputation.

You can also utilize video feedback through discounts and giveaways. Even the best retail loyalty programs can add incentives to leave feedback. 

Optimize Video for Mobile Devices

In the same way, you should appeal to users who view your content on their smartphones and other mobile devices. 

If you fail at this, then you’re missing out on 50% of users who will be viewing your video content. When someone uses their smartphone or tablet to browse through your site but fails to view your videos properly, it won’t serve its full purpose. 

That’s why you must optimize your content for mobile devices. You can test in various screen sizes to know if it fits appropriately. It’s also worth noting that significant video streaming sites like Vimeo and Youtube will already adjust the screen size. That way, you won’t have to worry too much if it’s going to be a great fit. 

Similarly, it would help if you utilized a mobile-friendly thumbnail that gives viewers a solid idea of what the video is all about. It should be attention-grabbing to convince them to push the play button with you and engage. 

Don’t forget about your call-to-actions as well. You can tell users to subscribe to your channel, check a couple of products on your site, follow you on social media, etc. 

You can also place a clickable CTA at the very end of the video. That way, it’s easier to redirect users to the next destination online. 

Focus on Storytelling

One of the best ways to get an emotional response from your audience is through storytelling. 

With it, you’ll be able to share some knowledge and information about you and your business. Incorporating storytelling in your video marketing campaign can help convey emotions better. And this is what makes your content resonate with your audience.

It’s worth noting that videos with great stories will stay in your customers’ minds for a longer time.

Interview Experts

Interviewing experts, whether it’s about the products you sell or the benefits it brings, is a great way to build your authority in your niche.

People always want to learn about new things, and they love hearing the latest news or upcoming trends from the experts themselves. Apart from that, you have the opportunity to broaden your knowledge and reach.

As you grow your online following, industry experts would be happy to share their knowledge with your audience. Meanwhile, it positions your brand as a go-to online store for such products. 

You also might be required to pay these experts for their time, especially if it may require some traveling, research, or preparation on their end. 

You can also repurpose these videos later on into a podcast. This type of format makes it easy for users to listen to your content while they’re on the go. 

Similarly, you can outsource an episode recap and publish it on your blog section with relevant links to some of your products and services. 

Post the Video on Important Channels

A great video won’t make a difference if you fail to place it in front of your target audience. 

Whether you have a dedicated following on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, you can publish your videos on these channels. 

Ensure that you engage with people who will enhance your bottom line on places where they spend most of their time. 

Create Brand Videos

Brand videos are often made as part of a more extensive ad campaign.These videos are created as social media ads to boost brand awareness and draw in traffic. 

Brand videos are often created to help communicate the personality of the brand. This includes your company culture, mission, products, and services. 

Make Animated Videos

Animations allow you to have complete creative freedom over your content. 

This can be an ideal format that you can use to help explain to your audience the most difficult or abstract content or ideas. 

Apart from that, creating animated videos are incredibly entertaining and eye-catching. 

Showcase Company Culture

Similarly, you can also use videos to showcase what your company culture is like. You can publish videos like these on your social media pages or your website’s About Us page. 

Examples of great content ideas would be featuring employee events like catered lunches or a field day with your employees. 

Embed Videos in Your Emails

When you’re utilizing emails to communicate with your target audience, then you might consider embedding videos in it as well. 

According to data, emails that contain “videos” on their subject line are 19% more likely to be opened. 

That’s because most people would rather watch a video over text. That’s why adding this word in your subject line significantly increases your email’s open rates.

Note, however, that you should include the term “video” in your subject line only if there’s an actual video in your email. 

Shoot Behind-the-Scenes Footage

Another interesting video type that you can use is behind-the-scenes footage. 

If you offer products that provide a unique process that stands out from the rest of the pack, you should include that.

Your customers wanted to see how the products they’ll purchase are being made. More so if you include “sustainability” as a brand promise.

In the same way, behind-the-scenes footage allows you to show how the products you’re offering them are being manufactured. Doing so will enable you to build your customers’ trust because they see firsthand where the magic happens. 

Go Live on Facebook or Instagram

With easy options like Facebook or Instagram Live, you don’t have to do pre-recorded videos. 

All you need to do is log on to social media, plan out your message, and go live. Live videos aren’t just an excellent platform that you can use to talk with your followers in real-time. You can also use it to offer your audience detailed information about your products. 

There’s often live chat that goes along with these Live videos. And this can help maintain that level of trust and transparency with your audience. 

If you plan to take your e-commerce digital marketing strategy to the next level, you should incorporate video marketing. Doing so can help boost your traffic and online sales. Good luck!

The post 12 Clever Ways to Use Video Marketing for Your Online Store appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

Days pass, and you hear nothing but crickets chirping.

This often happens when you rely on one marketing channel only.  Maybe it’s time to explore cross-channel marketing. 

Here’s a detailed guide to cross-channel marketing and how you can implement cross-channel tools to share your videos. 

What is Multi-Channel Marketing? 

Cross channel marketing or omnichannel marketing is a marketing strategy that includes multiple marketing channels to ensure a smooth buyer’s journey at all stages of the funnel. Here’s a quick example to understand this concept. 

Let’s say you’re a retail store and you want to promote your business on multiple channels. One way can be to run paid ads. You can also do social media. If you’re going to leverage traditional marketing, you can run banner ads, print newspaper ads, or distribute sales flyers etc. 

In multi-channel marketing, you integrate all these channels. So, for example, you can put a custom QR code in your store and link it to your website or social media. This bridges the online-offline gap and ignites cross-channel marketing. 

Cross-channel marketing tools are mobile apps and computer software programs that allow you to develop and manage a cross-channel marketing campaign.

Here are a few examples of cross-channel marketing tools. 

• MobileMonkey
• MailChimp
• AgoraPulse
• MeetEdgar
• BuzzSumo
• HubSpot
• SEMRush
• AdEspresso
• Zapier

Stay tuned, as we’ll delve deep into cross-channel marketing tools in the later sections of this content. 

Why Should Businesses Leverage Multi-Channel Video Marketing? 

If you’re not utilizing video to promote your brand and products, you’re missing out on lucrative opportunities. However, creating engaging and informative videos is just the beginning. You need to implement a robust marketing strategy so your video marketing content reaches a large audience. 

But this may not be possible if you use a single channel for marketing. To ensure superior engagement, you’ll need to utilize multiple channels. 

Here’s why you should leverage cross-channel marketing to share your video content. 

1. Improving Engagement

Let’s say you use email as your primary marketing channel. Email is great and can provide an ROI of up to 42:1. Not many people check emails, let alone opening your email, and watching a video for a few minutes. 

On the other hand, people on YouTube and social media want to watch videos. These are the platforms where your target audience will always be looking for engaging video content. While social media may not offer a high ROI, it can certainly play a pivotal role in improving engagement. 

As a result, people will start recognizing your brand across multiple channels. And when more people know and talk about your brand, they are more likely to make a purchase.

2. Increasing Loyalty

We live in a hyper-competitive business landscape where customers have too many options to choose from. If you fail to convince them to stick with you, they’ll move to another brand without breaking a sweat. Hence, customer loyalty is the key to success in this vying marketplace.

Using cross-channel marketing allows you to send out a consistent brand message across multiple platforms. When your customers get the same brand experience on various channels, they’ll consider you a credible, trustworthy brand. If they trust you, they’ll stay loyal to you in the long run. 

3. Aligning with Customer Behavior

Customers want to interact with their favorite brands on multiple channels. A Backlinko study showed that a person has an average of 8.6 social media accounts in 2020. This clearly indicates that people want to use different channels to consume unique content. 

By implementing cross-channel marketing, you can align with this changing customer behavior. You can engage your audience on multiple channels, thereby giving them the luxury to interact with you wherever and whenever they want to. 

Step-By-Step Multi-Channel Marketing Implementation Process 

The concept of cross-channel marketing seems straightforward. After all, all you need to do is create a presence on different channels, right? 

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. 

Here’s a step-by-step process to create a cross-channel marketing strategy from scratch. 

1. Create Buyer Personas

An effective cross-channel marketing strategy begins with creating the right buyer personas. Work with your marketing team to develop rich buyer personas that accurately personify your ideal customers. Your buyer profiles should comprise your customers’ needs, challenges, pain points, desires, and other factors that might influence their buying decision. 

2. Use the Right Mediums

There are more than 100 social media websites out there. And that’s just social media. You can explore email, website, forums, and other channels online. You can also go beyond the internet and exploit TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, and the list goes on. 

But don’t let this copious number of channels and mediums overwhelm you. When it comes to cross-channel marketing, be selective. Conduct thorough research and choose the channels where your target customers spend their most time.

3. Unify Your Information

Once you’ve selected your channels, you’d need to consolidate your data. The premise of cross-channel marketing is to make your video marketing efforts interconnected across various channels. 

So, be sure to capture touchpoints on all the mediums and integrate them in one place. You can do so by tracking URLs and browsing cookies to track your consumers’ actions and browsing behavior.

4. Ensure Alignment with the Buyer’s Journey

No two buyers are the same. While the emotion behind the purchase could be similar, every customer is different and hence should be treated uniquely. 

Let’s say a buyer comes across your product video, visits your eCommerce site, but abandons the cart. In this case, you should send an email offering them a discount or a better offer.

Now, suppose another customer follows the same path, but instead of abandoning the cart, she makes the purchase. In this case, you should send an email thanking the customer for the purchase. This way, you can provide personalized experiences to your customers.

5. Utilize social media

It’s not a good idea to rely heavily on social media. But if used strategically, social media platforms can be a gamechanger in your cross-channel marketing strategy. 

You can use social channels like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to share your videos and divert the traffic to your website and other channels. Social media is also a great place to interact with your customers and answer their queries. 

Also, don’t forget, paid social advertising. Using paid social ads the right way can go a long way in enhancing your social media marketing efforts. 

6. Prioritize Customer Support

An American Express report showed that 90% of US consumers consider customer service a major factor in selecting a brand. 

When you provide better service, you retain more customers, which translates to more business, higher revenue, and enhanced reputation. 

When you implement cross-channel marketing, ensure that you focus a substantial amount of time and effort on providing exceptional customer service.

Note: If you’re new to cross-channel marketing, be prepared for uncertainties. Your campaign could boom and produce results beyond your expectations. Or it might not perform as well as you expected. If the latter is the case, keep on testing different strategies and tweak your cross-channel marketing tactics accordingly. 

Things to Consider When Implementing Cross-Channel Tools 

To implement a cross-channel marketing strategy, you’ll need an arsenal of cross-channel tools. However, with so many options available, finding the tools that align with your requirements can be challenging. 

Consider the following aspects to select the best cross-channel tools for video marketing. 

1. Unified Customer Profiles

As discussed, creating accurate customer profiles is one of the primary steps of cross-channel marketing. Cross-channel tools, such as website analytics solutions and email marketing systems, provide customer insights that enable you to develop buyer personas. However, these tools use different algorithms, which can lead to discrepancies in data. 

Therefore, it’s essential to pick tools that allow you to create unified customer profiles. They should consolidate data collected from various touch points so that you can develop laser-focused buyer personas.

2. Large-Scale Personalization

Personalization has become one of the key factors that customers consider when selecting a brand. Including small personalization elements like addressing the customer by her name in the email can drastically improve the engagement rate. 

Ensure that your cross-channel toolkit provides complete, in-depth insights about your customers. You can leverage these insights to provide personalized customer experiences.

3. Cross-Channel Targeting

The ultimate goal of cross-channel marketing is to target customers on multiple channels, platforms, and devices. Find a tool that allows you to do the same. 

Everyone uses connected devices. This means starting one to one communication with a customer is more difficult than ever. By using tools that allow cross-channel targeting, you can engage your customers across multiple platforms and devices. 

4. Time Optimization

Timing plays a crucial role in the success of a marketing campaign. Sharing the right type of content on the right platform at the right time is critical to achieving the results you desire from your cross-channel marketing efforts. 

Hence, it’s essential to find cross-channel tools that allow you to optimize your content and share it at a time that ensures higher consumer engagement. 

5. Content Optimization

A major mistake most brands make in cross-channel marketing is sharing the same content across all platforms. That’s a huge no-no. Though it’s essential to maintain consistency, using the same content on all channels won’t give your consumers a reason to follow you. 

Find cross-channel tools that allow you to optimize your content as per each platform. For example, a 6-minute video would be great to share on YouTube, but you’ll need to extract the best 15-second clip from it to share it on TikTok.

6 Cross-Channel Tools Every Business Should Use 

If you’re scratching your head trying to figure out which cross-channel tools to use, your search ends here. Here are the six types of cross-channel tools every business should know about.

1. Video Marketing Tools: Video marketing tools like HippoVideo and VidIQ can help you leverage the power of video marketing. Video marketing essentially includes producing explainer, informative, and helpful videos to engage your customers.
2. Chat Marketing Tools: These tools allow you to engage your customers via chat on your website, Facebook messenger, and text messaging. MobileMonkey is a common example.
3. Email Marketing Tools: Email marketing tools allow you to create email campaigns and send automated emails to your customers. Common examples include MailChimp and AWeber.
4. Social Media Marketing Tools: These tools enable you to manage all your social media accounts and campaigns from one place. Examples include Buffer and HootSuite.
5. SEO Marketing Tools: These tools enable you to streamline your SEO efforts, so you rank higher on search engines. Some examples are SEMRush and Ahrefs.
6. Advertising Tools: These solutions allow you to manage and optimize your advertising campaigns across multiple channels. AdEspresso is a common example.
7. Marketing Automation Tools: These tools allow you to create automated marketing workflows. Zapier and HubSpot are common examples.

Wrapping Up

Marketing your product or service online has become more challenging than ever. Using a single channel to promote your business can be detrimental to your business in this competitive arena. Cross-channel tools allow you to engage your customers on multiple channels, resulting in better engagement and more conversions.

The post Simple Guide To Cross-Channel Marketing Tools for Sharing Videos appeared first on Hippovideo.io.

So this holiday season, throw out the “bring home the bacon” mindset and build a deeper connection with your prospects and customers on an emotional level using personalized video greetings.

As Dale Carnegie said it best: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you”. 

After all, New year is all about giving without a thought of getting, isn’t it? 

To win the hearts of your customers and prospects this New year season, we have curated an authentic and genuine way to stand out from the sea of ‘inbox’ messages – four video greeting templates you can steal. 

Sounds interesting? Well, let us explain how you can create these truly memorable holiday videos with Hippo Video.

Create stunning video greetings

Step 1: Visit our homepage – Visit the hippovideo.io homepage and click on the New year banner to ‘Try Now’ our video greeting for FREE with no sign-up required.

Step 2: Start creating your video greeting – The page will open up to a brand new visual. Enjoy it for a while… Ok, let’s move on. Now click on the tab ‘Send Video Greetings’ to continue.

Step 3: Pick your theme – This New Year, we’ve spoiled you for choices with four stunning greeting templates that will knock your socks off. Pick your favorite ‘New Year’ theme (the struggle is real, isn’t it?).

Step 4: Record a video or import a video – Now is the time to spread some holiday cheer. Record a personal video or import one from your library to create your unique holiday message. Also, we’ve gone that extra mile and created an intro and outro for all your videos. Sweet, isn’t it? 

Step 5: Add your custom message – Craft a personal message to go along with your video greeting. Also, to make your video stand out from the crowd, don’t forget to add in audio from the drop-down menu found under the ‘Background music’ tab. 

Step 6:  Share your video – It’s time to share your unique video greeting with your family, friends, and colleagues! All you have to do is copy the thumbnail and paste it into your desired platform – from emails to social media, you can do it all. 

Personalized video greeting templates for every occasion

We know that the holidays are extra busy (and a little different this year). There is a whole suite of video templates for every occasion – be it for a family member, a colleague, a prospect, or a customer.

From holiday-friendly imagery, fonts, animations, and music – we have it all. So here is a little tip on which template you can use based on the scenario. 

Palm Springs

For businesses, the bold and eye-catching design, along with your personalized video is sure to click with your audience without seeming pushy. Just edit the text to suit your sales campaign, add in your logo – it’s as easy as that.

Ideal for: Showcasing New year offers.

The Reindeer

New Year is all about sending personal seasonal greetings, which is why we’ve created this classic template to help you spread festive cheer, even from afar. This super fun template is a great way to lift the spirits of your loved ones.

Ideal for: Spreading happiness among your friends and family.

Winter Lit

This year instead of meeting in high-rise conference rooms, businesses are logging into meetings online.

Therefore it’s time to get creative and replace emails and letters with this perfect template to appear authentic and personal to your team.

By using personalized video greetings you build trust among your employees showing that you care for them.

Ideal for: CEO’s message for employees and colleagues. Sharing seasons greetings among team members.

The Wishing Spree

The easiest thing a business can do on a new year is to wish their clients/customers ‘Happy Holidays’. It’s straightforward and simple, but is it enough?

Add a twist to your greeting this year with a beautiful video template like ‘The Wishing Spree’. Send this personalized video greeting, and witness an outpouring of love from your clients.

Ideal for: Wishing prospects, customers and clients season’s greetings. From ad agencies to E-commerce sites to sales, everyone can use it. 

Conclusion

2020 has humanized businesses in an entirely new way, which means it is not the year for random greeting cards flicked from popular e-greeting sites and sending it across to your loved ones, clients, employees, etc.

It is all about showing your gratitude and focusing on building a more personal connection between you and the recipients.

Moreover, this helps improve the overall customer experience, which in turn converts your customers into loyal ambassadors.

With a platform like Hippo Video, you have no more excuses to avoid sending across a personalized video greeting, as it is simple and takes only a matter of seconds to create.

These templates are free, they are catchy and oh so perfect for the holiday season. 

If you are looking forward to tracking how your recipients are engaging with your video, you will need to sign-up to see your watch percentage.

So go on and spread the joy this holiday season using Hippo Video’s personalized video greeting templates. 

Happy holidays!

Which is your favourite template? Tell us in the comments below. 

The post 4 Personalized Video Greetings Template You Can Steal appeared first on Hippovideo.io.