30 Tips for Increased Website Traffic Using Video: Parts 21-30

Video has been around on the Internet since broadband connection became commonplace, but its purpose was strictly entertainment. More recently, it has begun appearing as a substitute for printed User Guides and as either a substitute for, or addition to, the traditional website sales letter.

It’s the author’s firm opinion that a well written and complete printed User Guide is far superior to a video and that those who use video as a substitute for writing a guide are just being lazy. Once you’ve got the software, adding a commentary while demonstrating the product is dead simple. And the results are (usually) simply awful.

But … video to sell a product, to demonstrate its features, that’s a different story. After all, they’ve been doing it with television commercials for years. Even so, some commercials are stinkers. Here’s the last 10 tips to make sure yours aren’t:

21. Choose the images and people in your video carefully
You have to always keep in mind that this video is representing you and your company. Make sure that images and people you use are pleasant and professional. Also you want pleasant images and people because that is what people will be most interested in watching. Try to use fairly neutral accents. Also don’t talk too s..l..o..w..l..y. People can listen much faster than they can speak and slow speech is a turn-off.

22. Get ideas from commercials
Television commercials are amazing sales tools. You can use ideas from these creative advertising spots to help you develop a good video. You can get some amazing ideas that other companies pay top dollar to advertising executives to create. You can also see some really bad examples to avoid. Just be careful of one thing. A TV commercial is not a failure because you don’t like it. It’s a failure if either you don’t remember the product or if it would make you actively not buy the product.

23. Try to keep costs low
Creating a video has gotten more cost efficient with all the tools available to the average business person, but you still need to be careful. It is easy to get carried away and end up blowing your whole marketing budget on making a video.

24. Scope out other internet videos
You can get a lot of ideas online from others who are using videos to sell their products. Look at top ranked websites and see what they are doing to drive in sales.

25. Understand the power of video
Video is a very powerful tool that has the ability to really boost your traffic and sales. Make sure that you see everything that video is capable of doing for you.

26. Use emotion
One of the greatest things about video is you can finally convey emotion to your consumer. Part of selling is a passion for the product and you can really get this across in video.

27. Take full advantage of all the attention you get
When you add a video to your website you will be getting more traffic and you need to capitalize on it. Make sure you website is up to par and can turn visitors into sales.

28. Keep it simple
Keep everything simple and do not abandon everything you already know about creating online content. Follow the same rules you did when creating your website.

29. Don’t over sell
You do not want to push customers away by being too much of a sales person. Avoid the desire to yell out about the great price and to tell the consumer they must buy. Don’t be pushy, be persuasive.

30. Show, not tell
One of the best things about video is you can show the consumer why they should buy instead of telling them. There is a lot of power behind showing instead of telling. Showing is convincing. Telling risks bringing out the cynic in your audience.