A study by eyeviewdigital.com reveals that use of video on landing pages has the power to increase conversion by 80%. Videos increase the time people stay on a page, giving your offer extra time to sink in.
Viewers who have the option of reading text or watching a video will usually choose to watch the video. Using video on your landing page can boost conversion rates, but it must be put appropriately. Here are some tips to make it work.
The video alone won’t do it
Increasing your conversions is about more than just slapping a video up on your website. Your video will need a creative edge if you want it to boost conversions. Billabong, for example, has found a creative way to draw the attention of surfers who choose a starting video and complete a statement starting with “I surf because …. They must fill out a form before being able to share it with their friends.
Natural videos, such as a person talking to you, do better than ‘sales’ ones. A ‘sales’ video is likely to chase people away rather than engage them. A high-converting video is focused on meeting real needs and educating people, not converting them.
Videos must inspire some emotion in viewers – they must feel that you understand their issues and have the solution for them. Therefore, how-to videos convert so well. Many product purchases come about as a result of watching a how-to video or tutorial about it.
Test autoplay versus press play
Many people are annoyed by autoplay because it’s intrusive. If you use autoplay, it may increase conversions, but you have a very short window in which to capture attention. Deciding whether to use autoplay will depend on measuring the impact it has on a conversation for your brand.
Disable autoplay and make your play button prominent and noticeable instead. This can prevent overwhelming your audience and having them scrambling to turn off the video. Instead try a silent full-screen contextual video instead of autoplay, as Story and Heart uses on their website.
Add a call to action (CTA) to your video
You may have the most story-driven, entertaining landing page video, but without a click-worthy CTA, it doesn’t count. A CTA can be visible all the time or be shown at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a video.
Cincopa offers a Turnstile feature. It enables you to insert a lead capture form wherever you want to in your video. In an analysis of over 15,000 videos with turnstiles, it was found that a CTA placed in the first 10-20% of a video had the highest conversion rate.
Give your viewers a compelling introduction, ask for their emails, and your list may grow quicker than you can imagine. The placement matters too. For KISSmetrics, a CTA within the video gets a whopping 380% more clicks than their normal sidebar CTAs.
Use a custom thumbnail
Your thumbnail is what engages your audience right from the start. Most people go the route of a static image from the video with a play button for a thumbnail. When creating thumbnails, you need to convey the subject matter of the video content, compel the viewer to click through, differentiate your brand and make sure they are optimized for all devices. Even small changes to the hue/saturation of colors used in a thumbnail can draw eyes.
Don’t forget to A/B test your video thumbnails to see what works best with your audience. The Slow-Mo Guys always include the main action shot from their videos on their thumbnails because this works best for them.
Wishpond ran an A/B test of a thumbnail with a person smiling and one not smiling. It found that the bright image increased the company’s profits by nearly 11%. Try to include a human face wherever possible – Buzzfeed Video’s archive page on YouTube is a sea of faces.
Make your video stand out
If you’re going to use video on a landing page, you want it to stand out and get noticed. Size is relatively important, so if you want your audience to watch the video, it must be the most prominent element on the landing page.
It helps if your videos are optimized for mobile viewers – a responsive video player will scale to fit any size screen. Increase the engagement by customizing your video player to match your brand colors. Videos should be easy to view with viewers being able to use controls without any difficulty.
Make sure that viewers can easily share videos too and that they can play seamlessly on any social network. The interactive videos enable you to keep the viewers engaged, build relationships, and collect leads.
Choose the right video length
Try out short and extended versions to see what your customers need. Many marketers are on the side of making their videos too long. One of the reasons for using video is that it can provide information faster. Creating long, drawn-out video can ruin the whole point.
Research by Hubspot shows that ideal video length is 30 seconds to two minutes and after that, the drop-off in engagement is quite significant. The Rebump homepage how-to video is an excellent example of a video that’s only one minute long and yet manages to convey the benefits of the product convincingly.
Using video analytics allows you to observe how a viewer interacts with your video. By looking at video heatmaps, such as those found on some video hosting platforms, you can see when viewers start to lose interest and drop off.
If you end with far fewer viewers than you started with, your video is probably too long. Make it more concise, and you may increase conversions.
Use the right video in the right place
The hardest part of using videos on landing pages is to know what type of video to use and where to place it. You want to show visitors what you have to offer and inspire trust, but you don’t want to overwhelm them. A composite product video packed with intricate details is not the right type of video for your landing page.
Most landing pages have a “hero” video containing the most important message, and this should be placed near the top. One conversion from a well-placed video has the potential to result in multiple sales. Your main video should introduce people to your brand by creating a story they can connect with a simple and engaging way.
Dropbox is a company that has mastered video simplicity on its landing page. It focuses on its customers and how the product can simplify their lives. Unbounce found that adding a simple video on the landing page improves conversion rates by over 80%.
You don’t necessarily have to use only one video on a landing page. Lower down on the page, and a quick snippet video could show what your product can do that others can’t. Customer testimonials could help to instill confidence in viewers and make them feel more connected to your company.
Ideally, the videos on your landing page should be suited to your entire audience. They should feel inspired by what they see, so they’re more likely to share it on social media. However, some companies are also using personalized videos on their landing pages – they provide a way to build trust, enhance credibility, and more efficiently convert viewers. In a personalized video, you’re addressing the person directly and no-one else.
Send your email list personalized video voicemails
Sending a personalized video to your email list can speed up the sales process and drive conversions. It makes for a more intimate experience and leads feel as though you care, making it more likely for them to listen to what you have to offer.
Boost your email open rates by almost 5x by including ‘video’ in the subject line and increase your click-through rates too.
Use marketing automation
Using the right tools enables you to segment your audience. You can get more mileage out of your videos by targeting them for different shopper demographics, different geographic areas, etc.
Sending out videos to targeted segments helps to drive engagement and convince leads to take another step down the marketing funnel. You can encourage viewers who have only watched 20% of a video to view more or send those who have watched 100% another more in-depth video. Make sure you host your videos on a platform that integrates with your marketing automation system.
Conclusion
Knowing your audience and telling a great story will give you a better chance of increasing your conversion rates but there are other factors to consider too.
Your video must be the right length; it must address the issues your audience faces and not be too complicated. You must include a CTA for it to achieve its purpose and you must make sure you use the right video at the right time. These tips will help you to increase your conversion rates.