Here at Lake Solutions, we regularly talk about how sharing content is an important part of your digital marketing plan. While this can mean social media posts and blogs, there are other types of content including photography, graphics, animations, podcasts and video.
Video is arguably king when it comes to social media, particularly with the rise of platforms such as TikTok, which rely on it, while both Instagram and Facebook are now much more video-based than they used to be.
According to data collected by Statista, there were over three billion internet users watching, streaming or downloading video at least once per month in 2022. This number is projected to increase annually, ultimately reaching nearly 3.5 billion by the end of 2023. In the meantime, Cisco reports that 82% of global internet traffic now comes from either video streaming or video downloads.
Adding video to your website can bring numerous benefits, enhancing user engagement, conveying information effectively and making your website more visually appealing. If people are increasingly looking to watch video, rather than read words, then it’s worth looking at how to incorporate video into your website. Video can encourage visitors to spend more time on your website, reducing bounce rates, and increasing overall engagement.
Many websites – including our very own one at Lake Solutions – include video on their home pages. This works well in setting the scene about what a visitor can expect. Our videos are short and are themed around a recent blog post. If your business is a hotel or some sort of venue, then you could think about an impactful video on the home page – even with drone footage swooping into your space. It’s your chance to grab the attention of a visitor and, very quickly, show them something of your business.
While we tend to use a stock video on our home page, if you are looking for an impactful home page video, then it’s worth talking to a video production company, who can create something of a professional quality for you. That said, if your business is more ‘home made’ or ‘funky’, then less curated footage might work.
We’ve written in the past about repurposing content and it’s worth looking at how any video footage you’ve got can be used – perhaps as some clips – on your social media channels for instance. So, if you’re having a professional shoot, think about what else you’d like videoed at that time. Videos are highly shareable on social media platforms. When you embed videos on your website, visitors are more likely to share them with their networks, expanding your reach and driving more traffic to your site.
Think, as always, about your target audience. Will they engage with video and will they resonate with either the person presenting the footage or the way it has been created? If your business is a trendy bar which relies on a young crowd as its clientele, then you’ll want a different style of video to one which might be aimed at an older audience. Think about who you are using in the video. Your MD or GM might know all about the business and be a fantastic manager but they might not be the right person to present on film.
If you feature team members and share behind-the-scenes footage, you can establish an emotional connection with your audience. Often the ‘meet the team’ section is one of the first web pages somebody will visit. We want to see if the business has ‘real people’ behind it and whether they look friendly or professional or the sort of people we’d like to buy from or perhaps work with.
You could look at ‘meet the team’ type videos or you might discover that somebody from your team is actually pretty good as the face of your business. You might get them involved with some ‘how to’ videos, perhaps demonstrating how your products work or can best be used. We’ve probably all jumped on YouTube to find out how to do something around our home. When discussing this blog among the Lake Solutions team – we all admitted to never remembering how to get our oven timers to work and watching a video every time there’s a power cut or the clocks change! It’s so much easier than reading a set of instructions.
Video can provide a powerful medium for delivering information and messages to your audience. Complex concepts, product demonstrations or storytelling can be conveyed more effectively through video.
In addition to ‘how to’ videos, you can think about demonstrating your brand’s expertise by sharing all manner of informative videos. Perhaps one of your team spoke at an industry conference recently? See if the organisers will let you share this video (if you credit them, they almost certainly will). You could produce a series of informative videos and thereby position yourself as an expert in your field, building trust and credibility.
Used well, video also has real business benefits. It can significantly impact conversion rates – as you can explain your product’s benefits or share filmed customer testimonials and case studies, which can boost user confidence. In terms of SEO, Google considers video content as valuable and engaging; if it’s on your website and visitors are engaged and linger longer, then search engines pick up on that. Also, by optimising your videos with relevant keywords, descriptions and tags, you can further improve your website's visibility and ranking in search results.
It’s important, as ever, to consider what device your visitors will be viewing your website’s video content on. If you decide to add a beautiful video to your home page with words embedded in it, will the content be visible on all platforms. If you set up a shoot with your product in a great position on your wide screen, will it be in the same place on a mobile device? Can you see all the items on every device or are some of them cropped out?
Also, if you are taking video on your phone, think about whether it needs to be in portrait or landscape mode. On YouTube, the platform’s new ‘shorts’ are in portrait, while typically videos are shared on there in a landscape mode. When you are adding video to your website, will you be embedding it there or are you intending to host it on YourTube or a similar platform, such as Vimeo and link back to your website?
Remember, it’s not all about the visuals, if you are recording somebody giving a commentary about your product or sharing a testimonial, can you hear them properly or is there background noise? It might be worth investing in a microphone.
Think also about making your videos accessible to all your customers. Try to add captions – YouTube and similar platforms will often add them automatically. In addition, captions are also useful if somebody is scrolling without earphones and doesn’t want to disturb those around them.
In summary, incorporating video into your website offers multiple benefits, including increased engagement, improved communication, better search engine visibility, higher conversion rates and the ability to showcase your expertise.
If you want to find out more about adding video to your website, do get in touch on tel: 020 3397 3222.