This blog post tops off my four-part “Now What?” series that has covered three critical components to sales conversions after SEO and increased traffic trends have been achieved: Call-to-action, sleek design and killer sales copy. In the last post I wrote about writing good sales copy. The main thing to take away is that good facts and insightful information is all you really need to sell. So give the facts and just make them sound good!
Using Video to Close Prospects
In my opinion, the fourth and final element is originality and making sure that your site stands out. You will want people to remember your site long after they leave it. The best compliment you can ever get would be if someone tells their buddy about this great site they found the other day and recommended that they check it out. If you ever hear this- mission accomplished.
In essence, a unique Web site is the final element and this can be accomplished in many different ways. I will talk about biggest marketing trend of the moment first: videos.
Videos are the wave of the future and it’s all because the general public is lazy and they don’t like to read. Unfortunately, the Internet is all about reading – for now. So when consumers see a video, they almost immediately jump into action and hit play. Videos are also beneficial because they can show things that you can’t describe in words. For example, you can show how people are wearing your clothes, how to use your new invention and where your offices are located.
Videos are fantastic for giving your Web site what I call a ‘human element’. Suddenly, the visitor doesn’t feel alone. When it is no longer just a screen, your Web site and the visitor, great things can happen! If you do the video right, your visitors will feel like they are taking a journey with you; the video is the introduction to that journey.
I saw a great video on the homepage of a real estate Web site: the owner of the company simply greeting me and thanking me for using her site. She walked me through the different tools that I can use on her site and how to navigate it. More videos of her popped up on various pages throughout the site so that I felt like she was my personal tour guide. However, this did get annoying after the second video, so be careful not to go overboard.
Now that you are very excited about creating a video for your Web site, take a moment and read my important disclaimers. Here is your No. 1 rule: every video must be under one minute and fifteen seconds. Remember in my first post when I said that you have approximately fifteen seconds to grab the attention of your visitors with sales copy before they click off? Same rule applies in video land.
No matter how much everyone likes you, no visitor wants to watch and listen to what you have to say for more than one minute, if that! Just like comedians always like to leave the stage on a good note, you should end your video long before your visitor has a chance to check how much time is left on the stream. Say what you need to say or show what you need to show. Then get off the air.
You can speak directly to your visitors and welcome them to your site or you can play some music and hire someone to make you some intense graphics. You can run your voice over some animation or you can show your audience a chart of important statistics. So long as you are under a minute and fifteen seconds, you will be fine.
Other things to consider besides a video to make your Web site unique:
-Cover Flow: show off your amazing portfolio, feature your different products or post funny pictures. This is a great feature because it uses the same prime real estate on your home page, but rotates pictures so that your visitor can see so much more!
-Flash: a very simple way to trick your visitors into thinking that your site is interactive. Super enlarge icons when visitors scroll over them, make funny icons dance while the cursor is moving or simply dim the lights in the background when your visitor is requesting an enlarged view of your product.
-Google Maps: this is helpful for visitors to see where you are located. It is a really convenient feature for them and it makes you look like you are a lot more technically savvy than you let on.
-Music: I hesitate on this because music can easily annoy people and making them turn down the volume on their computers and violates the ‘don’t make them think!’ rule. But who am I to judge? Sometimes it works. I have encountered some Web sites that play funny sound effects when I scroll over something or visit another page. This was somewhat less annoying.
Ending on a video note, it is important to realize that videos really are the wave of the future as far as the Internet, advertising and communicating. In fact, not too long ago I met a very interesting salesman who sold video email hosting for businesses and personal use. Many companies that are strictly focused on producing great videos for other companies are quickly springing up and growing fast. Finally, more and more advertisers are relying on video advertisements to get the job done better than their print ads.
However, this could be just another marketing fad when all is said and done. I guess it depends on how attached the average Internet surfer is to words. My guess is not very much.
The key factor to remember from this blog post is to make your video memorable and to end your video before your visitors end their session on your Web site first.
In case you missed the prior 3 posts from this series, please follow the links below.
Three things I can’t stand, on a website.
1) Ads that flash
2) Heavy Flash animation
3) Music!
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy music, chances are the music playing on a website will be something I don’t like.
I do think video has only just started, & we will see a jump in Ads kinda like what HULU is doing (TV on the net).
I like the point “taking the journey with you” and end your video before your visitors do. good job!