Vidyard's new free plan gives your business no excuse to avoid video

If you’ve been hanging around the IMPACT water cooler for any length of time, you’ve surely heard all the buzz about how much of a role video is having in the lives of consumers today. 

And while it doesn’t seem like it’s one of those trends you can ignore, making it practical for your business from a financial perspective can be a challenge.

However, a free updated offering from Vidyard is basically eliminating any excuse you might have for not diving into video headfirst for your business. Let’s talk about it.

Note: Yes, Vidyard is a sponsor/partner of ours, but there’s no “#sponsored” or “#ad” behind this post. We’re just announcing this because it’s awesome news. :) 

First off, remind me: why is video so important for businesses?

According to a study from Uscreen, 96% of consumers found video helpful in making a buying decision. 

And one stat we mention all the time is how going into 2020, more than 80% of the buying decision is made before a prospect ever talks to a salesperson (we call this the “zero moment of truth”).

Pair that with the fact that more than 80% of the content consumed online is video — and there’s only one reasonable next step for businesses looking to keep up in 2020.

In short, video content is just as important today — if not more so — than written content on your site. If you have one without the other, you’re leaving valuable prospect engagement on the table. And that’s not even to mention the time it can save your team in the sales process.

And we’re not even talking about high-end production video – the amount of benefit that just a webcam video can have to your business, like what Vidyard offers, can be substantial for your company.

So, once you’re on the same page about why this is important, your next thought is probably something along the lines of, “Where and how do I get started with video?”

Well, I’m glad you asked!

How Vidyard’s free video hosting eliminates the excuse to not embrace video

The thing is, there are plenty of plans and offerings out there, but what if your organization just doesn't have the budget or isn’t willing to make the investment in video? 

How can you help them see the light?

Budgets and management buy-in can always be a stumbling block when looking to embrace a new technology, especially when they need you to prove the ROI before making any financial investment.

Well, for all those folks, you’re in luck!

Vidyard’s free version has so much value that it’s a great proof of concept for any company that wants to get started with seeing how video can help — without needing to put dollars behind it.

Think creating video is hard? 

With Vidyard’s free plan and Chrome extension, recording up to an hour-long video to send to a prospect or for marketing efforts are just a click away. 

You can leave a personalized video message to put in an email, or you can even do a part video, part screen capture if you need to walk through something that’s difficult to explain. You can also upload unlimited videos to your library and you’ll get a link to it that you can share.

For sales, having a video in an email makes the prospect feel a little more connected to you. It can also help engagement rates and help you stand out from all those sales emails people are bombarded with.

Even though you may also think you can just upload videos to YouTube and then embed or link to them on your page, you still have the issue of driving folks away from your site and subjecting them to ads. 

That’s one of many reasons why a video hosting platform like Vidyard is ideal for businesses. 

For one, Vidyard has no ads, and second, you can embed up to five free videos to your site. Vidyard also offers better analytics.

For the next level paid option, the Pro Plan is $15/month (billed annually) and increases the embeddable videos on your site to 20, while allowing you to download your videos and add your own logo to the video sharing page. 

More comprehensive plans allow for a fully customizable player, interactive CTAs, analytics, and A/B testing capabilities. 

Showing the value of video to your team

Though the free option is limited in a few ways – like the number of videos you can embed on your site, the lack of automatic captions, and the inability to download and customize your video share page – it definitely has what it takes to get started and show value to your whole team.

Whether that’s for marketers to send video with screen share to prospects, or for sales teams to include personalized video in their emails, there are endless ways you can incorporate video into your business communication, marketing, and sales strategies.

And hey, considering it’s that time of year to spread good cheer: Check out Vidyard’s fun personalized holiday appreciation video template you can send to clients and coworkers to make them smile!