As internet marketers, the main problem we try to solve is: "how do we cut through the noise and make your voice heard?" With so many websites out there, it's easy to feel like our little spot of the web is ignored by everyone who could enjoy our product or service.
If you're a regular visitor to the Stikky website, you may have noticed a new service: video production. Video is the latest tool in our digital marketing toolbox to help your website become more visible in search engines, more attractive to visitors and more engaging for potential and current clients.
The popularity of video on the web
With the rise of smartphones and digital cameras, video is literally everywhere. Go to any major event, important tourist spot or popular hanging place and you'll see someone filming something. You can guess that the video will soon be uploaded to YouTube, Vimeo or other video hosting site.
On YouTube alone, 100 hours of video are uploaded every minute. In the US, more than 80% of internet users watch online videos on any given month. People like video. It's easy, it's simple and it's fun to watch. Our long relationship with television makes us prone to engage with online video in a way that text alone can't quite do.
But I'm sure you don't need a list of stats to convince you that video is an effective marketing tool on the web. Just look at the sites you enjoy and the messages that stick with you, and you'll quickly realize that video is often a part of them.
Video for SEO
But enough about generalities. You want to know if video works for you in your SEO efforts!
According to Forrester, a page with video is 53 times more likely to make it to the top spot of search engine results pages.
When Zappos, a major online apparel retailer introduced video on its website, sales increased by 30%.
When it used video to inform employees about their healthcare benefits and enrollment period, Flimp Video Solutions calculated a 77% engagement rate and a 108% response rate.
There are a lot more stats about video out there, but these few tidbits show how useful and influential video can be to attract visitors to your website, to inform them and to convince them to take action.
Why video works
Video works well for several reasons:
- Non-verbal language conveys information otherwise inaccessible through writing alone
- Humans have an innate tendency to judge others through their facial expression
- Video conveys emotion more easily than text
- Something that moves attracts our attention and keeps it
In short, video humanizes your business or website. It provides a warm human connection that's impossible to convey through text and images. A visitor who sees your face, hears your voice and can watch as you interact with your environment is much more likely to trust you and your business.
What kind of video can you do?
Now that you know how and why video works for your internet marketing strategy, let's take a look at what kind of content works well.
Company profiles. Think of it as a video version of your "About Us" page (the most important page of your website after your home page!). You can tell the story of your business or your product and share the heart of your company with visitors.
Product demos. One thing we love about product videos is how to it presents the product in context. There's only so much a photo can tell. How big is it really? How does it work? What does it do? Showing your product at work in a video can answer all those questions in a few seconds.
Testimonials. Let your customers share their own story with potential customers. Testimonials are a tried-and-true technique to increase trust in a product or service.
News releases. Catch the attention of editors and journalists around the world with a video news release. Tell them why your news is important in your own words!
Employee profiles. A companion to the company profile and the testimonial, employee profiles present your qualified and dedicated team to the world. Help potential clients put faces to the people they contact in your company!
These are the typical business videos available on websites, but you can have fun and be creative. Think great characters, entertaining stories and a human connection!
Announcing our partnership with SoMedia Networks
Stikky Media now has a video production partner: SoMedia Networks. This Vancouver-based company is the world leader in video-on-demand production for the web. With their help, we can provide you with professionally scripted, filmed and edited videos for your website. By integrating video in your digital marketing strategy, you can improve your SEO results, increase your sales and develop an engaged and attentive audience that would be hard to catch through text alone.
We're super excited about the new possibilities of this partnership, and we hope you'll join us by integrating video to your website!
Photo by jsawkins
