Video is having more than a moment. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 66% of B2C marketers and 71% of B2B marketers have used video marketing in the last 12 months (If you’re not there yet, you probably should be soon.) 

But not all video creation platforms are up to the task of enabling enterprise-level marketing. If your enterprise brand is tackling video, there are six things to look for in a solution that will help you weed out the right partners that offer real value—from those that just want to dabble in the enterprise space. 

1. Fully integrates into your platforms and workflows

Every enterprise has a unique workflow, from ideation until the target audience sees a finished video—including different users, content management systems (CMSs), data and content sources, and social channels. You get the picture. 

Your video creation solution should consist of a suite of tools and API integrations that enable your unique video creation workflows rather than force you to work within their confines. And these flexible integrations should be native to the solution. 

Robust integration capabilities and workflow customizations are particularly beneficial for larger, more complex organizations. For example, one of our media clients has their proprietary source of imagery and video footage integrated directly into the platform to avoid manually uploading content for each project, which is critical for speed to market. Workflow customization is also essential for this client. They have a large distribution team of over 140 different publishers across the U.S. and need to run all their content through a complex approval process.

“It’s not just about creating a video and downloading it—it’s a whole solution that enables their unique business workflow and amplifies their brand voice with mass creation,” explains Wochit Co-Founder and CEO Dror Ginzberg.

Your solution should also include the ability to embed your entire video production process into another platform in a white-label fashion—to create a single, seamless solution. For example, if you’re an online marketplace, you might want to integrate video production into your platform so sellers can create and publish videos of their products. 

2. Highly customizable branding

Smaller brands might be okay with picking from a few font and color options to customize their videos. But if you’re an enterprise brand, your videos need to truly reflect your voice, design and motion styles, imagery, tone—at all times, in all locations. So, your video creation templates must be fully customizable. They should also include self-service and white-glove service, allowing you to create and edit templates yourself rather than depending entirely on your partner. While at the same time, you get precisely the branding you need to differentiate your voice in the market.

With about 93,000 employees across 80 countries, one Fortune 500 real estate firm we work with at Wochit understandably struggled with brand compliance. They estimated that about 30-40% of their materials were not on brand. But their many local marketing teams needed to be able to produce videos to promote the firm’s content and individual properties in their geographies. The global digital marketing team used Wochit to create video templates for the local offices—and the problem of non-compliant branding has virtually disappeared. 

Global brands also need to be able to produce videos in a variety of languages. Look for a video creation platform that enables creators to translate their videos efficiently and supports customizable interfaces with language translations in their embedded platform solutions.  

3. Ability to serve a broad range of end-users

Some enterprises have their own video pros in house. Others? Not so much. Many brands rely heavily on individual contributors with no video production experience. You’ll want to look for a video solution with a variety of tools and capabilities to enable both types of users—and the range of people in between. The best video solutions have rethought the production experience to make it simple for everyone that wants (or needs) to get involved. 

Prisma Media—a French publishing company with twenty flagship brands—has enabled their video professionals and all other content creators in the business with this approach. By democratizing video creation across the company, the media brand has been able to: 

• Increase productivity of the video production team by 800%.
• Produce over 27,000 videos in a single year.
• Increase revenue by 60%.

4. Security, compliance, and audience protection

Data security may not be as top of mind in smaller companies. But big brands can’t fool around with GDPR, CCPA, and other data privacy legislation. When it comes to compliance, the first thing to look for in your video solution is SOC 2. This term refers to an auditing process that makes sure a service provider securely manages your data using long-term, ongoing practices.

“If you’re security-conscious at all, SOC 2 is a minimum requirement,” says Dror. “You need to be able to trust that your partners handle your data safely, to protect both the interests of your organization and the privacy of your clients.” 

Another point to consider when evaluating a video creation partner is whether they are in business to provide video creation services—or if they’re actually in business to grow and monetize an audience. If they are building an audience, make sure they aren’t co-opting yours in the process. 

5. Technological innovation

Technology is changing—fast. Enterprise-grade solutions need to keep an eye on the future to continually deliver leading brands the best capabilities. Artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, can offer significant value to video producers. One use case we developed at Wochit allows users to automatically identify objects, both in image and video on screen, to provide the most appropriate location for text, for example.

 “We can identify humans, pets, tables, chairs—you name it—and understand what’s in the video,” says Dror. “We can track faces and see where they go, then change the position of other video elements to match.” 

Another area ripe for improvement is speed. Many video creation tools require 30 minutes or more to render video—and the producer can’t do anything else on their computer during this time. This is a big barrier for any enterprise that needs to produce timely video or high volumes of video—or both. The best solutions bring more processing power to bear and render videos in the cloud. This approach takes half the time and allows users to immediately move on to their next tasks while their video is rendering.

Look for a video solution that continually adds value through new technological advancements—for both speed and ease of use.

6. Strategic service and support

Technical support is table stakes. Any video solution worth your investment should provide onboarding, training, and online support within the platform. But enterprise-grade video solutions also offer more strategic support services.

“It’s not just about how to use the product,” Dror explains. “It’s also about how you choose the right topics, implement your branding in the best way, adapt your videos for various channels, and optimize your performance.”

Look for a dedicated support team that includes video strategy, creative services, and technical integration. Ideally, you’ll have just one point of contact to manage it all for you behind the scenes.

While technology is amazing, ultimately, it’s people that matter most. You deserve a video creation partner that has your back, continuously adds value, and inspires your creativity. Find a provider that takes the time to understand your challenges thoroughly and is genuinely concerned about your success. 

Final word

While there are many video creation tools out there in the market, not all platforms are built to support enterprises. Make sure to carefully evaluate potential solutions against your enterprise business’s needs to get the most value out of your video creation.