subject: Video On Site [print this page] A study has found that by having video on your webpage you are likely to increase your conversion rate from surfers to sales.
A study released by Treepodia has sighted a test they did where 2 e-commerce retailers saw large increases in conversions once they placed video on their site. The interesting thing was that it did not really matter whether the user of the site actually watched the video or not, an increase in the conversion rate was there regardless.
E-Commerce Retailer A:
Control group (= pure CVR in site, without video at all): 1.04%
CVR of people who could watch video but did not: 1.47%
CVR of people who watched video: 4.06%
Increase when comparing the users who could watch video (whether watched or not) to control group: +46.22%
E-Commerce Retailer B:
Control: 3.27%
CVR of people who could watch video but did not: 4.06%
CVR of people who watched video: 4.82%
increase (as defined above): +27.05%
Even better was that if the user actually watched the video, conversion rates went up even higher.
Why is this so? Well, the theory is that it builds belief in the viewer that you have trust in your own brand. If you are willing to go to the length to make a video exulting the benefits of your product then you must truly believe in it. Also, by showing your product in a multi media format such as video, there are images to go along with the words written on the page. Even if recognising the impact of the images is not consciously recognised by the viewer.
This is where the quality of your images will come in. You will notice that commercials that are made for high end brands like BMW are shot on film, giving great clarity of image, depth of field, depth of colour and great contrasts. The audio in these ads will also be smooth and developed. When you see and ad for a giant warehouse sale of must go rugs, the ad will be shot cheaply on a video camera with bad lighting and a crazy guy shouting at you. You may not recognize it at the time, but your brain has seen so many ads that good quality picture is associated with good quality product. Poor quality picture is associated with bargain basement products. To test it yourself, next ad break turn off the sound and have a good look at the picture and see if you can notice a difference. Check the associations of picture quality to where in the market the product is trying to position itself.
This being said one could argue that not only should you include a video or 2 on your site, you should also bother to spend that little bit more on the production values to make it look good. And also make sure that it is delivered in format that best displays the images. Pixelated, over-compressed videos are OUT!
