Within the last six months, a high percentage of web retailers have increased efforts to makeover their sites. At the crux of the changes being implemented is good old SEO. Writers are busy coming up with fresh new content that will bring the site up in the rankings; analysis is being feverishly conducted to see what keywords are working and what needs tweaking. In fact, more than 70% of retailers are focusing their efforts on SEO. What they may not know is that putting time into video on their site can actually help those optimization efforts!
At this point, only just over 40% of online retailers are taking steps to add the advanced feature of video to their websites this year. Just behind that is a push to add product reviews and recommendations. This is all very good, because the web is making a change to become more and more interactive. Seeing the amazing success of sites like Facebook and Twitter shows that without a doubt.
Video marketing is in its infancy, with only about 50% of retailers using it on their sites in 2008. With numbers showing that consumers who first viewed a video averaged a higher ticket amount on a sale, you can see the immense benefit of using this type of media for marketing as well as throughout your site. However, it is important to constantly test your video pages to find the best placement. It is a common misconception that any video is a good video. This is simply not the truth.
Placement of a video on your product or service pages should be in a place where it is easily seen (and therefore easily used). It should also be in a position relative to text and images to get more attention. Customers want information, so give it to them through your videos. Tell them everything they need to know that will help them make their purchasing decision. Better yet, let another customer tell them! The emergence of using interactivity on a website has lead to video platforms where consumers can post their own messages or videos to your website. While this may make many etailers uneasy, it must be understood that your satisfied customers can do a much better job of selling your product or service than you can!
If you haven’t put your foot in the video pool just yet, what are you waiting for? Video can contain keywords that are relevant to your site. Video c
an be used on social sites such as YouTube and contain backlinks to your site. Video can explain and showcase your most popular product or service. Most of all, video can give your company a face and build a reputation that just isn’t attainable through other forms of media. Sure, articles are informative and easy to get done (and can also link to videos, by the way!) – but video speaks to the consumer tenfold. 2009 has yet to see the growth of video usage on websites, but it is coming. The numbers at the end of the year are predicted to be astounding. Be a part of the boom!