4 Ways You Can Use Video on Your Website in 2018

Alex Bulat

7 years ago

Looking for a way to breathe some life into your website this year and maximize engagement with visitors? There are plenty of techniques and strategies available, but it’s hard to deny the return that video brings.

As you flesh out your website design and content strategy in the coming weeks, make a commitment to include plenty of videos.

4 Ways to Use Video on Your Site

The most recent statistics show that video content isn't just effective – the demand for it is growing at an impressively rapid pace. Did you know, for example, that 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers? Or that 51.9% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI?

In her look at the evolving role of video marketing, Kolowich also highlights some of the following statistics, trends, and data points:

Businesses that produce video content publish an average of 18 videos per month.
85 percent of businesses have internal staff and resources to produce video in-house.
56 percent of all videos published by businesses are less than 2 minutes in length.
35 percent of businesses use intermediate or advanced analytics to measure video performance.

The value is there. Though it definitely costs more up front to develop video – versus, say, writing a blog post – the return on investment is considerably higher.

While there are plenty of ways to use video on social media and through other mediums, let’s spend some time focusing on how you can use video on your website this year.

Humanize Your Brand

A video is at its best when it’s being used to humanize your business. As opposed to text – and even static images – a video has the ability to bring your company to life.

This page from Marks & Harrison a nice example. You’ll notice the video feature at the top, which is a short feature on one of the attorneys in the firm. The content of the video talks about how the attorney enjoys helping people and making a difference – something that’s genuinely felt when watching but would be challenging to convey through textual content.

Show Off a New Product

Launching a new product or service this year? Blog posts and press releases are fine, but the video has a way of more effectively conveying what a product is really about in less space and time. The animation is one particularly compelling format.

Animation can be an inspiring way to take a product video from bland to grand. It can be attention-grabbing and memorable, demonstrating process and features of certain elements in a way that live action cannot.

Marketing consultant Katherine Wells writes

Wells points to this video from MitoSynergy as an animated product video that’s well executed. The fact that it’s short, simple, and straight to the point makes it striking and effective. It’s also easily shareable, which gives this video additional value as part of a social media marketing strategy.

Offer Support and Tutorials

Support and tutorials represent some of the most underutilized website video applications. If you have a product or service that requires a lot of technical know-how – such as a piece of advanced software or an innovative technology with lots of options or customization features – video could help you offer your customers convenient and interactive support and/or tutorials.

The great thing about content of this type is that it need not be costly or time consuming to produce.In fact, the opposite is often the case, and it can prove more cost-effective than alternative formats that could be used to deliver such content.

Business blogger Neil Davey writes

Feature Client Testimonials

Social proof is a must if you want to have any success selling directly from your website, or even if you want to use it as a tool for lead generation. There are a variety of different types of social proof, but video testimonials are more powerful and compelling than most.

In order to create an effective testimonial video, you need to walk a fine line between scripted and authentic. You want to guide the conversation you have with clients, while still allowing them to speak in their own words. This guide from Yum Yum Videos is a good place to start.

Make Video a Priority

There’s a reason so many of your competitors are using video in their content and marketing strategies – it works! Study after study shows that video does a superior job of engaging people and moving them to action.

While you’re already behind the curve, you can begin to catch up and modernize your website by prioritizing video in the coming months. As this article clearly shows, there are a variety of ways to use video. Find a few opportunities that will be most effective with your audience and make a move.