Video is the new text on an increasingly multimedia web. WAQA Studios has been suggesting to our clients that they add videos for some time now. Two have taken this up recently (one here), three more are interested. Why is this such a good idea? Consider this post.
Intro videos are a snapshot of your company presented loud and clear on your homepage. They are designed to convey everything that’s important about your company at a speed text and pictures can’t hope to match.
If this post were a video, it would be finished by now! And if getting your message across to an audience in the shortest time possible sounds like a good idea to you, you might want to consider an intro video.
A good intro video should be incorporated seamlessly into the design. It should be a focus, but it should not inhibit the use of the page by visitors who’d prefer to read the text or access specific content.
Videos should be short. More than 60 seconds is too much – you’ve just lost a customer who has a million and one better things to do than learn about your business in intimate detail. Every single second of video that you include should be engaging enough to keep that mouse pointer away from a pause button or a back button.
You should be mindful that the average video is abandoned by 20% of viewers in the first 10 seconds.
If you’ve succeeded in getting them to watch the video, this is your only chance – they are not going to stop the video and give you a second chance by reading the text. If you have a lot of information to get over, consider breaking the video up into short parts and scattering them over relevant parts of the site.
If you’d like to discuss incorporating video into your site, just get in touch!