How To Instantly Increase Your Web Site's Effectiveness

One of the internet's most respected experts, Ken Envoy, recently reported a 30% increase in the effectiveness of his web site. So what simple addition did he make?

What Ken did was simply add video to his web site. Given that his site was obviously a star performer anyway, that's an amazing improvement and one you can't afford to ignore.

So how can you emulate Ken and add video to your site? It's probably easier than you think, because not only has the price of the minimal amount of equipment you need dropped like a stone recently, whilst the quality has shot up, your technical ability to put your video on your web site only requires that you can copy and paste.

And here's the even better news: Adobe, famous for their universal PDF Reader, have now done the same for video. That means your videos can be seen by about 96% of all on-line users -- both Mac and PC. Add to that the fact that broadband is becoming almost universal and web site video is now set to be the biggest leap forward since e-mail was invented.

Not only that, but once you have video you can use it to tap into a whole new area of traffic. Right now there are about thirty video sites -- some visited by millions of viewers -- that will allow you to post your videos for free. There's even one that pays you a percentage of their advertising revenue.

So, not only can you enhance the effectiveness of your existing web site, you can also tap into a whole new stream of free traffic that will be attracted to your newly enhanced web site.

If you're wondering where you would use video on your site, it's easier to list where you wouldn't use it. To understand how and where to use video, you must first understand why video is such a compelling medium. The emotional part of your brain thinks in pictures and guess which part of your brain makes the decision to buy? Correct: that very same emotional part.

So, by using pictures -- and moving pictures with sound at that -- you are homing in like a missile on your prospect's sweet spot. But video is just great for selling more of your product, because it's effective in other areas. For example the US military has proved conclusively students learn faster and retain more when watching video rather than just reading text.

So, knowing this, you can now think how you too can capitalize on this new revolution and catapult yourself ahead of your competition.

Naturally, your sales pages are the obvious place for such an effective medium. But, because video works on the viewer's emotions you can also use video to bond with your prospective customers. People buy from people they feel they know and, if people see you on a video, they feel they know you better than if they just read your sales letter. This is because they not only see you and hear you but also see your body language. And body language is still a vital part of how we judge other people.

And we all know how important social proof, in the form of customer testimonials, are. But think how more effective and convincing they are when shown as a video of your eager customer extolling the virtues of your product, rather than just a box of text.

And, because we've established people learn faster with video, it's a snap to demonstrate your product. People won't buy your product is they don't understand exactly what it can do for them. And if you don't think your product is so unique you can't demonstrate it, think about how much jewelery the shopping channels shift. Yet jewelery is hardly the first product that springs to mind when you say "demonstration".

Nor is video limited to basic web sites. They can just as easily be used to make the most compelling pop ups you've ever seen as well as on your blog.

And, if you have affiliates marketing your products for you, video allows you to not only bond with them on a personal level, but demonstrate marketing techniques.

You can also use video to enhance a product. Let's suppose you have an e-book on a particular subject. By putting videos in a member's area on your site -- accessible only by buyers -- you raise the value of the book, which can be reflected in a price increase. But here's the clever part: because your videos are on your website, it remains a zero cost, zero shipping digital product.

Finally, creating videos increases your own productivity because it's much faster to make a video than write a book and you don't have to proof read and correct several drafts of text.