Using Online Video for E-Commerce

While online video gives any online business the ability to gain instant recognition in society, the chances of becoming an instant viral hit must be tempered with smart design. The ease at which video allows connection with customers is an opportunity unlike anything since the invention of television.Most back-end web hosting applications have plenty of services to embed video. The challenges for a startup web firm may seem daunting, but traditional selling strategies can be integrated into this web marketing technology.

Take two retail strategies: Customer service and the up-sell. One aspect often missing from professionally developed E-commerce sites is a true sense of customer service. In a physical store, customers have the luxury of interacting with a real salesperson and ask any questions and receive recommendations about a product. Web design must emulate this intimate level of customer service. A sales representative is an asset to a brick and mortar store that online stores do not posses. If the representative is not helpful I can leave and go to another store. With an e-commerce site, this volatile propensity to leave for a competitor is much more pronounced. If I have problems with the site, who can I ask? Without a ready solution from web design, it is easier to navigate to another site.

Some solutions are video FAQs, interactive salespeople, product demos, and customer testimonials.

A Video FAQ helps educate your customers in a more engaging fashion than a text based FAQ, and can show a visual walkthrough of problems. An actual representative adds a personality to the social experience of shopping on your site. Good information saves money by giving customers the knowledge they need to purchase without taxing customer service.

Interactive Salespeople are popular on many successful eCommerce sites where nothing says "Hello!" like an actual person. Salespeople are vital in retail, and simple text cannot replace them in web retail. Interactive guides can help users through the site and demonstrate products. Real-time interaction from salespeople may soon replace pre-recorded messages.

Product Demos are easy with online video. Effective site design gives the user an idea of what the product will do for them, and nothing does that like a video. Video can do what a still image cannot, through motion, multiple images and audio overlay. Product demos provide an opportunity for additional product placement and the chance to up-sell.

Customer Testimonals add instant credibility to your product. People trust a real review over an internet marketing message any day. People can judge a reviewers sincerity through video better than through text. A well developed testimonial will make an emotional connection with the viewer and allow them to imagine themselves using the product. On the other hand, a crude or insincere testimonial damages your products web presence.

Once you have created your crown jewel internet marketing video, it can easily be repackaged in advertising networks. It only takes a few people reposting your video on social networks for it to "go viral."