More and more I have been becoming a believer in the power of videos on websites and landing pages for conversions. I’ve been reading various studies on the connection between video and conversion increase, and all have supported the use of video marketing as a key tool to increase engagement and conversions.
Videos offer a number of benefits; most importantly:
- Videos allow you to demonstrate a product or solution simply. Pictures represent a thousand words, and thus a demo video explaining a process can easily show prospects how you solve problems.
- For competing websites that tend to look the same, a video can personalize yourself, or your company mission. Humanizing yourself or your firm builds trust, and trust increases conversions.
Here are some ways to make online videos effective:
- Test autoplay versus press play. Usually it’s best not to have autoplay, unless the video is short and compelling.
- Make sure there’s a strong CTA or call-to-action. Whether the CTA is visible as an overlay, closing slide, or via an audio message, usually a combination works best. Personally, an audio CTA can be more persuasive, taking advantage of the impact of a voice.
- Keep as short as possible. If the video is a demo, stay focused and get the point across quickly. People don’t like to read long passages; likewise people don’t like to sit through long uninteresting videos. A minute is an ideal length. Remember, people rarely watch a video to the end- so most important info first.
- Utilize testimonials. These can be extremely persuasive and inspire trust and credibility. Rotate multiple testimonials if possible.
- Like all important information, videos should be placed above the fold, and the video player should be fairly large (480px x 720px ideal). Also, make sure they are professionally made. The style, look-feel, motion graphics, and audio should all look and sound professional. Remember- first impression.
- Promote the video within social media, if it acts as a standalone. Certainly on YouTube, but also video syndication sites like TubeMogul and Vimeo.
Finally, measure the video plays. We have been using Google Analytics event tracking to measure client videos. I recently stumbled upon a new analytics tool, Wistia, that provides video hosting, video SEO, video measurement, and other video optimization services. We can measure who plays a video, how long they watch, and where they stop, without worrying about coding.
Here’s a link to our video marketing services.
Are you using video yet on your landing pages? What’s stopping you? Increased conversions are at stake. And that means more leads into your funnel.
