Having a selection of good creative content is an asset for your business and of course is hugely important for your website.

Having good content is a great way to encourage people to visit your website. When users see good content on your website you are more likely to keep their attention but also get them to come back and share content from your website.

According to Google 5 million years of videos will be watched online every month by 2021!

Having video on your website will even help push you up the search engine results and improve your SEO ratings. Today we can do so much just using our own smartphones or a DSLR camera and video content now accounts for 87% of online media. So there’s a lot out there to compete with, but there are steps you can take to make sure you stand out above the rest.

What to Do and How to Do It

The first 8 seconds of a video is vital – the power of sight, sound, and motion is needed to win the attention of the viewer.

To help your video stand out in crowded online spaces focus these first few seconds on being noticeable :

• Have bright and clear footage,
• Large text and graphics that help your message stand out, especially on smaller screens.
• Faster pacing and cuts help hold attention for people with shorter attention spans.

Using Audio

Video ads with audio, drive over 2.6 times higher brand or product consideration than viewable-only or audio-only ads.

There are a few ways we can include audio from music to voiceover or narration. Its always a good idea to say the brand or product name as well as try and include an audible call to action at the end to further reinforce your message.

All of this will help considerably with lowering your bounce rates, meaning that they are less likely to jump to the next available competitor website.
This is important because Google takes into consideration the bounce rate and dwell time when it determines a website’s quality and ranking.

Video Content and the Power of Shareable Content

Video Content gets shared 1200% more than text and images combined on social media!

Pushing this video content on your own Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram pages will help boost your sales and ROI (return on investment) by driving new customers to your website. A viewer might share your content because they find it interesting, funny or even become emotionally invested in it.

This might not apply to all businesses or products however, and there are ways around that too. You can really boost the sharing of content by coming up with competitions with prizes that don’t have to come with a high price tag.

Everybody loves free stuff! Many companies use the method of asking those who want to enter the competition to “like, share, and tag friends”.

This is proven to be a very successful way of having your content shared far and wide amongst friends.

You can also generate leads and convert customers through paid media showcasing your video rather than images and text. Sharing creates higher engagement rates with your brand’s website and helps in building trust. It’s always best practice to engage with the comments of customers as well to help further that trust with a personal connection.

Types of Video

There are many different types of video you can create depending on your digital strategy plan.

It is best practice to try and dabble in as many of these as possible, you can review and see what works best for you.

• Explainer videos can give a great insight into what your business or product is all about in a much quicker way than text can.
• Live streaming videos are used to engage with customers and generate conversions by answering any questions they might have.
• How-to videos are created to help inform your customers as to how your service or product can be used in an easy step by step guide. This can be done by physical demonstrations or screen sharing walkthroughs if it is a web-based service.

For all of these methods it’s important to take into account the software and hardware you’re using to produce the highest quality of picture and sound possible.

STEPS YOU CAN TAKE RIGHT AWAY

1. Make a list of all the equipment you have at your disposal – you may decide to invest in new equipment or find a business that will help create that video content for you.
2. Create a video marketing strategy that is tailored to you and your customer’s needs. – where can you show your video – what video topics would be the most useful to your customers? How many videos will you plan and how often will you share them? What products, settings, actors will you need?
3. Use the method that suits your business the most.
4. When uploading and choosing your video titles, use the right keywords to optimise the SEO of your video content.
5. Use social media to boost your video reach and encourage people to like, share, tag, and comment.
6. Engage with those who engage with your content.

Remember – Quality content is what we want. Both audibly and visually we should always aim to have the highest quality possible. Sometimes that means that certain videos may not be possible to do in-house with the equipment you have available. Investing in a professional videographer or agency may not be as high of an investment as you thought.

Author Bio: Katie McGarr is one of the resident writers for SPRINT DIGITAL Agency Dublin, a firm offering an extensive range of digital marketing and website services to businesses across UK, Ireland, and Continental Europe. She enjoys sharing her insights about blogging, web design, SEO, and other forms of digital marketing.