When it comes to online marketing, there is nothing that compares to video. In fact Hubspot’s 2016 State of Inbound Report says that, “43% of consumers want to see more video from marketers in the future, while only 29% want to see more blog posts.” The power of video is unmatched when it comes to marketing. But first you need to know How to Create a Powerful Video That Will Convert More Clients.

How to Create a Powerful Video That Will Convert More Clients

Why Video?

There’s lots of research around the power of video. Tubular Insights reports that including a video on your homepage can increase conversion rates by 20% or more. We’re not just talking looky-loos here. We’re talking about real, buying customers.

Boast compiled a list of 13 reasons why video is so powerful:

1. Before reading any text, 60% of site visitors will watch a video if available. (Diode Digital)
   
   
2. One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. (Forrester Research)
   
   
3. 56% of consumers believe if a company has a website, it should have video content. (Animoto)
   
   
4. The Average user spends 16 minutes and 49 seconds a month watching online video ads. (ComScore)
   
   
5. 80% of consumers say a video showing how a product or service works is important when learning about the company. (Animoto)
   
   
6. Youtube has become the 2nd largest search engine – bigger than Bing, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL combined. (Etail Insights)
   
   
7. Video search results have a 41% higher click-through than plain text results. (Animoto)
   
   
8. 50% of marketers consider customer testimonials, explainer tutorial videos, and demonstration videos the most effective types of video content used. (Asend2)
   
   
9. 4 out of 5 consumers day demo videos are helpful. (Animoto)
   
   
10. Your website is 50 times more likely to appear on the first page of a search engines results page if it includes video. (Forrester Research)
    
    
11. Online video accounts for 50% of mobile traffic, and is predicted to become 75% by 2016. (Cisco)
    
    
12. 63% on consumers say companies who use video know how to reach their consumers. (Animoto)
    
    
13. People stay 2 minutes longer on your site if you have video content. (ComScore)

Create Emotional Videos to Convert Clients

AOL did a massive global study to understand consumer engagement online based on emotions. The company analyzed over 55,000 “content moments,” which it defined as an occasion when a person engages with a specific form of content such as video. Tubular Insights explains that AOL discovered 8 emotions that motivate human engagement including Be in the Know, Comfort, Connect, Entertain, Feel Good, Find, Inspire, and Update Socially.

What do you think the top motivators are for the U.S. consumer in order of priorities? They are inspire, feel good, entertain and update socially. So what does that mean for you? Well, whenever you use video in a marketing campaign, be sure you tap into those emotions to increase customer engagement. When you increase engagement, your profit potential goes up exponentially.

Create Quality Videos that Make a Difference

By now you should get the gist that video should be an integral part of your marketing plan. But all video is not created equal. Check out this video that shows the transformation of one of our Celebrity Science clients, Dr. Venus. eWomenNetwork President, Kym Yancey, explains how a professional video can make all the difference when it comes to attracting new customers.

Create a Powerful Video Script

This is an area that we see many people struggle with. You can be the greatest writer in the world for the written word, such as blogging, newspaper and magazines. But writing for video is less about beautiful prose than it is about getting your message across dynamically and effectively in less than 2 minutes. That in itself is a skill that is acquired over time. As a former TV News producer for the Today show in New York and reporter for CBS Radio, I have had much less time to tell a story. In fact if my radio reports were longer than 40 seconds, it was too long!

2 Big Scripting Mistakes

One of the things we do for our Celebrity Science and Starpower VIP clients is script coaching. Here are 2 big mistakes I see when I’m reviewing and coaching on script writing for video:

• Too long and wordy – One of the biggest mistakes I see is people write too much. According to Visible Measures, “20% of viewers will click away from a video in 10 seconds or fewer. 45% of viewers will stop watching a video after 1 minute and 60% by 2 minutes.” Keep your sentences short and sweet. Lose the superfluous words that don’t add anything to your sentence. Write your scripts like you talk. It should be conversational like you’re sitting across the table with someone having a cup o’ joe.
  
  
• Too generic – Be specific. If it’s a welcome video for your website, don’t just say, “I can help you make your dreams come true!” Why? Be specific why you stand out from the rest of your competitors. I love this portion of a script from one of our Starpower VIP clients, Yvette McDowell.
  Hi, my name is Yvette McDowell and I’m so thrilled you are here. You see I’ve been where you are! I had to transcend and rise above years of abuse, conflict and a steady stream of life threatening emergencies. It was through perseverance and a strong will to succeed that I became an Emmy-award winning attorney, firefighter-paramedic and now a personal transformation coach. My life’s mission is to help women live an empowered life with more confidence, power and purpose.

Create a Powerful Video Presentation

Once you have a powerful script with your message tailored for your ideal client or audience, it’s showtime! If you are using a teleprompter, it’s important to have some time to practice with one before you walk into a studio if you can. At our Starpower VIP day we coach each client using a simple teleprompter app on an iPad. We use Teleprompter Pro, but there are others. Once you load the script into the application, you can adjust the speed and size of the font for whatever is comfortable for the presenter. You can stop it or speed it up manually just by tapping on the screen.

Of course, it’s not just about reading a script. In fact, some people are better off using simple bullet points and elaborating from there. Either way, the most important thing about your presenting on video is to be yourself. Think of the camera as just another person standing there listening to you. The camera is your friend. Don’t get lost in reading the script on the teleprompter and forgetting to whom you’re speaking. As I learned in my years in radio, don’t talk to a group. Talk to ONE person, because after all, it’s only one person who will be watching. And that one person could be your next client or customer.

How Long Should Your Video Be?

It varies depending on where you're posting your video. Hubspot created this handy info-graphic on the right with guidelines on how long to make your video for each online platform you use.

Minimatters.com researched the most-popular videos on YouTube, which revealed the length to be a range of 42 seconds to just over 9 minutes. So the average video length they came up with is 4.4 minutes.

But, no matter what your length is, there are some key factors to always consider when creating your video for online consumption. SEO matters if you want your video to convert viewers to clients. Also, you don't want to waste time and money investing in a fabulous video if nobody is going to watch it.

YouTube is considered the number 2 search engine these days, so when it comes to video, they are a force to be reckoned with. Google owns it, so that helps.

Here are some best practices offered by Business2Community.com to consider when uploading your video to YouTube or any other video platform.

• A topic/headline created from search query research.
  
  
• Jump straight into the topic and avoid having drawn out introductions that can last 6-12 seconds. Viewers are most likely to drop off within the first 15 seconds of every video (Source: Google)
  
  
• Leave out the fluff and be precise with what your talking about.
  
  
• Audio/video equipment used to record videos are more reasonable in price than some would expect. So it may be worth spending some of your budget on the proper equipment. Especially when the quality of your video content speaks to your companies branding as well as for retaining your audience’s attention.
  
  
• Design videos that incorporate branding at a level that is not forceful and sales-y.
  
  
• If using a narrator or presenter in your videos, draft up a script and time their readings in comparison to the desired video length.
  
  
• Tell a story. Take your audience on a journey from “A-C”, with “B” the takeaway from the video.