How to deliver video to clients: a workflow for editors
A step-by-step way to deliver video to clients: a review link they can watch first, a password and expiry for unreleased work, a clean final download and an embed.
To deliver video to clients, give every stage its own private link: a rough cut they can watch in the browser, a password and an expiry date on anything unreleased, and a plain download for the final film. Public hosting is built for an audience. Delivery is built for one client who needs to watch, answer and sign off. This article walks through each stage, what to set, and what Tarkle can and cannot do for video today.
Hosting for an audience is not delivery to a client
A public video host is designed to get a film in front of as many viewers as possible: showreels, trailers, finished campaigns, pages that search engines can find. If that is the job, Vimeo or another dedicated video host is the better fit, and so is any platform that offers ads or audience reports.
Delivering a cut to one client is a different job. The link should reach one person or one team, the film may be unreleased, and the client should be able to watch without making an account or hunting for a download button. You also want the link to stop working when the project is over. Those are access settings, not marketing features, and they are the ones to look for when you pick a tool.
Prepare the cut and your sending address
Before you send anything, export a version a browser can play. An H.264 MP4 is the safest choice for review. Keep your high-bitrate master for the final handover, and put the version in the file name: ClientName_ProductFilm_v02_review.mp4.
Decide where the link will live too. A link on your own domain, with your logo and colours, looks like part of your studio instead of a stranger's file drop. Tarkle lets you send from your own domain on every plan, and the four layers of branded sharing are covered in their own article, so set it up once and reuse it for every project.
Send the rough cut with a built-in player
The point of a review link is that the client watches first. They should not have to download a 4 GB file to find out you used the wrong take.
In Tarkle, you can share video with a built-in player and the recipient watches in the browser with no account. There are two ways to send a cut:
A Videos transfer. Choose Videos, add the file, give it a title and a short summary, then create the transfer. The client gets a video page with the player, your title and your branding. Under settings you decide whether to Allow download and whether to Show watermark during playback, which overlays your workspace name and turns downloads off.
A Files transfer. Add the video like any other file. The recipient sees a file list, clicks the video and it opens in the same player. Tick View only and the Download button disappears, so they can watch but not keep the file.
Browsers decide what they can decode, so test the link yourself before you send it. If a format does not play, the recipient sees a message with a Download button instead of a player. An H.264 MP4 avoids this.
You can also see whether the transfer was delivered, viewed or downloaded with transfer status. That tells you the client has opened the cut. It is not a report on watch time or audience behaviour, and Tarkle does not offer one.
Protect unreleased work with a password and an expiry date
Rough cuts of unreleased work should not sit on an open link for ever. Two settings cover most cases: a password, and a date after which the link stops working.
The password needs to travel by a different route than the link. If the link and password are in the same email, the password adds little. Send the link by email and the password by message, or say it on the call.
The expiry date should match the review window. A one-week review gets a link that expires a day or two after the deadline, and you can always send a fresh link if the client is late.
In Tarkle, use a Files transfer for this. Tick Password protected and set a password, tick Expiration date and pick a day on the calendar. The tools are password protection and link expiration. Two limits are worth knowing. The expiry is a calendar date, not a "7 days" preset. And a Videos transfer made from an upload does not show password or expiry settings in the sender screens today, so a Files transfer is the route for a protected review cut. (A Videos transfer made from a pasted link, such as a Vimeo link, does offer a password.)
Collect comments and approval without losing them in email
Tarkle's feedback and approval tool, on the Get feedback screen and available on the Free plan, works on PDFs and images today. It does not take video files. A client cannot leave comments on a cut inside Tarkle or approve a film there.
Where it does fit a video job: storyboards, treatments, shot lists, thumbnails and colour stills. The client opens the link, types their name and email (no account), pins comments on the image or page, and ends with Approve this work or Request changes. You get an email for each new comment and for the final decision.
For the cut itself, keep feedback in one place: a single email thread, or a shared note, with timecoded points ("01:12, trim the second line"). Ask the client to send one consolidated list from their team rather than five separate replies. Approval by a reply that says "approved, go ahead" is enough for most jobs, as long as you save it.
How to deliver video to clients: the final handover
When the client approves, send the final in a form they can use. Two cases come up.
The client's team wants a page. Send a Videos transfer with Allow download ticked. They watch it, then download the original file you uploaded, not a re-encoded copy. If you sent several files, there is a Download all button.
One person just wants the file. A direct download link starts the download as soon as it opens, with no page in between. In a Files transfer, tick Direct link on the link tab. Several files arrive as one ZIP named after the transfer. Read about direct download links before you rely on it: it cannot be combined with a password, an expiry date or view-only, so use it for finals you are happy to have in the client's hands, and keep the review links locked.
Check the size before you send. On the Free plan a single file or transfer is capped at 1 GB, and a final film often goes beyond that. Pro, Agency and lifetime plans support files up to 200 GB.
Embed the finished film on the client's site
If the client wants the film on their own website, a branded player on a page you do not control is often easier than sending a file to their web team.
On a Videos transfer, tick Allow public embedding when you create it. Then open the transfer's three-dot menu, choose Embed video and paste the copied code into the page. You can embed the video on a website with Tarkle's own player and no third-party player. One snippet embeds one video, and embedding is available on Pro, Agency and lifetime plans, not on Free.
An embed is public on whatever page carries it, so only embed films the client has cleared for release. If your film already lives on Vimeo, Tarkle can also wrap a link you host elsewhere in a branded page with a password.
Set this up today
Add your custom domain and logo once, so every link carries your name.
Export the next review cut as an H.264 MP4 and name it with a version number.
Send it in a Files transfer with a password and an expiry date, and send the password separately.
Ask for one consolidated list of timecoded notes, and keep the reply that says approved.
Send the final with Allow download or a direct link, after checking the file size against your plan.
You can try the review link on the Free plan. Start for free and send your next cut from your own domain.
