How to Use Video Effectively on Your Website

Posted • October 8, 2009 • 2 Comments

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The Ins and Outs of Using Video Effectively on Your Website by Taylor Ellwood

Something I’ve noticed a lot when I’ve visited different business websites is how they do or don’t incorporate video into their website, and if they do incorporate, whether they do it in a way that is respectful of the visitor, or ends up coming off as potentially invasive.

The screenshot below is an example of a video I would consider invasive to someone visiting the website where the video starts. As soon as you as visit the website, the video starts up, and you’re immediately getting a pitch from the owner of the business about his services and products. You can turn it off, but you first have to find the button that turns it off.

badvideo 280x76 How to Use Video Effectively on Your Website

Now, it might seem from a marketing standpoint like a good idea to start out with a video. You show what it is you offer and how it helps someone out. But the key issue here is whether or not you’re providing your website visitor a proactive or reactive choice in viewing that video. A reactive choice is going to be turning the video off, because s/he isn’t ready to see it yet. A proactive choice involves the website viewer choosing to turn the video on, because s/he is intrigued and wants to know more. So what’s the difference then, when it comes to marketing to a potential client?

If a video automatically starts up, you are forcing your potential client to make a reactionary choice, and that reaction is being done from a place of negativity: “I don’t want to be spammed or advertised to”. You aren’t letting that person make a proactive choice from a positive place, such as “I’m intrigued and want to see more.” The difference is essentially this: You either take the choice away from the person right as they come into the site and potentially come off as a spammer, or you empower the person visiting the site, and let them choose to see the video. Personally I opt for letting the person make a choice. It provides them a feeling of control and from a marketing perspective, allows you to draw them instead of just starting off right from the beginning with a sales pitch. People like to explore websites at their own pace and we need to remember when we create for those websites.

Taylor Ellwood
Business, Writing, & Social Media Coach

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Category: Guest Blog Post, Marketing, Social Media, Social network, Video
Tags: how to use video on your website > Social Media > Social Networking > Video

Comments

2 Responses to “How to Use Video Effectively on Your Website”

Tweets that mention How to use video effectively on your website : Search Engine Optimizician -- Topsy.com
October 8th, 2009 @ 2:45 pm

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Todd Williams. Todd Williams said: RT @teriel: I’m a guest blogger on Search Engine Optimizician: Here’s my first post on video and websites: http://ping.fm/NFN8c [...]
Gary Pool
October 8th, 2009 @ 3:26 pm

Great post Taylor. I think you hit the nail right on the head. Keep up the good work.