If you think video on your web site is there to inform visitors about your business, think again. I am not suggesting that the focus of your video should not be to inform or sell your visitor, I am just suggesting that is not necessarily the main reason the video needs to be there. Here is why.
The search engines are constantly attempting to show visitors the most relevant web sites. One way to score a web site is to see how long a person stays on the site. If a visitor clicks “tree service”, clicks onto your web site, and immediately clicks back to the search page, Google will devalue your web site accordingly for the search term “tree service”. Ouch.
In other words, you want the visitor to hang around your web site for awhile. One of the best ways to do this is through a short video. One minute is sufficient but longer is always better, as long as the video is captivating and interesting. And that is the trick. Web sites that spin up video automatically are particularly annoying, especially if they have audio. Some visitors will leave immediately just because of this. My suggestion is to default the video with the sound OFF but provide a button for the user to easily invoke sound. With sound off the video itself will have to carry the ball for being engaging to start. Make sure the video has a lead in that is either funny or provocative. You need to capture the visitors attention, not send them away. Don’t start the video with “Hi my name is and I am the owner of”.
With cellphones now having video capability you may think making a video is cheap. Don’t be fooled. Yes the hardware is inexpensive and visitors are used to low video quality. What they are NOT used to is low content quality. Don’t think you can throw something together in one hour. You need to script both the dialogue and the shot sequences. You need to rehearse. You need to set up the shots. You need to video edit and tighten up the final product. Plan on spending a good 20 to 40 hours to put together a decent end product. You can skip the professional videographer, sound person, and lighting crew but consider hiring a professional advertising person for writing and production. Plan to spend between $2500 and $10,000.
You could do it on the cheap yourself, only spending an hour of your own time. Just remember your objectives and seriously assess whether your final product meets the goals you want to achieve. Is it worth even one hour if the result misses the goal, or even worse, creates a negative impression?
