How video makes your message more ‘sticky’ than text

Before we get going let’s do a very quick, very unscientific study.  Think of your favourite book in the whole world, one you have read over and over again and resonated with you on a personal level.  Now, once you’ve got the book in your head, try and remember one sentence from it.  Managed it?

The chances are you’ll struggle.  The thing about written text is that even though we can take in the information well enough, it doesn’t stick there particularly well.  It doesn’t connect with your senses with enough impact to leave a lasting impression, and after a short amount of time it gradually fades away.

Now, think of your favourite film.  Can you think of any memorable quotes from it?  Chances are you can remember at least one, in fact if you thought about it hard you could probably reel off half a dozen.  That’s because when we see and hear something it has a much greater resonance with us than written words.  The interaction between the information coming into our brains is much more powerful, and as a result it leaves a far longer lasting impression.

At the end of the day we’re hardwired on an evolutionary level to absorb information from the world around us through our eyes and ears, and it’s for this reason video is much more effective than written text for trying to connect with your audience.  In fact, it’s been shown that people are five times more likely to retain information that they’ve seen a video compared to the same information in text form.

This is really important when you’re trying to connect with an audience.  What’s the point in writing reams and reams of text on a website when the chances are it will either go unread or it’s impact will disappear not long after your audience has read it.  By incorporating video into your marketing you’ll find that the message you’re trying to convey is both more likely to be watched, and it’s effect will last long after they’ve left your website.  It automatically sticks in their mind and stays with them.

That’s not to say the written word is dead, far from it, it’s still going to make up the majority of the information on your website.  It’s easy to put a few words down if you want to have material people can refer to on your website, and it’s not practical to have video as your only medium on communication.   But for the important stuff: what you do, the features and benefits of your product, and why people should be using your product, then you should seriously consider using a video to achieve your goals.

Don’t run the risk of having your key message lost on your audience.  Consider utilising video, or having an animated explainer video produced to quickly explain to people what you do and how it can benefit them.  You’ll find that not only do people engage more with what you have to say, they’ll retain that information even after they’ve left your website.