Your website is the center of your business universe. If it’s not, you need to make it so. Your website is the vehicle that can reach the largest number of potential customers with a complete message.
Prior to the debut of the internet, business owners relied on their physical location and traditional media to reach their potential customers. The sign out front, newspaper, radio, television, direct mail, yellow pages, billboards, and word-of-mouth. While some of these mediums are still valid for reaching potential customers (television being the most powerful), customers have altered their habits. They no longer see your ad, then get in their car and come visit or call on the phone. Now they visit your website first and decide whether they want to move further.
Your website is probably full of text and photos and naturally, you want potential customers to go there and read all of your fascinating content. The problem is, few people today are willing to read long, complex paragraphs of text. It’s just too much work and too time consuming in our world of digital instant gratification. That’s where your new secret weapon comes into play: Video. Over the years, newspaper (I have to read it), gave way to radio (you read it to me), gave way to television (you read it to me, andshow it to me).
Consumers have gotten used to being able to sit back and passively let someone tell them the benefits of a product or service, without having to read lots of text.
Why use video?
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Video can help your visitor understand things that are complex.
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Video brings emotion to personalize your story- introduces the person or people behind the site.
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Video adds more content that search engines like, so you get more space on the search results.
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Video gets you more traffic to your site with proper SEO.
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Videos are easy to maintain and have a powerful impact.
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Videos increase time spent on your website.
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Videos are very “sticky”- they are engaging and draw attention.
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Video increases conversion rates – more engagement, more sales.
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Video can be interactive, with clickable links to help you up-sell products.
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Video can help establish a spokesperson for your company.
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Video can be used in a PR crisis to explain a situation to customers.
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Video can make your company look bigger and more professional than it actually is.
How to use video? When you’re planning video for your website, it is important to remember that consumers (who have been exposed to television for many years) are accustomed to very professional video footage. If you are not prepared to shoot and edit video with good quality picture resolution, professional editing, high quality sound and great graphics, then hire someone who is good at it.
Your site can use video in a number of creative ways:
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Customer testimonials – When a real customer says your business provides excellent products and services, potential customers will be impressed, and will be more likely to do business with you.
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A message from the owner/president/executive – Customers like to put a face to a company. A video message from the owner, talking about how committed the company is to its’ customers, can go a long way.
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A tour of your facilities – Show the physical location of your business to potential customers so they can see how professional you are.
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Demonstrations – Educational videos that teach how to use your products or services or demonstrate your expertise in your business field.
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Create a news segment – What’s the latest at your company? What’s new in your industry? What is your most recent press release about?
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Publish other experts’ videos that pertain to your business.
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Web-based commercials – Have a commercial about your business on your website, or actually run your broadcast television commercials on your site.
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Sell stuff – If you have products that can be purchased on your site, a video that shows how the product works and how to buy it will help sales.
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Use video to promote a special event — a sale, a new product, a new staff member, or new services.
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Help consumers interact with your brand – Ask customers to send videos of themselves using your products; let them embed your videos on their sites or social media pages; or have a contest with a video invitation to participate.
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Encourage return visitors – With high quality videos released on a regular schedule, you can encourage visitors to keep coming back to your site. Try episodic videos (“Next week we will show you how to use the blender to mash potatoes….”)
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Add video to online directories — Add your company videos to all of the video search engines (i.e., YouTube, etc.)
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Offer a transcriptof your video as a download — Sometimes people who watch your video want a written copy so they can review what you have taught them.
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Send out online press releases to websites that might have interest in your new video. This will drive traffic to your site if they publish your announcement. You can also respond to PR crisis situations and tell your side of the story.
In short, video is the secret weapon that will enable you to move your company’s site out of the old “website as a brochure” space, and into the more advanced and digitally interactive space that will enhance your ability to do commerce and encourage communication with your customers.