5 Website Video Strategies – Especially For Health Coaches

Website video is a fantastic way for health coaches to leverage their marketing and get their message out. It allows your prospective clients to get to know you and the solutions you offer in a way that is better and deeper than reading an article.

And using video can have the added advantage of helping your website rank better in the search engines. Why? Because Google likes to put popular sites on page one of their results. One of their criteria for “popular” is webpages where people stay for a longer period of time. And great videos definitely keep people on your site longer.

For the greatest success with videos, youʼll want to use some simple but powerful strategies. In this article, I share my top 5 tips for getting more clients using video on your website.

Strategy #1 – Shorter Video is Better

The shorter the video, the more likely your prospect is to watch it. Itʼs that simple. Keep the content and message concise, interesting, and to-the-point.

How long is too long? Well, there are no black and white rules, but here are some guidelines. If itʼs an introductory video, like on an opt-in page, aim for a video of 2 minutes max. The same time limit for a testimonial video.

If youʼre teaching something, aim for irresistible content and give it concisely. Then make it as short as possible. With instructional videos, it is often better to break up a longer topic into several shorter videos than to do one long one. While most people will watch a 5-minute instructional video, fewer will set aside 20-30 minutes.

However, itʼs also my belief that when youʼre delivering GREAT content, like how-to health tips, the length doesnʼt matter. People are hungry for content that actually solves their health problems and gives them the emotional and physical transformation they want.

Strategy #2 – Compress for Faster Loading Videos

How many times have you left a webpage or stopped a video because it was taking too long to load? Itʼs happened to me more times than I can count in just the last month.

You donʼt have any control over what Internet speed your ideal clients have. But you do have a lot of control over how well you compress your video files.

Aim for a video that is “good enough” in quality, rather than high quality. That way it will load much faster and more of your prospects will actually watch it.

Strategy #3 – Use the MP4 Format compatible with iPhones

Many people use their mobile devices, like smartphones and iPads, to watch videos from the web.  If youʼre using an Android smartphone you will be able to watch a large variety of video formats.

However, people with Apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod can only watch videos that are MP4 files in a H.264 video format.  Flash videos and other MP4 video formats wonʼt work for them.  So when youʼre converting your videos for Internet use, youʼll want to keep that in mind.

Since Apple devices make up a very large percentage of the market, I recommend that you only use video formats that you know will be viewable on the majority of mobile devices.  That way youʼll reach the largest market share with your videos – iPhones, iPads and Android phones.

Strategy #4 – Always Use Control Buttons on Your Videos

In the last year, Iʼve been to several sales letter webpages that used a looonnnggg video presentation, but didnʼt include any control buttons – other than pause. It drove me nuts.

Remember to use a video player that allows people to pause, stop, fast forward, or rewind your video. I would do this for any video over 2 minutes and hereʼs why.

When youʼre giving great information, people want to take notes or at least pay close attention. If they canʼt rewind the video and they miss something, they wonʼt re-listen to 5 or 15 minutes over again just to catch what was said. Instead, theyʼll leave feeling frustrated and annoyed.

And if you decide to have your videos autoplay when a webpage loads, be sure the pause or stop button is easy to find. That means the video needs to be high on the page so the visitor sees it without scrolling down.

Strategy #5 – Host Your Videos on Your Server

I know itʼs convenient to upload your videos to YouTube or Vimeo and then use their HTML embed code to add the video to your WordPress site. But youʼre running the risk of having all your videos disappear if your YouTube (or Vimeo) account is shut down.

I think video directories are great, and I want you to use them. Just donʼt depend on them exclusively.

Iʼve heard numerous stories of marketers who had their social media accounts shut down – including YouTube, Blogger, AdWords, and more. The frustrating part is that they usually have no idea why and have no one to appeal to in order to get their account open again.

Itʼs better to have most of your videos hosted on your own server. You can easily do this in WordPress with a WP plugin for a video player. There are many free ones to choose from and you can find one that will work well with your WP theme and other plugins.

If your site hosting doesnʼt have unlimited bandwidth and get a lot of views on your video, you may want to host your videos on a video hosting account, like Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). They have really low rates. The important thing is that you have some control over the place where your videos are hosted.

If you do use videos hosted on YouTube or Vimeo, be sure you have a record of which videos are used on which pages. That way if you ever lose your account (for whatever reason), youʼll know which videos to upload to which pages and save yourself hours of work.

For more information on the dangers of depending on social media sites for your business, see Jeff Johnsonʼs recent article, “Youtube Shut Me Down And I Donʼt Know Why Part 1”. Itʼs very eye-opening, and this isnʼt the first story Iʼve heard on this topic.

Summary

Itʼs never been easier to use video on your website than it is today with the technology at our disposal. And most of it is either free or low cost. So even if you donʼt consider yourself tech-savvy, using video on your website is within your reach.

But to maximize your results and get more clients, youʼll want to use the above 5 strategies with all your videos.