Most of us in the search marketing industry read The SEM Post to get the most important news about SEO and PPC. But we’re also looking for fresh ideas, tips and strategies on everything from social media to content strategy. So, let me explain why engaging your audience by making your growing portfolio of videomore discoverable, sharable, and trackable is important. And let me share with you how Vinja Video, which recently released the public Beta of its cloud-based software, can impact your business.

I recently interviewed Kent Libbey, Vinja’s Co-Founder, after Dave Kimball, Chief Marketing Officer & Senior Vice President at ULTA Beauty, described Vinja Video as “ground-breaking” new technology In a recent investor call to Wall Street analysts. By the way, I have no material connections with either Vinja Video or ULTA Beauty (Editor’s Note: TheSEMPost has no connection either). So, I have nothing to disclose. Here are my questions and Libbey’s answers.

Greg Jarboe: Who are your target customers? The examples in your gallery include theCUBE, Intuit, EMC, TED Talks, Ulta Haul, and Insightly. That covers a lot of industries.

Kent Libbey:  While our cloud software is not limited to any type or use of video–that is, it enables the segmentation and linking of *any* YouTube video–our user focus has been on non-technical front-office functions, including content and product marketing, sales, onboarding, support and training, that span most verticals.  TheCUBE and EMC are examples of this in B2B Tech and ULTA is using the same interface to generate/enhanced B2C commerce videos.  As the Video 2.0 market matures, and we mature as a company, we anticipate simultaneously developing 1) vertical industry channel partnerships, ranging from referral agents to resellers and potentially OEMs; and 2) deeper integrations with 3rd-party platforms, such as marketing automation, content management systems and e-commerce.

Greg Jarboe: What types of content help your customers attract, acquire and engage their audiences? In other words, are some types of content more effective or more likely to benefit from your player?

Kent Libbey:  We (and our customers) see maximum value from our software for video content that is: information oriented (as opposed to entertainment oriented), relatively long-form (more 5-10 minutes depending on the subject matter) and relates specifically to web pages or sites.  For example ULTA beauty is effectively using Vinja to brand and enhance existing ‘haul videos’ which feature a series of products in 5-12 minute videos which have been segmented and linked to respective product purchase pages.

Greg Jarboe: When would these audiences seek or discover these types of content? And how does Vinja Video make your customers’ embedded videos easier to discover by people and by search engines?

Kent Libbey:  Embedded Vinja Videos are typically presented in a custom-branded ‘player’ (which enhances the native player of YouTube or other video hosts) so that they fit into the look-and-feel and flow of surrounding sites.  Chapter/clip titles, tags, links and other meta data can be ‘read’ and indexed by search engines to enhance relevance.

Using Vinja makes online videos easy for visitors to browse (i.e., quickly scan and randomly access the most interesting parts–just like any web page), share deep-links to specific chapters/clips and for businesses to track those actions so that they can optimize their video presentation to maximize their  business objectives (e.g., drive more product sales).

Greg Jarboe: Where would these audiences share these types of content with others? And how does Vinja Video help them share more of your customers’ embedded videos or drive deeper engagement and more clicks?

Kent Libbey:  Blogs and content/brand marketing pages are a common starting point for Vinja Video in a larger enterprise–since blogs are commonly updated, often embed videos and often not subject to many layers of content approval.  We expect product onboarding and training videos to be another common point of entry as businesses, large and small, start to see the benefits of breaking down long-form, complicated videos into bite-sized segments.

Greg Jarboe: Why would these audiences consider your customers’ content relevant and valuable? What important tips, best practices, or strategy would you share with your customers or prospects about what works?

Kent Libbey:  Vinja is a simple, but powerful, mechanism to expose the content within relatively long-form videos, but ultimately the exposed content needs to relevant and valuable, or better/deeper exposure is moot.  Likewise, embedding interesting content on a page without any traffic won’t add much value (although making the most interesting segment shareable a deep-links could, in some cases, enhance traffic flow).

With that said, we recommend keeping chapters/clips in the range of 1-5 minutes, depending on the length and nature of video content–and keeping the title/description of each clip short and compelling (40-50 characters), as if writing headline for page section or blog.

Greg Jarboe: How would your customers know that your embedded videos are driving profitable customer action? Can you share any success stories?

Kent Libbey:  We find that different customer have very different definitions of ‘success.’  Most early adopters of Vinja have been focused on enhancing their video content marketing efforts–and look for metrics relating to number of views and/or clicks per chapter or segment.  More focused applications of Vinja–e.g., linking products featured in video to their purchase–will ultimately have different success criteria, such as conversions/spending per view or click, and will probably require more traffic and integration with other systems (e.g., e-commerce, web analytics) to assess the impact of Vinja.

We have several very enthusiastic early adopter accounts and can elaborate on their definition and achievement of success in further, confidential, discussion.