As a law firm operating – and advertising – in the digital space, videos are likely an important part of your law firm’s marketing strategy. And if that’s the case, you’re not alone: 93 percent of marketers used video in their efforts during 2013. But where should you make them available? In this blog post, we’ll examine Vimeo v. YouTube for Law Firm Videos.
Availability and Features
Both services are freely available to U.S. individual users and businesses. However, Vimeo is geared more towards business users as a service, while YouTube skews toward entertaining individual consumers. Vimeo has both a free and paid service. But users with free accounts can only upload a limited amount of videos on the site – however these videos are generally high quality renderings displayed on a larger player than their YouTube counterpart.
The business services focus of Vimeo can also be seen on its homepage. While YouTube displays currently trending videos (often videos going viral that given day), Vimeo instead chooses to show ‘Staff Picks’ as their homepage features. The message is clear: quality of content, not degree of exposure is what the Vimeo service values and emphasizes.
Web Traffic
If your first thought for video hosting was to use YouTube, you’re not alone. The Google-owned company is the world’s largest video sharing platform, with more than 1 billion unique users watching over 6 billion hours of video each month.
Vimeo’s traffic, on the other hand, is more modest. Though the video service continues to increase in popularity, its 100 million users are far less than its biggest competitor. If you’re looking to get as many views on your video as possible, as will likely be the case with a marketing video, you’ll likely choose YouTube. But if you’re looking for a 3rd parting video hosting service for video display on your own website, Vimeo can give you what you need.
Costs and Advertising
As mentioned, YouTube is a free service. Vimeo, on the other hand, is only free with limited uploads. Businesses looking to make extensive use of the service have to pay $199 per year, but in turn receive integration with FTPs and Dropbox, mobile, tablet and TV compatibility, customizable video player, full HTML5 compatibility, third party video player support, and – of course – unlimited downloads. These advanced features are not available on YouTube.com, rather YouTube provides a “what you see is what you get” type video player.
Another significant difference between the two services is their approach to advertising. While YouTube offers pre-roll ads, sponsored placement and in-video banners, Vimeo offers none of the above. In fact, the Vimeo experience includes no advertisements at all.
That’s great news if you’re looking for a platform to host your deposition videos and video settlement brochures; afterall, showing the video to a client or in the courtroom while waiting for a car commercial to finish playing severely reduces credibility. On the other hand, if you’re looking to spread the word about your law firm via video advertising, YouTube might be a great choice.
The Verdict
In the end, the choice between Vimeo and YouTube comes down to your priorities. Vimeo’s reduced traffic may not be that great if you’re trying to create a viral video marketing campaign. But their business services are awesome for law firms employing marketing campaigns to show videos to new users within your own website. And for case related media content, Vimeo’s professional appearance, lack of on video advertising and reasonable cost make it a great option for long-term long-form video hosting. Contact us today to help you find a solution that’s tailored specifically to your law firm!
