Video lifts your website

Mention the word ‘video’ to someone in a marketing department and watch them get all twitchy. You can tell by the way they start rolling their eyes that they’re already living the experience of explaining to their boss why they spent half the company’s marketing budget on a two-minute clip. “Wait!” you say, “It’s not like that.” But they’ve already run away screaming. It’s a conundrum. On the one hand a cheap handycam-style video can do you a power of disservice. On the other hand if you could afford Peter Jackson, he’d already be on the payroll! The difficulty is that the numbers are too convincing to ignore. A recent study by Yellow Pages revealed that an astonishing 52% of people who viewed video online subsequently took action. Most of us would be thrilled if even 10% of those who visited our website took some sort of action, but 52%!! And the contributing factor? Just in case you missed it the first time, it was the presence of video that gave those keen web-surfers that extra little kick of confidence they needed to move from tyre kicker, to customer. After all isn’t that what we want to achieve? Sales! It wasn’t long ago that we were all told, “If you don’t have a web presence you’ll be left behind.” Now it is far more complicated than that. It has to be interactive, engaging and supply constant new content; all that Web 2.0 has forced upon us. Yes, it costs, but the rewards can be truly fantastic. Video taps the emotions. It draws people into your world. We can all instantly relate to the ‘show, don’t tell’ methodology of marketing – what better way to show than to use the moving image? The power of seeing one of your existing customers deliver a heart-felt testimonial on-screen can’t be over-estimated. That’s without the obvious benefits of people feeling that they can trust you, that you really do exist, and that the product is genuine and does what it says on the tin. Nearly 70% of people are more likely to buy products online after seeing a web commercial. Put simply, it doesn’t have to cost the earth. For something akin to the price of a nicely printed brochure you can distribute your message for free to as many people as you can possibly encourage to visit your site. Ask yourself the question: “How will my site capture the attention of a fickle surfer?” With the average time spent visiting a website somewhere around 30-60 seconds, capturing attention is vital to your success. Video is the obvious choice to make that happen, effectively demonstrate your offering and above all – make the sale!