Web video may be the “buzz” topic out there these days but it’s amazing how few businesses know how to structure online video properly.
Remember that virtually everything that internet marketers do outside of their website should be designed to get as many as possible flocking to the website; it’s almost all about generating qualified traffic to your site.
So, just as with your social media marketing and PPC campaigns, your video needs to be structured to send people back to your website.
How do we do that? We focus on a few areas below.
The Intro
This is important, just as it is with copywriting. You need to capture the attention of your audience straight away as you won’t have long – attention spans are short!
Starting a video with “Hi, I’m….” is not going to do that. You need a “hook”.
Grab their attention with a bold promise, a question you know your viewer will want to know the answer to or by addressing one of the key concerns or problems your target audience has.
You can include a little jingle before the opening words too – these are great for adding a touch of professionalism to your video… check “iStock” or “Videohive” for a selection of these you can choose from and tailor to your own business so that you can build your branding.
Your video must have a good call to action.
Lower Third
Include a “lower third” through your video; this is text that you will often see in news programs or talk shows where a guest is identified using printed text in the lower portion of the screen (it doesn’t usually take up as much as a third of the screen, despite its name.)
So you can use a lower third to identify who somebody is and, after that, make sure you have your URL displayed throughout the video in the same area of the screen (though be careful not to have it obscured by the YouTube logo that will appear.)
This serves two purposes: it means that the viewer doesn’t have to wait until the end of the video before heading over to your site; secondly, it prevents the video being copied and used on another site (like a watermark.)
Outro
The outro of your video will be a call to action. Every single video you make should include this, without exception, because interested viewers want to know what the next step is.
Most times this will be heading back to your website – so highlight the URL again and tell them to do that, if they want to know more about this, that or the other.
Finally you might like to play your intro jingle again as an outro, to provide a polished and professional ending to the video.
Focusing all your efforts on getting your viewers to click through to your website will make a world of difference to the success of your marketing and part of that is knowing how to structure online video.
The Competition Crusher workshop includes loads more valuable video marketing info for businesses just starting out. Check it out by clicking here.