Bringing online video to small businesses
While online video first found its mass audience with funny user-generated viral clips and repurposed sportscasts and other broadcast programming, it only recently has begun to be deployed widely in the SMB segment as a marketing and branding tool. As prices of storage and transport have come down dramatically in the past few years, online video has become a more viable option for smaller companies to experiment with in their marketing mixes.
Several companies now are vying for business in this market segment, which might prove to be a very lucrative one for online video service providers. The sheer number of small business websites, the increasing rate of awareness and exposure to online video, and the engagement video provides have many online video execs seeing green.
In addressing the serious revenue opportunity in this space, it's necessary to take a look at the types of concerns, ideas, and constraints small businesses have to consider before deploying online video, and how different companies deal with the same issue.
Many of the larger online video platform companies provide comprehensive services and support for large media companies and others who see millions of video views a month. While these services are well-suited for this purpose, they are much too expensive for a small business to afford them.
As Magnify.net CEO Steve Rosenbaum told me, "If you're trying to move large amounts of manure on the farm, a Honda Civic is probably a bad idea."
But while the Honda Civic may not serve that specific purpose, it is one of the best selling cars on the planet. Could the smaller services aimed at the SMB market end up driving Civic-like revenues for these companies? Before we get there, however, we need to take a look at the inherent constraints and particular needs of the segment when it comes to online video deployments.
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