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Jan 31 2012

Why video is an effective sales tool for your website

Shoe-review
Online video can be a powerful sales and marketing tool. For big ticket items, such as real estate and automobiles, promotional video has been used effectively for years.  Promotional video shows the product in context, helping users get a better sense of the location, scale, dimensions, and color.  More and more, we're finding video selling lower cost items, such as shoes and strollers. These videos can be promotions or reviews of the product.  Companies will incorporate these on their own websites and Facebook pages, which can be created by the company or even by their customers.  Searching You Tube for nearly any product will yield at least a few reviews posted by consumers about their experiences with the product.

What do these companies know that you don't?  Is it worth investing in video as a sales tool for your product or service? Consider these reasons why online video is so persuasive, from Susan Weinschenk, an expert in applied psychology.  

  1. Movement in peripheral vision grabs attention.  Based on the number and type of receptor cells in the retina, we detect movement best with our peripheral vision. Moving video is particularly difficult to ignore, even while we're paying attention to other parts of the screen.
  2. Speakers' and listeners' brains sync up.  Research has shown that when we listen to someone speak, the listener's brain patterns begin to mirror those of the speaker's. The closer the brains are synched up, the more the listener understands the speaker's message.
  3. Video compensates (somewhat) for the asynchronous problem.  There is sychronous communication (phone, Skype) and asychronous communication (email, texting). Weinschenk refers to research showing that we're bonded during sychronous communication. While video is asychronous, the ability to hear and see a person makes it the most compelling of all asychronous forms of communication.
  4. Video can convey emotional information, not just factual.  Watching and listening to someone speak communicates more social and emotional information than just reading text. This information can be more compelling than the "just the facts" style of text.
  5. Video testimonials combine all the powerful elements together.  Written reviews and testimonials are already very compelling to users. They provide the social proof many users seek when buying a product or service. Video testimonials provide not only social proof, but they also grab the users' attention, synch up their brains, and speak to their emotions.

Given how effective video testimonials can be, you should certainly consider them for your business.  They could be exactly what convinces your website visitor to become your customer.  

You can read Weinschenk's take on it here.

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