The Importance of Video on Landing Pages

Person drawing business cartoons on a glass wall. In the middle are the words "Landing Page"
Thoughts / Tutorials

It’s probably worth mentioning, that after over fifteen years of web design and digital development it should come as no surprise that we eat, sleep, and dream web development.

When we look back on the industry from over the past five or ten years, it’s astounding the changes that the web has undergone from a visual front and when we look further into 2017 and 2018 the potential appears to be transforming at a much faster rate than in the past. By 2019, it has been predicted that 80 percent of all Internet traffic will be to videos. That figure would be 64 percent higher than 2014 and a significant portion of the growth occurred in 2016. In other words, video content is on the rise and visual content will play a major role in facilitating the development of this burgeoning segment of digital marketing.

The value of branded video content is going to increase dramatically due, in part, to the power of YouTube. The popular video publishing platform rakes in more than four billion views per day, making it the second most popular search engine in the world and the third most visited website (behind only Google and Facebook). Branded video content will become the lifeblood of the modern digital marketer.

If you are unclear about the term branded video content, it is nothing more than videos published under a brand’s name for the sole purpose of engaging users, providing value, and presenting a direct and compelling call to action. Branded videos can range from interviews and behind-the-scenes footage to dramatic shorts and product promos. In response to the rising demand for video content, brands will naturally begin to turn their focus toward creating fresh content.

This leads us to the how web design will change to accommodate the increased use of video and in particular to your landing page design. Simply put, the more value you’re able to provide to your landing page, the higher conversions you’ll see.

The impact a video has on the conversion rate of your landing page can be huge – a video explaining your product, for example, is the next best thing to having the product directly in your consumer’s hand.

Videos are effective on landing pages for a few reasons:

  • People are inherently lazy – Watching a video is easier than reading a long description. A landing page video will save the viewer time and provide an added element of entertainment.
  • They’re entertaining – People have been watching TV for ages for a reason and this makes it a comfortable format to consume.
  • High quality production raises the credibility and legitimacy of your company.
  • Many brands now use video backgrounds on their landing pages that play automatically upon entry.
  • On-site videos are particularly powerful when they’re placed on product pages. This is especially true in industries where products and services are complex or unfamiliar. Short videos can be used to guide customers through the purchase process and boost conversions.

Salesforce is known for their powerful CRM platform. With the launch of Salesforce Desk, they’ve created a beautiful desktop background for their landing page with a teaser animation inside an iPad screen calling the user to watch the sales video. Drawing the user to find out about their helpdesk software.

Screen Capture: Salesforce Desk. Customer support software that makes customers happy. Get salesforce out-of-the-box helpdesk for small businesses. Try desk.com for free.

Showing off their flair for design and what it will be like being a resident at Ten Thousand with a beautiful background landing page video.

Screen Capture: Ten Thousand landing page with a view of an apartment overlooking the Hollywood sign

Now that many web users have become accustomed to browsing online, we’ve developed what is called “banner blindness” or in other words, we totally subconsciously, ignore the advertising and calls to action placed around the content we read. We’re bombarded with ads all day so we’ve developed the tendency to ignore everything that’s not immediately important to us.

To fight banner blindness and the new desensitized nature of users we have popups. Popups are effective because they demand the attention of your visitors. Whether it’s to claim an offer or to close the popup window, popups force visitors to act in some way — snapping them out of their tunnel vision.

Popular global menswear retailer, Frank & Oak, employs an entry popup to let their visitors know of any current sales and promotions. This is effective because provides immediate value to visitors before they begin their shopping experience.

Screen Capture: Frank and oak. New collection, here comes the sun. Shop men, shop women.

A basic or poorly designed site is a sign that a brand doesn’t care. It leads to high bounce rates and poor user experiences – not to mention subsequent penalization from Google. Modern web users value fast response time, appealing design, and refined functionality on the websites they visit.

Users begin their search and make decisions based information gathering through search and from websites. A good landing page significantly enhances a web user’s mood and response to a brand site. The more your landing page can get a visitor into the right mood, the more conversions you’ll see.

BEOPLAY, the portable speaker by Bang & Olufsen, uses a completely interactive product landing page with moving parts and incredible imagery to present their new speaker. Bang & Olufsen, a brand known for their eye-catching design and flair for the minimalistic, aims to create a landing page experience that reinforces the corporate image and the new portable speaker they designed.

Screen Capture: Beoplay speaker sitting on a log with a yellow backpack in the background.

User behavior is driving changes to web design and the user experience. The more you can do to keep your landing page looking up to date, clear, well-designed, and engaging, the more your visitors will convert.

But sound website design should not end there. A thank you for visiting page is an overlooked opportunity to further your relationship with visitors. Your Thank You page has huge potential for your visitors to…

  • Gather more information on your audience
  • Share your website/product/service with their friends and family
  • Increase your sales with upsells and conversion prompts
  • Gather customer service feedback
  • Having links to blog posts a visitor may be interested in

Visual marketing is on the rise. Brands planning for 2017 and 2018 should invest in developing branded video content to revitalize their website and email marketing.  Please call us for a free consultation on how to make visual marketing a key component of the successful marketer’s 2017-2018 strategy.