Ways to Boost User Engagement with Videos

Do you have any videos on your site? If not, you probably should consider adding some.

When it comes to getting the attention of a potential customer or fan, few things are more effective than a captivating video. In fact, Marketing Land reports that people are typically more likely to make purchases after watching product videos.

The use of video content on a business site captures visitor attention and reduces bounce rates. Videos give visitors an incentive to stay and interact with your site longer, leading them to become more interested in your brand in the process. The more invested a person is, the more likely they are to transition from a potential customer to an actual one.

Despite the many benefits of video content, most small business sites don’t use it. This is a huge missed opportunity. Fortunately, it’s never too late to add videos and help your site stand out among the crowd!

Create videos that show off your talents

You can go in endless directions when brainstorming ideas for site videos. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What questions do they need or want answered? If possible, take out the guesswork by collecting feedback on your site to determine what they need from you.

If you’re in the customer service business, consider creating videos that give brief explanations of what you specialize in and why clients should hire you. To establish your expertise, record interviews with satisfied past clients. Give an overview of the problem that you helped solve, and how your clients benefited from your services.

If you sell products, film a video demo showcasing them in action, or highlighting their features. Think about what sets each product apart from others on the market. Maybe the people who purchase your hand-poured scented candles want to watch videos depicting your creation process. Walk viewers through the steps of how you melt wax and mix the scents, for example.

Decide where to host your videos

Once you create unique videos, you need to get them seen by as many viewers as possible. You’ll need to determine the best way to display them on your site. Traditionally, you have two options:

1. Self-hosting your videos (uploading them directly to your website or using a private video hosting platform).
2. Uploading videos to a third-party host and then embedding them into your site.

Both of these options have trade-offs. Self-hosted videos remain in the control of their owners, but run the risks of eating up too much server space or taking too long to load. On the flip side, when you host your videos elsewhere and embed them into your site, you’re guaranteed easy accessibility but have to deal with things like third-party ads or off-brand recommended videos.

If neither of these options sound ideal, Jetpack offers an alternative route with its own video hosting service.

Using Jetpack to host and optimize your videos

Jetpack allows users to upload their videos to the cloud. From there, Jetpack takes care of the server space, loading time, and any other issues that might otherwise develop from self-hosting video.

Some of the benefits include:

1. Unlimited video storage space with Jetpack’s Premium and Professional plans.
2. High-speed content delivery to ensure that your visitors don’t have to wait for your videos to load.
3. Direct integration with your page editor and media library so you can easily add video content to your site.
4. Stats for tracking video plays to reveal how popular your content is.
5. No watermarks, ads, or unwanted pop-up banners — just pure video created by you.

Jetpack removes the negative aspects of using third-party video hosting platforms without eliminating the ease-of-use they offer. While there are still situations when users may want to use third-party platforms or host their own content, Jetpack’s video hosting plugin is the most practical choice for many small businesses.

Watch and learn what video can do for you

It’s clear that video content is an important part of any small business’s website. Producing and sharing professional-grade videos may seem like a daunting project, but it’s completely doable, especially with the help of Jetpack’s video hosting service.

Take some time today to determine what type of video content will best serve your site. Then, develop a plan for producing it and watch your business thrive.

Zach Wills

Focused on providing top-notch development services to our clients @ Codivated.