Video has become an enormously popular way to convey messages about your business and create interesting visual displays on your website. For many years, slow connection speeds made website video nearly impossible to use. Now, with high speed connections available even on mobile devices, website video usage has exploded in popularity.
From commercial content and video blogs to use as a textural design element in the banner of websites, video has become an incredibly powerful tool for business.
Everyone now has access to the same technology once reserved for only videographers and digital specialists. You can make great website video content too, but there are some rules you should follow.
Your video should be professional.
Everyone carries a fairly sophisticated camera around with them every day inside their smartphones. As a result, creating great video is easy. So, there should be no excuse for your video not to look great. If it doesn’t, you will lag behind your competitors.
Be unique.
Whenever possible, create your own rather than using stock video. Stock photography has become standard for websites, but compared to photos, there is a relatively limited amount of stock video available. You run the risk of using something that could be found anywhere. It’s not hard to do it yourself.
Make sure your video is relevant to your business.
If you do opt for some kind of stock video, however, make sure it relates to what you do. The most impactful videos (much like images) have a relationship to the business that is easy for customers to connect.
Always use a streaming video service.
We are frequently approached by clients wanting to embed video on their websites. They will send us a file they shot on a phone or camera. Large video files load slowly decreasing their effectiveness dramatically. YouTube and Vimeo are great tools for not only storing your videos online, but streaming them quickly and efficiently to your website. Use them.