The past year brought about many unexpected changes to our day-to-day lives, but what we did expect is that everyone would be spending more time online while stuck inside. And we did. And watching video content took up a large chunk of that time.
According to HubSpot, 71% of people watch more video in 2021 than they did a year ago. This alarming increase in video consumption only further supports the need for implementing a video marketing strategy for your brand. If you are a part of the 83% of marketers and business owners who understands the importance of video marketing and would increase your reliance on video if it weren’t for obstacles like lack of time, resources and budget, monetizing your videos is the next step.
What is video monetization?
Video monetization—tactics that allow you to earn income for the videos you publish online—will help you get more miles out of your investment. Not to be misconstrued with getting paid to create videos, video monetization allows you the ability to get paid to grant access to your individual content pieces, your viewers or your platform. So, how can you take advantage of video monetization for your brand? Here are a few examples.
Access to your videos, audience or platform
Much like how you have to pay for a subscription to Netflix or NFL Game Pass, you can charge for access to your brand’s videos or entire video content library. YouTube used to be the go-to for this particular approach, but platforms like Patreon have become popular and allow brands or influencers to create membership platforms easily.
Live streaming videos—on your own platform or social media platforms like Vimeo, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn or Twitch—can be monetized by utilizing paywalls or subscription access. Live streaming is incredibly lucrative right now too. Audiences spend three times more time watching live video than pre-recorded video, with 47% of people streaming more live video content than last year.
Albert Lawrence, guest on our 5 Questions Blog, hosts a live streaming show with Amazon Live titled Night Light with Albert Lawrence.
Advertising and affiliate marketing
Whenever you watch an online show and the host incorporates a video ad that mentions a product or company, that business paid for that insert. Brands pay the host to publish their video ad in their show’s programming to raise awareness and interest for their business, aka access to the online show’s audience. You’ve probably noticed a few Instagram influencers or TikTok creators who post content with a specific product and a discount code in the caption. These are both examples of advertising (and more specifically, sponsorships) and affiliate marketing, providing the user the opportunity to generate income off of their published videos.
Frequent collaborators of Lure's, James Bonanno and Anna McNaught aka @leavethemap, used TikTok for their partnership with Clif Bar.
Affiliate marketing has become an extremely popular monetization method—the second highest-ranked advertising revenue generator after Google AdSense—and all you need to do to start is to link those outside products and services in exchange for a commission on each sale. Affiliate Window and Sharesale are two networks that offer a platform for affiliate marketing.
There are countless places where you can distribute your video content and multiple tactics you can use to earn back revenue, but none of these options will be effective without a strong video marketing strategy foundation. Choosing which video monetization strategies will work for you must depend on the needs of your business and audience in both the short and long term. Regardless of which strategy you move forward with, earning additional income on your brand videos will put money you invested in creating the videos back into your pocket.
Still have questions about how to get started with video marketing or how to get the most out of your video marketing investment with monetization tactics? We’re here to help you with a free consultation to figure out the best video approach in this current climate. Give us a call at 323.596.0606 or email us at sales@lure-digital.com.