What is one tip (or warning) you have for an entrepreneur who wants to start utilizing video as their primary tool for educating customers on their website?
1. Be Irreverent
Nobody will sit through a boring video. Make sure that your video is both captivating and educational at the same time. Don’t be afraid to self-shoot your video. With today’s technology, you can get pretty close to studio-quality cameras for a very small investment. – Timothy Schmidt, WebsiteRescue
2. Commit to Frequency
Video becomes outdated far more quickly than text. If you commit to utilizing video now, you need to also commit to updating it frequently. – Sam Saxton, Salter Spiral Stair and Mylen Stairs
3. Don’t Forget to Generate ROI
If you’re going to use video to educate customers, make sure you have a clear call-to-action and an easy way to capture leads. Videos canbe a wonderful way to engage your audience, but, just like any other marketing strategy, they require careful thought to ensure there’s a return on investment. – Sean Kelly, HUMAN
4. Focus on Quality
Video is a powerful medium that can transform a static website into a dynamic, bilateral destination. It does an entrepreneur no good if the video doesn’t provide the best customer experience and one-up the competition. – Daniel Wesley, DebtConsolidation.com
5. Make Sure it Loads Quickly
Your customers are busy people, and they simply do not have to time to sit and wait for a video to buffer. Though high-quality video is valuable for your brand, your average customer may not even get that far if it takes more than a few seconds to load. The faster you can deliver a compelling visual experience, the more likely viewers will devour your video content in its entirety. – Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep
6. Use Power Body Language
Videos are fantastic for selling, branding and connecting with readers, but ONLY if you display confidence, trust and authenticity. In your video be sure to pull the camera back far enough to show your hand and torso — both are trust indicators. Practice with your shoulders relaxed, which shows confidence. Make sure your chin and forehead are tilted up in power body language. – Vanessa Van Edwards,Science of People
7. Consider Your Real Target Audience
Most videos we see and emulate were found embedded with a startup’s funding announcement. This means that investors, not average consumers, are front of mind during video design — often unintentionally. And while it obviously succeeded with investors, what works for one group may not work for others. Always consider the target audience before you move forward. – Manpreet Singh, talklocal
8. Include a Transcript
If video is your primary tool, it should be accessible. So supplement your video with a transcript whenever possible. There are issues of accessibility around video that many people tend to forget, and without a transcript you’ll lose customers who are hearing impaired or who are simply watching the video in a noisy setting. Also, including a transcript will help increase your video’s SEO value. – Zach Robbins,Leadnomics
9. Invest in Sound and Lighting
It’s perfectly okay to use your webcam to start tapping into the power of video for building your audience. Most webcams are full HD now, or you can pick up a decent HD webcam for $100 dollars. You don’t need a fancy film camera and the latest and greatest equipment. The two things worth investing in are a good microphone and a lighting kit. Both of these things will help your audience stay engaged. – Natalie MacNeil, She Takes on the World
10. Be Brief
The average online video consumer watches attentively for about a minute. Plan what you are going to cover in advance so you are able to concisely communicate your most important points very quickly. Thirty-minute educational videos are fine, but they should be an option only after the consumer has viewed the short version and decided they want more. – Alexandra Levit, Inspiration at Work
11. Be Authentic
Video is a great option to tell your story and educate customers on how your products work and how they can help solve a customer’s problem. Always be authentic with your voice and brand. Too often companies try to be something they are not. Reflect on the feeling you want to give to the user and create a video that is congruent with your brand. – Andrew Thomas, SkyBell Technologies, Inc.
12. Break Them Up
Keep your videos concise and focused. It’s better to have 10 short videos on single topics than one long one covering all 10 topics. And remember to title them accordingly. That way it will be easy for users to locate and watch exactly what they want. For example “How to Register” might be short, but if that’s the problem they’re facing, it will be easy to find and exactly what they need. – Nicolas Gremion,Free-eBooks.net
13. Put Yourself in Your Viewer’s Shoes
You landed on a website one way or another, what would you want to know? If you can answer that question and portray it in your video, you will successfully educate the customers coming to your website and have them coming back for more! – Stanley Meytin, True Film Production