The homepage or landing page of a website is, arguably, the most important part of the website. It works essentially the same way a book cover does for a book; it’s not the actual product, but it sure as hell influences your buying decision. Continuing with this metaphor, everyone knows you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover. A lot of us do, however, because it’s the first thing we’ll notice.
Once a cover catches our eye, we can’t afford to stand in a bookshop for hours at a time, carefully reading through the first chapter of a novel to see if it’s interesting. So we check the summary and base our purchase on that.
Think of the explainer video as the summary on the cover (or back cover) of a book. A great description that does a story justice will most likely result in a purchase, whereas a lousy description that’s neither interesting nor informative leaves the book back on the shelf.
But what if the summary was written on a place other than the back cover? What if it was on the inside cover of the dust jacket (as some books have them) or on the flyleaf? Or, even weirder, if it was written after the Title Page or smack dab in the middle of the book itself?
You’d find it eventually, but every second you waste looking for it increases your irritation. After it’s risen a couple percentage points, bam – suddenly, you’re not very interested in the book anymore.
REASON #1: FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Twitter’s newsfeed is easy to skim through because everything’s whittled down to 140 characters or less. If a tweet catches your eye, you simply click on the link to know more. Thanks to this and other instant-update social media platforms, our attention span has dropped. If something doesn’t completely capture our attention in seven seconds or less, we’re going to skip it.
It’s easier to keep users on your landing page if the first thing they see is a kick-ass explainer video that can engage them just a few seconds in. Excellent images can boost conversion rates, but 51.9% or marketing professionals all around the world have agreed that video brings the best ROI in terms of digital marketing.
REASON #2: CONVENIENCE IS KEY
We’re going to tell it like it is; people are lazy. They prefer to watch something or have it explained to them. Unless the topic is something they really want to know about, people can barely read beyond 600 to 700 words. They’re also not going to explore a website if they’re not a hundred percent sold on the landing page alone.
Even if you have an excellent animated video that’s sure to boost your conversion rates, it won’t do much if your potential consumers can’t find it. If you hide it in, say, your About section, there’s a very high chance people won’t click on the tab and, thus, won’t see it.
REASON #3: STALLING
The longer people stay on your page, the higher the chances of your message sinking in. Once they’ve completely processed your message, the higher chance of them sticking around. Their curiosity is piqued; they want to learn more. So they start clicking tabs and skimming testimonials.
An explainer video on your landing page is something of a “stalling” tactic, in the sense that it gets people to stay on your page long enough for them to give your brand a shot.
