Creating high-quality video content can hugely improve your audience engagement, boost your Google ranking and increase sales. In this blog, we discuss why incorporating video into your website is important if you want to appeal to a modern market and compete with other brands online.

The Online Buying Experience

When looking at the current consumer market, there has been a dramatic shift towards people shopping online rather than heading to their local high street stores to shop. Why? Because shopping online offers an entirely different browsing and purchasing experience that is often more convenient. Customers can:

• Shop from the comfort of their home & at any time of the day
• Quickly and easily compare similar products from different brands or suppliers
• Access honest reviews from other customers who purchased the same product

But one thing online shopping doesn’t allow consumers to do is see the product in real life. That’s why videos are an invaluable tool for digital marketers and something that customers expect to see when they shop online. When people intend to buy something, particularly something of high value, they want to know that it’s exactly what they're looking for before parting with their money. Research shows that after watching a video about a certain product, people were much more likely to buy it than if they hadn’t watched a video. Why is that?

Videos not only showcase a product or service, but they also present information in a way that is engaging, easy to share and most importantly, easy to digest. Videos enable you to:

• Offer customers a 360° & up-close experience
• Demonstrate how the product or service works
• Highlight & talk about the technical elements
• Show how your product or service is better than others

Let’s take a look at an example of a video that showcases a product/service effectively:

This is a video that we created for one of our clients, Sweets in the City, to advertise their Letterbox Treats product. So, why is this video effective?

1. It shows people the name of the brand & product name clearly
2. It demonstrates exactly how to order and personalise your order online
3. It shows the complete product & how it will be delivered to you

After watching this video, the potential customer has everything they need to make an informed decision about their purchase.

Another great way that video can be utilised in digital marketing is in explaining and providing information in a visual way that sometimes words and text cannot convey in an engaging manner. In the video below, we provide information on 'composite decking vs plastic decking' for UK composite decking supplier TimberTechUK.

Here you can see a comparison of the two types of decking board with important information spoken in a voiceover. Providing a combination of both visual and audio elements that make what would be standard text information, a lot more interesting to take in and understand.

SEO Video Benefits

While creating videos to advertise products can greatly increase sales, this is not the only way that video can improve your business.

Search engines like Google consider videos to be ‘high-quality content’. Used correctly, videos can dramatically boost your rankings. When bots crawl your site and come across this ‘high-quality’ content, you can expect that your site will receive a ranking boost, moving you closer to that all important #1 position. Some examples of videos that add lots of value to your site include interviews with experts, reviews or gifs - to name a few.

Google often shows a selection of video results (a video pack) close to the top of page one in response to a particular search term or query. That’s because Google wants to give its users the best possible experience, and some users will find a video response most useful.

For example; someone searching ‘how to change a tyre?’ might want to see somebody changing a tyre and talking them through the process rather than reading a long article or trying to piece together a series of images. To get maximum SEO benefits from your video content, you should:

• Ensure your video is high-quality and relevant to your business/product
• Target relevant keywords in your video title
• Write a detailed meta-description that also incorporates relevant keywords

Social Media

In recent years we have seen a huge increase in the number of social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, incorporating new and interesting ways to share video content. Learning how to harness the potential of features such as; Live videos, stories and Instagram TV etc. will be key to long-lasting customer engagement in the future.

Sharing entertaining video content on social media platforms can also broaden your customer outreach exponentially. We’ve all seen a funny or interesting video online and tagged our friends or shared it with our own followers. Think about how this same principle can be applied to your digital marketing efforts - create original, eye-catching and entertaining content with your product, service or brand at the centre.

How can we help?

If it isn’t already apparent, incorporating video into your digital marketing efforts is very important if you want to remain successful in the current climate. At Designer Websites, we offer a number of services that will help you bring your brand to life including, videography, drone footage, 360ۤ° video and street view.

Click the buttons below to have a look at these services in more detail, or give us a call on 01446 339050 and we'll be happy to discuss your ideas & give you a quote - free of charge!

Videography >                                   Drone Footage >                               360° video & street view >

NOA Healthcare is a staffing agency that specialises in the supply of healthcare professionals to organisations in the healthcare industry, e.g. nurses, doctors, locums, support staff, etc.

Operating a unique and advance automated booking system they deliver highly responsive staffing resources to clinics, hospitals and care homes.

NOA required a fresh new website that would better reflect their business online, and give them greater awareness in the search engines.

We created a brand new fully responsive website that is user and search engine friendly – ensuring a consistent experience on all devices. Our SEO team optimised the content of the site to help improve their Google ranking.

The new and improved NOA website clearly and concisely informs potential clients in the healthcare industries about the advantages of working with NOA for quickly and easily fulfilling their staffing resources requirements. The site further explains their employment of the JMS One solution which makes booking staffing resources simple and quick.

With easy navigation and a bright and welcoming design, we hope that NOA Healthcare’s new website will attract lots of new clients. You can take a look at their new site by clicking the button below:

Visit NOA Healthcare >

If you’d like to enquire about having a great site created for your business then get in touch and tell us more about your project, we’d love to hear from you. Our contact details can be found here.

Contact Designer Websites >

Access Training Academies is a training course provider offering a wide variety of courses, across a number of disciplines and industry sectors. They have several specialist training centres in numerous locations across the UK, including Cardiff, Bristol and Kent. Using state-of-the-art facilities, they offer intense, fast-track training courses such as Plumbing, Carpentry and IT to beginners and experienced people alike, usually those looking for a change in career, or want to add further qualifications to an already established skill set.

We’ve worked with Access Training for almost a decade now, delivering a couple of redesigns to their website over the years. Historically they’ve always been a ‘trades’ training provider, offering a wide range of courses to the building and trade sectors, but more recently they have branched out in terms of the training courses they offer. So, the new challenge for us was to bring the site in line with the new broader offering from the company, allowing scope for further growth and changes.

As well as a fresh new design and a more scalable solution, we wanted to deliver a website with improved usability and search engine performance, so we started from scratch and re-wrote the entire site, including all of the latest coding structures and integrations to improve both usability and optimisation. We integrated the solution with their bespoke CRM (also developed by us) and their sales tool Infusionsoft. We also included a bespoke enquiry and customer tracking solution, a custom landing pages solution, management reports and much more.

What did we do?

All-in-all, this is a very comprehensive and highly functional website solution, which not only helps the company to promote their services online but also provides incredibly granular tracking in order to see precisely where enquiries come from and how well advertising campaigns are performing. Oh, and it’s also pretty great in terms of customer usability too, with much-improved responsive user experience and design – which you can view for yourself right here.

If your current website is looking a little dated and requires a fresh new look, why not get in touch with us here at Designer Websites? Click below to get started!

Get a FREE Web Design Quote >

Greensquares is a family of products and services that, together, have created stunning outdoor spaces all over the country. The business, run by Managing Director Jason Cole, was established in 2004 and has since become a leading specialist in low-maintenance, high-quality outdoor living. From the customer’s initial idea, the Greensquares team will help them to design, choose the right products, and install their dream outdoor living space. Some of the products they offer include:

• Composite Decking
• Porcelain Paving
• Garden Rooms & Verandas
• Outdoor Railing

Greensquares came to us because they wanted to replace their old, outdated website with something modern, attractive and mobile friendly.

We’ve created a responsive, user-friendly brochure site that beautifully showcases the high-quality brands and services that Greensquares offer. View it here.

The new site also features:

• A large video header showcasing various completed projects
• High-resolution videos and photographs were taken by our in-house videographer
• Enquiry forms to suit a variety of different queries

If your current website is looking a little dated and in need of an update, why not get in touch with us here at Designer Websites?

Get a FREE Web Design Quote >

With only a matter of weeks until Christmas - 'tis the season to start preparing for Christmas campaigns. 

You didn't read that wrong. With December being the most lucrative time of the year for most retail businesses, you really can't start planning your Christmas marketing campaign too early. With online shopping continuing to grow in popularity year after year, it's a great time to take advantage of the increase in sales during the holiday period. One way to do this is by utilising your brand's social media accounts.

Social media is a great way to communicate with your customers on a personal level, and there's no better time to do this than the Christmas period. With more people home from work and enjoying their downtime, inevitably, there is also an increase in social media traffic. So with that in mind, we have some tips on how to make your social media more festive this season.

Make it Festive

If you want to take advantage of the Christmas holiday period you have to be willing to get involved. This is where starting early can pay off as you can prepare your Christmas campaign and the content to go with it. You'll see most brands make their social media particularly festive, with many changing to Christmas profile and cover pictures which show off their offers and holiday spirit. Some will also use hashtags to get their customers ready for the season such as Coca Cola's iconic #HolidaysAreComing. This reminds customers that the holiday is approaching and to keep shopping in mind. 

It's not uncommon for non-retail brands to get into the spirit too and this is a good thing because in an online sea of holiday joy your business can look like a bit like a social Scrooge if you choose to ignore Christmas. Keep it fun and consistent so people can recognise your posts and engage with them. 

Cross Promote

With the high saturation of Christmas posts over social media, it can be easy to get lost amongst them. Whatever your marketing strategy is this Christmas, it's important to share it across your social platforms. This isn't exclusive to online offers either, whether it's a TV advert or an in-store exclusive social media is a fantastic way to get noticed.

John Lewis is an expert for this: their highly anticipated advert doesn't just end on the TV screen. They know exactly how to use their other platforms to get extra exposure. Their 2016 campaign #BusterTheBoxer was seen all over their social media, with the playful pooch even getting his own Snapchat filter. Even if you didn't see the advert on TV or Youtube (although we find that hard to believe), you undoubtedly saw it across social media.

Promoting your Christmas campaign across social media platforms is a great way to extend your reach to as many people as possible. 

Get Personal 

For most, Christmas is a time to think about others and businesses should keep this in mind throughout their marketing campaigns. Social media is a great way to communicate with consumers on a more personal level, and it's a great way to remind them how much you appreciate their custom. A good way to do this on social media is to promote special offers to customers, such as free shipping days or discount codes. Using social media to do this allows people to recognise how following your online activity is a great way to gain benefits and hear about your offers first.

It's also the perfect time to put the face behind the brand on show. If you want to connect with people via social media it is a good idea to show that you are people too. This personal touch doesn't have to be too invasive - sharing a "Christmas Jumper Day" or a picture of festive decorations is a nice way to remind customers that you aren't all serious business all of the time. 

Try to schedule posts on your social media wishing your customers a Merry Christmas too - many use social media as a way to wish their friends and family love over the holidays, so it's always nice to add that personal message from your brand too.

If you want any help with your online Christmas campaign this year our expert team is here to help. Visit our contact us page below to see how we can help you make your brand more festive this year.  

Contact Us >