Emily Gover is a Content Marketing Manager at Vimeo.
The Q&A Session with Emily was held on November 7th, 2018. This transcript has been edited for punctuation, grammar, etc.
Hey all great to be here.
I’m currently a content marketing manager at Vimeo, where I’ve been for about four months. Prior to that, I worked in content marketing in the *k-12 ed tech space* for over six years, so if there are any education folks here, I’d be happy to speak about my experiences in that industry. I’m still learning the ropes in the Vimeo world of live streaming, online video, and OTT platforms, but happy to talk about that with you all, too.
My content experience primarily lies in B2B, specifically with blog, social, webinars, in-person events, community management, and email. Thanks for having me.
Where do you see the “home schooling” style education market going, and is there a way Vimeo can help with it?
I didn’t work too much with homeschools during my time in ed tech, although I admire the families that do it! Video as a medium is a great way to introduce new concepts to students, so I think Vimeo’s online community and top-notch content could serve as a way for homeschool students to learn more about non-fiction topics (such as documentaries), or to explore different aspects of the arts (filmmaking, music, animation, etc.). I would see Vimeo more as a content library, as opposed to parents using it as a way to create and upload their own videos — there are plenty of existing businesses out there to help with that.
How does Vimeo fit in with ecommerce?
Great question! I work on the enterprise side of Vimeo’s business, and one platform I develop content for is Vimeo OTT. Essentially, Vimeo OTT is a platform that empowers creators to upload, share, and monetize their content through online subscriptions. From an ecommerce perspective, Vimeo OTT allows small businesses, entrepreneurs, and creators to build their own ecommerce platform using video. As people continue to use the web for everything — including streaming live and on-demand video content, leaving cable by the wayside — we’re working to make it accessible for anyone to launch their own subscription service.
How is Vimeo handling holographic content? 360 content? Live streaming? VR?
This is a great question! Vimeo has its own team, Vimeo Creator Labs (https://Vimeo.com/creatorlabs), that is dedicated to exploring the emerging space of holographic content, including photogrammetry, volumetric filmmaking and VR. You can learn more about it in this blog post I wrote over the summer: https://Vimeo.com/blog/post/volumetric-filmmaking-and-the-future-of-video As for live streaming, Vimeo acquired livestream.com
last year, so we are going all out on live streaming content. Not only can people use Livestream, but we’ve also built live streaming into Vimeo OTT — so businesses and creators can share and monetize static AND live content.
What’s the real difference between Vimeo and YT at this point?
Ah yes, the age-old question. Vimeo and YouTube are, as y’all know, similar in that they are two leading video hosting platforms (YouTube beats Vimeo by a lot, of course). In my view, I see Vimeo differing from YouTube in a big few ways:
No ads! Vimeo is the #1 ad-free video hosting platform. Always has been, always will be.
Vimeo’s video player is fast, reliable, and transcodes the files into multiple different formats to provide the best viewing experience on any platform or device.
Vimeo puts *creators first.* It’s one of our company values. Our platform is built to help creators at all points along their video creation process. While we’re most known for video hosting, we offer a boatload of other tools, including white labeling, a customizable player, collaboration tools, publish to social tools, high quality reliable live streaming, and monetization tools.
The Vimeo community. Our curation team does tremendous work with our ongoing Vimeo Staff Picks, where filmmakers of all ages, abilities and genres are featured on our blog and in our social media efforts. Filmmakers get coverage and more eyes on their content because of staff picks. For instance… remember that bonkers film, Swiss Army Man? The filmmaking duo behind the movie, The Daniels, gained traction and attention through their features in Vimeo Staff Picks:
https://Vimeo.com/danieldaniel
Hope that helps a little!
How can marketers better leverage video for leads/conversions vs. consideration/awareness?
I think this will vary based on industry, buyer personas, and the type of video content you’re creating. In my experience, short video case studies work well to tease gated content — which can help with conversion, but the video itself could be repurposed as part of a social asset, on your YouTube/Vimeo channel, etc.
From an awareness standpoint, I’ve felt video is a great way to convey your brand and the people behind your company — in the B2B space, this is especially important, as it helps humanize your company. I did this at my last company in the ed tech space, where we did video interviews with some of the creative minds behind the content we put out.
From a lead gen/conversion standpoint, I’ve found webinars are a tried and true content effort. However, webinars as many of us have known them — think laptop webcams, full screen presentation deck, Q&A at the end, etc. — are getting old. Putting on a webinar that’s more of a live production, with conversations between people and unique content in addition to a slide deck, I think, is a great way to set yourself apart in the space.
Thank you for all these questions I’m doing my best to answer as quickly (but thoroughly) as possible. If I don’t get to all of them within the hour, I’ll continue to follow up individually after the fact.
I would love to hear some video content ideas for boring niches like HVAC or Foundation Repair Services or Garage Door Repair. How can these niches create video content that have the tendency to go viral?
If you’re unsure of where to start, I would suggest doing some persona interviews with your customers to find out what sort of video content they’d be interested in seeing from your business. Doing industry research to see what your competitors/similar brands are doing with video can be a helpful starting point, too. Learn about your customers, what problems they face, and how your product can solve them. You can cast a wider net, too, by touching on topics that are relevant to your customers, but may not necessarily be directly related to what you’re trying to sell. For example, at Vimeo, we could create a video that introduces people to how to properly light a set, even though we don’t sell lighting equipment.
Personally, I haven’t worked as much in creating viral content as I have in regularly-recurring video content (like live webinars, a video web series, etc.), but it’s really tough to make a splash out there. My favorite inspiration for these types of questions is always the Dollar Shave Club video — something as dry as razor blades turns out to be pretty awesome (please pardon the expletive):
https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI
What new opportunities are you excited for since joining Vimeo?
I’m really excited to be working in a new industry, and creating content on platforms that are in an emerging space. I knew very little about live streaming and “OTT” platforms — I cringe at the nomenclature, to be honest — but it’s equally fast-moving and fascinating for someone like me, who had only ever worked in ed tech before.
There are a lot of niche industries that use our enterprise solutions, and as a result I’ve been able to connect with interesting people from all different fields. I’m looking forward to continue speaking with and learning from these folks — and to do continued persona development to help understand their needs better. Overall, though, I feel like we are empowering creators to dip their toe in some emerging video industries (like the OTT space) without a huge financial investment. No, they likely won’t be able to compete with Amazon or Netflix or Hulu, but they can make a sustainable business with a high-quality viewing experience on their own.
How do you see videos changing in the future? Anything that you’re seeing video content trending toward? Longer formats, more interactive, etc.?
I wanted to touch on this quickly, as we’ve done some industry research into this on the Vimeo OTT side. In terms of video on social, it seems like Facebook will be increasingly difficult to get eyeballs on your video content — looks like even Facebook live is being de-prioritized.
I think there is a lot to be said about live streaming events — whether it’s sessions you’re hosting at a trade show, trainings you’re hosting in person, or some other sort of activation or marketing event. Studies have shown that people who watch a live stream of an event feel like they are part of it, and are more likely to purchase a ticket to said event in the future. Live streaming events also broadens your reach beyond any physical capacity space.
For mobile, of course, snack-sized content performs well. For Vimeo OTT users, those who watch video content on mobile apps watch shorter video content (think exercise/fitness videos, tutorial videos, etc.), whereas those who watch on smart TVs see deeper engagement with longer format (think series, short films, etc.).
Overall, I think live streaming is a great way to make your content more interactive (and depending on how you distribute it, can boost your reach tremendously), and for static video, to think about which device/platform your users will most likely be watching it on, and build the length around that.
How do you see the use of Mevo fitting into companies’ day-to-day content?
For those of you unfamiliar with Vimeo/livestream, Mevo is a piece of live streaming hardware. (https://getmevo.com/)
Personally, I have not had a ton of involvement or experience during my time at Vimeo working with the hardware team (although I hope to, starting in 2019). Mevo was built to make live streaming and live production accessible to most people, so that you don’t need a ton of industry or technical know-how to put on a great live stream. With that in mind, I can see Mevo being a great way to put together video content that doesn’t require a ton of prep or planning — great for smaller or scrappier teams! Maybe a weekly or monthly Q&A or interview with someone from your product team, or a weekly recap on new content that was launched, etc.
It’s a bit tricky to provide specific examples, because as always a lot of this will depend on your industry, customers, buyers, and your overall marketing strategy (are you trying to increase leads, conversion, offer better nurturing, spread awareness, etc.), but I can say that one thing I wish I had done at my last company, which put out new videos every week for teachers, was a weekly video where someone from our production and curriculum team gave a quick overview of what we added that week, where people can find it, and how they can use it in their classes.
How does your team market Vimeo? Are there specific channels you use? Who is your target audience?
I can speak to the enterprise side, which is where my day-to-day work is. Our target audience is a real mixed bag — for example, Vimeo OTT is used by people industries as different as fitness to faith-based programming, or anesthesia training videos (yes, really) to independent filmmakers. We spent the past year developing content that touches on the broader, emerging OTT space. Now, we’re putting forth efforts to better identify and profile those users to refine our focus on the more popular industries. In terms of channels, they’re all fairly standard — advertising, social (organic/paid), list buys, partnerships, etc. As the enterprise business is pretty new compared to the Vimeo most people know, we’re trying a lot of different strategies to see what sticks, so we can be more strategic in 2019.
What ways do you see higher education using video content to successfully communicate their brand and increase awareness?
I used to work in higher ed, and actually made instructional videos as part of my work as a web services librarian. I think there are a lot of opportunities for live streaming video in a higher ed institution’s content strategy. Showcasing commencements, special guest speakers, major school culture events (homecoming, etc.), and college sports are common use cases for the educational institutions that use Vimeo’s live services. I think these are all helpful ways to increase awareness — and, depending on your strategy, you could even monetize some of these events (like commencements) for family members abroad who perhaps can’t make it to the event.
I have seen a few higher ed institutions do spotlight interviews with professors, first year students, etc., which I think is a great way to showcase the quality of your instructors, as well as first-hand experiences from students, for prospective students, too.
Ack! how did one hour go by already? I have to pop to a meeting, but I’ll be sure to follow up over the next couple days to address your remaining questions. Thank you for this opportunity David, and a massive THANK YOU to everyone for your thoughtful questions.
