Video Platforms vs. Video Hosting Sites

We’re talking blog posts just like the one you’re reading now, podcasts, emails, articles, you name it – if it’s content, it rules.

All formats should be part of any marketing plan, although we may be slightly biased towards video.

So my next question to you is this:

Does your business need a video platform?

To put it simply, yes.

A video platform is a one-stop-shop for all of your video content plus the analytics that go with it. These analytics are very handy for tracking how well your video is doing in relation to the objectives you had initially set out for it, so it’s worth wrapping your head around what the stats mean.

Now, it would be very easy to assume that you can just stick all of your videos on YouTube. Afterall, it is the second most visited website in the world.

However, YouTube is more of a video hosting site (I appreciate that probably doesn’t sound much different to you at the moment so just stick with me on this).

Video platforms have a much wider range of functions, and are essentially a more comprehensive toolkit to apply to your videos.

So, just in case you missed it, YouTube is not a video platform. We must get that straight before we go any further.

Your brand needs a video platform that can be integrated with your CRM systems and can track your video’s engagement when it get’s shared across social media.

A video platform can do all of this for you and more.

Bet you didn’t see that coming.

There’s also the option to fully customise your profile, right down to the colour of the video player and how the video is presented when it plays. You can remove video titles and the logo, for example.

You’ll also have the chance to remove the share options and video links – something that is so important when it comes to brand guidelines and strategy.

Portfolio pages can be created. How you split these up is entirely up to you.

There should be no distracting adverts or suggested videos that could pull viewers out of your video and send them down a rabbit hole, completely unrelated to what they came to your video for in the first place. In essence, you want this to be the smoothest experience possible for your audience, and a video platform will enable you present your videos in a way that will allow exactly that.

These will provide your marketing team with actionable data so you have a better idea of what works, and what needs tweaking to improve your marketing plan going forward.

You also have the added bonus of storing all of your videos in a secure space. There’s plenty of options for limiting access for everything you post there.

To cut a long story short, you need a video platform if you want to get the most out of video content for your business. Having video as part of your marketing plan is one thing, but there’s a lot of power in knowing exactly what to do with it, and that knowledge only comes from tracking performance. A platform, as opposed to a hosting site, is more of a holistic aftercare package, because it’s after you’ve received your video from folks like ourselves that’s when the hard work really begins.