This post was written by Michelle Calvagno, Marketing Manager, Playwire.
7 Reasons You Need Video On Your Site
Video is becoming increasingly popular among internet users. It is more interactive than reading an entire article and viewers relate better to video. Video is social, mobile, interactive, profitable, trackable, brandable and the list goes on. Did you know that in September 2011 US internet users engaged in over 39.8 BILLION video views? If you have not incorporated video on your site it is time to seriously start considering it. Below are a few tips of why having a video strategy on your website is so important.
1. It’s All About the Experience. When a user is on your website – it’s all about the experience, what keeps them coming back for more. The psychology behind website “usability” deals with the entire user experience from the moment they hit your site to the second they leave. Video is both social and mobile – two things users can’t get enough of these days and video provides a richer, more entertaining and interactive experience for your users.
2. Video Can Get a Little Sticky. Actually video is extremely sticky meaning it keeps users on your site longer. On average users stay 5 times longer on your website when there is video content versus just text. It may seem a bit uncouth, but internet users are getting lazy. They don’t want to work for the content anymore and they are much more likely to leave the page if they see paragraphs of text as opposed to a branded video player connected to social media outlets with an attention-grabbing title. Most video players and platforms offer features to enhance stickiness even more such as playlists or related video streams. The goal is to keep users on your site not your competitors.
3. Increase Your Sales by 85%? – Yes Please. Having a product video available allows users to become one step closer to purchasing your product. A study by Internet Retailer show that online consumers are 144% more likely to add a product to their shopping cart after viewing a product video and 85% more likely to actually purchase the product. Want to increase your sales by 85%? Just add a product video – it’s that simple.
4. Earn More Revenue. – Video ads are the new banner ads in online advertising. Even if you don’t have video content, you can still utilize video ads before page loads and other types of content. Advertisers are investing more in online advertising, especially video. As technology advances video is becoming more targeted and highly interactive. Viewers are actually more willing to sit through online video ads since the content behind it is something they know they want to see.
5. Learn More about Your Audience. Video analytics offer powerful insights into the likes and dislikes of your audience. Tracking video performance in terms of most viewed or popular videos provides you with the exact types of videos your viewers engage with the most. This is something you can’t gauge with text. You can use analytics to your advantage and take performance statistics into account when planning your entire video strategy and make changes based on the course of performance.
6. Drive Traffic. When you perform a search on Google did you ever notice that videos show up higher on the first page? Search engines love video and if you implement video SEO correctly and submit video sitemaps to search engines you will most likely rank higher in search engines with your video content then regular text content. This is because there is still less video content out there and not many people correctly implementing SEO for their video content.
7. Bring Your Brand to Life. Video allows you to create a face for your brand and bring it to life. You can even build an entire brand just around your video content. Videos can be shared rapidly across the internet and go viral in seconds, when viewers share your branded content on social media sites you’re increasing brand awareness to millions of eyeballs that may not have come across your site.
Video is taking over the internet at a rapid speed – and since yesterday is too late, now is the time to get video on your site. With the implementation of an entire video strategy and plan, video can not only do everything mentioned above but also create a stronger and more engaged user following. Think about it the same as traditional television and the following there – online video can have the same power to keep users coming back for more and increase overall site growth. You can take the potential of your site now and not only reach it with video but extend that potential to even greater lengths. So, what’s your online video strategy?
About Playwire
Launched in early 2011, Playwire makes it easy for all website publishers and content creators to professionally publish and monetize their online video content. Playwire is the only leading video hosting company to provide free: encoding, hosting, content management, analytics, distribution and monetization all in one application. Sign up now for free. For more helpful tips on building your online video strategy visit blog.playwire.com.
