Alright, you’re ready to publish your video. You shot the footage, edited it together, added music and a voice-over, and exported it for the web. The next step is to get your video online so your audience can start enjoying it. You have several options for hosting videos online, and in this section, we’ll talk about some of the best ones.
YouTube
When you ask your friends which online video platform they use, the answer you probably receive is YouTube. For good reason too! YouTube is the largest video hosting platform, the second largest search platform after Google, and the third most visited website in the world. Every day people watch over 5 billion videos a day on YouTube. To top it off, it’s free to upload your videos to YouTube and optimize them for search.
In addition to their massive audience, YouTube offers several other features that make the platform a good option for hosting your video. Because YouTube videos are hosted on individual channels, the platform allows you to build a dedicated audience of subscribers. Users who follow your channel are more likely to see additional videos you upload. Within your channel itself, you can also organize videos into playlists which makes it easy for your audience to search between different types of content such as testimonials and product videos. Because YouTube is a social platform, viewers can also engage with your videos by liking and commenting on them, which allows you another chance to interact with your audience. YouTube also offers a variety of advertising options for more sophisticated targeting.
Although YouTube offers the benefit of reaching a large audience with no cost to upload and host videos, there are several downsides to the platform. While video ads can be a great tool for promoting your own content, the amount of ads on the platform from other advertisers can detract from your viewer’s experience. YouTube is also — surprise — highly addicting. Once viewers are on the platform, they usually stick around to watch another video … or 20. This can make it difficult to drive traffic back to your site from the platform. Despite these barriers, YouTube is a great platform for hosting videos and growing your audience.
Vimeo
If your friends didn’t answer your earlier question with “YouTube” then they most likely responded with Vimeo, the second largest video hosting platform. While Vimeo’s audience is significantly smaller (715 million monthly views) than YouTube’s, there are many benefits to using this niche platform that make it a favorite for content creators and viewers alike. Among these are a simpler, cleaner, user interface that make it easier to navigate the platform. Unlike YouTube, Vimeo has very limited ads and commercials that are unlikely detract from your viewers’ experience. The quality of videos uploaded to the platform also tend to be higher quality than YouTube, and the audience on the platform is more likely to be more professional.
Vimeo offers several different premium account options to better suit businesses. The premium accounts provide additional storage, advanced analytics, customer support, player customization, access to lead generation tools, and much more. In additional to premium accounts, Vimeo also partners with businesses to produce quality marketing content.
If you’re looking to showcase high quality, artistic content, Vimeo might be the platform for you. Its engaged audience and beautiful aesthetic make it a great place to host creative videos. However, if you’re focused on quantity over quality and increasing your reach, you may want to explore other platform options.
Wistia
Wistia is a video platform built specifically for businesses. Unlike other video hosting platforms, Wistia helps drive traffic back your website instead of back to its site. This is extremely helpful if your goal is to get the viewer to complete an action on your website.
Wistia is highly customizable. The platform allows users to customize the player interface and video settings to fit their brand identity, collect leads using custom CTAs, and utilize in-depth viewer data for better optimization. It’s also integrated with marketing automation tools such as HubSpot.
Overall, Wistia is great for businesses who are looking to pay for a fully customizable, premium experience. However, Wistia is not a video discovery platform. If you’re creating a large brand campaign and are hoping to increase conversations about your content, this might not be the best platform for you.