Live streaming is a process of sending multimedia encoded content, especially video or audio across the network so that users and followers can view it immediately as per as their requirement. Users can download the entire media file if they feel the need of it. The process is simple, first the video buffers for a while and as soon as the buffering gets completed, it is played by the media player. The video streaming apps help to play this content as per as the user’s convenience. There are various live streaming services available today. Here is a list of the top 8 video streaming services of 2017:
Netflix:
Netflix is one of the leading networks of internet television which is accessed by more than 189 countries and 103 million users around the world. Netflix provides its users unlimited streaming of feature films, TV shows, movies, original programs, comedy specials and documentaries on a subscription basis. The subscription fee for one month for one standard definition streaming is $7.99, and for the new members, the subscription charge is $9.99 for two concurrent HD streams. And guess what, users get four parallel streams with a single subscription. Users can create up to five different profiles. Netflix is accessible on various devices such as PC and tablet. Now users can also download content for watching it later in offline mode. This is one of the best video streaming services available and is well-known for its good quality and performance. On almost any Internet connected screen, the user can watch as much as he/she wants anytime from any given place.
Hulu:
If the users want to stay updated with the latest TV shows, but they do not want to invest in HD antenna or cable subscription, then Hulu is the best video streaming solution for them. This is one of the video Streaming Platforms which offers popular as well as latest shows. For Classic and current TV series, along with the full season of original content, the user needs to pay $ 7.99 as a monthly subscription fee. The user can also get Show timings for the whole month at $8.99 charges through Hulu bundle and thus save $2 per month. An advertisement free tier costs $11.99 per month. It is supported on various devices, but they can stream only from one device at a particular session. At present Hulu has 12 million users. Recently Hulu released live TV for their user and simply named it Hulu with Live TV and its monthly subscription fee plans starts from $39.99.
Amazon Video:
Amazon Video is an on demand internet video service which is operated, developed and owned by Amazon.com. This Video Streaming service provides movies, television shows and much more. For $ 99 per year, the user also gets two days shipping on each purchase. Kindle book is free every month, using which a user can access Amazon Prime Unlimited Instant Video and Amazon Music both. Video streaming labels are around 40,000 trophies in Amazon stream, but only a fraction of Prime Streaming is included. Amazon also allows offline downloads. If someone has not finished watching all the HBO shows, then they can access and download the unseen videos whenever they want. Amazon launched their streaming partners program in the year 2015. At present Amazon has nearly 66 million Prime members. This streaming service does not work on Google Chrome, but it is accessible on Roku along with Amazon’s smart TVs, Fire TV devices and much more.
PlayStation Vue:
If someone likes to have wireless devices along with living TV at the same place, then PlayStation Vue is the best option for them. PlayStation started its journey as a primarily designed service for gaming consoles in the month of March 2015. But since, then there were many changes in the service offered by this organization. They have more than 1 million users. New channels were introduced, the prices have changed, the list of features got bigger, and supported streaming devices have also increased. To help customers choose among Vue and its competitors such as DirecTV and Sueley TV Now, they have made a full guide of Internet TV service. This outlines Vue’s numerous channel pricing and packages, as well as observing the supporting devices and reviews according to various users. This online video platform is available on a variety of systems; this is Sony’s first initiative to deliver live TV to its customers. They provide primary channels to their customers at a subscription rate of $50/ month and also $55, $75 and $65 subscriptions fee are available for various other packages.
YouTube TV:
YouTube TV is one of the most popular online video platform which provides live TV streaming, but it is still limited to New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. If anyone stays in these cities, then they can get cloud DVR storage which is unlimited. YouTube TV will save the recording for nine months, and users can stream their content from any place in the US if they are connected to the internet. Monthly subscription charges are $35 along with the facility to cancel the subscription anytime. One subscription supports more than six accounts so that the members can share their subscription with friends or family. The users can operate from three accounts at the same time. YouTube TV provides live streaming from most popular cable networks and ABC, NBC CBS, FOX. Per day more than 30 million visitors visit YouTube. The total number of YouTube users stands at 1,300,000,000. For your information, this number is bound to become bigger.
Sling TV:
If someone prefers the idea of a cable subscription which gives access to numerous genres of content but is still hesitant to go for anything expensive, then Sling TV is the best option that he/she can get. Get thirty real-time channels with a monthly subscription fee which is way cheaper than other services available. Also, there is no fee for set-top box and there is no contract either. Sling Tv is mainly for sports lovers as it offers a variety of sports channels. And to everybody’s delight, it enables sports lovers to go wireless. Apart from sports channels, it also has Food Network, CNN, BBC America, TBS and Cartoon Network. The user will get the multi-stream option if he or she signs up in Sling Blue. The combo subscription fee is $40 per month. The user can record from this live streaming services and will be able to watch on Android, Roku, Amazon and Xbox One devices.
HBO Now:
The content of this online video platform is available online through HBO GO, but a user needs to pay for logging in and watch HBO TV. For many years, HBO did not agree to tie up with cable partners, but upon many requests from its fans, they have launched this Video Streaming Platforms named HBO NOW. The user can get a free trial via Google Play, App Store, and Amazon and also can add HBO NOW channel with their Roku player. Users may add their HBO NOW on their web package if they have internet service from Google Fiber, Frontier, Optimum, Liberty, Verizon and Service Electric. The live shows telecasted on HBO channel, are also shown on the HBO NOW at the same time. More than 2 million subscribers have subscribed for this app, and once users complete their subscription, they can watch it from their desktops, tablets, etc. The subscription fee of HBO NOW is $14.99 per month.
CBS ALL ACCESS
CBS All Access is one of the best user-friendly online video platforms that users can use to watch “The Good Wife” which is a spin-off of the popular show “The Good Fight”. Its users can also watch NFL games including the Football match that telecast on every Thursday night. In comparison to Hulu, $9.99 is the subscription fee for CBS All Access which is free from commercials. In addition, the user can select from an array of live shows. The user can watch this live streaming service on their mobile device, Android TV, and PC or via Apple TV, Xbox One Amazon Fire TV or PS4. Till date, about 1.5 million subscribers have subscribed to this apps.
If you have enough video content which can impress audiences in large numbers, you should definitely start your own on-demand video streaming business. Rather than building a site like Netflix or Amazon Prime from scratch, you should leverage turnkey software like StreamView. StreamView has multiple monetization channels, ranging from subscription plans, banner ads to pay –per-view schemes. Very often, video enthusiasts face trouble uploading videos. StreamView addresses this problem through a measure of multiple upload channels: Amazon S3 buckets, YouTube link, normal uploads and website link. This platform is search engine friendly. Admins can ban users if users do not adhere to your rules and guidelines. Users can report videos for abuse/violence and admin has the full authority to delete videos. To know more about its features, head on to StreamView now.
Producing original and quality videos are expensive and time-consuming. Without the right video hosting strategy, it is not possible to get optimal results for all the effort put in creation. YouTube and Vimeo are popular options to share your video for your business on the internet. Here is why you shouldn’t do it.
You may reach a large audience instantly, but they are not your target audience.
Your business doesn’t receive any benefit when viewers share or embed your video.
Ads can appear anytime within your video – before, during, after – always without your permission. Ads displayed could also be for your competition and you have no control to remove it.
Having your own video hosting site like YouTube gives you complete control over your business. When you use video hosting for business, you can integrate videos with your website. It is also true that you can integrate your videos hosted on YouTube with your website using an embed code, but there are three major disadvantages to it.
Backlink to YouTube
When you embed your YouTube video on your website, and a viewer clicks on that link to view it, it links back to the YouTube site. So the viewers on your website are funneled back to YouTube domain. This ultimately means that maximum revenue generation for them and undercutting for your business.
Missed or no conversion
When people watch your business videos on YouTube, they generate revenue for YouTube and not for your business. This also means missing out on lead generation, minimal or no conversion on a third-party video hosting site.
No call-to-action option
YouTube allows for video description only while uploading a video. The sidebar of your business video will have related content, mostly from your competitors. You wouldn’t want a viewer to keep jumping over to other brands after looking at your video. Do you? But when you embed a video from a host on your website, it allows for tighter integration. Each of your videos can have a call-to-action in line with your business’ goals. Also, having your own video hosting server will ensure secure video hosting for your business.
Major benefits of a dedicated streaming video hosting service are:
Speed – By the use of Content delivery networks (CDN), you get global access rapidly.
Total control on customization – you can manage the configuration of the server and dictate how your server works to deliver optimal results for your business.
Power – many video streaming hosting service hosts provide encoding/transcoding services that utilize powerful servers for fast processing of your videos.
Security with private video hosting – no one else has access to your server except your company and the company that offers your dedicated server hosting and web hosting services.
Affordable – best video hosting service is made available at an affordable cost as video streaming business has become the main source of income for individuals and businesses alike.
Features provided by a video host:
Live streaming video uploading
Video portals
Monetization via subscriptions, pay-per-view model, and advertisements
White label solution for customized branding
Total control on your video hosting website
Integration with existing desktop, web and mobile apps as well as servers
Now that you know how “free” video hosting sites have been eating away your business which is why having your own video hosting site is important, here is how to choose a video hosting service.
Steps to choose the right video hosting service:
Step 1: Define objective:
Brainstorm goals and write them down. Split them into low priority and high priority categories to simplify the process of defining objectives. In the process, remove any unimportant items, and, identify between one and four main goals for your video content. Ultimately it is these goals that will help you determine your specific needs and will guide you to choose a video platform to host.
Step 2: Evaluate requirements:
Assess the requirements to meet the specified goals/objectives. For instance, if your objective is to reach out to larger audience constantly, looking out for a service with Tier 1 CDN is going to be helpful so you can utilize the fastest speed globally.
If you are looking to create content and earn money through subscriptions, you can opt for video streaming providers who offer Netflix clone scripts. With this, you can opt for multiple monetization options like pay-per-view and subscriptions.
If you are looking for a secure platform to communicate about business matters, you need a platform with access control.
This explains how important it is to define objectives because essentially everything is going to be working to fulfill those objectives.
Step 3: Deciding on the content:
What kind of videos will meet your business goals? Is it through training, product demonstrations, meetings, advertisements, educational, funny, sports, meetings, live sessions with customers or something else? Whatever the kind of content you want to play in your videos, the video host you choose should be able to enhance the quality of it. For instance, sports videos usually need controls for pause, rewind and slow-motion, whereas, music videos require retro, cutting edge and grunge. All the video hosting providers will not provide all the options. So you will need to look specifically for the ones that will work for the kind of content that you will produce.
Step 4: Live vs on-demand video hosting:
Businesses can make use of live streaming for the webinar, workshop, events, training sessions etc. live streaming increases engagement with the audience as you, as a business can directly communicate with the viewers. Not to mention the amount of public attention that will be drawn to your business by such live streams. When you have planned for the live sessions, you can share the details of it with your clients, customers and business partners. You could also publicly announce it on social media platforms to garner attention. After all, it is most easy to spread a word via social media these days than any other medium of communication. Based on your products, services, and marketing goals, you can also do live product launches, new product creations, behind the scenes, conduct sessions with product creators. Individuals selling services online can conduct online training sessions to bring in leads, and make a mark for themselves in their respective industry or field of training.
Video on demand (VOD) is a subscription-based video hosting business where users can pay for the content they want to watch, and do so at their convenience. VOD works well for the entertainment industry. Also, it is suitable when live broadcasting is not mandatory. Not to forget that VOD gives us exact statistics and numbers that are difficult to comprehend in live streaming.
Live streaming and video on demand both serve different purposes and a business will need to use both in order to meet its business objectives. VOD is where you implement the kind of content you have planned for execution, and live streaming will be more of interacting with your target audience. However, when it comes to certain industries like event management, music, it could be a wise blend of live and VOD where equal weightage is given to both. News broadcasting companies will also be using both live and VOD wherein live videos are broken down by the news bits and saved for watch later as VOD. However, most of the news channels are not subscription-based yet, though digital magazines and newspapers have. With everything going online, we could expect many other business verticals that are offline, to go online soon.
Social media is a veritable powerhouse for entrepreneurs and marketers looking to promote their products. By selecting a range of social media platforms, a social media manager has the power to transform a brand, create a brand identity, draft a social media calendar and evaluate the efficacy of a marketing rollout. Capturing local news, and staying afloat with the latest trends is a great way to infuse ingenuity into a social media campaign. Now, with video becoming an essential driver of digital footfalls, crafting a video marketing strategy for social media becomes necessary.
Here, we give you five.
Embrace the Power of Curated Videos
Did you know that YouTube features the maximum number of search queries on its platform, only second to Google?
Go Big on YouTube:
YouTube combines the advantages of a search engine and the power of visual engagement, two tools that could propel your business quickly. Plus, you could draw on trends that feature on YouTube to determine which keywords could potentially optimize your website. Then, link your YouTube base to your own custom video streaming domain. There is an array of excellent platforms in the market today, that plug directly into your website and allow you to stream directly. Streamhash, for example, is a versatile, turnkey technology that provides features at par with YouTube, for a fraction of the cost. What’s more? You get to stream live. By using the customization options and themes on Streamhash, you can make your streaming site your own.
The bottom line? Go big on YouTube!
Explore an Array of Video Initiatives:
There are various approaches you could take to drive engagement on YouTube. Here are some video marketing ideas you could consider:
Live Streams
Streaming live to your audience builds authenticity, and gives rise to a platform that facilitates communication both ways. We’ve already told you about the advantages of starting your own streaming website. With a platform like Streamhash, you can give your streams your own personal twist.
How-To Videos
How-To videos are excellent content vehicles, especially if your product is demonstrable. By capturing users’ attention and imaginations, you’re likely to see traction in sales.
Webinars
Webinars are especially useful if your company caters to a large base of corporate clients. By engaging them on a digital forum and leaving room for a question-and-answer session, you could create key influencers.
Interviews
Interviews are always an engaging way to draw eyeballs, especially if you interview someone well-known that people would be interested to watch. Seek out about five personalities that could feature in your interviews, and release your episodes in installments, creating a sponsored campaign around each one.
Create Sponsored Promotions on Social Media:
If you’re a frequenter of social media, you’re probably privy to the assortment of advertisements that appear on your news feed. Social media is an excellent market vehicle for brands and is a critical element of a typical promotional mix today.
Identify Competition on Social Media
The trouble is, with the explosion of companies scurrying to promote their brands on social media platforms, shining through to a customer has become challenging. As a brand, you’re not only vying with rivals in your own space, you’re competing with brands across the board, each desperate to project their offerings.
Build Your Own Video Domain
Before you take social media head on, make sure that you have a dedicated domain that can support video. This will pave the way for you to make your video campaigns bigger and better in the future. Use a framework like the one provided by Streamhash to get you going. Streamhash, for instance, gets you started in just two days.
Conquer Social Media
The most effective method to break through the brand clutter on social media, is to create sponsored content, and what better way to do that than with a video marketing idea? There’s evidence that a video post on Facebook generates about twice the engagement of a plain, vanilla post. By creating excellent video content and refining your targeted audience, your marketing campaign can do wonders. Remember to keep your video crisp and precise, spotlighting your offerings in a quick and clever way.
Send Customised Videos for Followers:
Everybody knows that social media can be a great way to listen to customers, gauge interest levels and feel the pulse of an audience. However, most brands use social media only as a projection tool, to disburse communication in a unidirectional manner.
Make Customers Feel Special:
By using social media to interact with followers on a personal level, you’re not only making them feel special, you’re most likely handing them a torch to spread loyalty amongst their network. You’re making them influencers. But let’s take it a step further. Imagine sending customized videos to your followers, each one tailored for a specific person. You could do this in two ways. Either you could scour social media platforms for key influencers in your space, and send them personalized videos, or you could select key customers that have contributed to your company significantly. If you’re still a small enterprise, perhaps you have the wherewithal to create custom videos for all your followers.
The Example of Dell
Dell has been an iconic brand in the computer space for years, priding itself on quality and price. In the spring of 2016, the company launched a fantastic video marketing strategy on Twitter, sending personalized videos to users who had recommended a Dell product to someone else via the microblogging platform.
Maximize Presence Through Social Media Stories:
As of a few weeks ago, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat all feature a Stories feature, under which video content that is uploaded features in a band that sits atop followers’ news feeds. These stories disappear after 24 hours, allowing brands to continually reinvent themselves without flooding content onto social media. A study conducted recently revealed that users prefer Stories over conventional social media posts. It’s an ideal time to maximize uploads through the Stories feature. Create concise, captivating videos and remember to include a link at the end to lead users to your website.
Capitalize on User-Generated Video Content:
Using user-generated content has endless advantages. For starters, it is one of the best means for user engagement.
Hold Contests for Innovation
Think of holding an online contest for users to send videos of themselves using your product in the most innovative way. You could even ask them to share it on a social network and tag two friends. Not only will the videos act as reviews, automatically endorsing your brand, but they will impart confidence and faith in prospective customers.
Invite Videos of Unboxing
Confused? Don’t be. Watching others unbox a package can build anticipation in viewers, and it’s an activity that many users enjoy. Ask your customer base to record amusing videos of their children or themselves unboxing your product on arrival, and showcase the excitement on social media.
There are so many ways that you can use video vehicles to inspire customers to get to know you. Even on a small budget, video content can create a big impact!
Getting your YouTube channel sponsored sometimes seems like an impossible goal. Sponsorships are the main source of income for video creators as they can be highly profitable. Besides helping you earn money, getting sponsored can also help you craft qualitative content for your audience. But how do you get YouTube sponsorship if you are just starting out? How much do creators get paid for sponsoring videos? If you’ve seen even small YouTube channels getting huge sponsorships and are wondering how to get sponsored on YouTube, worry no more. It’s decoded here in this article.
To get sponsored, you need to make sure your channel covers all aspects that the sponsors look for. Read on to know how to get your first sponsor and grow your channel big.
What are YouTube Sponsorships?
In simple words, YouTube sponsorships mean collaboration between YouTube creators and a brand where both of them reap benefits in the deal. YouTuber will get paid for sponsoring the brand and the brand gains more exposure by the promotions. For a YouTube sponsorship to be successful, both parties have to benefit from the collaboration. For example, if the audience of your channel is not relevant to a particular brand, it won’t see any value in collaborating with you. Relevance is the major aspect essential for YouTube sponsorship. There are more ways to earn YouTube sponsorships and are as follows.
Prerequisites before reaching out to sponsors:
Quality of Your Content
The most important aspect sponsors will pay attention to before collaborating with YouTubers is the content of the channel. To earn the interest of big sponsors, you need to have quality content uploaded to your channel that engages and entertains users. When you reach out to a brand for sponsorship, the first thing they will look for is relevancy and quality content in your channel so that they can assure that their promotion would also be qualitative. Contrary, if your content is not qualitative, it is a clear sign that your YouTube channel is not ready to receive sponsorships yet. Focus on creating quality content on your YouTube channel that will help and entertain your viewers.
Content quantity
Having just 5 to 6 contents in your channel won’t serve as a good portfolio to attract sponsors. To get a sponsorship, you need to have a good number of videos so that viewers get an idea of what’s going on in your channel. Having your old videos on your channel is actually a good way to show your audience how you evolved over time. It will help people to strengthen their perception of you as a hardworking and motivated creator which makes it easier to find sponsorships for your YouTube channel. Additionally, first-time viewers to your channel will want to browse through your content to decide if they want to subscribe to your channel.
Use Business e-mail on Your YouTube Channel
Even if you are starting out small, maintain a professional profile by adding a business email on your channel. Using a business e-mail address on your channel says you are open for business inquiries. Additionally, this is where you will find video comments, friend request notifications, and videos; not to forget the assault messages on your videos once you have gained a large following.
Refrain from Violating YouTube rules & Regulations
YouTube follows several policies and guidelines to maintain a safe and vibrant community. If you are a new YouTube creator, make sure that you start out by carefully reading through their policies and terms of service. If you violate the policies, there are chances of your channel getting removed or your account may be terminated as well. It is recommended reviewing the guidelines often as YouTube may revise it from time to time.
Unauthorized music, nude photos, and videos, excessive criticism of users drive away sponsors. Check the Resource section of YouTube for a link to their rules & regulations and make sure you stick to it.
Different types of YouTube sponsorships
YouTube business modelis an advertisement based model that allows you to earn a share of ad revenues. Sponsorships are another alternate way for video content creators to earn money. There are different types of YouTube sponsorships and are as follows.
Affiliate Sponsorships
Affiliate sponsorships are the easiest way to get sponsorships from brands, especially if your channel is small. You have to place the link given by brands in the description section of your videos and every time a sale is made through the link, you earn a commission.
Alternatively, the brand will also give a discount code that your subscribers can use when making a purchase. Depending on the number of sales generated by your channel, you get a specific amount of money. While affiliate sponsorships are the least profitable type of sponsorships, they are a great way to start with when you are just beginning with YouTube and has less viewership and subscribers.
Product Sponsorships
Another way to get YouTube sponsorships is to receive free products in exchange for promotion. Brands will send you products to do unboxing videos, reviews or tutorials about how to use the products. Though you won’t receive money, you will get free products which can be quite useful. Before reaching out to sponsors, you need to make sure that the products you are looking for sponsorship fit your channel and what you are trying to do with it. Your audience can get put off due to mismatch, and your sponsor will not get the kind of value they expect. Product sponsorship for small YouTubers could be a little difficult because the sponsor has to trust them to promote their product with the limited following they have. If you aim to get product sponsorships, get started with reviews and tutorial videos that are not sponsored. Once you build an audience centered on a particular type of products, the chances of brands involved in the same niche contacting you for sponsorship increases.
Paid sponsorships
Paid sponsorships are the most wanted type of sponsorships any YouTuber looks for as it gives you direct money. Sponsors pay an amount to advertise their business in your videos or to endorse their products by doing videos for their brand on their channel. Getting paid YouTube sponsorships can be tough if you have a small user base. To get paid sponsorships, you have to grow your channel and build a vast base of subscribers. You at least need to have 10k-100k subscribers for companies to approach you for sponsorships. While paid sponsorships come with all bells and whistles, one thing to keep in mind is that – they don’t come free. When a brand is paying you, they will have certain demands and will give instructions on how the videos should be.
When you are a small channel, start out by trying to get an affiliate and product sponsorships. From there, try creating a portfolio of collaboration which you can leverage later when you will start with paid sponsorships. Once your channel is big enough, you will start seeing sponsors approaching you for promotions.
How much you can earn from YouTube sponsorships?
Now that you know the different types of sponsorships, you might be wondering how much do brands pay for sponsorships and how much money you can make. To be honest, there is no exact answer to this question. The money you can earn from a sponsorship varies between $50 and a couple of thousand dollars. However, the money you make can vary and it depends on a variety of factors.
The number of subscribers and views
As said earlier, the bigger your channel is, the better the pay. This is because the bigger your channel and subscriber list are views will also increase and hence the chance of your channel generating sales goes higher as well. The number of views of the relevant videos also counts.
The value you can bring to the brand
While the number of subscribers and views matter, what really matters is the kind of value you can bring to the brand that sponsors you. Your subscribers must engage with the products you promote. You must be able to prove the number of sales generated in your previous collaborations to prove yourself. A successful sponsorship in the past serves as a living proof that you have the potential to take their sales to new heights.
Where you place the ads
As YouTube business model allows placing ads, it is easy to endorse a brand but the placement matters. Normally, YouTubers advertise sponsorships either at the beginning or at the end of their videos. The rates for each placement differs as well.
The type of promotion
You can promote the brand by mentioning it in your normal videos or do a tutorial on their products, do review videos, or actually do a video on their profile exclusively for them. Each type comes with a different time frame to create the videos and the effort also differs for each. Depending on the type of promotion you do and how you do it make up the price tag and each of them comes with a different price.
Resources needed for the promotion
If you are doing a tutorial video or a product review, you might need some resources and certain props. Maybe at times, you have to shoot videos in a particular environment. Depending on the complexity associated with videos according to the sponsor’s requirement, the pay will also increase.
How to get sponsors for your YouTube channel
Establish a relevant audience base
Only when you know your audience, you’ll know which types of brands are approachable for sponsorship. Knowing the age group of your audience, the fashion trends they follow, where they shop, which brands they love, and, what products they are interested in purchasing helps. Partnering with the brands that your audience can connect gives your sponsor great exposure, good reviews, and of course, purchases. For this, you are rewarded either with cash or products. A successful partnership means repeat partnership, which again brings in more money to the table.
Know What You Can Offer to your Sponsors
In-video shout-outs or mentions and product reviews are two ways to market your sponsor on your channel. When you approach any brand, they will want to know what you can offer them and how you will be marketing their brand. YouTubers usually set up several tiers of sponsorships, like, reviewing products in exchange to get those products for free from the brand. It is wise to not guarantee any positive review if the product doesn’t work the way it’s advertised. Another tie-up could be to exclusively give the exposure of their products on your videos and social media pages. Similarly, you can create different sponsorship plans at different price points that provide value, where every plan will have a different method of promotion.
Learn about sponsors
Once a brand approaches you or you choose a brand to approach, take your time to research on those brands. Your target can be both startups and top names as long as their products are relevant to promote to your customers. Also, ask the question like whether they are interested in widening their reach to other demographics as it will be useful while making a proposal for sponsorships.
Craft Quality Sponsorship Proposals
Most Youtubers get the sponsorship proposals wrong as they fail to establish a connection, don’t establish fit and relevant or get more self-centered. Make sure your proposal is properly structured and have the right information that helps the sponsors to make the right decision.
Majority of creators create a proposal template and use it for every proposal by just changing the name of the sponsors. This approach doesn’t work well. Make sure you draft a personalized proposal letter and this will get the attention of the sponsors you are planning to reach out. Your proposal letter should have your introduction, description of your content and how sponsoring your channel will benefit them. The more specific you are, the easier it is for them to know how much you can relate to their brand and what they can get from their partnership with you.
Different ways of reaching out to sponsors
Now that you knowHow To Get Sponsored On YouTube, it’s time to send YouTube sponsorship application to the sponsors on your list. There are several ways to reach out to sponsors.
Reach out directly
You can reach out to them through their website contact page or through social media. You can also use your personal connections with popular YouTubers to reach out to the brands.
Reach out through sponsorship platforms
There are several sponsorship marketplaces for YouTube creators like Famebit by Youtube and GrapeVine. They are marketplaces of affiliate and product sponsorships so it’s easy to make those first few connections. There is no harm for major content creators to make use of these sites as they are known to fetch good results.
However, such platforms come with some prerequisites that vary from platform to platform. Some websites require you to have a minimum of 5,000 or 10,000 subscribers to join the platform.
Build your channel and they will come
Quality content breeds traffic and traffic breeds attention from sponsors. Once you grow your channel really big and become a popular YouTube influencer, you will start receiving emails from brands expressing their interest in collaborating with you. If you wonder How To Get Sponsored On YouTube, a good channel with great content and a community is what attracts sponsors.
Important sponsorship tips for video content creators
Brand collaborations on YouTube aren’t easy. You might already know that even if you get sponsorships easily, presenting it to your community is not going to be that easy. At least initially. The most coveted thing on YouTube is a genuine fan who loves your work and religiously follows and share your videos. So here are some tips to get the sponsorships right.
Tell them how the sponsorship will benefit their brand. Highlight the relevance to make them understand you are a good fit for the collaboration.
Don’t sell yourself short just because you want a sponsorship immediately. Remember, you have a following and you create quality content. So you can partner with a brand to give them exposure to their audience.
Don’t give up if your first few proposals don’t get you a sponsorship. Keep creating awesome content for your channel that will increase your following. And the bigger the following, the easier it is to find sponsorships.
If you have had any successful partnership stories in the past, share it with the new brands.
Ensure that you remain authentic to the style that made you popular. Never try to deviate far from your core content as it won’t bring in the engagement you got in the past.
Conclusion
Hope this article gave you a clear idea on how to get sponsored on YouTube. Now you can work towards getting sponsorships and monetize your channel. When you get sponsorship, being open and honest about it will garner appreciation from your viewers and build your channel for transparency. In addition, try to be as honest as possible with your reviews and opinions about the products you endorse. Before jumping into getting sponsorships, focus on building a good amount of quality content on your channel. The key to getting sponsorships and collaborations is by keeping your audience happy.
Have you tried getting YouTube sponsorships or are you already working with top brands? If you have tips worth mentioning, feel free to share with us in the comment section. We love to hear your thoughts.
A few days ago, I happened to host a Q&A (Question & & Answer) session by using a live video streaming solution. All the attendees seemed to be highly excited. They bombarded me with genuine questions- some were funny, some were insightful and of course, some were absolutely thought provocative. Live video streaming software services are being leveraged by each and every company to connect with their respective target audiences and subsequently boost engagement. As an intrinsic part of their cultural ethos, organizations have started sharing live events. Stories can be created and important announcements can be made.
One of the important 7Ps of the marketing mix is People. Live video streaming software helps you establish a nexus between people and product. It not only keeps the audiences engaged but also converts them into avid learners. Thanks to several tangible and intangible benefits that a live video streaming software offers, organizations are keenly looking forward to a completely integrated video solution.
A completely integrated video solution contains features such as:
Tracking and Analytics
Hardware and Software
Dedicated Support
Production Solutions
To develop a fully functional integrated video solution, one requires expertise in web programming stack such as LARAVEL, MEAN (Mongo DB, Express JS, Angular JS, Node JS) etc. Expertise in server programming is mandatory. A few years ago, organizations used to hire web development teams and shell out a good deal of money to get their video streaming software designed. Today, the scenario is different in its entirety. There are various live video streaming solutions available. Organizations can choose any one particular video solution from the enlisted top 10:
Livestream:
Livestream is a video streaming service solution founded in 2007 with a mission to enable organizations to share experiences through live video, unlock the world where every event is available live online. From being a channel based software solution to an event based streaming solution, Livestream has come a long way. As far as the Broadcaster setup is concerned, Livestream has done an amazing job. Livestream services are available on App store, Google play and ROKU TV set-top box. As far as the subscription plan is concerned, there are two plans available: Basic and Premium. The basic plan starts at $42 per month while the premium plan is priced at $249 per month. You may visit Livestream here.
Ustream:
In January 2016, Ustream was acquired by IBM. This live video streaming software claims to be powering more than 2 million broadcasts every month. Ustream is integrated with analytics software. It allows you to track audiences and gain valuable insights into their viewing habits. Apart from providing customer insights and best-in-class support, Ustream allows you to craft great video campaigns, capture as many leads as possible and export to CRM (Customer Relationship Management) module. Mobile support, social sharing, live broadcasts and VOD (Video on Demand) services are also available. PRO plans range from $99 to $999. If you are an enterprise, you should contact the ustream staff for pricing. You may visit Ustream here.
Twitch:
This live video streaming solution broadcasts user-generated gaming video content. As a user, you can follow channels that you enjoy watching. Users get instant notifications when the channels go live. There is a feature in which users can chat with fellow viewers, send and receive direct messages. Of course, you are also entitled to start your own broadcast.Viewers need not register to watch the broadcasts. However, to start your own broadcast, you should register as a member. To know more about the plans and pricing slabs, visit Twitch.
Bambuser:
Bambuser is a leading mobile video streaming solution for organizations and app developers. It is integrated with various features such as online storage, geo-location, and tagging etc. This streaming platform allows users to live stream videos not only from smartphones but also from computer webcams and DV cameras. It goes without saying that this service is completely social media friendly. It is perfectly possible to stream live mobile videos on Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress. You may visit Bambuser here.
Skype QIK:
Skype has always been the hot favorite of businesses. Skype is known to facilitate team collaboration, instant messaging, file sharing, team conferences etc. In 2014, the developers of Skype launched Skype QIK, a robust mobile video messaging app to help people share moments with their peers. Skype QIK has all the provisions for video embedding and social sharing.
YouNow:
This live social TV platform enables users to broadcast videos through mobile phones and webcams. There is also a video-chat feature that helps you connect live with talented broadcasters. It is available as an Android app on Google Play. You may visit YouNow here.
Freedocast:
Freedocast allows you to capture all wonderful things in life, share the captured beautiful moments with friends and family members. It is available as an easy to use app on Android and iOS devices. It has quite a great reputation in UK and European markets. Apart from broadcasting videos, you can add effects to videos and chat with fellow users. Freedocast is integrated with flash video encoder which provides state-of-the-art quality streaming. You may visit Freedocast here.
Move Networks:
Move Networks provides a complete solution package built using adaptive streaming technology. This package contains DRM- Digital Rights Management software, subscription packaging, middleware, billing and other modules. Apart from facilitating revenue generation through subscription based services, revenue through enhanced advertising solutions is also provisioned. Move Networks promises quality viewing experience. There shall be a little delay and wait timing is close to zilch. You may visit Move Networks here.
TiVo
TiVo stands for Television in Video Out. It is a unified entertainment Digital Video Recorder (DVR) that lets you watch all your favorite stuff from Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc. Watching commercials can be frustrating at times. Thanks to the built-in SkipMode, you can skip all the commercials and resume your show sans any interruption. This way, you can save a lot of time. Undoubtedly, TiVo works with any fancy and every non-fancy TV. It works with 4K TVs as well. You may visit TiVo here.
Vaughn Live:
Vaughn Live is a controversial social broadcasting site which aims to foster an interactive social environment.You are liberty to choose any niche- News & Technology, Nature, Miscellaneous, Lifestyles, Creative, etc. Apart from the featured content, this site allows users to telecast their own videos. However, this social broadcasting site is not monitored. As a result, teens under 18 should be granted supervised access only. This social broadcasting site was recently in news for its racist content. Most of the viewers opine that this channel encourages antisemitism.
If you are eager to start your own live video streaming service, you should definitely try Streamhash. This turnkey video sharing script lets you build your own Netflix clone and YouTube clone website. It comes with three incredible themes. To know more about its features, please click here.
If you have any concerns, feel free to drop a line or two in the comments section. I shall reply in a day or two. My best wishes are with you and your live video streaming venture. Cheers!
