By Scott Allen & Terry Knealing
How can we make such a blanket statement about everyone’s website video? Simple, we know one fact about most of your websites. The video you have on your website assumes too much.
All too often we see video on websites that assumes the visitor is there for one reason: to buy. But in many cases that’s simply not true.
Most people recognize that the process of purchasing a good or service takes place in 5 stages. (the evil Fry’s Electronics checkout line is excluded). Here they are:
1. Awareness of need (hmm…maybe I need a new lawnmower.)
2. Information search (what’s out there?)
3. Options comparison (what’s out there that’s good?)
4. Purchase (Yay it’s mine!)
5. Buyer’s mire (did I buy the right one?)
At what stage of the purchasing cycle are visitors hitting your website?
Most people arriving at your website are probably there during phase 2, information search. They might be back (if you’re lucky) for phase 3, options comparison. This is when they will be trying to make up their minds about which product to purchase; maybe yours? If that’s the headspace your visitor is in when they arrive and return, then why does your website video start by assuming your visitor knows the value of your product? The book “Made to Stick” would call this “the curse of knowledge.”
If, like we said, people are coming to your website who generally don’t know enough about your product to make a value judgment, then it would hold that people begin making their value judgments about your company in places other than your website. And where do most people start their research online? Why, Google of course.
At this point, you might feel like we’ve created a paradox. If I have to reach a prospect in search before he or she visits my website, and my website is where I’m optimized for search, then what exactly am I reaching this prospect with? This leads us to the real question: how does your message show up in search w/out it being from your website?
The answer is video search engine marketing. Yes, video is one of your best lead generation tools. The irony is, however; that the video we’re talking about, typically, isn’t the one you shot for your homepage. In fact, it might not be on your site at all.
We’re exploring a paradigm shift, here. To get video to work for you as a lead generation tool, you need to un-tether it from your website and follow these 10 guidelines:
1. The videos can be found on Google on MANY different websites.
2. The videos make no assumptions about the viewer’s understanding.
3. The message of the videos stand on their own.
4. The message is singular enough to understand.
5. The message is free of jargon.
6. The videos drive viewers to take a specific action.
7. The videos are not boring.
8. The message answers “what’s in it for me” for the viewer immediately.
9. The video and audio quality is good.
10. The impact of the videos can be directly measured.
So how does this get you customers?
The objectives of your videos are to be found and to get someone to take action. If someone has found your video somewhere “out there” and takes action (opt-in or call), they are a qualified lead.
The most important thing to remember about this idea is that you have to test it. If you attempt to deploy a video campaign without the proper tools to test its effectiveness, then you are really not doing the program justice. The rule of thumb for online marketing is: nothing unmeasured gets done.
321Punch, a Phoenix-based online marketing agency, is leading the way in video search engine marketing. The 321Punch company employs advanced lead generation tactics and innovative tools to get companies exposed to users of Google search. Companies turn to 321Punch when looking to do something online that matters: get customers.