Should Your Home Page Have a Video?
It’s not a must, but the answer is "yes" in most scenarios. Think about your potential customers visiting your website: it’s important to make a great first impression. Did you know that you have fewer than 10 seconds to grab that first impression? It’s true. The most effective way is to keep your home page clean, simple to navigate and have a short video available with a killer pitch.
The best way to install a video on your home page is to upload it to YouTube and insert. It’s really just that simple. Were you aware that YouTube is now the second largest search engine? Websites containing video are around 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of a search-engine result. A video pitch makes it five times more likely that the potential customer will engage, leading more than 40 percent of them to take action after viewing. Keeping your video to 80 seconds or fewer ensures the chances that most will view it in its entirety.
Keys to a great video:
- Highlight the most useful information and simplify
- 80 seconds or less, commercials on TV average 30 seconds
- Have it shot as if it were being shown on a major network like NBC
- Include all contact information at the end
- Have a professional company shoot and edit
You want to shoot this as if it is being aired on TV because people have a tendency to let all of the content they consume run together. They may actually believe they saw your commercial on NBC, and that you shelled out big advertising dollars to reach them. Only a highly successful company has the money for that right? The reason you need to include your contact information is simple and often overlooked. The video is loaded to YouTube; that means anyone can grab it and share. Since you never know where your video will be posted, it’s always best to have your website close it out.
Done correctly, a homepage video will bolster your professional image. It is relatively inexpensive, and will be a tool for closing potential sales. The last thing is to make sure your YouTube channel is managed correctly: Just make sure YouTube isn’t recommending your competitor as a follow up video.
Jon Porter is the owner/operator of Chicago Pizza Tours, the first bus-guided tour of culturally significant and neighborhood pizzerias in Chicago.
