Including videos on your website will positively impact the traffic to your site. Video attracts two to three times as many monthly visitors and doubles their time spent on the site (Source: MarketingSherpa). To improve your position on Google, add a video to your landing page and it can make it 53% more likely to show up on page 1 of those results (Source: Mist Media). You may have noticed a number of your competitors jumping on the bandwagon and getting videos added to their websites and while the intentions are often good, there is such a thing as a ‘bad video’.
We asked our videographer, Callum, to give us a run down on what makes a good online video?
Lighting, good quality audio and a high-quality, crisp image all help to make a high impact, watchable online video.
Online video can be a powerful tool for boosting your online presence but done right, it lets your audience quickly engage with your brand and see and hear what your business is about. Online video also lets your customers speak about their experience directly to new potential customers through video testimonials. Video can also be useful in establishing a brand’s personality or style. This can, in some instances, be more important than getting bogged down in details about what services are being offered, or how a service works.
A good online video will know who its audience is (whether this is very broad or very specific), be aware of its tone and style, know where it will be shown and know what its aim is. The goal of a video may be to explain a company’s offering, to promote awareness and discussion about a brand or to show people the experience existing customers have had. Letting customers tell their story in a video can be a very powerful way of getting a brand’s message out there as the audience is being allowed to see through the eyes of others.
With more and more people every day realising the engagement power of online video, there is inevitably a huge diversity in quality of videos that sit on businesses websites.
The All Important Production Value.
I’ve been making online videos for 6 years now across the UK and EU. I think it’s important for a brand or company to make sure their online video content is creative, high quality and clear so that people will want to watch the entire video and engage emotionally with the message. People can have really positive reactions to videos that look great and are creative, especially when they are treated to visual tricks and effects or pleasing motion graphics. The content can be considered important or fantastic on it’s own, but if the video looks and sounds ugly, people will be put off watching the whole video, and that means they may not understand or even hear your whole message.
For example: Imagine a patient testimonial video for a dental practice. The spoken words may be heartfelt, overwhelmingly positive and passionately delivered, yet if the audio is nasty and unclear and the picture is fussy, noisy or shaky, how much is the viewer supposed to put up with and actually listen to what is being said. Now take that same passionate testimonial executed with crystal clear audio, crisp footage that changes frame when the patient is saying something emotional or personal, and the audience is far more likely to be engaged and form an emotional response.
This is not to say there is no role for shorter, smartphone-shot videos that can be used on social media. However, videos like this shouldn’t be the main flying flag video that leaves the lasting impression on your customers. That’s where the high production value video comes in, as in some cases an online video can be the shop window into a business.
A good way of ensuring your web videos look slick, is to hire a professional videographer. A good videographer can come up with creative ways to get your message across and help turn your great idea, into a reality.
If you’re interested in creating a video for your website or if you would like a free digital audit please call us on 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.
