With the dawn of the internet revolution, most savvy businesses got themselves an online presence of some kind. For many, the internet has worked well, making it easy for customers to view specs and prices before committing to buy, but for products and services where look and scale is crucial to the customer, such as travel and hospitality, businesses have struggled with the limitations of text and still images.
Now, the rapid increase in average internet bandwidth has given businesses the opportunity to stream video content. Hoteliers can show you round their best suite, caterers can demonstrate their silver service, and event hosts can showcase their best work.
Above all, video enhances the credibility of your site and makes it stand out against competitors. Video can be a much more pleasant way of receiving info than browsing alone and putting a face to a company name is a great way to gain a customer’s trust and begin to build a relationship.
A good video will tell the customer everything they need to know without having to click around the website. Keep it short and punchy - if you don’t get to the point quickly, your audience will turn off.
An effective video might follow this pattern:
1) If marketing a product or service, open with a visual demonstration of the product / service with a voice over describing the 5 best features.
2) Include testimonies from genuine customers on why they like the product / service e.g. ‘I love the Spade5000 because...’. Keep it brief – a pithy sentence or two from each case study will suffice.
3) Your sales pitch should outline the main reasons why your customers buy the product / service e.g. ‘The Spade5000 is great because it will help you dig the garden more quickly. It only costs £20 which is worth paying to avoid back ache’.
4) End with information about how people can buy your product / service e.g. ‘To buy, simply go to Spade5000.com and click BUY. Your spade will be delivered within 3 working days’.
Even following this structure, it is all too easy to get it wrong. Cutting corners with poor quality filming will turn viewers off. It doesn’t cost much to shoot something professionally and the lighting and audio will be significantly better. Similarly, an inexperienced presenter can reflect badly on your product so hire an actor. They know what they are doing and are usually quite cost effective.
Cost effective as video might be, chances are it won’t be something you can go back and change regularly, so think carefully about every element before committing it to film: Is your script punchy? Are your testimonies varied enough? Get it right and you will have a valuable addition to your website and a glowing testament to your business.
William Berry is MD of film production agency, Film121.com.
