Eight Simple Steps for Online Video Success

The people at video distributor Brightcove noticed several common elements among clients that did well with online video. As a result, they created a framework to help guide new players in the field. Those new players are often commercial brands or government agencies. Gaydon said that Brightcove has seen an explosion in video from non-media companies.

Mix

Present a variety of types of video content, advised Gaydon. Offer short-form and long-from, live and on-demand. Blending live events with an on-demand library is especially powerful. If leads a whole new audience to the on-demand clips and delivers strong traffic growth. The barriers to entry for live have dropped: it’s now affordable to produce and much easier than before.

Quantity

How big a video library do the company have? Library sizes are exploding, said Gaydon, and not only for large broadcasters. Churches, for example, might have thousands of pieces of legacy content. For companies that need to grow their video libraries, there are options besides doing it in-house. They  can accept mobile uploads from customers, look to a content aggregator like 5Min Media, ask business partners if they can repurpose videos, or check with different divisions of the company.

Quality

It’s now possible to encode videos into multiple files, so that each device gets a copy optimized for best performance. There’s no excuse for delivering a poor experience, said Gaydon. Does the video look good? And is the content interesting to viewers?

Discovery

Some companies create a lot of video content, create a nice player to show it, and then bury it on the site, said Gaydon. They don’t offer search, use categories, or include meta tags. Companies going to the trouble of creating a video library should be sure everyone can find it.

Distribution

Nowadays, companies need to find their customers wherever they are. Video viewing on social networks grew 40 percent, as measured earlier this year.

Devices

Leave no screen behind, advised Gaydon. Mobile devices are huge now and connected TVs may well overtake them. There will be 10 billion mobile connected devices by 2016, greater than the world population (estimated to be 7.3 billion by then). Be sure videos are available on all devices.

Monetization

Create revenue with actions, ads, and authorization. For companies just starting out with online video, this is the least important element.

Analytics

Surrounding the entire framework is analytics. “That which is measured improves,” said Gaydon. The importance of quality analytics can’t be overestimated. Companies that succeed in online video keep a close watch on performance and waste no time in swapping out content that performs poorly.