You probably think I’m going to write about which sites are best for placing your marketing video; is YouTube best or Facebook? But I’m not. That is an important consideration but I want to write about an element of video marketing that is much neglected and often the last thing that is considered. Where should the video be placed on a site or page.
Placing a video on a site
I still see websites with a dedicated video page but no video on the landing page. Having a dedicated page is fine, especially if your business has several product demos or “How to” videos, but not having a video on the landing page is wrong. No ifs, no buts, no maybes. It is wrong. As I discussed here one of the most powerful things about video is that it turns interest into action. Remember placing videos on a landing page increases conversion by up to 80% (Source: Unbounce) so not placing your videos on the landing pages could lose you business. So the general rule is that you should use video on your landing page first, then dedicated videos on relevant pages, and if you then want to put them all on a dedicated video page you can.
So we know where in the site your video should go, but what about the placement of your video on the page itself?
Placing a video on a page
Most web pages I see have their video content a little way down the page, so you have to scroll down to see. Some have their video all the way at the bottom so it doesn’t interfere with all of that important text and those lovely photos. Some -too few – have their video at the top, front and centre. As discussed previously video is several orders of magnitude more powerful at communicating ideas than text and more effective than still images too. So why hide it away? Don’t be afraid of your video. Put it right under your banner at the top of the page. Many web designers will tell you not to do this. I get the feeling it’s because they want their work (the web design) to be front and centre and that’s a perfectly natural thing to want, but it’s not what’s best for your business. Your video will drive customer conversion more than anything else on your page, so put it where is can be seen first.
And obviously set it to autoplay, right?
Never set a video to autoplay. You may ask why after everything I’ve just said about the wonders of video? It’s what I think of as “The Irritation Factor”. I don’t know what others call it but that’s the name I give it. “The Irritation Factor” (IF) can be explained like this.
IF = The amount of hatred generated towards your business by having a video autoplay.
Why would potential customers hate this? If you’re browsing the internet on a desktop the chances are that you have several tabs open, now you see a link and you don’t click it, because you’re looking at something you’re interested in. But, you do right click and open in new tab to look at after your finished with the tab you’re on. Then sound starts coming from somewhere. Maybe interfering with a video you were already watching. If you’ve opened several tabs recently you now have to search through looking for the tab that holds the page that has the offending video. Then you remember that the tabs have a little sound active icon now. You locate the tab and you want to stop the video but you can’t see it. You scroll all the way down looking for the video, only to discover an advert playing on the bottom of the page. How irritated are you? Are you going to watch the video that has irritated you? Are you going to buy from that company? Of course not. In fact, right at this moment, you are annoyed by them and everything they stand for. So… no autoplay.
BUT…
I hear you cry, (Again I don’t really hear you. I’m sitting in my little home office and I have no idea where you are.) Facebook uses autoplay. Yes it does, and it works, but here’s why. Facebook autoplays videos without the sound. It’s as simple as that. There’s no irritation because there is no unknown sound source disturbing you. If you want to watch the video with sound, you can just click it. You are in control. That is the key element that eliminates IF. It also brings me onto what is probably the most interesting topic in video marketing today.
How do I attract customers with a silent video on Facebook, and how long do I have to persuade them to click? And that’s what I’ll be writing about next time.
