Skillful Use of Video

If video is well used, it can be a very effective marketing technique.

If video is well used, it can be a very effective marketing technique. It has excellent conversion potential because of its ability to engage the visitor.

We recommend that video not be set to play automatically, but that there be a button where your visitor, if he or she chooses, can play it. Many people browse at work or in other settings where they may not appreciate spontaneous sound, so your video, if not done correctly, could chase them off the site.

Video can be either played directly from your site, or it can be uploaded to YouTube and embedded on your site. Video that is uploaded to YouTube can be optimized for video search, and so can be an excellent source of traffic to your site.

It's important that video files be short. Two minutes would be an absolute maximum length, to retain interest.

An example of the skillful use of video is the website of Dr. Brad Hylan. Notice the patient testimonials videos embedded in the right sidebar of the home page. The videos are embedded from YouTube, where they are part of his YouTube channel, they are 20 to 30 seconds each, and visitors have control over whether or not they play and can choose to fast forward to the videos they want to see.