4 Key Reasons to Employ Videos for Marketing Websites for Accountants
If you are one of the thousands of accounting professionals who have adopted websites for accountants as a sales tool for your practice then you've already taken a huge stride in promoting your practice. If you are without a website you may consider yourself alerted. consumers don't make use of the Yellow pages in this day and age. Alternatively, they're turning to the web and doing a Google search by keywords for local firms. If you don't have a website you'll very likely be overlooked, and if you don't have a GOOD website you'll likely leave a bad first impression.
Video can add a lot of content quality to your website.
Here are four solid reasons to include video as part of your website content strategy...
1. Personalize Your Website
Whenever possible, get a video on your site that shows you or members of your company in action. It's easier than you think to condense important aspects of your practice into "sound bites". Talk about your mission and have your staff share what they like about their jobs. Give me a chance to get to know you. As a rule prospects are afraid of strangers, but a good video can go a long way in making you feel more familiar and helping them overcome this hesitation. They aren't just reading text on your site, they're seeing the people that are behind your company and this helps to give you credibility. You stand out from the competition because there is a face to go with your name. A customer is more likely to do business with someone they feel they can trust from the get-go, rather than someone they don't know anything about.
2. Videos as Learning Tools
Quick videos showing demos of how your products and services work can be a real asset on your website. Show prospective clients how easy it is to use your service or product. This will make customers more likely to use the advanced features of your websites, for example, and reduce the amount of time you and your staff will need to spend on support.
3. Videos Demonstrate that You Embrace New Technology
You don't want your prospective customers to think you're stuck in the stone age-- that your technology is outdated, and that you aren't keeping up with the latest trends in your industry. Your website will be a reflection of this. Prospects won't be impressed with your technical prowess if your website looks ten or fifteen years old. An outdated website suggests your company is outdated too. Videos can help you show your visitors that you are keeping up with changing technology. First impressions can be everything online, because it's easy for a prospective client to do another search and find another company if they don't like what they see on your site the first time around. Don't be sloppy about it. Just posting any old home-made video isn't going to cut it. If you want to keep your site looking professional, make sure you get the help of a professional when creating videos for your site. Some websites for accountants have an informal "feel", and a few of these have gotten away with using do-it-yourself videos. As a rule though, homemade videos just come of looking schlocky.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Benefits
The jury is still out on exactly how search engines are using video on websites to improve search rankings, but there seems to be evidence to support the notion that having videos on your site does help. While they may or may not boost your site rankings, videos have their own listings and these listings are frequently displayed on organic search engine results pages for basic web searches. This gives your page an extra chance to appear on a search page. Extra listings means more traffic to your website. A few tips are to use keywords in the title of your video, the tags and description. Videos can offer even more benefit if you use them in your blog. The trick is to encourage your readers, followers, and fans to post links to your videos on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
The cliche in website development is "content is king". Well, like most cliches this expression has a firm foundation in truth. The mistake many website owners make when they are thinking about content is that they assume this relates only to written content. This just isn't the case. The more content you have on your site, the better. If you have more diverse content on your website (such as video, images and text) you'll be far better off in regards to search engine optimization. Think about distinctive ways you can mix video into your site, and get that camera rolling!