If you spend any time on the Internet at all you won’t fail to have noticed that video marketing is taking the digital world by storm.
Online videos are quickly becoming the largest and most effective tool for displaying information and entertaining content.
In fact, the largest networking company in the world, Cisco, reported that by 2017, video will make up for 69% of all consumer internet traffic.
Most people online are in a hurry and have a short attention span, so do much less reading. As a result, video adds a lot of muscle to your marketing. If you’re not using videos to get your message across and promoting your products and services, you need to make adding them to your marketing mix a high priority.
If you need convincing of the power of video, the following points should help:
- Only 20% of visitors read the text on a website whereas 80% of visitors will watch the same content on the same website in video form.
- The retention rate for visual information can reach 65% compared with 10% for text-based information, according to Social Media Today.
- Visitors who watch a video on a website stay two minutes longer than average and are 64% more likely to make a purchase.
- Google gives more weight to videos than standard web pages, especially YouTube videos.
- 71% of customers say that video is the best way to bring product features to life.
How to Create Attention-Grabbing Videos
The following tips will help to ensure your videos grab the interest and attention of your prospective customers or clients.
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Start with a brief introduction
Begin your video by telling people what it is about and why they should watch the rest of it. For example, “Hi, it’s [Your name] from [your company name]. In this short video, I’m going to cover [the solution/insight or problem you’ll solve].”
Tell people very briefly why it’s important they know what you’re going to tell them.
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Cover one idea per video
Keep your message succinct and focussed by covering just one idea in your video. Solve one problem. Address one challenge you know your target audience has.
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Use a call-to-action
Your video should inspire and motivate people to take some sort of action. For example, you could ask your audience to share or comment on your video or take up your special offer.
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Audio quality is important
Whether you are shooting live footage or using simple voice-over narration, quality audio is critical. Poor audio tracks will distort your message and distract your audience, so it’s a good idea to invest in a quality microphone to record all audio. This doesn’t have to be expensive.
Clip-on microphones work best for talking head and interview content while any simple microphone can drastically improve the quality of pre-recorded narration.
Hire professional voice-over artists to bring your audio to an even higher level.
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Keep your focus on your audience
Keep your target audience in your mind from the beginning and throughout the process of creating your videos. Imagine that you are talking to just one customer with the aim of answering a specific question or solving a problem.
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Add a video to your website home page
Gaining the interest of your website visitors is crucial, and a video will do that for you. People are naturally drawn to videos out of curiosity. Therefore, by placing a video on your home page, the visitor’s attention will be instantly captured upon landing on the site. This interest will then lead them to watch the video to see what it is all about.
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Increase the time people spend watching your video
It’s not enough just to grab your visitors’ attention: you need to keep it!
Adding interactive elements to your video will encourage people to view it for longer. For example, you can add a drop-down box where they can gather additional information; a slide-out box where they can link to other videos; or a ‘sign-up now’ button that will take them to the next step.
With each application you add to your video, you increase the visitor’s time on your site. This is crucial, because those who spend more time on your site are usually the same ones who become customers.
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Make sure your video is relevant to the content on the web page
Ensure the video you place on a web page or landing page is relevant to the text. There is nothing more annoying for visitors than realising the video has nothing to do with what they’re looking for. Base your web page content on what relates to your target market specifically.
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Offer more than one video
One video alone won’t compel visitors to buy your products or use your services. You need to create videos for several specific target audiences. A recent study indicates that companies using video marketing successfully create 11 times more videos than those companies that are unsuccessful with it.
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Put videos where they can support your marketing messages
Place video in the logical place where it can best support your marketing message. For example:
- If a video introduces your company, post it on the home page.
- If a video explains a product in detail, add it to the product page.
- If a video contains a testimonial from a customer, place it next to the product it refers to or add it to your ‘About Us’ or ‘Why You Should Choose Us’ section.
- If your video is related to an event, post it in a blog article or news item that mentions it.
Having video on your website is no longer an option, it’s a must – the Internet has become a multi-media experience.
Your prospective customers expect to see video when they visit your website. A website without video is perceived as dull and outdated and will lose you customers.
Using video marketing is essential for you to build the ‘know/like/ trust’ factor quickly.
Effective use of video places you at a massive advantage over your competitors: instead of a faceless business, you’re now someone with a face and a voice who is answering the questions in the prospective customer’s mind.
Instant Credibility
When customers arrive at your site and see a video, two things happen immediately:
- Your company gains instant authority. That authority increases sales and allows you to engage in premium pricing (the ability to charge higher prices than your competitors).
- You capture and keep your visitors’ attention. This is critical: 50% of people leave most websites within eight seconds. They leave because static words and pictures are no longer enough to hold their interest. They want and expect the kind of multimedia experience that video offers. Your videos will keep your visitors on your website for longer, which means you will have the time to explain fully what you are offering. This in turn will increase sales and enquiries.
Getting Up and Running
There are so many apps and affordable editing software out there that makes producing videos so much easier and cheaper.
In the past, companies had to spend vast sums of money in order to produce a decent video advertisement. Powerful technology is now in the palm of your hand either on your smartphone or tablet.
However, even with that technology at your disposal, there is still the learning curve…and of course, time…or lack of it.
Most local business owners simply don’t have the time to invest in creating their own videos, even if the return on income is huge.
If you want professional videos on your site that will increase sales and engagement with your visitors, please contact us today.
We will create high definition videos for you. We will also use a professional presenter, who will bring charisma and life to your product or service!
We’ll write the scripts, and you’ll be given final approval before filming. You’ll be thrilled with the results.
We look forward to hearing from you.
