More and more businessman with company websites are realizing that a web video, which greets visitors to the web site, makes the web site more personal reaches out to visitors in a stronger way and increases the conversion rate. What are the essential elements of a web video that will turn clicks into customers. That is the central question.
Every profession has its own unique requirements, which go into producing a quality web video. However, many of the qualities which make a video work for one profession will also apply to website videos in other professions. In this article, I will be comparing three web videos that were made for the landscaping profession and are posted on You Tube.
The ATC website video posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIpt0JebTc tells the story of a day in the life of the ATC company. This enjoyable video tells the story of a typical day in the life of ATC landscape workers. The background music consists of the song “Takin’ Care of Business by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.” The lyrics describe the 9-5 daily routine of workers pushing a time clock in a big city. In the morning, the workers conference, they stand around the foreman who gives then a pep talk. Then they clap hands and head to the trucks. Then one by one the trucks pull away. Next we see workers busy with various landscaping chores, mowing the lawn, trimming a bush, and setting up a wooden fence behind a garden. The scenes feature good quality landscaping work and attractive lawns and gardens. When the video is over, we have come to feel that the workers of ATC are decent hard working fun-loving guys. And we would trust them with our landscaping.
The second web video, is constructed of amateur video footage and still photos, arranged and set to music by a professional video production company. This video is compounded of stills and video segments of landscapes the company has made,along with some shots of company workers actively engaged in landscaping. The video features still and video shots of landscapes the company made, and some shots of company workers at work. The music is upbeat universal style background music. The video is not as personal as the first video. It seeks to build trust with the viewer by presenting the quality of the company’s landscape work.
The third web video is also professionally made. The well captioned product is introduced by a narrator, and then features before and after photos of various landscaping jobs the company has done.
Studies have shown that trust a shopper has for a company is a very important factor in determining whether or not he will do business with that company. Trust, it has been shown can override considerations of the quality of the work the company will produce. And for obvious reasons, a company may do quality work but if not trustworthy could cheat an individual customer. Whereas a trusty company will always be expected to do well for a customer. So which video wins more trust? Clearly number one. At the end of that video, we feel like we know the company and the workers. Whereas in video two the workers appear in a few still life shots, and in video three not at all.
What about other commonalities found in the three videos, which we might call important elements of a landscaping video. Clearly, the shots of beautiful looking and quality landscape displayed on the screen will influence a viewers decision about doing business with a company. While the first video may inspire trust by introducing the crew as decent hard working and fun loving guys, the shots of quality landscaping, manicured, well cut lawns, well trimmed beds and a sturdy garden fence are also necessary, as they allow the viewer to connect his faith in the workers with the quality work they do. Both the second and third videos also present the quality landscaping work the companies do.
General statements we can make about these videos, which apply to other professional include the observation that a website video which develops trust in a company is more likely to win customers. Also, in landscaping as well as other professions it is important to show that workers perform quality work in their profession, so that the viewer can connect his trust in the company with a belief that the workers will perform quality work.
