Vidyard: Videos + Real-Time Analytics Driving Results & ROI

 

Company: Vidyard

Industry: Video Marketing & Analytics Technology

Co-Founder & CEO: Michael Litt & Co-Founder & CTO: Devon Galloway

In light of Canada’s Birthday, I thought it appropriate to write about Vidyard, one of “Canada’s most successful ad tech startups“.  After a great day of celebrating Canada with friends and family, and shaking hands with the possible future Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, I had the pleasure of communicating with some of Vidyards’ amazing team members.  That’s right, they had no issue on their holiday taking time to provide me with information to share with you.  It’s outstanding service like that which has earned Vidyard “Rock Star” status in the video marketing world!

A Little Ditty About Vidyard

Co-founders Michael Litt and Devon Galloway started out making video experiences for businesses under their original company Redwoods Media in 2009.  Within a short time Litt and Galloway realized their clients needs lay in the metrics, so they shifted gears and in true entrepreneurial fashion, built an integrated video marketing platform for recording, distributing and analyzing marketing videos.  Waterloo based company Vidyard was conceived in 2011, but it took Litt and Galloway until the spring of 2012 to fully transform Redwoods Media into Vidyard.

Vidyard is a “one stop shop” for those looking for video marketing strategies with real-time analytics.  They provide the tools and ability to host, track, analyze, and improve the performance of their clients video content online.  They also help clients track their prospects video viewing activities and use the data to enhance lead scoring, segmentation and sales enablement programs.

Today Vidyard is considered a global leader in video marketing, analytics technology and sales enablement solutions.  They have grown in size from 28 employees to over 70 in just three years.  They are also the talk of the tech world with their recent success, raising $18 Million in capital to further enhance their video marketing platform.  In an article on betakit.com, Michael Litt revealed, “The infusion of the capital means we can provide innovative solutions to customers to solve their problems, deliver better experience and technology. Our customer network tells us what they want, and we will take the feedback, analyze it and build it into the product and the company.”

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“The Play Button is the Most Compelling Call to Action on the Web”
– Michael Litt, CEO & Co-Founder of Vidyard

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Vidyard Video Tour

It seems fitting to introduce Vidyards’ platform by way of a Video Tour, shared and presented by the Vidyard team.  These short video clips explain exactly how their platform works and also demonstrates its effectiveness (hint: secret weapon – strong analytics).  So grab some popcorn, a drink, sit back and enjoy the Vidyard show!

Overview
Click on Michael Litt to hear him and Blake Smith describe, in under a minute, Vidyards’ platform and how they can help companies make informed video marketing decisions resulting in measurable results.

Analytics
Would you like to know who’s watching your videos and how to measure performance through real-time analytics?  Cody Wright is here to tell you how Vidyard can make it happen!

I asked Jon Spenceley, Community Marketing Manager, Vidyard to expand on this and describe how Vidyard is able to track real-time analytics and stand out from competitors.  He responded with this:

“Vidyard’s real-time analytics are provided through our player, which allows us to track not only who’s watching a particular video for our clients, but how much of that content they have consumed, and whether they have re-watched portions of that video. We display this data in a comprehensive reporting dashboard within Vidyard, and integrate with major Marketing Automation and CRM platforms to give marketers access to real-time video viewing data in the systems they already know and trust.”

Vidyards’ sophisticated software has the ability to break down the analytics to let clients know which parts of their online videos viewers are watching, what they’re rewatching, which parts they fast-forward through and where they pause or stop, having lost interest. Pretty impressive stuff and invaluable information for companies big and small!

Click here to check out the Vidyard Analytics Center

Lead Generation
Watch this next clip to find out what “Pop-Ups & Email Gates” are, and how you can use them to generate leads and drive sales.

Vidyard can show you exactly how viewers interact with your videos, allowing clients to evolve their marketing strategies based on measurable results.

Map & CRM
Not sure what to do with your data?  In this clip Jon & Dan share how Vidyard can help you identify your “hottest prospects, score leads in your CRM, and automate targeted email campaigns by connecting video viewing data to your MAP and CRM systems.”

Spenceley added that Vidyards’ platform tracks the exact amount of a video that a prospect watches, and links it to their email address using a tracking cookie. If the viewer has not viewed a video before, they can still track their viewing behaviour anonymously, and fill in the tracked data later, if they submit contact details. Their integrations with Marketing Automation and CRM systems also allow them to match viewing behaviour to leads and contacts within clients databases, so they can provide a comprehensive picture of how prospects interact with video.

Vidyard Featured on YouTube Developers Live

Test & Share
Are you tired of spending money on video creation and not knowing the impact the videos have on your target audience?  Check out the clip below to hear Nina & Patrick discuss how you can “optimize and share videos to accelerate ROI.”

 

Vidyard + Social Media

Social Media plays an important role in Vidyard’s platform and strategy.  They use various social media channels to showcase their clients video campaigns and connect them with their target audiences, and also to share content about their company, its culture, and team members.

Spenceley says “Social is a huge driver of awareness and leads for our campaigns and content programs. We share all of our blog content regularly on our social channels, and make extensive use of paid social media to put our lead generation campaigns in front of the right audience at the right time. Our Facebook and Instagram accounts also provide a glimpse into the day-to-day life at Vidyard HQ, and are a great place to highlight company milestones and new hires as well!”

Vidyard + Social Media Metrics

What use is a well-made video with tons of views or likes if you can’t tie its performance to ROI?  “Although more than 70% of marketers report that video converts better than other content types, fewer than 10% are actually using video analytics to enhance lead qualification and customer insights.” One of the most important things to consider, if video is part of your marketing strategy, is the need to measure its impact on revenue.

Here are some tips from Jon Spenceley to help achieve just that:

• Decide the outcome you wish to achieve from your video, and build your script to support this goal.
• Define what metrics you are using to track the success of your campaign – if it’s lead generation, define success by the number of leads, if it’s awareness, use view counts and engagement, etc.
• Evaluate which channels will provide the most relevant audience – should the video live on your website, is it built for social channels, etc.? This will help define the length and tone of your video.
• Develop a creative brief and ensure everyone involved in your video project is up to speed on the goals, purpose, and creative style of your video.
• Make your video, and deploy your campaign. Measure, test, and evaluate as the campaign continues!

“At Vidyard, we go beyond just the number of followers we have, and look at how our audiences are interacting with our social campaigns. All of our channels have goals, and we never deploy a social campaign without understanding what success looks like. We use social metrics to define what content works for what audiences, and to develop social campaigns that convert!” – Jon Spenceley, Vidyard

Vidyard collaborates with the following platforms to give clients even more of a measurable boost:

• Act-On
• Eloqua
• Salesforce
• Salesforce Chatter
• Salesforce Pardot
• Marketo
• Exact Target
• Mail Chimp
• Kapost
• Hootsuite
• YouTube

Become an Agent of ROI

Click here to view another great infograph explaining more ways Social Media Can Amplify Your Video Marketing.

Why Vidyard is So Hot Right Now

• “Video is emerging as the most powerful medium to drive increased engagement and conversion rates.” In a recent benchmark report by Demand Metric, results indicated that almost “70% of B2B marketers are using video in their mix, budgets are increasing”, and “82% of B2B marketers reported success with video marketing initiatives.”
• Based on a recent article published by Sally Hooton, in Global Marketing Alliance, “Marketers are predicted to spend $11.5 billion on data and related solutions across the three most prominent channels (email, direct mail and display advertising) in 2015, according to recent research by Winterberry Group and the USA DMA (The World’s Leading Independent Organization for Data-Driven Marketers), demonstrating data’s increasing value in today’s marketplace.”
• Vidyard is the first company to combine video encoding, hosting, analytics, split testing and marketing automation integration, helping marketers to generate more revenue through optimized use of online video.
• Business Insider deemed Vidyard’s CEO & Co-founder, Michael Litt, the “Mark Zuckerberg’ of Canada, so they must be good!

Lessons Learned

Vidyard is a cutting edge company providing kick ass products, services and real-time analytics so their clients can better evaluate their ROI.  Clearly their attention to detail (check out their website – vidyard.com) and level of customer service (employees helping me out on Canada Day), are phenomenal.

In its short lifespan, Vidyard has evolved into one of “Canada’s most successful ad tech startups“, attracting some of the best young minds with their “work hard play hard” culture, focusing on innovation and collaboration.  It’s not surprising that they’ve also raised nearly $30 million in venture capital and acquired more than 1,000 global customers.  Having a great team in place dedicated to the success of the company and a CEO who believes you should “Listen to your customers and not be afraid to try something new”, has been a driving force in their success, putting them on centre stage!

Web References: 

• Vidyard
• MarketingMag
• BusinessInsider
• BetaKit
• MarketWired
• TheRecord
• YouTube,
• TheNextMillion
• fslocal
• Linkedin
• MarketingProfs
• GMA

Submitted By: KellyBlack, SMBP Student, University of Waterloo