La entrada Good Ways to Increase Conversions for Your Landing Page Video se publicó primero en Wideo.

This guide will be updated with new information as email innovates for video!

Part of the reason video has risen so quickly and is so established as a key marketing medium is its versatility. You can incorporate an explainer video that you’ve created for your website into your company Facebook, YouTube channel, and most any social media strategy to increase engagement with your content.

However, featuring video in email involves some planning and has a different set of factors and technical limitations to have in mind.

In this guide, we’ll show you how Wideo uses video in email newsletters and provide best practices for incorporating video into your own emails.

Why video in email?

When combined with email, video can help you meet your email goals. For us, most of the time that goal is getting our readers to visit our site to do something, including reading a post, watching a video, or even signing up for a new offer. How does video help achieve this? By providing the attention-grabbing visual element that either complements text, or gets the idea across in lieu of it.

Quick best practices for email in video

Currently, Apple Mail is the only email client that supports direct video embed. If most of your subscribers do not use Apple Mail, we don’t suggest embedding your video in email. (Moosend has a comprehensive list of emails and their type of video support.)

However, you don’t need video playback in your email in order for your video to be effective. Instead, you can use animated gifs or thumbnail images of the video that you can link to your website.

What is an animated GIF? A GIF is a type of image file that can contain animation. They provide the visual element of moving images without the technical limitations of embedded video.

In order to use video and email together for conversions, we follow a few best practices.

1. Mention the video in the email subject and body text

2. Pick an inviting thumbnail to use in your email. (Try using the most visual scene in your video, or a shot of lots of friendly faces.)

3. Include a play button in the image thumbnail and link that thumbnail to your landing page

4. Instead of using a thumbnail and play button, try a looping animated GIF. You can create your own with our online gif maker

Case Study

Here’s how our email with our 2015 Year in Review video looked with all the elements put together. Try using a catchy and direct text describing what viewers will get out of your video.

Pro tips:

• Try using a tool such as LICEcap to create animated GIFs. All you need to do is record a part of your video and the tool will automatically create the GIF.  
• As a rule of thumb, keep GIF file sizes around or under 1MB — anything a lot over will load slowly, and anything significantly less will not have good image quality.
• Limit your calls to action so to keep focus on your video.
• Experiment with email formats and compare results.

Using video and email together successfully depends on your audience and goals. Remember to never stop testing: The more you understand about your results, the more you will be able improve the impact of your video.

Success Story: Video in On-boarding Emails

Key Travel needed a way to explain their services in a visual way and they saw video as the perfect opportunity to engage their new customers where they were: in their inboxes.

So they began using Wideo to create explainer videos for their email on-boarding campaign. The videos have improved their customer experience, not only in email but also on their website and other online channels.

“Video content has helped increase our email marketing click-through rates by 2.57x since we started creating affordable, engaging video content.”

Peter Harris Digital Manager at Key Travel

Have you tried using video and email marketing together? Share your experience or questions in the comments below.

La entrada The Digital Marketer’s Guide to Video in Email se publicó primero en Wideo.

La entrada Black Friday and Cyber Monday Marketing Video Templates se publicó primero en Wideo.

The vision our founders Agu De Marco and Agus Esperon had in mind back in 2012 when they created Wideo was simple: make animated video production accessible to anyone who has a message or story to tell.

Fast forward to today and over one million people from all over the world use Wideo to lead classroom lectures, launch their start-up, and create marketing campaigns.

We see your feedback and wideo creations as they come in.

They show us the incredible difference that video can make in the way you communicate—no matter the budget size nor how simple or elaborate the project.

Whether you’ve just joined us or you’ve been with us since our early days, thank you for being part of the Wideo community!

The same purpose with which we started continues to inspire each improvement and new feature that we develop.

Here, we want to take a look at the work we’ve done recently to make Wideo better for you.

Presentation Mode

Did you know that you can transform your wideo into a slideshow presentation by just  clicking on the Presentation Mode button on the Wideo player?

You can just as easily change it back to Video Mode by hitting the same button again. An ideal solution for project pitches, business presentations, and webinars!

Learn more >

Lots of new templates

As video marketing grows, so do the challenges of capturing the attention of your audience.

Our video and scene templates were designed to help you convey clear, and visually stunning messages. Fast.

Find inspiration from templates for every occasion and marketing goal. The best part is they’re 100% customizable.

See template library >

La entrada Wideo Reaches 1 Million Users—THANK YOU! se publicó primero en Wideo.

The well-known statistics about the shareability, search-ranking prowess and the overall power of video as the most compelling online medium do not cease to be true on landing pages.

But landing pages must be uncluttered, clean and distraction free in order to perform well — and integrating video is a delicate matter that must be done right. Make quality videos a key part of your landing pages — but make sure to follow these tips.

Break the (Almost) Unbreakable Autoplay Rule

Should you set videos to autoplay on your web pages? No!

There are few online experiences more painfully annoying than visiting a web page, only to notice that your browser is acting strangely sluggish … and then, bam! You’re startled out of your chair by a barrage of sound that you didn’t know was coming. If people want to play a video, they can hit play. There are almost no exceptions to this rule.

One of those exceptions, however, is landing pages. The goal of your landing pages should always be to get your buyer to perform the desired call to action as quickly as possible, without any clutter or distractions. New tools, such as Spaces, even focus on placing products with checkout within social media to eliminate losing visitors by leading them to a website.

As this tutorial points out, time is so unbelievably precious on landing pages that you have just a few seconds to hook a visitor or risk losing a conversion. If the video is queued up and ready to go, you save valuable time by not forcing your visitors recognize the video box and hit play. Also, since many landing pages don’t contain video, your visitors may not expect to have to take any action, which means they could miss the video altogether if you don’t select autoplay.

TIP: To learn how to embed your wideo on to a landing page, find out here.

Test Different Video Lengths

If there is one variable that you need to A/B test on landing pages, it is video length. The general rule for length on landing page video is to keep it as short as humanly possible while retaining the crucial information — and then make it shorter. But the reality is, with every second you trim, compelling information disappears right along with it.

It is almost always worth the production costs to make two different versions of your video and measure the metrics of each one to see if those few critical seconds really make a difference. Note: You should not test a short video and a long video, but instead test a short video and a shorter video.

Get the Dimensions Right

Use an aspect ratio calculator to make sure your video’s height and width are the correct dimensions. If your dimensions are off, your video will be distorted, and distorted video looks amateurish and campy.

Remember that Video is a Powerful SEO Tool

Unbounce reminds us that pages with video are 50 times more likely to end up on Google’s first page. Optimize your video for SEO by choosing a few good keywords to rank for — with matching titles and descriptions, of course — and by submitting a video sitemap to the search engines.

Well-done video can boost the performance of virtually everything measurable about landing page performance, including conversions and sales. Video can help you explain your product. Video can entertain. Video can help with branding. But most importantly, video can pack compelling and convincing information into the puny span of time that people spend on the average landing page. Should your landing pages contain video? Yes — but it has to optimized and designed specifically for landing pages to work.

La entrada How to Measure the Success of your Landing Page Videos se publicó primero en Wideo.

We know that video is engaging, entertaining, and can create social buzz, but did you know it is also one of the best ways to generate leads for your brand? Maybe you have already integrated video into your marketing strategy but still find it difficult to figure out if your video views are truly converting into real leads or increasing your buyers’ intent to purchase.

Fortunate for you, quality video content paired with the right calls-to-action is a sure way to turn your viewers into customers, you just need to implement the right tactics. Here are a few easy ways you can start generating more leads from your videos immediately and inspire your audience to take action.

Place Video on Key Landing Pages

(Image Source)

One effective way to generate leads using video is by including video content at the top of key landing pages. If you already have videos throughout your website, check their positioning on your pages. Where are they located?

Placing your videos as the first thing your audience sees on a page makes it easier to capture their interest in your product or service and respond to your video’s call to action. 60% of people prefer to watch video rather than read text, so use that to your brand’s advantage!

Test an Email Gate

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Placing an email gate at the beginning of your video can help you gather valuable information about who is interested in your content. Before the video starts, or after a quick teaser, prompt your viewers for an email address so you can monitor which viewers are interacting with your video and how often. Once you know who your viewers are, you will be able to send more tailored content that fits your audience’s likes and needs. Remember to provide quality, engaging content as an incentive to unlock the gate!

Create YouTube Video Annotations

(Image source)

YouTube allows in-video links to external pages, which are a great way to draw your viewers back to your website, social media pages, or other content. Just make sure your YouTube annotations help your audience, rather than annoy them. Review any YouTube videos your brand currently has and make sure you are optimizing the potential of each one. YouTube provides an excellent guide on how to add external links to annotations here.

Post Video Testimonials

There’s no doubt video can be more powerful than text when it comes to influencing a customer to buy. Including even just a handful of video testimonials about your brand’s product or service on your site can seem more genuine than a whole page of written reviews.

Creating video testimonials can also help you build better relationships with your customers and humanizes your brand. Draft a request to your top buyers or create a post on social media to find customers who may be interested in contributing a video testimonial for your website.

Rogaine’s website is a great source of inspiration for creating your video testimonial page.

Follow these easy-to-implement tactics and start generating more qualified leads with your videos today. For more ideas on how to generate leads with video, check out the Wideo blog.

La entrada 4 Ways to Start Capturing More Leads with Your Video Content Right Now se publicó primero en Wideo.

On the other hand, say your company is just starting out and currently building a budding reputation and customer base, should an explainer video be on your current list of priorities?  Here are the top 5 benefits of having an explainer video.

1. It makes your website look more professional.

Any John Doe with Internet access can put together a simple website these days. Making a professional-looking website can be as easy as choosing a template. What an explainer video can do is add that touch of professionalism to your page.

It brings your company an appearance of legitimacy and reliability that will be vital to your company’s online persona. This is because you’re showing possible clients that you’ve invested time in explaining your company, which translates into customers assuming that you’ve invested time in creating your product as well.

Here’s an example – an Explainer video on why you need a website!

2. It Stands Out

In this day and age, nothing is truly original, so whatever you are selling to possible consumers, there are probably a few hundred competing companies, at least selling the same thing to the same possible consumers.

This is where your explainer video can help set you apart from those other companies by highlighting your unique angle on the product. The catchier and more innovative the video,  the more customers will remember your company rather than your competitors.

3. Increased Conversion Rate

So website traffic for your company isn’t a problem, but the conversion rate could be higher. Explainer videos have had a history of helping to increase conversion rates; instead of asking possible customers to explore your site for all their information (which most won’t do), you make the sale on the landing page using your video. You explain why they should choose your product over your competitors, you show them their payment options, and you show them where they need to click if they are interested.

In 2-3 minutes, you’ve sold them your product, and they click the purchase button.
A great example of this is the company CaseComplete, who thought that they would raise their conversion rate by a mere 5% using their new explainer video. Their conversion rate ended up increasing by 23% instead.

4. Its´Shareable

A video is a standalone tool that can be used on any social media site, as a link in an email signature, web publications, etc. Once you have an explainer video, repurpose it everywhere you can. Having this tool allows you to reach more people without asking them to commit to visiting your web page first. Customers who might have never visited your site will be able to view the video and hear about it in your words.

We offer a wide range of animated templates that are specifically designed to create the most effective explainer videos. Here is just one example:

Re-use this template

5. Increase Your Visibility

Every company wants to appear on the first page of a Google search. That is the dream, but it is no easy feat, and now Google has leaned towards sharing mixed media, i.e., video, and images, on the first page of results over some more conventional websites. This is where your explainer video is a big help for you to jump up some search rankings!

Statistics say that the chances your will site will make it onto the first page of a Google search is multiplied by 50 if you have a video! Take note, though, that you need to make sure your tag words and video title are optimized for SEO and that you send video sitemaps to the search engine. From doing just those things, you’ve bumped up your visibility on the internet astronomically.

So whether you are a brand that has already made a name for itself with a community or your company is just starting out,  make an explainer video that can increase the potential of what your company offers to the masses.

La entrada 5 Benefits Of Having An Explainer Video On Your Website se publicó primero en Wideo.

The reality is, creating just a single impressive video is really falling short if you’re crafting a comprehensive marketing strategy. A study by Aberdeen found that 60% of best-in-class companies are now using video throughout the marketing funnel. A top-notch video marketing model not only generates new leads, but also guides clients through each stage of the purchase funnel to keep them interested in what you have to offer. A dynamic mix of video content at each stage of the sales cycle is the rule of thumb if you’re looking to maximize your reach and help your sales team.

Scratching the Surface – Top of the Funnel

To get started, the top-funnel content is all about making your target audience aware of the existence of a product or service that provides a solution to them. This could be in a B2B video format or B2C video. These videos should be attention-grabbers, yet give your viewers solutions rather than just pushing your product. Explainer videos like this simple and effective example are great.

Apart from creating the explainer video must-have for your landing page, you can also create the following videos at this stage:

Tips & How-To’s: Demonstrate simple tasks and show how dedicated you are to reaching your users. This highlights the credibility of your product or service.

Humorous Content: Use your company mascot to show viewers around the office, introduce your team, or show viewers your fun workplace antics. This shows what makes you endearing and ultimately humanizes your brand.

Video Infographics: Create a visual representation of a current topic within your industry. It’s a straightforward way to bring reliable and engaging content to potential prospects.

Midway through the Funnel

The bulk of your content should be focused at this stage of the funnel, where your potential clients can learn, evaluate, and ultimately take action: purchasing your product or service. Beyond being rich in information, it’s the opportunity to help customers determine that you have the solution they’re looking for.

What to produce:

Customer Testimonials: Share how your product or service has helped customers with their business.

Product Demos: Take the time and go more in-depth with in’s and out’s of your solution.

Experts Educating Patients created their own professional-quality Product Demo:

Video Case Studies: Show off your “success stories” with how your clients have used your product to improve conversion rates, boost engagement, and drive results.

Tip: We’ve got a whole assortment of templates for Product Demos that will help you get started here.

End of the Funnel

Videos may have helped to close a deal, but they are also useful to make sure your customers’ choice was worth it, even post-purchase. It’s important to nurture new clients and build a strong customer relationship.

FAQs: Build a base of questions that you can even answer by means of a video.

Instructional videos: Cover any new questions your leads can have post-sale. These often come up, so it’s best to be prepared for them.

Product Updates: Keep customers in the loop on any new development, pricing package, product, or feature that may encourage renewal. Include any special announcement that could interest them as well.

Make sure you’re easy to contact; this is where your customer champions come into play and really touch base with your clients.

In short, video is not only the preferred content format that so many users enjoy, it’s also persuasive. By creating various types along the sales funnel, you’re also allowing leads to go along the path as they choose. Moreover, you’re doing yourself a favour, because the value of a video isn’t just about brand awareness. You can boost your results, build your brand image and strengthen customer relationships, all in one format.

Make your own wideo

La entrada Why One Video Isn’t Enough for your Business se publicó primero en Wideo.

Before getting knee-deep in numbers and metrics, it’s important to identify whether you have pinpointed these very important details that come with creating a successful video.

• One Goal: What have you set out to accomplish with your video? This should define what, where and how you plan to make and then share your video.

• Your target audience: Who do you want to appeal to? How do you plan to do this?

These two elements will help you decide just what, how, and where to share your video. Now what are those metrics called again?

View Count

This is the most simple and straightforward metric you can find out there: your view count measures the number of views your video gets. This measurement comes in handy when you’re comparing to some other content you have shared.

Play Rate

This metric shows you how often your video has been played compared to how often it was shown. This is to say, it’s the number of plays divided by video impressions.

Are you unimpressed with what you have at the moment?

What to do

To try spiking your view count or play rate, there are a few elements you may want to consider.

• Your video’s location

Where your video is placed is also directly related to the importance you are trying to give it. If it is central to your message, then make sure you have it placed it front-and-center. If you placed your video on a website, embed it on the landing page, not on an additional page. If you already have, make it larger.  You can even define the placement of your video on media sites such as YouTube. This article of ours shows you how to put your most important up first on your channel.

• Thumbnails

Make sure your video preview thumbnail is enticing and invites your audience to watch. More than often, a thumbnail that includes a person or figure receives more clicks. In addition, you can also modify your video’s caption to better show the purpose of your video.

• Sharing

– Share your video with your viewers through other channels: email messages and social media are good bases, but remember to share responsibly. This means modifying the text that goes with your video link so that fans that have access to more than one of your sites don’t feel like they’re being spammed with the same information.

– Share your video with relevant influencers or with your loyal followers that you can additionally ask to move your video around. This could create more unique views than those that you could create on your own.

– If you’re really interested in promoting your video content, consider using advertising methods that require payment (banners, ads).

If you’ve tried these before and find no significant changes, then you may want to ask yourself if using video was the best medium. But remember, its not just all about those clicks. You may have a good response to a video and have engaged users, without an extraordinary play-rate. The rule of thumb to any video you put out is making sure your message, tone, and method is authentic and remains true to your purpose. Then you apply video metrics. For now, metrics still can’t measure “authenticity”, but it can sure help for what is most important: standing out.

Make your own wideo

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Illustration designed exclusively by Freepik for Wideo.co

La entrada What Metrics say about your Video – Part I se publicó primero en Wideo.

Yet from drawing and coloring, to stop motion to 8-bit animations, we’ve come a long way. 3D graphics, CGI (Computer Generated Imagery – see this great video clip to illustrate the term) and even Gif animations are taking the visual world by storm. But note that something else has also changed: the way we use animation is not nearly just for kids, as some believed it to be. It’s now considered as a tool for grabbing attention and crosses over to all types of spheres – including marketing.

Using animations fits like a glove to any industry – from car insurance to software programs. Dropbox increased their conversion rates by a whopping 10% after placing this animation explainer video on their landing page. Note: 10% meant 10 million more users!

Quick, effective, and simple

We are drawn to animations because of their clarity and simplification. And this can work across the board: whether it be explaining a new product or app, teaching students, or creating a public service announcement, animations work. Why?

When people can visualize a process, even more abstract concepts that are represented through images can make things far clearer and engaging to them. Breaking down a message into pieces of vital information is something that viewers not only appreciate, but something that today’s society is also getting used to. With the lightening speed of communication that we can almost instantly access, in this day and age, our brains are thriving on simple messaging.

A well-produced video can cover a lot of information in just two minutes, with much more to offer than a news pamphlet or a heavy block of text.

Animations have an Element of Surprise

It’s no wonder Disney made brooms come to life or hippos dance in tutus (look up Fantasia if you’re stumped by these references). Presenting viewers with the unexpected can work effectively. An element of surprise is one aspect that could make your product or service explanation memorable and even shareable online.

For example, the 2014 World Cup was a great opportunity for creative types to spring into action. These incredibly viral images made the old-school 8-bit popular again.

Combining stimulating images, inspiring audio and creative techniques in an animation make for an engaging experience.  As long as your approach and message fit with the topic and target audience, there are vast possibilities to create a successful video.

We respond emotionally to animations

Back in the day, many children growing up would watch cartoons or read comic books, enticed by the adventures of endearing characters. Those famous catch phrases or the lessons learned from these cartoons were genuine and influential; something like learning material. Today, as adults, we still can enjoy animations and feel connected. Animations trigger the emotional side in us because they appeal to our minds. We all have seen Toy Story, Up, or even the tear-jerking classic Bambi. Crossover to television and there’s a variety of TV shows with cartoons made for adults. The Simpsons, Family Guy, Daria; the list goes on and on. We easily allow ourselves to become inserted in a world that is not ours, and go along with the story.

Remember that animation opens up a world of opportunities. At Wideo, applying the fundamentals of animation to your brand is not only at your fingertips, but it immediately means you’ll be appealing to a wider audience than you imagined. And you don’t need to be working at Pixar to make them anymore.

Why Use Video In Your Marketing Strategy?

Make your own wideo

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Illustration designed exclusively by Freepik 

La entrada Animation, Evolved: Why It’s Today’s Ultimate Tool se publicó primero en Wideo.