If you weren’t maximizing video content pre-pandemic, you probably are now. In place of face-to-face interactions, many businesses have turned to webinars, live online events, virtual conferencing, and more to stand out on the internet. Video is now an essential engagement tool for sales and marketing, and a great way to produce valuable content and distribute it at scale.
87% of businesses use video to communicate internally and externally, a considerable increase since 2017’s 67% adoption rate. But just because most interaction has gone digital doesn’t mean sacrificing the “human touch.” Video engagement platforms are a great way to develop video content that helps you stay connected with your audience and track metrics to see how your content is received.
Let’s look at what video engagement is, why it matters, and discover the top seven video engagement platforms that you can use to create memorable videos that convert.
What is video engagement?
There’s no doubt about the popularity of video for both business and consumer use. 82% of global internet traffic now comes from either video streaming or video downloads. The question is, how can you be sure that your video marketing efforts are making an impact in the sea of content? The answer is video engagement.
Video engagement can be generally defined as the primary factor in determining how much information viewers retain from the videos they watch. While this definition may vary for different marketplace players, it essentially comes down to which metrics you choose to measure. Video engagement is vital for your marketing campaigns because it gives you the power to connect with your audience on a deeper level by monitoring engagement.
You can use video engagement metrics to understand viewer interactions better:
- What demographics are interacting with your content?
- At what points in the video are they engaging?
- What type of interactions are these?
- What is it about the content that encourages them to interact?
Measuring video engagement can also help you find answers to questions you didn’t know you had. Is my webinar too long? Does my audience prefer polls or quizzes? What’s the conversion rate of my landing page? Fortunately, a wave of new platforms has arrived that incorporate this vital information with the ability to create compelling video productions of all kinds.
What are Video Engagement Platforms (VEP)?
Video engagement platforms are video content management systems designed to promote video engagement. You can create, edit, and distribute video content, then track how your audience is interacting at every step. If you are facilitating online events, webinars, and video content, video engagement platforms are a great way to track metrics from end to end and ensure engagement across the entire process.
In the competitive online landscape, it’s no longer enough to post a video with eye-catching graphics and leave it be. That’s why video engagement platforms are vital for marketing teams in businesses of all sizes—they provide insights into more than just the number of views. With most platforms offering third-party integrations, you can consolidate the performance of your videos across multiple channels and monitor ROI.
If your business is running on a tight marketing budget, some VEPs also act as your one-stop shop for video production. With editing features built-in, marketing teams can rely on one platform from creation to deployment, and access data analytics at every step.
How is video engagement measured?
When it comes to measuring video engagement, the detail is in the data. Video engagement can include views, likes, shares, and clicks, but here are some other key metrics that you can measure:
- Attendance rate and duration
- Registration rate and where your registrations are coming from
- Chat messages, comments or questions submitted
- Video downloads or replays
- Votes, polls, and quiz entries
- Social sharing
To measure overall video engagement, start with a simple formula:
ƒ Count(Video Engagements) / Count(Video Impressions)
For example, a video with 1,000 impressions (views) and 300 engagements would have a video engagement rate of 30%.
Although it’s useful for marketing teams to calculate the overall video engagement rate to determine ROI, video engagement platforms fill in the gaps. Most VEPs give you visibility over all the previously-mentioned metrics. This makes it easy to analyze every aspect of your video marketing and adapt your content creation and marketing strategies accordingly.
What are the benefits of Video Engagement Platforms?
The number one benefit of video engagement platforms is that you can monitor your content’s impact on your audience beyond the number of impressions. VEPs generate insights–such as drop-off rates, chat submissions, and conversion rates–to identify which factors have the most significant impact on your video engagement.
By harnessing the visibility that video engagement platforms provide, you can ensure that your message resonates with your audience and positively impacts the relationships you have with your customers. You can build better connections between your business and your audience by encouraging your audience to interact with your video marketing content and monitoring why and how they do so.
Video marketing usually has one purpose—conversion. Video engagement platforms provide you with the necessary tools and data to generate more clicks, likes, shares, and interactions, allowing you to connect your business with more potential customers.
How to Choose the Right Video Engagement Platform
68% of businesses reported increased use of video conferencing in the past 12 months. If you’re ready to incorporate video content into your marketing strategy, you need to have a goal in mind before you choose a platform.
Video engagement goals fall into three main categories:
- Promotional – Are you interested in promoting your online events and increasing brand awareness? Promotional features might be best for you.
- Interactive – Interactive features are best if you’re looking to create content that encourages users and attendees to interact with you in real-time.
- Reporting – If your primary motivation is to gather valuable customer insights and analytics, ensure that your video engagement platform has robust reporting tools.
Once you’ve narrowed down what you hope to gain from a VEP, you can consider what features you need from the right platform. Here’s what to look for:
Live engagement features
If you host a lot of webinars, online events, conferences, or meetings, you’ll likely want to engage with your audience in real-time. Live engagement features include chat boxes, polls, Q&A options, and more to ensure that your audience can interact with your video content as it unfolds.
Data analytics features
Although most video engagement platforms offer data and insights of some kind, advanced reporting features are ideal if you are using pre-recorded content and planning to produce video content in bulk. You will be able to compare your videos and easily adjust your strategy according to the feedback loop.
Integration features
You may be producing your video marketing content on one platform, but the likelihood is that you will be distributing it across multiple channels. If this is the case, look for a VEP that offers advanced integration features. You’ll be able to consolidate and compare the performance of your content across multiple channels. In some cases, you can distribute the content directly from the VEP.
Top 7 Video Engagement Platforms
To help you choose the best platform for your needs, here are our top seven picks of the best video engagement platforms on the market right now.
1. Livestorm
Livestorm is an end-to-end VEP that allows users to invite, engage, and measure their online events. From product demos to online courses and employee onboarding, Livestorm has multiple use cases that encourage team collaboration and organization. The platform is compatible with internal and external participants.
Pros: With multiple integration options, including with Salesforce or HubSpot CRM, Livestorm provides end-to-end engagement support. If you need assistance, there is multi-language support.
Cons: Livestorm does not have a private chat tool for hosts, nor does the platform allow registration page customization. Although the platform’s integration features are a bonus, there are issues with PowerPoint integration.
Pricing: By inquiry. Free for meetings of up to 4 people (maximum 20 minutes long), then you’ll need to upgrade to their Enterprise plan.
Reviewer says: “Easy registration set up. I suggest upgrading to premium for optimal use. I wish they offered a private chat for speakers to directly message others.”
2. Hippo Video
Hippo Video aims to help you create video content in 3 steps: record, send, and track. You can personalize your videos with interactive elements and distribute directly over multiple channels, such as Gmail and LinkedIn. Their products are divided into subcategories, such as videos for sales, marketing, or customer success.
Pros: Hippo’s products are available as standalone or in bundles. Features can be customized for small businesses and enterprises. Hippo also integrates with common online tools and platforms.
Cons: With limited music choices included and limited customization options for sales pages, Hippo falls short if you want complete personalization and control.
Pricing: 7-day free trial, then subscriptions range from $15/month to $79/month/user, depending on the package you choose.
Reviewer says: “It makes uploading a breeze and it integrates seamlessly with my blog, which is important for SEO. The UI is a little hard to get used to at first.”
3. VIXY Video
From streaming live events to creating personalized videos, VIXY Video’s platform is an all-in-one video engagement solution. Their video management platform acts as a media library to store your organization’s content, so you can edit, publish, and monetize your videos and keep them all in one place.
Pros: VIXY’s secure video hosting and fast video playback make it a good option if you are creating content in bulk. It also supports a wide range of user permissions.
Cons: The pricing works with add-ons rather than bundles, making it more expensive than other offerings.
Pricing: Prices start at $360/month for the Startup package, $520 for the Professional, and a custom price for Enterprise packages. The interactive video add-on is $80/month.
Reviewer says: “The platform has a lot of possibilities. The service team responds quickly to requests.”
4. StoryTap
With a focus on influencing and increasing conversion, StoryTap is a video automation platform with dedicated packages for marketing, ecommerce, and customer experience requirements. They have a handy video Q&A section on their website, which helps explain their 5-step process: tap, guide, curate, distribute, and analyze.
Pros: StoryTap’s simple and intuitive platform allows for good visibility. Synthesizing of data reports is included, so it can easily keep up with requirements at scale.
Cons: The many features can be hard to navigate without the support team, and StoryTap is specifically geared towards medium to large businesses.
Pricing: By inquiry.
Reviewer says: “…Uniquely different from other platforms. I’m able to come in as I need at any time of the user journey and pull videos (full or in segments) to upload to social.”
5. Videoask
Videoask is a video engagement platform that focuses on surveys. You can submit questions and ask them face-to-face to your participants with pre-recorded videos, text, and audio options. It is ideal for recruitment, sales, testimonials, training, and education.
Pros: With VideoAsk, you can easily embed videos onto your website. The platform records, transcribes, and organizes every interaction. Cloud-based chat options allow unlimited personal interactions.
Cons: There are limited customization choices, and there is no option to directly upload to social media channels with a business logo. The price increases based on the number of minutes used.
Pricing: You can get up to 20 minutes of video or audio processing for free per month. After that, the Grow package is $18/month, and the Brand is $30/month.
Reviewer says: “Videoask has a lot of diverse features. It can be customized to your needs. We use it to share quests in gamifying travel experiences.”
6. Kestone
Founded in 1997, Kestone is a virtual events platform that gives you the flexibility to live stream, schedule pre-recorded videos, enable networking, and more. With various customization options, you can manage events of any scale and add a personal touch.
Pros: Kestone is a highly customizable virtual event platform with extras such as virtual photo booths and reactions. There are also gamification options, including polls and quizzes.
Cons: There are limited options to make last-minute changes, and Kestone doesn’t offer a two-way streaming platform.
Pricing: By inquiry.
Reviewer says: “Our attendees thought it was very user-friendly and the closest experience they could have that resembled a live, in-person conference.”
7. Hour One
One of the main reasons why video content is so popular is because it caters to our human side—it’s great to feel like you’re hearing directly from another person, even if the video is pre-recorded. Hour One takes video personalization one step further. Its AI-powered next-generation video creation and management platform harnesses computer-generated virtual presenters to help create compelling video content.
You can create fully-produced videos in minutes using photoreal presenters on the easy-to-use platform, turning almost any text-based content into engaging videos at the push of a button. The use cases for Hour One’s AI-driven, presenter-led videos are endless, including e-learning, HR processes, real estate, ecommerce, and more.
All of Hour One’s video creation is located in the cloud, allowing businesses of any size to deploy high-quality presenter videos at a fraction of the cost, and to scale production as necessary.
Pros: Choose from a large range of templates and select a friendly face from Hour One’s characters—or use your own. The customization options don’t stop there, as you can brand the video with colors and assets to get the exact look you want. Hour One is a reliable, cost-effective video creation option for businesses of all sizes.
Cons: Hour One isn’t like your typical video engagement platform as there are few interactivity options. However, the ability to turn something like a boring PowerPoint presentation into an entertaining video quickly increases video engagement and ROI.
Pricing: Get in touch with the team for a quote. There’s a free trial and tiered pricing, including an Enterprise solution, so you can find a package that fits your needs.
Reviewer says: “We were looking for a more efficient and flexible way to produce content at scale, without losing the life-like qualities of a real human subject. After exploring various options, we found Hour One to be the ideal solution for our needs, being the only technology that could accurately replicate the natural human experience.”
How Video Engagement Platforms Increase ROI
By incorporating a video engagement platform into your marketing strategy, you can better understand the performance of your video content and break it down into key metrics and insights. Getting video content “right” the first time is difficult, which is why these insights allow you to recognize what is working for your audience. Then, you know how to create just the right video content that resonates and connects with your prospects and customers. That equals more conversions, and a higher ROI for your video marketing efforts.
With some platforms also offering video creation and editing tools, your video engagement platform of choice could become your marketing team’s end-to-end production studio. Hour One’s innovative video generation platform is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible when AI meets video marketing. Get started with Hour One today.
