Video is booming, and no wonder organizations are looking for powerful ways to add videos into their content marketing strategy. The video content management system is the chassis of your content marketing strategy. No matter how great your content is, if your CMS can’t manage it, your videos won’t have the impact it deserves. This might sound silly, but many video streaming services fail as their video CMS can’t keep up with their growth expectations. The fact that you can’t switch your CMS easily makes your choice critical. This becomes more important if you are thinking about how to make a website like YouTube.
So what are the factors you must look for when picking a CMS for your video platform? What are the features you must prioritize?
In this blog, we will find answers to all these questions and more.
Factors to look for in a video CMS
Once you have decided to choose a reputed video CMS for your organization, you must consider the following factors.
Smart and intelligent search
As your video library grows, it becomes more challenging to manage and organize the database. This issue can be easily addressed with a dedicated video CMS for your organization. Best video management systems allow users to conduct searches according to categories, titles, tags, and other filters. Implementing a smart search is critical as it helps users to find their favorite videos even if they don’t remove the exact topic name.
Cataloging
When building your video platform, you must focus on cataloging. Your users might be looking for their preferred videos among a long list of videos in your library. A professional video CMS must support organizing your content through categories and metadata. You must allow users to create playlists for smooth navigation and playback. This is not just helpful for users but also for the admins to manage hundreds or thousands of videos effortlessly.
Sharing features
The video management solution you choose must feature effective sharing functionalities that makes sharing easy. Most video CMS allows you to share videos through a private link. Using these features, you can effortlessly restrict unauthorized access and viewable by users it is intended for.
CDN
With the popularity of remote working worldwide, organizations need their staff to get access to the content, attend meetings, and take part in webinars from different geographical locations. This is when CDNs or content delivery networks become important. An ideal video management system must feature a powerful CDN that supports the smooth delivery of videos.
Security
When you are running a video platform, not every video is intended for public viewing. Security and privacy are important for video content like meetings, product demos, and other corporate videos.
The security features offered by a video CMS is critical as it protects your videos from illegal third party access and downloads. Look for solutions that provide 128-bit AES HLS encryption and advanced video restrictions based on IP and location to protect your content and video platform against unauthorized access.
Live streaming
From podcasts to meetings, everything is conducted through live streaming over the internet. An ideal video management system must have live streaming functionality with additional security. You must be able to stream in real-time, protect your content, and restrict access if required.
Monetization capabilities
Video marketing is growing at a rapid pace, and most businesses have started selling tickets for live events and set up access to high-quality content using pay-per-view mode. Hence your video CMS must allow you to monetize your video content. Integrating monetization capabilities to your video platform is the most important aspect to look out for.
Some of the popular monetization models you can adopt are:
Subscription model: Users consume the content for a monthly or yearly fee.
Advertisement model: Users watch the content for free but along with the ads placed on the content.
Transactional model: Users buy individual videos that they want to watch.
Tips for choosing the best video CMS
You know the importance of a video CMS and the features to consider. Now here are some effective tips for choosing the best CMS:
- Set your expectations
The first step is to list out your expectations and compare them with the availability in the industry. Failing to process this step will lead you to spend more money on the features you don’t even need. List out the features you need and compare them with the CMS you have shortlisted. Then prioritize the features and which one to cut off from the list. Each CMS solution will have different features, and it is totally up to you to select the ones that suit your requirements.
- Visualize your video website correctly
One of the important things you must do when implementing a new CMS is to gather all the requirements and consult with all of your stakeholders. Planning to fail is equal to failing to plan. Half the work is done if you visualize your website correctly, as you can develop a business plan that helps to achieve your specific business goals.
- Look for scalability
When choosing a video CMS, scalability must be your first priority. Change is inevitable for any growing video business, and changes must be handled appropriately. The video solution you choose must be flexible to customize the features and functionalities according to the requirements.
- Select CMS that supports Omnichannel
Even if your video-sharing website is currently only leveraging desktop sites, it’s important to consider other platforms as well. This could have a lot of benefits in the future. Modern content comes in the mobile of AR, VR, and there are signs of slowing down. Hence, ensure that you select a CMS that is able to offer support for new channels and platforms.
- Support is as important as the CMS
The CMS you choose must have all the things you need, but if the solution provider is not able to help you when you require assistance, it spells chaos. Choose a video CMS that offers professional customer support to save your business time and money.
Conclusion
Choosing the right CMS from the plethora of choices available in the market is a tricky affair; however, it’s not impossible. If you have an idea about your business requirements and goals, you can choose the right CMS solution for your business.
