10 reasons why you need a video on your website

1.  Engage your audience.  

It is a simple fact that video connects with people in a way that plain text can’t. Visitors to your site will only recall around 10% of the information they read. This jumps up to 50% if it’s something they have seen and heard in a video. Give them something that will stick in their head and be in their minds long after they have left your site.

2.  Increase Sales

The ultimate goal for any business is to increase their sales and maximise profits. Video has been proven time and time again to boost sales by as much as 85%.  Shoeline.com reported a 44% jump in sales after putting videos next to their products, and OnlineGolf.com saw sales increase by 85% when they introduced the ‘view video’ button on their products page. The L2 Specialty Retail Report, September 2010 concluded that on average retail sites with videos had 30% higher sales than those without, and the average sales value was up by 13%. It goes without saying that well a well placed video can pay for itself many times over.

3.  Reduce your bounce rate

What is your bounce rate and why is it important? Well, when people visit your site they generally decide in 10-20 seconds whether they like what they see.  This is your window of opportunity to grab their attention and it is a small one!  If they aren’t interested, they click off your site and go elsewhere.  The percentage of people who click away is called your bounce rate. A high bounce rate means your site isn’t attracting people and you are losing out on business and money.  A well placed video on your homepage can drastically reduce your bounce rate, even by as much as 100%! Comscore, August 2010 found that when there was a video directly on the home page of a website people would stay on the site an average of 2 minutes longer, which translated to them being 64% more likely to buy something.

4.  Improve SEO

Everyone wants to be at the top of Google. It’s the number one aim for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), but it can be an uphill struggle as you fight against all your competitors for the top few spots. Video can prove to be a valuable tool in SEO and, combined with other good SEO practice, can increase your overall SEO ranking by 45%, and make you 53 times more likely to be on the front page of google! How? Well there are number of reasons. Firstly google searches for video results as well as web page results when you do a search. The number of sites with a video on will be proportionally lower compared to a normal search, so your chances of being higher up increase.  Videos can also go viral, meaning people share it, link to it and comment on your video. This brings people to your site as they want to view it for themselves!  Videos generate links, and links are a huge part of SEO.

5.  Reduce Returned goods

Not only did ice.com report that people who viewed their product videos were 40% more likely to buy, this also translated to a 25% reduction in returned items as people were better informed of the product before they decided to make a purchase. Video can demonstrate a product or service in a much clearer way than static images or text. This gives the customer all the information they need to make a commitment to buy.

6.  Reduce Customer Support Queries

Save the time, cost and inconvenience of having to deal with customer support queries by introducing videos. Explain your products in detail, and answer common questions in an easy to understand fashion. After Dell introduced video to their support page call volume decreased by 5%. Virgin Mobile experienced reduced call volume of 14% in 2011 after video was included on their website. (The Australian, December 2010)

7.  Demonstrate your product

Video can showcase your product in action. Rather than writing about it, or having images, customers can actually see what you do which is invaluable to your business. It gives them an option to ‘try before they buy’. The more information a customer has about your product or service, the more likely they are to go on to make a purchase. MarketingCharts.com, 2012 found that three out of five people will spend over 2 minutes watching a video about a product they wanted to purchase.

8.  Stand out from the competition

The chances are you aren’t the only business offering what you do. There could be hundreds of companies all vying for the same pool of customers. A fun, engaging video can set you apart and really make you stand out in the crowd and connect with your audience. It will make you seem more honest and open, and people love to get behind something that they feel is personal and relatable.

9.  People love watching video

By the end of this year 90% of all internet traffic will be video, which is a statistic that speaks for itself. People can’t get enough of video! It’s popularity is exploding on the internet and if you aren’t embracing it as a digital medium then you are in danger of being left behind.

10.  Go Viral!

This is the golden objective for any video. One person likes and shares your video, this gets liked and shared, and before you know it in a short space of time your video is being viewed by thousands of people across the world! It’s by no means easy. But uploading your video to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook etc. can lead to an explosion in viewers, all of them seeing what you do and who you are.