Why does a business website need a video?

First impressions

Your average website visitor is a demanding creature. And a little bit lazy. Or busy. And needs information quickly. As a website owner you have less than five seconds to grab your visitors and get them to stay: less than a second to grab them visually and four seconds after that to woo them with content and encourage them to click through.

Why does a business website need a video?
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This is why good design, engaging copy and effective calls to action are vital to make a website a success. So, why does a business website need a video? Adding a video to your site can make a huge difference to a company’s conversion rate and make the dissemination of information to customers much more effective. Here’s how…

People like watching things

Watching TV and films are passive activities – there’s little effort involved. Reading is an active pastime and requires a modicum of effort. A well-made video on your website can deliver your message without requiring any effort from your visitor. Huge blocks of text are a turn-off which visitors will skim read and potentially miss something you are trying to convey. Most of us would be happy to sit through a 90 second company video which could deliver the same message as 1000 words.

Customers can meet you without actually meeting you

Sometimes customers will want to sound you out before making contact – which is kind of the point of a lot of websites. Video enables them to see what you’re like, the services you offer, what your personality is like and how you can help them. Think of it almost like a consultation meeting and there’s the old adage ‘people don’t buy the product, they buy the person’.

Videos are sticky

The majority of website visitors will leave in under thirty seconds. A 90 second video gets visitors to stay and if carefully scripted, with references to other pages or features on the website, you have an increased chance of keeping the visitor on your site, them contacting you and making the all-important conversion. It’s also easier to engage with people emotionally with a well-produced video than with written text and emotions affect buying habits.

Videos are ‘on-demand’

“Are you looking for something in particular?” “No thanks, just browsing.” This happens a lot when I’m out shopping. Pushy sales techniques are generally ineffective and put people’s backs up. A video on a site is an invitation to learn more about you and your business and there for when the visitor would like to see it and there if they want to come back and see it again. One thing though, videos that autoplay on page load fall into the pushy sales techniques category – invite customers in, don’t inflict yourself on them.

Videos are versatile

A carefully planned video can be used in various places not just on your website. I have a client who is planning a customer testimonial video for his website but also intends to include it as a DVD with all his customer proposals and contract tenders. This will increase his chances of winning a contract and if one person is influenced by the inclusion of the video then it’s paid for itself.

And finally…

What are the top three search engines? Google, Bing and Yahoo in that order? Arguably, (and it has been argued) YouTube is the second largest search engine with over 3 billion searches each month. A well optimised video or YouTube channel is not to be overlooked in order to improve rankings and gain customers. And, Google owns YouTube. Food for thought. If you would like more information about including a video on your website, please follow this link for Web Design Liverpool and I’d be happy to help. Hopefully speak to you soon.

 

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