How to use video on your website?

Video can give the instant wow factor, we have all seen the impactful banner video when we land on website, or seen that clever explainer video that so magically captures how a business works in 2 mins, and we’ve likely all felt the emotional pull of a great interview style video.

Article Info

December 6, 2023 13 mins

What we will cover

But how do you best use video on your website?

Nowadays over 86% of users are now using video on their websites, it has seen a massive increase with 60% of landing pages now having a video because of the increase in conversion it brings and the ease of producing and editing videos with the increase of technology.

However, the difference between a quality corporate video and using your phone is obvious to your customers, so we cover how to use video on your website that will have an impact, how do you ensure that your video stands up to the competition? What resources do you need? Where do you even start?

Let’s take a look…

Why corporate video is important

If you are not yet convinced about the power of video then here are some stats picked up from social share specialists Buffer and inbound marketing gurus Hubspot:

  • Video brings in three times more traffic to a website
  • 91% of video-savvy businesses reported a return on investment
  • People spend 88% longer on a website which includes video content
  • Prospects are 85% more likely to buy a product after seeing a video about it

In short, most businesses are investing in video and most customers are expecting to see it.

ROI from video marketing is also moving in the right direction across the board due to the availability and affordability of hardware and software.

The price of video cameras, webcams and mobile devices have tumbled and there has been an explosion in free and low-cost software for editing and even live streaming content.

Many of these products are surprisingly easy to use – even for the novice, and you could be setup for an investment in the hundreds nowadays, however, a decent corporate video production team will have kit thats worth tens of thousands.

Apart from the expense, there are two key elements to consider for a high-touch feel. Do you have the skills to frame the shots and edit the content? Because you can’t refilm from a different angle after the filming day and you could end up spending a lot of time learning how to edit video.

Here’s a few things to think about if you’re thinking of producing a good corporate video.

How to make a corporate video

Although it is now comparatively cheap and easy to get video content out there, it is important not to rush out poorly thought-out content. A decent video needs to consider the following.

A message focused on your audience

The best videos answer the questions that your customers are asking or delivers the kind of content they are interested in the way they like to consume it.

You’re business should have answers for your customer’s pains, start by jotting down the pains, questions and the USPs that you offer and you will begin to get a picture of the conversation you are joining.

Tell a story

Now you know the starting point for the story, what is the narrative arc you wish to tell. In the above video we join our clients on a search for a new website and reframe the conversation towards digital marketing (tackling the assumption that it’s just about just having a website).

We talk about the service range, then offer a “Call To Action” as we invite the user to see how we have helped others, follow us and sign up to our newsletter.

This video is one of many that the user may see, as we introduce the benefits of each of our services via video on our landing pages and have our happy customers as the stars of our testimonial videos deeper into the site.

Tips on scripting your video

When you start to script your video, keep it precise. Bullet point the above then flesh each point trimming the fat as much as possible and avoiding complex language, ask yourself “could a 5 year old understand it?”, and if not then use your favourite AI tool to help you rewrite it.

Don’t repeat your message, if you find that you are ping-ponging around, go back to to your message and story and consider the narrative arc you are trying to create.

Keep it short, most attention spans are short, the video will only need to be a minute or two tops – this is a very long time with moving pictures to tell the right story if it’s well thought through.

The first 10 seconds is key, hit with a compelling or contradictory message.

Storyboarding a video

Now we have a written skeleton of the video, we need to think about the visuals we want to convey. Start by getting some ideas down of things you can film that will add intrigue. Perhaps you work in a listed building, have a cool manufacturing process, bold signage, whatever is unique to you – these things will make excellent B-Roll, and can be repurposed, more on that later.

Now review the language in your script and get down some ideas on how to visualise that.

Now think about the customer, how can we reflect the customer back to them in our video, a good video is all about showing the potential customer they are where a happy customer once was, and you solved their pain points.

Now we can begin to lay these out in frames, you can draw some squares on a page or feel free to use our free template.

Filming your video

Now we get into the skills where the professional earns their keep, the filming and editing. Heres the key points that will have an impact on the quality of your video.

Lighting, use natural light and supplementary lighting to balance subjects evenly. Getting the right balance is in the eye of the beholder, but there are settings on your equipment that will feed back the brightness and white balance, and you can tweak this to a degree in post production.

Soft and hard light, do your best to avoid filming in the middle of the day so get a softer light, be aware that outside filming can change in an instant with cloud coverage, and the more lighting points you have to balance inside can create shadow issues.

Framing the shot, again this is down to the creative eye, keep the background clean and not busy and then layer objects of intrigue. The placement of shots should represent a familiar surrounding for the audience it is aimed at and the message you are trying to communicate.

Audio is more important than you even realise right now, in the post production you will see just how critical a good quality microphone, from a separate device to the video recording, will have on the final output quality and options in editing.

Spend out for a lapel mic, they are cheap. Set it up and test it, and be aware of any background noise that your microphone might be picking up.

Editing your video

Choose video production software you can understand. There’s a huge range, don’t overexert yourself.

It is better to produce a simple video well than to mess up trying to win an Oscar (watch a few episodes of ‘The Apprentice’ if you need cringeworthy proof of this).

As the price of video cameras and editing software comes down, there is a temptation to overstretch the mark with fancy graphics and special effects.

If you do want to go down that route, consider outsourcing your video production to a company with proven expertise.

For the watcher, your audio quality is surprisingly more important than your professional video quality. Most of us will watch a video that’s not shot in HD or that’s even a little grainy, but if you have ever watched something with distorted or poor audio it’s surprising how little tolerance we have.

Brand alignment

If you promote yourself as a creative, edgy brand then a dull corporate video with a talking head in front of a plain background is definitely not in alignment.

Pay attention to the storyline, background design, personalities, tone of voice, clothing and text and make sure everything is consistent with your brand values.

Lastly consider the intro screen, namestraps and iconography in line with your brand guidelines.

How to embed your video

Once you have your .mp4 file, what next? Well, don’t go uploading it to your website’s server.

Vimeo or YouTube are designed to host and serve videos. If you upload it to your server it will take up loads of space and resources to load each time, costing you a good experience and likely a larger hosting bill.

Instead, you can embed it as an iframe from these services. It’s easy to do so I won’t cover how to do it, but the difference between the two.

Vimeo is a professional platform that gives you lots of control over the controls and clickable elements and buttons, as well as what happens at the end of the video.

YouTube is a little bit more socially focussed in that it wants to get you on there, so it will try and provide different videos at the end of yours that could be from any other YouTube – it will look like it’s on your website and you will have no control over the content.

The benefit of YouTube is that it’s the second largest search engine by the way. The second largest, behind Google. And that means it’s bigger than Bing, Ecosia, Lycos(:D) – you name it. This means you have the chance to be found for your video first and then have potential customers find your brand afterwards. So take time with your descriptions and hashtags to help yourself get found.

Videos should be at the top of the page to save the user reading the content, and you should adjust your meta tags to include the word video to help search engines understand that you have taken the time to create a video as well as written content.

Viral videos

If your video appeals to a viewer they need to be able to click a button to spread the word via their chosen social media channel. So there is no excuse not to make your videos easy to share, but that doesn’t mean you will be a viral sensation.

I’m sure we fondly remember keyboard cat, and a million others, but corporate viral videos? Hmm….

Here’s the best example I have:

The recipe:

  • Charitable giving
  • The above topic at the right time for society
  • A familiar theme and easy to grasp concept
  • Customer centric content
  • High quality production
  • A whole bunch of advertising and visibility

We should all have aspirations of creating high-quality content we want the world to see, but must accept that Charlie biting his sibling’s finger will always win out over corporate content.

Measuring the impact of video

So we’ve covered how to use video on your website, but how do we know if it’s doing anything?

The platforms you host your video on will have their own analytics. Here’s a tip: Views are good but shares are even better.

Depending on the video it may be to drive traffic to a webpage, use your analytics to see the source of the traffic. It may be to help sell a product, are you measuring your conversion rate? It may be for an advert- are you A/B testing different clips?

You need to have some means of measuring the success of your video and there is a lot of free and low cost analytics and social media monitoring software that can help you with this. 

Types of Corporate Video to Boost your Brand

Understanding what your video is for will help to guide its content, production and placement.

Three of the most popular types of content are product videos, brand videos and social media videos.

Product Videos

Product videos centre on specific products or services from your range and highlight the benefits in a clear and compelling way. Note I said ‘benefits’ not ‘features.’ There is an oft-mentioned marketing quote (attributed to an advertising man called Leo McGinneva) which points out that people don’t want quarter-inch drill-bits, they want quarter-inch holes. In other words, don’t waste time harping on about the specifications of your product or service. Instead, take the opportunity to illustrate how it will make your customer’s life easier or more fulfilling.

In terms of the customer buying cycle, product videos are ideal for both the awareness stage – to whet the appetite – and at the research stage where you can highlight even more benefits.

Brand Videos

Brand videos are designed to showcase your brand values. This type of video is ideal for your home or ‘about us’ page where it gives you a real chance to drive home your unique positioning in the marketplace.

These can be short and visual, quirky and clever explainers or passionate founder interviews depending on your brand.

Testimonial Videos

These are customer stories of how your brand has helped others, we’ve got you covered in how to produce these here, and the theory behind the value of this kind of testimonial content. These are vital for a good case study and Dave above even bears. a bit of emotion talking about how we helped him.

Social Videos

Videos for social media can be about products, services, your people, your brand values or other topic but they must tick several boxes. They should normally be short in length, light-hearted, people-focused and, most important of all, engaging.

We talked about capturing B-Roll earlier in the planning process, these short clips are excellent small branded videos to cut through the clutter on social media.

When analysing the success of social media videos, look at the number of shares as a percentage of views. The best social media videos manage to hook into a current trend, extending your reach way beyond your immediate social network.

Improve your search rankings

It’s true that video content ranks well in search engines but don’t be fooled into thinking that slapping a video on your site without thought or planning will yield a quick result. It will require optimised written content also.

As with any marketing activity the use of video needs thought and planning.  You need to consider the purpose of the video, identify the target audience and ensure that you use the right channels to distribute the content.

You also need to consider (or ensure that your web designer has considered) how to make search engines aware of your video content.  Google offer some guidance on video best practice which is worth a look.

Ready to get started?

We hope this has given you some useful insight with how to use video on your website, the kinds of content, as well as some useful starting points for filming and editing.

Do you know anyone who may be interested in this project?

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