- In this video, you will learn how using Wistia
could help generate more leads for your business.
Wistia is a video hosting platform
built specifically to help businesses
improve the performance of their video content.
And today, I'm gonna go through what we here at Spiel
think are Wistia's nine best features
and when using the platform could benefit your business.
(uplifting music)
Welcome, I'm Jess.
Before we begin, make sure you subscribe to our channel
and hit the bell notification,
so that each time we release new videos
to help you with your video marketing, you get notified.
So let's get started.
Feature one, Custom Video Player.
With Wistia, you can customize their video player
to fit your branding like a glove.
This can be a really useful feature
when you embed your videos onto your website.
You can change the color and design
of the actual video player itself,
including the play button, the play bar, player controls,
and even add your logo into the video player.
And most importantly, unlike YouTube,
you can customize the end screen of your videos.
That means you can capture leads,
or directly recommend the next video
you want your viewers to watch.
So when using Wistia,
you won't have to worry about losing your viewers
to competitor videos or silly cat videos
which can happen when you add videos
hosted on YouTube to your website.
Feature two, Video Thumbnails.
Most video hosts allow you to upload
your own static thumbnail, but with Wistia,
you can add a video thumbnail.
This seemingly small change can really help boost
the play rate of your videos
by making them instantly stand out on your landing pages.
Feature three, Social Sharing.
Wistia also allows you to add a social sharing function
into your video player.
In other words, the viewer can instantly share your video
across any social platform you want,
while also allowing you to add your own pre-written copy.
Feature four, CTAs.
If your website's goal is to generate more sales,
Wistia allows you to add a customizable call-to-action
at the end of your video,
or at any point throughout your video.
This can be something like an email capture form
in the middle of your video,
urging viewers to enter their details
in order to watch the remainder of your video.
You can then keep testing the placement of your CTAs
to find out what works best for maximizing sign-ups.
Or, if you want people to visit
a specific page on your site,
you can add a direct link to it from your video.
This is a major advantage of Wistia
over more popular video hosting platforms
such as YouTube who prioritize keeping users on their site.
This means that YouTube do not allow most of their users
to add direct links in their videos.
Feature five, Sales Automation.
If sales automation is a key priority of yours,
then Wistia can be great for this
as their platform can be directly integrated
with many of the leading sales softwares
such as SalesForce, Hubspot, Eventbrite and Marketo.
Feature six, Sophisticated Analytics and A/B Testing.
One thing you will often hear about Wistia
is that it's great for analytics.
Just have a quick look at this example page of the stats
and you can see the level of insight you can get.
Heat maps allow you to see
where your audience has dropped off, re-watched,
and where they followed through on a CTA,
or where they didn't.
While other video hosts have caught up with Wistia
in terms of the analytics,
an important difference with Wistia
is that it actually allows you to re-upload
an updated version of your video
without having to replace the video's URL,
like you would have to with YouTube for example.
This feature really helps
when it comes to testing different CTAs,
hooks and storylines to see what works best
as each time you make a change to your video,
you won't have to worry about editing
all the old video links to the new one.
Feature seven, Embed links.
With longer form videos such as webinars
or other educational content,
it can be really helpful to break your content
into different sections.
Using embed links, Wistia allows you
to create custom links for specific points in your videos.
Feature eight, Channels.
Wistia now encourages the use of its channel feature,
where you can group your videos together
so that your viewers can view
or binge watch your videos on certain subject matters
in a specific order.
Whilst this can be useful in certain situations,
we don't think Wistia can really compete
with YouTube on this front
due to the visibility and reach that YouTube offers.
Feature nine, Soapbox.
Soapbox allows you to make very personal videos
from a webcam and upload them in a matter of minutes.
This can be a great feature
if you want to send out bespoke personalized videos
to your prospects as part of your sales strategy
or communicate with your existing customers in video format.
Wistia Plans and Pricing.
There are three plans: Free, Pro and Advanced.
All the plans have access to their standard features,
which is most of the features we've mentioned in this video,
with the exception of Soapbox,
A/B testing and Wistia channels.
On their free plan, you can only upload three videos,
all of each will have a Wistia logo in the bottom corner
of your video player.
I'd only recommend this free version
as a means of testing Wistia out
to see if it is right for you.
If you have any intention to use Wistia
long-term for your business,
you'll need to consider their Pro plan at $99 per month.
Yes, it can be a bit pricey if you are on a tight budget.
This plan has the same features as the free one,
except you can upload up to 10 videos for free.
Any extra video uploaded after that
costs you an additional 25 cents a month.
And finally, you have the Advanced plan of $399 per month.
100 free videos, A/B testing, and premium integration
with Hubspot, Pardot and Marketo.
You can also make use of the Wistia Channel feature.
But most importantly, is it worth it?
As always, it's totally dependent
on what you need to get from your video content.
If your target is to get more conversions
on your website landing pages,
then Wistia can be a great place to start
if you can afford paying $99 a month.
However, if you want to increase your brand strength,
direct more traffic to your site
and grow your social media presence,
then hosting your videos on a more popular platform
such as YouTube would be a better option for you.
It really does depend on your specific needs.
Personally, I don't really see much value
in going for the Advanced plan
unless have a sophisticated marketing set up.
The main value of this plan is the integration
into other marketing platforms and the A/B testing,
which can be done manually if you're on a lower budget.
In conclusion, Wistia is a great tool
when the main goal of your videos
is to drive more conversions from your landing pages.
This is because their features allow for better testing,
optimization and lead capturing for this specific purpose.
I really hope you've enjoyed this video!
If you found it useful,
then make sure you subscribe to our channel
for more such content.
And if you have any further questions regarding Wistia,
or any of the other popular video hosting platforms,
let me know in the comments below
and I'll do my best to answer.
And lastly, if you need more help with your video marketing,
you can get in touch with our agency Spiel
at www.spielcreative.com
Thanks for watching!