The average internet user will scan a site for only a few seconds before he clicks again. Whether he clicks away from your site or deeper into it depends highly on how well you had caught his interest in those vital first few seconds.
You need to assume that each person who enters your site is a potential client – someone who knows what he wants, but without the patience to read a huge amount of text to find exactly what he’s looking for. This is where video marketing comes into focus – the single most effective way of communicating your product and/or services at the shortest possible time, with a great potential for persuasion and retention.
But not all audio-visual presentations become effective marketing tools – the most effective ones, if you notice, follow some of the most basic guidelines in advertising, plus a few more:
Catchy
It is vital that your video catches your potential client's interest the moment he sees it. You need to label your video presentation with an interesting title so he would click on it. Remember that web users, unlike TV viewers, are not a passive audience.
Engaging
Once you are able to convince your potential client to take interest in the video, you need to be able to keep that interest -- have him watch it all the way through. Your video must have a theme -- a color, a design, a scheme that is consistent with your product, your company, and your site. This establishes your identity, the look of professionalism, and is important for retention. You also need to have an appropriate background music or soundtrack and a voice-over that is both engaging and pleasant.
Concise
You do not want to drag your potential client into a 30-minute seminar about your company or product, because you can't. What you want to do is to give out information before he loses interest and, at the same time, make him engaged enough to want to know more.
Packed with information
It is also a good guideline when putting up a video that it's there to educate -- to inform people what they want to know about your product/service. It must be able to answer their questions even before they ask them.
Highly visible
Having a great video won't help much if it cannot be seen. It must first be strategically located on your site where visitors can see it and access it without difficulty. You must also make it available for re-posting, that it uses VSEO (Video Search Engine Optimization) techniques, and can be viewed in the popular video hosting sites such as YouTube. Videos are also widely used in e-mails as part of the marketing campaign. And don't forget to put a link that leads back to your site.
Video marketing is a must these days if you want your e-business to have a competitive edge. And with all the available resources, it doesn't take much time and money to produce one. But the returns are definitely worth the effort.
