EyeView's Blog

Video Ain't What It Used To Be

Video just isn’t video anymore. Or, rather, video isn’t just video anymore. Video has come a long way since the first skateboarding cat did the rounds on YouTube. If video has to do something more than entertain the viewer for 20 seconds then it has to offer more than a one-way viewing experience.

When we sit down to talk with our customers about video they understand that video has to work for them. Our reports consistently show that the longer a viewer spends watching a video, the more likely he or she is to respond to the call to action and achieve the conversion goal set by the site. Viewer engagement is the key to successful video and we are always looking for new ways to engage with the viewer.

The example below explores a number of different ways for the viewer to engage. The narrative of the video is broken up into a series of chapters each with its own link on the left hand side of the player. Some chapters are further divided into sub-chapters. The viewer can choose to watch in any order skipping around to find the items of interest. This reflects the way the viewer might access similar information on a web page.

In addition, this particular video offers a choice of languages. Try switching between the languages using the drop-down menu on the top right of the player. You will notice how the contextual menus on the left side of the player all change to match your choice. Listen and you will hear that the voiceover has also changed. Have a closer look at the content of the video and you will see that the language of the screenshots inside the video has also aligned itself with the language you chose.

Even before you consider the content there is a whole list of things you can do with your video to ensure that your viewers will remain engaged.

After this video went live for eBay it was seen over fifty thousand times in the first few weeks. Each view averaged six sub-chapters proving the video’s ability to engage the viewer and persuade them to watch more.

Video is not just about the content of your video anymore. You need to consider the presentation and delivery of your video as an essential part of its success. You spend an enormous amount of energy refining your message, but what are you doing to ensure that people are paying attention when you talk?

Eating Our Own Dog Food

The phrase to eat one’s own dog food may have originated with Microsoft, but it has entered the popular lexicon because it rings true to so many people. If you want others to believe in your product, you must be an enthusiastic consumer yourself – even if your product is dog food.

Here at EyeView we recently undertook a critical re-examination of the video on our homepage. We stopped being a provider for a few minutes and instead became our own customer. We already had a video in place that was working. The conversion goal for the page was to have visitors submit their details in on our Contact Us page in order to generate new leads for the business.

We looked at a number of different elements that we felt should be tightened up to see if they would have an impact on our conversion and then we tested them.

First of all we looked at the messaging in the video. We went through our internal messaging policy and made sure that the script of the new video was fully aligned.

Part of the conversion funnel was to drive traffic to the Contact Us page. We were concerned that not enough people were visiting the Contact Us page after watching the video. We decided to make the call to action much more explicit in the video based on the principle of “See it. Hear it. Click it.” We moved the call to action button inside the player and made it clickable. We also had the narrator clearly invite visitors to push the button to drive home its importance. We made sure that this button matched the existing call to action button outside the player to avoid confusion.

To make sure we made the biggest impact on new visitors we set the video to play automatically. But this only happens the first time you visit. If you are a returning visitor the video player waits to be prompted before relaunching the video.

To see the new video in its natural habitat, visit EyeView's homepage here.

In summary, we proposed a number of changes and then we went out and tested those changes, measuring their impact against the old video. The improvement was felt immediately. These carefully considered tweaks boosted our conversion rate by over 46%. A resounding success, by any standard, but it doesn’t make us complacent.

We are already planning the next round of tests including an off-player call to action button that is synched up with the video to draw attention to it at exactly the right time.

As long as we continue suggesting changes, we will continue testing them. We’re hungry for conversion success and we’re fortunate that we make the most delicious kind of dog food.

7 Ways To Ensure Your Video Doesn't Work

Once you've commissioned your website video you want to be absolutely sure that it does you no good at all. Here are the top seven questions you should be asking yourself if you want to ensure that your video has less than zero impact on your site and its ability to convert your visitors.

1. How long is it?

Videos should be at least eight minutes long to make sure you fit every word of your user manual  into the script. Always start with a long tracking shot or a view of the planet from outer space that slowly focuses in on your office in the business district. People always want to see where you work even if it has nothing to do with your product.

Make sure you don’t reveal your company’s message too early on. Nobody likes spoilers.

Don’t bother with a call to action. People will naturally intuit what you want them to do.

2. Where is it?

When people visit your site make sure they have no idea there's a video. The more money you spend on a one-off video, the deeper within your site the video should be buried.

Under no circumstances should the video be on your home page. If, by some miracle, one of your visitors stumbles across the right URL, you should hide the play button so that there is no chance it will ever be clicked on.

Never set your video to autoplay. But, if you do, make sure that it autoplays for the same visitor every time they land on the right page ensuring maximum annoyance. Don’t set the video to react differently to first-time and repeat visitors; they’ll just think you’re being clever.

3. What player should I use?

Choose the simplest player you can find. Don’t worry about streaming issues. Your visitors will be glad to wait while the video loads. When your video finishes, the player should encourage users to leave your site and watch more videos somewhere else. As Sting once said, “If you love somebody, set them free.”

4. What language is it in?

Videos should be in English only. If your potential customer speaks even a little bit of English he won’t want to be patronized by having a voiceover in his mother tongue or a choice of subtitles. If he doesn’t speak English, you probably don’t want him anyway. If you insist on adding additional language choices, make sure this option is well hidden and certainly don’t set the language default according to the geo-location of the visitor.

5. What if I want to make changes?

Changes? What changes? It’s not like your website ever changes! The beauty of paying a lump sum up front to a video design company is that you never have to worry about changing things. You simply can’t. Much better to wait until you have more budget next year and start again with a new design company.

6. What should it look like?

Ideally your video should be as flashy as possible using as many special effects as you can manage. Try to confuse and distract your visitors with hidden meanings and bizarre visual references. Saturate the screen with fluorescent colors to give visitors a headache that will always remind them of you.

7. How do I measure success?

Are you kidding? You don’t want to measure success! Metrics are for losers. Your video should be a work of art with nothing to prove and no one to prove it to.

It doesn’t just matter that no one watches your video, it’s also important that no one does anything after watching your video. It’s kinda Zen.

Good luck.

Should your Voiceover be from Venus or from Mars?

Let me start by saying that this isn’t a battle between genders. I’d like to think that today we have a line drawn in the sand and that equality sits defiantly above it. This is more an argument of whose voice belongs where.

Surprisingly or maybe unsurprisingly, through early testing of voice over on video we have found that whether the artist is male or female, can have an effect on the conversion rate.

We have found that in Intro videos for Financial Websites, a man’s voice seems to convert higher than a female voice. On the other hand using a female’s voice for a tutorial video is likely to increase the conversion rate.

My educated assumption is that the strong and powerful male voice has the ability to give confidence to the consumer where as the softer, reassuring and more patient tones of the female voice suits the more arduous tasks that a tutorial has to offer.

Ever wondered why the voice over on your airline safety video is always female?