Video Marketing: Step 5 – Distribute
The final step in the video marketing process is to distribute your video.
Choosing the right distribution strategy and platform(s) is critical to reach your target audience, and to achieve your marketing goals and objectives.
No single online video platform is the best for all types of videos. The “big three” are:
YouTube
YouTube is the web video giant and is usually the first one that comes to mind. It has the highest number of viewers and the most videos uploaded. It’s definitely the most popular online video destination in the world. Uploading a video to YouTube is free and simple, so it’s very cost effective.
More importantly, YouTube is owned by Google so a) you can be assured of its quality and useful features, and b) YouTube videos, and websites with embedded YouTube videos, tend to be prioritized in Google search results.
YouTube also allows you to advertise; it supports various types of video and display ads. You can also add links (to your website) on your YouTube videos and in the video description section.
A YouTube “channel” is a great video marketing tool and it enables you to build a fan-base.
On the other hand, because of YouTube’s size, your video might get “lost” or it could be hard for your audience to find it among the thousands of videos that are uploaded to YouTube every day. As a result, it’s harder to stand out on this platform.
Nevertheless, because of its dominant position, posting your videos on YouTube is essentially a marketing requirement.
To expand the reach of your marketing videos, you may decide to cross-post on other video platforms, and also directly on your website.
Vimeo
Vimeo is a more selective video platform. Vimeo stays away from posting of television clips, video game footage and music videos, and focuses on art and quality videos. This focus leads to building communities that share common interests, and paves the way to creating longer-term relationships with a common audience. Vimeo guidelines also strictly prohibit personal attacks and insults, so the chance of receiving off-color and crass comments is vey low.
On the other hand, the content focus and platform restrictions (e.g., commercials are not allowed) might prevent your video from being posted. Also, because it’s audience is smaller, the number of viewersyou’re your video might be limited.
And, last, but not least, only the basic Vimeo account is free. Beyond basic, you have to pay.
Metacafe
Metacafe promotes original, short-form video content. They get approximately 40 million unique visitors per month (worldwide). However, because of the focus on short-form video content (a Metacafe video averages 90 seconds), full-length movies, television episodes and news stories are not allowed.
Metacafe is not as strict as Vimeo though; any user can sign up, and they basically let the community of users operate on their own when it comes to using the site. They also have a zero-tolerance policy for defamatory material and comments.
The downside of this video hosting platform is its content limitation, both in length and genre. They also seem to focus more on video game, movie, music and sports content. Compared to YouTube, the size of their audience is also relatively small.
These are three of the larger online video hosting platforms that are currently available. But, as you probably know, there are also many other video platforms that you can use. Do not limit yourself to just these three. For example, social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are also key outlets to help spread your marketing message and connect with your target audience.
Choosing the right distribution strategy and platform(s) is critical to reach your target audience, and to achieve your marketing goals and objectives.
No single online video platform is the best for all types of videos. The “big three” are:
YouTube
YouTube is the web video giant and is usually the first one that comes to mind. It has the highest number of viewers and the most videos uploaded. It’s definitely the most popular online video destination in the world. Uploading a video to YouTube is free and simple, so it’s very cost effective.
More importantly, YouTube is owned by Google so a) you can be assured of its quality and useful features, and b) YouTube videos, and websites with embedded YouTube videos, tend to be prioritized in Google search results.
YouTube also allows you to advertise; it supports various types of video and display ads. You can also add links (to your website) on your YouTube videos and in the video description section.
A YouTube “channel” is a great video marketing tool and it enables you to build a fan-base.
On the other hand, because of YouTube’s size, your video might get “lost” or it could be hard for your audience to find it among the thousands of videos that are uploaded to YouTube every day. As a result, it’s harder to stand out on this platform.
Nevertheless, because of its dominant position, posting your videos on YouTube is essentially a marketing requirement.
To expand the reach of your marketing videos, you may decide to cross-post on other video platforms, and also directly on your website.
Vimeo
Vimeo is a more selective video platform. Vimeo stays away from posting of television clips, video game footage and music videos, and focuses on art and quality videos. This focus leads to building communities that share common interests, and paves the way to creating longer-term relationships with a common audience. Vimeo guidelines also strictly prohibit personal attacks and insults, so the chance of receiving off-color and crass comments is vey low.
On the other hand, the content focus and platform restrictions (e.g., commercials are not allowed) might prevent your video from being posted. Also, because it’s audience is smaller, the number of viewersyou’re your video might be limited.
And, last, but not least, only the basic Vimeo account is free. Beyond basic, you have to pay.
Metacafe
Metacafe promotes original, short-form video content. They get approximately 40 million unique visitors per month (worldwide). However, because of the focus on short-form video content (a Metacafe video averages 90 seconds), full-length movies, television episodes and news stories are not allowed.
Metacafe is not as strict as Vimeo though; any user can sign up, and they basically let the community of users operate on their own when it comes to using the site. They also have a zero-tolerance policy for defamatory material and comments.
The downside of this video hosting platform is its content limitation, both in length and genre. They also seem to focus more on video game, movie, music and sports content. Compared to YouTube, the size of their audience is also relatively small.
These are three of the larger online video hosting platforms that are currently available. But, as you probably know, there are also many other video platforms that you can use. Do not limit yourself to just these three. For example, social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are also key outlets to help spread your marketing message and connect with your target audience.