Video on the Web: The Time Has Come

After years of debate over connection speeds and proprietary video formats, the dust has settled and it's finally safe (and smart) to add video to your website.

Now that the average connection speed is high enough to handle video, and there are multiple cross-platform options for delivering multimedia content, the only question left in the video-on-the-web dilemma is: Why?

Here are a few examples showcasing the effectiveness of video.

Demonstrations of Your Product or Service
A real estate agent can give a video walk-through of a property. It's the next-best-thing to being there, and much more effective than a written description or still photograph.

A landscaping company can show how professional and courteous their crews are in addition to before-and-afters of their completed work.

A manufacturer of health care products can demonstrate how to properly use their equipment in the field.

Testimonials
Testimonials can be an effective selling tool for small businesses. It's often difficult and time consuming to request, receive and distribute a well-written referral letter. By having your client or customer record a short explanation of the benefits of your company, you are giving a personal touch to the statement and making your message stand out from the crowd.

Entertainment
Who says your video content has to be dry? Well written, acted and produced content can also have entertainment and educational value. You can develop short commercials, interactive scavenger hunts or mock-programming to entertain your audience as well as build brand loyalty and name recognition. The video can even be formatted as a podcast and delivered directly to your audience for playback on a video iPod or a personal computer.

Information Exchange
You can use online video for on-demand, 24 hour a day employee training sessions. Instead of boring, written FAQs, you can have a person reading and answering questions about your product.

And much more!

It's important to remember that video should never replace the written text on your website. It should serve as appropriate accompaniment. Search engines and users with certain disabilities will not be able to access your video content. So, if it's important enough to say with video, it's also important enough to have a written description.

Want to learn more about video on the web? Contact Heideldesign today for a consultation.