We’ve discussed the significance of high-quality landing pages numerous times, but have you considered video landing pages? Incorporating video into your landing pages might seem appealing, but like most things, just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s always the right choice. So, should you use them? This article will delve into video landing pages, exploring what they are, the types of businesses that can reap rewards from including marketing videos on their landing pages, and showcase some exemplary video landing page examples.
Decoding Video Landing Pages
As the name suggests, video landing pages are essentially landing pages that feature embedded videos. These videos aim to showcase the value proposition of the offered product or service. Typically, the video on the landing page is embedded using a standalone player like YouTube or Vimeo, appearing alongside static images and text using standard HTML code. It’s rare to come across a video landing page that’s a full-screen “multimedia experience,” though it’s likely been experimented with by a movie studio or a trendy Brooklyn startup at some point.
Unpacking the Advantages of Video Landing Pages
Beyond their visual appeal (when executed well and produced to a high standard), video landing pages boast several advantages over their traditional counterparts. Let’s explore some of these benefits.
Simplifying Complex Products Through Video
If your business offers a product with intricate features – for instance, if you’re a SaaS company like nexus-security – video landing pages are an effective way to convey a significant amount of information concisely. Videos can guide a potential customer through using a product or service, elucidate complex product details much faster and more effectively than text, and even demonstrate the advantages of using your product or service in a captivating and engaging manner.
Video Landing Pages as Entertainment
Your prospects might not realize it, but if you can keep them entertained, your chances of converting them increase significantly. This is because people respond favorably to emotional triggers.
One of the main challenges in boosting conversion rates is actively engaging your prospects, and video can be a powerful tool in this regard. If you can capture – and retain – your audience’s attention, converting them becomes considerably easier. Whether you achieve this through animation, like in the example video above, or other methods (such as humor), video landing pages present a unique opportunity to infuse entertainment into your product and business – a feat that’s difficult to accomplish with traditional text-based landing pages.
The Video Itself as an Offer
Just as most people react positively to emotional cues, many prospects will respond well to videos that provide genuine value. If your video landing page achieves this and leads to conversions, it strengthens your brand value in the prospect’s mind – a win-win situation. We recently employed this strategy with a video produced in collaboration with Perry Marshall & Associates. To mark the release of the fourth edition of Perry’s book, The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, Larry recorded a “bonus” chapter that provided even more AdWords insights. In this case, the video itself was part of the offer, and although it wasn’t created specifically for a landing page, it serves as a compelling example of how video can enhance value for the prospect and encourage further actions.
Which Businesses Can Gain from Video Landing Pages?
While the simple answer is that almost any business can benefit from incorporating video into their landing pages, video landing pages can be particularly advantageous for specific types of businesses.
Breathing Life into ‘Dull’ Industries
Let’s be honest – not everyone has the privilege of working in the exhilarating “playing-guitar-underwater-while-surrounded-by-great-white-sharks-vacation” industry.
Yes, this is an actual activity you can pay for. Unlike those fortunate individuals selling adventurous vacations to affluent thrill-seekers, some of us deal with insurance, boxes, and other essential yet underappreciated products. However, that shouldn’t stop you from injecting some excitement by using video to make your products more captivating.
Amplifying ‘Exciting’ Industries
Conversely, sometimes your product is so remarkable that mere words and pictures can’t do it justice – video comes to the rescue! If your company offers a captivating, thrilling product, video landing pages are the ideal way to make them stand out and persuade prospects to take the plunge and convert.
Addressing Video Landing Page FAQs
Having established that virtually any business can benefit from video landing pages, it’s essential to address some critical questions about incorporating video into your landing pages without negatively impacting your conversion rates.
The Autoplay Dilemma
In most cases, this question is a no-brainer. Few things are more frustrating than encountering a video that automatically plays upon landing on a page, especially when playback controls are elusive. However, while giving your audience control over video playback is generally recommended, doing so on video landing pages can be counterproductive.
Firstly, your prospect might not realize they need to click “Play” immediately, leading to confusion and potentially causing them to abandon your landing page. Secondly, you have a limited window to capture and hold your prospects’ attention – valuable time that your polished, professionally produced video could be losing with each passing second. However, people’s aversion to auto-playing videos shouldn’t be disregarded. Ultimately, the only way to determine if your video should autoplay is to A/B test two versions of your video landing page: one with autoplay enabled and one that gives users control over playback.
Finding the Ideal Landing Page Video Length
From my observations, people tend to overestimate the ideal length for a video and the time it takes to produce it. Regardless of how well-produced your video is or how valuable the information presented, attention spans are limited. Resist the urge to include an epic, eight-minute video on your landing pages unless you’re absolutely certain it’s justified. If possible, create multiple versions of a video with varying durations and test them. I recommend shorter videos for landing pages, ideally around 90 seconds – long enough to convey essential information about your product or service without boring visitors and causing them to bounce before converting.
To Animate or Not to Animate?
Many companies, including nexus-security, utilize animation to illustrate complex concepts. Animation can be engaging and effective, but it’s also labor-intensive and can significantly increase production costs.
If you lack an in-house videographer skilled in animation, you’ll need to outsource the work to a production company, which can be expensive. Depending on the video’s length, the animation’s complexity, and your deadline, costs could easily reach several thousand dollars. Software like Adobe After Effects allows you to create impressive animated compositions that can be exported into editing software like Adobe Premiere. However, these programs are intricate, require time to master, and demand powerful hardware, as video production can be resource-intensive. Animation isn’t suitable for every project, nor does every video require it. If it aligns with your budget and project goals, go for it. However, don’t feel pressured to break the bank if a simple video featuring a company representative will suffice.
Determining the Optimal Video Size on the Landing Page
People access your landing pages from various devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and widescreen desktop monitors. Therefore, choosing a video size that displays well across different screen sizes is crucial.
For instance, the width of posts on the nexus-security blog is 650 pixels. Your video can be wider if your landing page design allows, but experimentation with different sizes might be necessary to find a balance between visibility and practicality. To avoid distortion, ensure your videos are formatted in the correct aspect ratio. If you decide on a video width of 650 pixels, maintaining the correct aspect ratio would require a height of 366 pixels. To determine the appropriate aspect ratio for any given dimension, you can use this helpful aspect ratio calculator.
Exemplary Video Landing Pages for Inspiration
Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals of video landing pages and addressed some common questions, let’s explore some inspiring examples to fuel your creativity. Here are some outstanding video landing pages to kickstart your project.
TapInfluence: Mastering Influencer Marketing
This video landing page from marketing platform TapInfluence exemplifies how video can effectively encourage prospects to convert.
TapInfluence offers an “influencer marketing” platform. One of the primary reasons this video landing page is so successful is its ability to explain this somewhat ambiguous concept clearly and concisely, leveraging animation effectively to maintain viewer interest. It also adheres to video landing page best practices. At just over 1:50 in duration, the video strikes a balance between conveying the key benefits of influencer marketing and avoiding excessive self-promotion. The page design is clean, simple, and removes potential obstacles between the prospect and the desired action. Watch the video below:
Meet TapInfluence from TapInfluence on Vimeo.
Rosetta Stone: Making Language Learning Enticing
As arguably the world’s most renowned language learning software platform, Rosetta Stone is among the few niche products that enjoys widespread brand recognition. However, despite its popularity, persuading people to embark on the challenging journey of learning another language is no easy feat, even for dedicated learners. This is what makes Rosetta Stone’s video landing page so compelling.
Rosetta Stone understands that two major obstacles to language learning are the required time investment and the perceived difficulty. Therefore, this video landing page emphasizes the ease of learning with Rosetta Stone and highlights the enjoyable aspects of the process. Like the previous example, this video utilizes animation to great effect. The narration reinforces Rosetta Stone’s “natural” approach to language instruction and reassures viewers that tedious vocabulary drills are absent from the curriculum. It also emphasizes the emotional rewards of using Rosetta Stone software, particularly the confidence to speak another language fluently – a common challenge for language learners. While the landing page itself isn’t flawless (the video’s prominence could be improved, and the playback button opens a smaller, secondary window that’s easily dismissed), overall, it effectively demonstrates how video can enhance a landing page’s appeal and reinforce brand messaging. Watch the full video below:
Rosetta Stone—Overview from Rosetta Stone Ltd on Vimeo.
Autopilot: Demystifying Lead Nurturing
The concept of lead nurturing is familiar to most marketers, but understanding the intricacies of this process can be challenging. Software company Autopilot recognized an opportunity to demystify lead nurturing and showcase their software’s benefits.
This landing page is undeniably effective. The design is remarkably clean and straightforward, with a prominent call to action. The video immediately grabs attention, and the content itself is excellent. This video stands out by letting the product speak for itself. There’s no elaborate animation – just clear narration, subtle background music, and on-screen demonstrations of Autopilot in action. The production quality is high, but it likely didn’t require a large budget, proving that even small businesses with limited resources can leverage video to enhance their landing pages. Similar to the Rosetta Stone example, the Autopilot video emphasizes ease and convenience, assuring viewers that Autopilot integrates seamlessly with existing marketing tools. There are no gimmicks or distractions – just a simple, informative video that addresses the pain points of implementing a responsive lead nurturing system. One potential drawback is the video’s duration. At nearly three minutes, it’s unlikely that most visitors will watch it in its entirety. However, even those who click away from the video might be enticed to scroll down and learn more about Autopilot before encountering a second call to action strategically placed above trust signals highlighting clients like Microsoft and Nokia – a clever tactic.
Lights, Camera, Calls to Action!
This concludes our exploration of video landing pages. Hopefully, you’ve gained valuable insights into how and when to utilize them effectively, persuading hesitant prospects to convert where traditional landing pages might fall short. If you’re already using video landing pages, we’d love to hear your success stories – or even cautionary tales if things didn’t go as planned. For further inspiration, check out 15 more creative landing page ideas.