Should You Add Video to Your Website?

I'm always looking for feedback -- positive or negative, about our website, http://www.javajointmedia.com/. I've been fortunate to have received numerous suggestions since the site launched about a month ago, and I've used some of these suggestions to greatly improve the site.

One criticism that I hear over and over again, though, it that the website needs video.

In fact, I heard it enough times that I finally emerged from the stone age and bought a digital video camera. Nothing fancy, just a little Panasonic with too many buttons for my taste, and a battery that knows to run out of power at the exact moment that something worthwhile is happening.

After I spent a couple of hours reading the instruction manual, and after my four-year-old showed me how to get the danged thing to record (preschoolers are great sources of technical wizardry, if only because they tend not to overcomplicate things), I sat down to plan. I'm going to put this great video on our website, I thought, and that will really keep my visitors glued to the site!

People love video, so I'm told. New internet marketing wisdom dictates that the greatest way to promote yourself or your business is to put video on your site. It's Web 2.0.

So I thought about our business, and spent a fair amount of time trying to think of what I could put in the video to add value to the Java Joint Media site.

I could stand in my office and tell you about how my team can help your business grow. I could talk about our services, give examples of how we've helped other businesses succeed, and maybe even throw in a few testimonials from our clients.

But all of that is already on our website in text form. Would you really want to watch some lanky bald guy in a suit stand there and tell you everything you could read for yourself?

I suppose I could get really creative and edit in some screenshots, snippets of Carla or I tapping away on a laptop, or some other Madison Avenue trick to make our homepage look like an infomercial. But again, what would that really add to a visitor's experience?

Now, I'm not denouncing web video altogether. There are many situations where video is indeed useful. Depending on the nature of your business, you can use it to tap into a person's logic or emotions, which will help you increase conversions.

If I were selling software, video would be great for helping visitors make a logical decision -- the decision to buy the software based on how it performs. I could use it to show how the software works, what the control panel looks like, and what kinds of results you could get by using it. Offering video footage of the software at work might make the difference between "I'll buy it" and "I'll think about it", because no one wants to buy software that is hard to navigate, or doesn't produce the intended results.

Now, if I were selling espresso makers, I'd use video to tap into visitors' emotions. I'd want my visitors to hear the sound of the espresso being made, and see the steam rolling out of a pristine white cup as the espresso is placed on a white tablecloth. If you love coffee, you know how those things can make you want a great cup'o'joe. If you don't, well, you probably wouldn't be shopping for an espresso maker anyway.

Video can be a great addition to your website if it serves the purpose of connecting with your visitors, either logically or emotionally. But don't just put video in your site because it's the current big thing in internet marketing. There's plenty of gratuitous video out there taking up bandwidth, when a paragraph or two of text would have served the same purpose. Conversely, there's plenty of hard-working, high conversion sites out there that don't contain a single second of video footage.

Before you spend the time and money on web video, make sure it adds value to your site. If it doesn't educate, entertain, or emotionally move your visitors in a way that text and images can't... then you probably don't really need it.

As for Java Joint Media, I couldn't think of a single good reason to add video. I guess we're going to stay Web 1.0 (or something like that) for now. I'll use my video camera to record my daughter's Disney trip next month instead.

Now, if Web 3.0 gives us the ability to add not only video, but smell as well... I may just get into the espresso maker selling business.

To Your Success,

Lee Rowley

Java Joint Media