Video Marketing Cheat Sheets: Your Guide to the Top Video Marketing Options

(Note: This post was updated on December 12, 2016.)

Video marketing is creating a lot of buzz these days, seemingly as a result of a few big trends rising at the same time. First, smartphones, tablets and screens of all kinds have mushroomed in recent years. Second, wifi has become almost ubiquitous, making it easier and cheaper to consume more data-heavy content than ever before. Finally, more marketers are realizing that content marketing, i.e., creating original content that educates or engages a potential customer, is a smart way to start a conversation that might lead to a sale. Video is just one more tool in the shed for doing this. Consider some of the stats that bear all three of these trends out:

• Consumer internet video traffic will be 80% of all global consumer internet traffic in 2019. (Source: Cisco)
• More than 50% of people who come back to Facebook every day in the US watch at least one video daily. (Source: Facebook)
• Forty-six percent of buyers say they are more likely to seek out more info and feel more confident in making an online purchase after viewing video marketing. (Source: 41 Stories via Tom Pick)
• It’s cheaper to close a lead who has watched your video marketing on their way to a purchase — 20% cheaper, in fact. (Source: Marketo)

So video marketing is definitely something you should consider to help get more sales. As with any new tool, you certainly should consider the time, effort and investment required as stacked up against the results you might expect.

But with so many video marketing apps, sites and tools available, where should you start? Who does what, and how should that impact your choice? We’ve made some handy cheat sheets to help you compare the most important video marketing options available to marketers today. Scroll down to find a fuller description of each video marketing option after the cheat sheets.

Video Marketing Options: Overview

(Click to enlarge)

Video Marketing Options: Duration

Most of these video marketing options place limits on how long your video can be, by either specifying a maximum duration or file size. Here’s how it breaks down:

Video Marketing Options: Demographics

Here’s a broad illustration of who you might expect to reach given what we currently know about each video marketing option and its distribution platform.

Video Marketing Options: Visibility

Here we’re concerned with how the public or private nature of each option affects how easily your video marketing content might be found. As you can see most options are on the left, meaning your video marketing content will only be visible to people who have chosen to follow you; people who have found it after someone in their network has shared it; or people who have found it by searching on the platforms, themselves. By contrast, YouTube and Vimeo are more open — anyone with a public link can see the video marketing content posted here. YouTube also benefits from being owned by the biggest, most popular internet search engine, Google.

Now for a closer look.

Video Marketing Option 1: Facebook Live

Description:
Allows you to stream a live broadcast on Facebook from a smartphone or tablet. Available for personal use as well as for those who manage a Facebook Page for business. (You must be an admin of the Page to go live.)

Key features:

• While you are live broadcasting, you’ll simultaneously see the number of viewers who are watching along and also their comments or emoji reactions. This means you can interact with them by speaking to them as you broadcast, or you can divide the labor by having someone else interact with viewers by typing back comments from a desktop.
• If you want a bit more control or don’t want the distraction of comments and reactions, you can also choose a broadcasting mode that will hide them from both your view and the audience’s view.
• Facebook Live videos will start playing automatically (known as autoplay) in users’ newsfeeds, with the sound off. Seeing a moving image in their newsfeed might draw the user’s eye and entice them to click and view the entire video, improving your marketing results.
• Facebook decides what will appear in users’ newsfeeds with its algorithm. Indications are that Facebook is favoring Facebook Live videos by showing them to more people and also by giving them a larger, nicer preview image than it gives to videos hosted on Youtube or elsewhere.
  
• Facebook also appears to be showing its videos to a larger percentage of friends and Page Fans than other kinds of status updates, boosting the organic reach.
• After the Facebook Live broadcast is over, you can create a Sponsored Post from it in Facebook video format. (You can’t sponsor or boost the video while you are broadcasting it live.)
• Plot twist: Facebook Live videos don’t actually have to be “live”. If the thought of doing a live broadcast makes your palms sweat, you’ll be glad to know that you can use Facebook Live with pre-recorded video. If you do this you’ll want to be sure that you still jump into the comments to interact with your viewers.

How long can your Facebook Live video be?
160 minutes

Video Marketing Option 2: Facebook Pre-recorded

Description:
Post a native, pre-recorded video to Facebook. (Native means the video is uploaded directly to Facebook from something like a smartphone or tablet.)

Key features:

• Largely the same features and benefits as those listed above for Facebook Live, without the live interactive element. However, because Facebook is strongly promoting Facebook Live, we suspect that Facebook pre-recorded videos may get slightly less newsfeed visibility than Facebook Live videos.
• Facebook videos are the only ones that can be used for Sponsored Posts. Sponsored Posts cannot be created using Youtube videos. How’s that for a plot twist: Facebook’s giving Google-owned Youtube a taste of the same kind of nepotism that Google has long been accused of….)

How long can your Facebook pre-recorded video be?
120 minutes

Video Marketing Option 2: Hyperlapse

Description:
A standalone app made by Instagram

Key features:

• Perfect for taking timelapse videos (with no sound)
• Easily shareable with your Instagram followers
• Hyperlapse videos can be added to your Instagram stories
• As Katerina Petropoulou points out, Instagram is “hashtag heaven”, which means that Hyperlapse also benefits from the added discoverability this brings. Add a popular, relevant hashtag to your post and anyone who searches for that hashtag may find it. (See below for more advice on using hashtags on Instagram.)

How long can your Hyperlapse video be?
60 seconds

Video Marketing Option 3: Instagram

Description:
Posts native videos on Instagram

Key features:

• Soundless autoplay, requiring users to tap on the video to enable sound.
• Advanced editing capabilities, including filters, the ability to add or delete scenes as you go, and the ability to choose a specific frame as your preview.
• Instagram videos can be added to your Instagram Stories
• Instagram users’ familiarity and comfort with seeing lots of hashtags will make it easier for people to find your video marketing. Eleven hashtags is the optimal number for an Instagram post, says Trackmaven. The more hashtags you use, the more likely your video marketing will be found by someone who is not (yet) following you, but has found you by searching for one of those hashtags.

How long can your Instagram video be?
60 seconds

Video Marketing Option 4: Periscope

Description:
A Twitter-owned app for livestreaming video from a mobile phone or tablet

Key features:

• Periscope was developed as a standalone app and eventually purchased by Twitter. The early Periscope / Twitter integration was a bit clumsy, with Twitter viewers being required to open the separate Periscope app to actually see the Periscope video. But now Periscope videos will autoplay right directly within tweets on Twitter, and Twitter viewers are no longer required to have a Periscope app or account.
• Because Twitter is a more open social network with high discoverability, Periscope videos will also benefit by being easier to find.
• After the broadcast has ended, the video will be available indefinitely. Periscopers can also choose to have the video expire after 24 hours, but they must do this ahead of time in Settings.

How long can your Periscope video be?
Periscope has no known limits on length

Video Marketing Option 4: Periscope Producer

Description:
Similar to the original Periscope app, but it takes off the smartphone / tablet shackles and allows broadcasters to upload from streaming software, hardware encoders, and professional cameras. Great for professionally produced broadcasts and events, but users must apply for access.

Key features:

• Largely the same features and benefits as those listed above for

How long can your Periscope Producer video be?
No known limits on length

Video Marketing Option 6: Snapchat

Description:
Posts native videos on the independent messaging app made famous by its “self-destructing message” concept

Key features:

• Videos that are sent as Snaps are self-destructing and will disappear after a user views it. Videos that are added to your Stories are viewable for 24 hours. You can also view and reshare previous Snapchat videos you’ve taken via Snapchat Memories.
• Snapchat knows that a landscape (horizontal) orientation makes a video easier to watch — and is singlehandedly trying to change that. Snapchat videos are meant to be recorded and viewed in portrait mode, for better one-handed use on your smartphone.
• The fun lenses and geofilters you can add to a Snapchat video make it great for playful interactions.

How long can your Snapchat video be?
10 seconds

Video Marketing Option 7: Twitter

Description:
Capability for posting pre-recorded videos on Twitter

Key features:

• Soundless auto-play. As with Facebook’s video feature, seeing a moving image in a sea of static tweets can help increase the click-through and engagement rate results of your video marketing.
• Built on Twitter’s extensive social graph
• As with Instagram, the ability to seamlessly use hashtags on Twitter will help your video marketing be found more easily by people who are not currently following you. Unlike on Instagram, using more than 2 or 3 hashtags on Twitter is considered passé.

How long can your Twitter video be?
2 minutes and 20 seconds

Video Marketing Option 8: Vimeo

Description: 
A hosting site for high-quality videos, and a community for people who love them

Key features:

• A hub for high-quality, high-definition, cinematic videos

How long can your Vimeo video be?
There is no time limit. With Vimeo’s free version you can upload 500MB per week (depending on compression, this can enable videos of around 15 minutes in length.) Paying $5 per month for Vimeo Plus lets you upload 5 GB a week (depends on compression, but people have had success uploading videos of 2.5 hour-long videos.)

Video Marketing Option 9: YouTube Live Streaming

Description:
YouTube now lets verified account holders stream live video from their smartphones and desktops.

Key features:

• Allow your viewers to chat and comment, or turn commenting off altogether
• Supports the 4K video format
• Offers live analytics

How long can your YouTube Live Streaming video be?
There’s no time limit, but if you want to access your live video in a YouTube archive after the broadcast has ended, you’ll have to limit it to 4 hours or 12 hours, depending on the video quality you’ve selected. And if you’re using the YouTube Video Editor, you can only edit videos of 3 hours or less.

Video Marketing Option 10: YouTube Pre-recorded

Description:
By far the most popular video hosting site and community

Key features:

• Owned by Google and integrated with Google’s search engine and Google Plus, YouTube might offer an SEO boost that the other options just can’t match

How long can your YouTube Pre-recorded video be?
Fifteen minutes unless you have a (free) verified Youtube account in good standing. If you do have a verified account then there’s no time limit. Instead there is a file size limit of 20 GB (depends on the quality and compression, but count on about an hour.)

Video Marketing Options — In conclusion

Keep in mind that your success on a particular video marketing channel will also depend on whether the channel’s typical audience is a good match for your business, your content and your overall marketing needs. For example, regardless of its other advantages, a video on Snapchat would be a poor way to reach an older audience. You would want to consider Youtube or Facebook instead.

Have you experimented with any of these video marketing channels? Which have you found to be best for your purposes?