Category Archives: Web Development

Simple Ways to Boost Your Conversion Rates

Increase your conversion rates by understanding your customers and enhancing their shopping experience!

If you have ever worked on a shop floor, you may have heard the phrase ‘conversion rates’ and ‘customer conversion’ from your boss way more than you’d have cared to, after all, what does it even mean? Say a customer had come into that shop, had a browse and then looked at a product they liked, surely they are going to buy it, right? Wrong. Just because you may have a handsome face and the witty charm to help sell that product, it doesn’t mean that your customers are definitely going to go for it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t depend on you as a person or the product in question. Converting your customers into ‘buyers’ rather than ‘lookers’ is dependent on a whole host of things. Even though purchasing online and/or instore has its similarities, the process of conversion varies widely in terms of process. We look at how to boost your conversion rates to get the most out of your E-Commerce business.

ECOM

The idea of increasing conversion for your online business is ultimately down to the shopping experience. For example, let’s look at our ‘real-life’ customers on the shop floor, imagine you’re walking into a store in search of a new pair of trainers and when you step into the shop it’s absolutely sweltering (the shoddy air-con has broken and it’s the middle of a blazing record summer!). Once you’ve sweated your way through the first few isles and finally reach the trainers, you find that all the sizes are completely muddled up. Eventually, you find the trainers you like, but lo and behold… they have a thick mark all along the bottom of the right trainer (you rub this mark off yourself as you realize it is the only pair in your size). You decide to go for the slightly-marked pair of trainers you’ve just about fixed up and reach the till, only to be greeted with a grumpy, snotty, unwelcoming retail assistant who refuses to release even a meek ‘hello’ as you approach. Now, if you have stuck around this far into your trainer purchasing experience, I commend your will (or question your sanity…), nonetheless, you’re are now part of the 1-2% of customer converts that exist online. All seems a little dramatic, doesn’t it? However, you get the picture. At each turn, your experience as a customer was tarnished by the environment that the shop have created. It is the experience that you create for your customer that will encourage them to stay longer and hopefully up your conversion rates.

CRO

What Women (and Men) Want

No, we’re not encouraging you to electrocute yourself in order to be able to read your customers minds (like the noughties Mel Gibson rom com) in order to up your conversion rate. We do, however, encourage you to understand the minds of your customers through smart technology. Something as simple as Google Analytics will help you to understand where your visitors are coming from, how long they visit each page, where they are clicking through from, if they are returning customers and what words they are searching in order to find your site. This will help you gage where the glitches lie and therefore how to improve them directly. You never know, but something like this could help you understand something about your website that could never have known, such as the language in which you are using to drive people to your site or through each page. Simply changing one or two words to help customers reach their destination could help increase your conversion rate massively.

What Women Want

Be Business Savvy

Once you’ve understood where, what and why your customers are clicking on to reach the end destination you can work on how to get them to take the plunge and click ‘buy’ with a few savvy tips and tricks. This is not to say that customers aren’t interested in the product, of course they are, and sometimes they just need a little nudge to get them onto that long-awaited confirmation page. Unlike the experience of a physical shop, the customer can’t touch, try-on or try-out the product in front of them. It is your job to make sure the product you are selling is as detailed as possible, whether this is putting as many images or different angles of the product as is possible, detailing the description with size, dimensions and types of textile or maybe even adding customer reviews (providing you have enough content and are confident in the quality!). If your customer feels as though they have all the necessary details in order to make an informed decision, they’ll be more likely to want to buy.

 

Straight to the Point

With online shopping giants such as Amazon making the purchasing process for customers that one step easier with features such as ‘One-Click’, we have no choice but to step-up our Shopping Cart game. Though it may not be suitable for your site to have such a thing as a ‘one-click’ button, it won’t hurt to make the whole process shorter with smarter features to help nudge the customer to the final purchasing page. There are a few simple ways you can do this;

Adjust your P&P
How many times have you looked at a product online and thought ‘what a steal!’ because of the low price of your purchase, only to find that the postage and packaging costs almost double the actual product? It therefore makes the product seem less ‘worth it’… you may as well go to the shop and get one for cheaper WITHOUT postage fees. The idea here is to adjust the price of your products slightly higher so that the postage seems as minimal as possible. People are more inclined to pay more if they feel as though the product is worth it and priced well, even it is a little higher than they’d like. Who wants to spend all their money on stamps anyway!

P&P

Upsell, upsell, upsell!
Flashbacks to those earlier staff meetings, back in the day of your shop floor retailing days, clutching a large coffee with the piercing sounds of your manager (once again) exclaiming that, today, you must ‘UPSELL!’. Easy on the shop floors, but how do you do this sat at your desk all day? Well, offering your customers the opportunity to purchase things in bundles. For example, game stores do this well. Selling consoles on their own at a high price or offering the customer to purchase the same console and for only a little extra they have the opportunity to receieve a selection of games. This type of upsell works a treat as the customer feels as though they’re getting the best deal. Offering smaller items on the way to the checkout page that could be of interest to them and the products they are currently purchasing are a good way to shift things that may not be able to sell by themselves.

A Penny for Your Thoughts
What a difference that little penny makes… Trust us when we say, making a sale at £99.99 will sell far better than the same product at £100.00. Customers want to believe that they’re not spending too much, so to take your product down to the next bracket of 10’s will most definitely contribute to your customers shopping experience.

Penny

App-ify it

If it is suitable for you and your business, moving into the world of apps or even online shopping is a sure-fire way to make this process easier for your shoppers on the go. However, make sure your viewing layout and action buttons are just as mobile friendly as they are desk top friendly. Follow the same processes as you would with your online version!

Safe, Clear and Easy

If customers are new to your sight, they may be dubious as to your credibility. Assuring your customers checking out are secure with their purchase, whether that’s giving them the option of money transfer services such as PayPal or working with secure money payment services will allow the customers to go through with that payment with their minds at ease. Finally, keeping your final stages extremely simple is crucial in reducing the dreaded ‘cart abandonment’. Clearly display actions such as ‘Go To Cart’, ‘Checkout’ and ‘Pay’ with areas marked in bold such as billing and delivery addresses. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised in the amount of sites with uneasy and complicated paying processes and how easy it is to lose customers because of it. Going back to our beloved ‘real shop’ customer experience, if the shop is windy, muddled and complicated and every corner you turn you can’t seem to find that blasted paying desk, you’re probably more likely to dump the contents of your basket there and then and storm out (okay, maybe a little dramatic, but infuriating nonetheless…).

Secure

With this list threatening to never end, there are so many more ways in which you can increase and improve your conversion rate. As a wise Grasshopper once said ‘to understand the customer, one must check over its analytics, have smart layouts in place and BECOME the customer’. Well, maybe not all of that, but relevant all the same. If you would like more advice from some of our ‘wise grasshoppers’, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or drop us an email so we can help you to improve your conversion rates!

How to keep your web content fresh for 2017

The Year of the Rooster

Happy New Year to you all! It is now the turn of the Chinese New Year; the year of the Rooster. The Rooster symbolises time keeping, organisation and reliability amongst many of its qualities. With a little inspiration drawn from chaos that was 2016 (year of the Monkey – allegedly erratic and unpredictable) we thought we would smoothly draw a line under it all and start afresh. And what perfect way to begin a new chapter than to be inspired by rooster qualities? We delve into some ideas on how to keep your web content both fresh and innovative, whilst allowing you to provide your customers with efficient and reliable services.

 

Think… Clean Layout

This may seem like an obvious one, but not everyone gets this right first time. There is nothing worse than going on to a website, whether it was just a simple search into a search engine or you’ve gone straight to the site you desire and not being able to navigate it. Particularly with the fast paced and instant world we live in today, people get bored. Consumers are less likely to continue to search through your website if it feels awkward and difficult. Your site also represents your business so you want people to think that by choosing to work with you that it will be a smooth and effortless transition. It is vital that you keep website looking clean with smooth lines and simple drop down menus that allow people to get to their destination with ease.

 

Keep Updated

Without content, your website is just a few drop down menus that lead to empty pages with headings. Obviously, your website is not going to just lead into nowhere, so why would you only update or add new content to your site just once, or even twice? The rule above applies to many aspects of your business, not just the layout or design: don’t let people become bored of your site when all you need to do is keep it updated regularly. You can do this by adding new content, such as interesting blog posts, comments from customers or even keeping a dashboard to your business’ social media page so that customers, new or existing, can see what you’re up to regularly. Not to mention, keeping your content fresh will help keep your website relevant and boost your SEO.

 

Make Sure to do your FAQ’s

Many companies, especially smaller ones, may not see the need for an FAQ page. This page is such a vital, yet fairly easy page to create. You may not be able to always reply to potential customers questions so it is important that any questions they may have are easy to reach. This may be a question about shipping and delivery, or warranties or how to reach a certain member of your team. It helps potentially frustrated customers feel accounted for and inadvertently looked after.

 

50 Shades of Grey (or blue, or purple or green)

Now this may not work for everyone, however, a sometimes effective way to freshen up your website if you are wanting a full overhaul or whether you are thinking about your first site. Colour schemes help to set the tone of your site and give it a clean-cut finish. Unless you already have a colour scheme or design layout set in stone, a really simple and effective way to look more professional is to pick one colour, maybe that of your company logo, and using variations of that colour throughout your site. However, if you do use this technique, make sure that your using one shade of that colour and altering it from light to dark so not to clash and cause your customers to have sore eyes after looking at your site.

 

Stay Balanced

Keeping the balance between professionalism but making sure to be friendly and talk to your customers on a friendly level is important when doing business and you should keep this in mind when going through your website. Look through your site; does it look informative but not condescending? Does it read well and easy to understand? Making sure to keep the levels of jargon down (unless your business requires it) will help people not to feel alienated when understanding what they will get from you and your business.

 

Add Some Pizazz

Finally, although you want your website to be clean, easy to navigate and free of jargon, you also want it to have the type of flair that represents you and your business. This can be something as simple adding images or embedded videos to certain pages to add a bit of visual excitement. Even adding a link to a page that directs you to a ‘Meet the Team’ page with a picture of each member of staff and a fact about each one could be an icebreaker for your customers. Think of something that sets you and/or your team/business apart from everyone else within your field of competition and add it in! People love to feel like they’re unique, so if they’re using a company that has a quirk about them it will be more likely that they will remember you and attract them to your business.

 

We hope that your business prospers through 2017! If you would like any information or advice on keeping your website fresh or any of our other services, please contact our team today.

How to build a killer website

Make your website a traffic magnet

There are many reasons as to why consumers want to come back to you and your business for your services; great products/service, wonderful customer service and efficiency, just to name three.

However, you need to be able to grasp that consumers’ attention in the first place, in order to attract them to use your services. You could offer the most spectacular services, but if you cannot display these qualities through a professional and clear website, then you might as well forget it! We want to make sure that you can make the most of your website with tips and ideas from design, to multimedia, to the technical stuff that encourages your customers to click back to your website.

The Content

In order to start layering and building your website, you need to have the content ready, or at least concrete ideas of how you want your website to look and the information that will go into it. This information may include a brief overview of your business alongside images or videos and links that you would like to appear on your landing page. It should also include any necessary information that you need to add to your website, such as, cost of services and/or products, images of products and links to relevant social media sites. Without this, you will merely have a domain name!

The Knowledge

Do your research on competing businesses. Have a look at other websites for similar businesses, both successful and unsuccessful. This way you can educate yourself on what looks appealing to you if you were their consumer and what to avoid, if you think it looks clunky and unappealing. This is also a useful tactic during the creation of your website and build of your business, so you can keep up to date on who is on top on how they are attracting customers to their site. However, be careful not to plagiarise other designs or information, use the research information as a helpful guide of ‘Do’s’ and ‘Don’ts’.

The Design

Going from research on competing websites that you may have looked through, what do you notice of the more popular or successful ones? Generally, they will have a more clear and clutter-free landing page, clear titles and a clear navigational system to guide you through their site. Making sure you have a clean, brand recognizable and professional looking logo is crucial as it is what the customer first sees when they hit your landing page for the first time and how they will recognize you in the future.

If it is your first time building a brand or logo then you may benefit from spending that little bit extra on a professional to help design your logo – it is the attention to detail that will be worth it in the long run. Depending on the type of business you are, not all styles and designs of logos will have the same effect, so make sure it fits the theme of your business, for example, neutral colours and simple lettering may be used for a modern interior design company, however, bright colours with a bubble style logo will be more appropriate for a kids toy shop site. Either way, make sure it encompasses the feel and style of your business!

Note: As said previously, attention to detail is crucial! Make sure you look at every single button on your website in order to create the most appealing links to other desired pages.

The Multimedia

Having a vast variety of multimedia for your consumers to feast on is all the more appealing and encourages people to look into more depth of your website out of curiosity for what you have to offer– as Aristotle once said “All men have the desire to know”!

In the ages where social media is king, having more interesting and cryptic-at-first-glance images and short concise videos across your website will encourage your consumers to click on to your site in order to view them in greater detail, so we suggest, much like your logo and brand, that you do not skimp on these. Investing in a professional videos and photos shows will illustrate to customers that you really take care of all aspects of your business.

The Technical

We know what you’re thinking… ‘Technical’ = Boring. Things such as making sure all your links work and getting yourself to the top of search engines is the sort of stuff that makes the world that is your website spin with greatness, however, it can often be the most time consuming and frustrating part of the process.

Checking all of the finer details and all of the more technical aspects of moving your website through the ranks and to be the top choice of service in your particular field. It is also important to make sure your site has many links to and from it for many reasons; having a larger amount of links going to and from your website is important to show how active it is, however, you want those links to be trustworthy and coming from a quality source.

Having 100 links from spam websites that are linked to yours won’t install trust in your site and users, which in turn, reflects in your business; having 50 links that go back to your website through trusted sources, i.e. non-profit organisations, government websites, etc. will create trust in your domain. Keep your links as fresh as possible! Keeping up to date and making sure that the links going to and from your website are still popular and relevant is important on keeping your site up to date.

 

A Beginner’s Guide to Video Hosting

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How to get the best video hosting solution

So you’ve decided to take your first step into the world of website video production. The video is shot and edited; now you just need somewhere to host it. There are a wealth of different video hosting options available to you, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Which one you choose depends on your level of experience and the needs of your site.

When you think video on the internet, the first site that comes to mind is, of course, YouTube. Part of the sprawling Google internet empire, YouTube is the most popular destination for online video. Its interface is easy to use, and the service is highly reliable.

If you host your video on YouTube, it will be accessible in two ways. First, people can reach the video through the YouTube site itself. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, YouTube will generate a short fragment of HTML called an embed code. Inserting this code into a page on your website will implant the video.

YouTube is a great option for the website video production beginner. Simple, reliable and above all free, it nonetheless has a few downsides. Load times aren’t as quick as they might be, and it’s impossible to remove the YouTube branding from the video, which might not suit some businesses.

For the more experienced user, a paid solution offers a wider range of hosting options. One good example is Wistia, a video hosting solution that allows its users to host unbranded videos. Wistia also comes with a range of analytical tools which allow you to track who views your video and how often. Paid services like Wistia and its feature-heavy competitor Brightcove are a big step up from YouTube, but for a company committed to website video production they can be very useful.

An intermediate step between free and paid services is Vimeo, an upgradeable service. Vimeo resembles YouTube in many ways, but an optional premium version allows users to remove player branding and other restrictions. Although not free, Vimeo is significantly less expensive – if still less robust – than pricier paid alternatives.

Any of these video hosting options can be the right choice for you and your business; the key is to find the one that suits both your needs and your budget.

If you’d like help in choosing the best video hosting solution then we’d be delighted to help you. Contact your friendly experts today on 01527 910050.

How Powerful Can Online Video Be?

Miss out on the online video revolution at your peril…

When YouTube announced last year that it receives more than four billion hits per day, brands all over the world sat up and took notice. Today, we’re seeing the results of this rallying cry, which echoed across boardrooms around the world, as some of the most creative marketing forces in business decided to take the plunge and see just how powerful a medium video can be.

Tapping into the online consumer’s voracious appetite for video, brands like TopShop, Virgin Media, Pepsi and Car Phone Warehouse all called in video production experts and have recently rolled out video campaigns based on some of the most watched clips on YouTube – videos like rapper PSY’s ‘Gentleman’ which racked up more than 22 million views in just 24 hours.

When household names jump on the bandwagon and start making viral videos based on a Korean rapper and dancing babies, you know you’ve hit on a trend worth talking about.

But looking beyond online video mash ups, how do you make the business case to your own boardroom? We’ve rounded up some of the most interesting statistics, opinions, polls and surveys from marketing experts to do just that – find out in words, pictures and cold hard cash just how powerful video can be.

1. Content

Online video usage is on the up amongst business to business marketers and most marketers say video production is the one area where they plan to increase spending.

This infographic by Brainshark and Business2Community sheds more light on the power of video from a content marketing perspective: 

Power of video

How video influences buyers

Key takeaways:

• By 2014, online video could account for 50% of all internet traffic

• 85% of US internet users viewed some kind of video online in September 2012

• Video is now the 6th most popular content marketing tactic, just behind case studies, blogs and email shots

Online video production can be used to sell, educate and entertain and is quicker, cheaper and easier to produce than ever before

• If you already send out email shots to leads, adding video in the subject title has been found to improve click through rates (CTR) by 13%

2. Online Video Popularity

The warmth of the reception shown to online video has been positively balmy. This insight into the online video landscape, compiled by Clickr, shows that video useage is popular across a range of genres, ages and platforms. In short, your demographic is out there and is probably watching a video online right now.

Online Video Info Graphic

Inside Online Video

Key Takeaways:

• Over 50,000 hours of video are uploaded daily to Google Video and YouTube. In 2009, 20 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute. In 2011, that had leaped to more than 35 hours per minute. If you’re not uploading videos, your competitors are.

• The moral of these numbers? There is a lot of competition and videos need to be professional, well developed and well put together to stand out. An experienced video production company can help storyboard the video and create a clip that helps you reach your goals, rather than getting lost in a sea of uploads.

3. Purchasing Power

Whatever type of marketing you do, whatever brief you give your video production company, the ultimate measure of success usually comes down to how many more sales you can trace back to the activity in question. This infographic, courtesy of Gafpa, gives a number of compelling reasons why videos make consumers reach for their wallets. 

The World is Watching

The World is Watching

Key Takeaways

• Independent studies show that people who watch videos on your site are 64% more likely to make a purchase

• 60% of people prefer to watch a video than read a page of text

• The bounce rate for video is almost 30% lower than for text – which means video viewers tend to stick around your brand and your offerings longer

• 50% of people will remember more from a video than from text based content

• Product videos play a key role in consumer purchase decisions with a 9 fold increase in online retail video views typical around key holiday seasons such as Christmas

• 50% of smartphone users will watch a video on their mobile device, which increases audience potential

If you are looking for online video production then speak to the trusted experts at Stormnet Media. We help lots of companies like you achieve online success. Call us on 01527 910050 or contact us for a free no obligation quote.

Why Your Web Video Needs to be Mobile Ready

Mobile ready web video to drive sales…

Web video production is a vital part of many companies’ marketing strategies. Web videos can convey vital product information easily and entertainingly. Videos are also much more likely to be shared by viewers than text pieces are by readers, meaning that companies with video demonstrations are more easily able to take advantage of network effects.

When creating a video, however, it’s important to take not only those viewers watching on their home internet connections but also those watching on mobile devices into account. More and more people watch online videos on their smartphones or tablets, and producing a video in a format these users can’t watch means leaving them out of the audience.

Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in mobile web video watching in the UK, as more and more consumers have access to mobile devices and fast mobile internet. According to a recent survey, 63% of mobile device users in the vital 18-44 demographic watched videos on their smartphones or tablets. A survey in early 2013 saw a 14% increase in the number of online videos viewed from the previous year with the number of mobile video users more than tripling.

With this striking increase in mobile video viewing, web video production needs to take the needs of mobile users into consideration. This means thinking about connection speeds, file formats and screen size.

Some video hosting services already take mobile viewers into account. For instance, videos hosted on YouTube can be quickly mobilised by selecting an option in the Syndication menu. For companies handling web video production in-house, making a mobile-friendly video means choosing the right file format. The most common mobile video formats are MPEG-4 – also a common format for web video – 3GP, and Flash Lite. These fomats encourage small file sizes that download quickly to mobile phones.

Video production needs to take more than just file format into account when creating a video for mobile users. Some elements that will work well on a laptop screen won’t be as helpful for mobile users. Text may be too small to easily read, for instance, and mobile sound performance can lack the clarity of desktop speakers. Testing a new video on mobile devices as well as personal computers is a vital part of the production process.

For advice an help on any aspect of web video production then talk to our friendly team on 01527 910050 or use our contact form.

How to Produce a Website Video on a Budget

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Website video production for small business

Online video has never been more important as part of a company’s marketing strategy. As more and more people have access to high-speed internet and video-capable mobile devices, website videos gain a larger and larger potential audience. If you’ve never created a video before, however, it can be a daunting prospect. You may be wondering if it’s something you can afford. In fact, however, you probably have most of what you need already. You’ll be surprised to find how inexpensively website videos can be created.

High-quality digital video cameras can be expensive, but the cameras contained in many mobile phones or tablets are good enough for explainer videos or other simple website videos. Inexpensive flip cameras provide a slightly wider range of options without breaking the bank. If you’re demonstrating a piece of software or a website, you may not need to use a camera at all.

Script and presentation are the most important parts of a video, and these needn’t cost anything if you’re going to do them yourself. The success of a low-budget video depends on being able to clearly communicate your passion for the product to the viewer, so make sure that your script is direct, to the point and short. If you have a lot of material to cover, you may find it easier to present it in several small videos rather than one long one.

Although it doesn’t seem like much, research has shown that the videos that hold an audience’s attention tend to be in the 30-60 second range. Naturally, a more complicated subject requires more detailed coverage, but try to make sure that your video isn’t any longer than it needs to be.

Editing and production require video editing and formatting software; a number of useful applications are available either free or at low prices. Editing and video production software like ScreenFlow, Camtasia and iMovie all off the ability to record and edit videos; Camtasia and iMovie both also allow you to screencast, recording what appears on your computer screen. If you only want to screencast, try Jing, a screencast app with a useful free version.

If you’d like help with producing a website video then we’d love to talk. We produce website and explainer videos that help companies achieve the online success they deserve. We’re based near Birmingham in the West Midlands and work for delighted customers all over the UK. Contact your friendly experts today.. we’d be happy to talk to you.

How to Increase Sales Through Online Video Production

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Guide to boosting your revenue with online video production

Whilst a great online or web video can massively boost your sales revenue, a poor video can put off your prospects. Here, we’ll show you how to increase your revenue with great video marketing and how to avoid the most common pitfalls.

In this guide:

Learn how to win new business with web video

How to create a web video strategy that works for your business
Turn your customers into advocates for your brand

How to drive marketing with good quality web videos

Video marketing is one of the most powerful ways to boost your business. Studies have shown that website videos, such as explainer videos, can make a big difference to your sales conversion rate. If you combine this with the relatively low cost of production and the fact that Google favours video in the search results then you’ve got very compelling reasons to use online video production.

The great news is that you don’t have to be a budding Steve Spielberg to make a successful marketing video. You can, of course, hire a professional video production company but you may also want to consider having a go at producing your own video first.

If you are a small business owner considering producing your own online video then here are a few insider tricks that you can use to help make your video a success. This includes info on how to make your video stand out and how to ensure you get your message across.

Planning your video

The most important part of any video production process is in the planning stage. This will help you stay true to your goals, make the filming more efficient and result in a video that works.

The planning of a video production can take a number of forms. For the most part this involves mapping out what you want to achieve from the video (e.g. get more sales, explain what you do etc.), producing a script and designing a storyboard.

The storyboard and script will help you understand your story better and will allow everyone involved to share in the message. It also helps in planning the filming to make it as efficient as possible as well as the edit.

If you’re producing something like an explainer video then keep in mind that audiences are very fickle. The sweet spot in terms of duration is around 60 to 90s so be brutal in getting rid of stuff you don’t need.

Many explainer and online videos follow a standard format. This is to present a problem, provide a solution, explain how it works and then give a call to action.

Production kit you’ll need

Video production equipment is now more affordable than ever. But before you rush out and buy a shed load of professional kit then you may want to consider that you may already own equipment that is good enough for the job. For example, a lot of DSLR cameras and camcorders deliver superb quality for web video production. These are leaps and bounds from the old ‘tape’ based video camcorders and can deliver HD video quality.

In addition there are some absolutely essential extras that can make the difference between a professional looking video and an amateur movie. One of these is the tripod. This will make your shots steady and remove the hand-held shots that lots of amateur video makers use. There are also other great bits of kit, such as dollies that help you create dynamic tracking shots – these can make your video look like a piece of work by a pro.

Pay attention to the editing

The editing of your video is one of the most important parts of the video production process. You also should try and be a merciless as possible in the process and cut out anything that does not enhance your story. Think about what your viewers want to know and don’t assume that they understand your business.

There are lots of great video editing packages available for free or just a few pounds. Many operating systems ship with some form of editing software, one of the best on the market is Apple’s iMovie. This delivers professional video production editing tools and an easy to use interface.

With digital video editing software you’ll be able to quickly create a logical and coherent story. Before you start filming and editing you may want to consider creating a storyboard and script. This will help you organise your production and stay on message.

When editing, don’t be tempted to fill your video with flashy transitions and effects. This can distract from your message and screams ‘amateur video’ to the audience. Instead concentrate of the key messages.

If you’d like to discuss any aspect of professional video production or would like additional help or advice then we’d love to help. We’re based near Birmingham in the West Midlands and have video studios in Warwickshire and Worcestershire. We work with clients just like you across the UK and help them achieve online success and sell more stuff!

Contact your friendly experts today on 01527 910050.

Video Production, Animation and Web Design that Gets Results

Call stormnet media on 01527 910050

More than your run-of-the-mill video production company

With an extensive collection of happy clients under our belt, including some well-known brand names, we like to think we’re a little bit more than just a top-notch video production company.

The great news is that we don’t work only with big brands. Our clients include many small-to-medium-sized businesses as well.

We’re awfully proud our reputation for broadcast-quality video and film, not to mention exceptional value for money. But did you know we also offer a comprehensive range of digital media services?

Once you work with Stormnet, you’ll understand what makes us different. We don’t just produce films, animations, websites and such; we create results. And more often than not, exceed expectations.

Experts in all areas of video production

And by all areas, we mean everything! From animation, special effects, graphics through to corporate, promotional, health and safety, explainer and website videos, we always produce broadcast-quality videos that consistently wow our clients – and their audiences.

Here are a few of the videos that we produce:

Promo videos
Training videos
Corporate videos
Explainer and website videos
Health & Safety videos
Marketing videos

and much more…

With a stable of thoroughbred design and production talent in our studio, we’re always pushing the boundaries of creativity, quality, value and service. We understand that you’re not just hiring us to make an awesome video, stunning animation or high traffic website – you’re looking for a media partner to help you boost sales and increase productivity – day in, day out.

As a Stormnet customer, expect to enjoy all of these benefits and more besides:

Clear commercial focus – when it comes to fulfilling your business goals, we never take our eye off the ball

Clear, regular communication – geek-speak is banished to the editing room floor. When we’re talking to you it’s plain English all the way

The best value we can offer – whatever your budget, we always offer the same focus and commitment, to give you unbeatable value for money

A range of highly-recommended digital services

In addition to high-performance video productions, many of our clients benefit from our expertise right across their digital operations.

Here’s an overview of our other services, designed to help you achieve your business goals:

Animation
Website design
Mobile app development
SEO, social media and conversion rate optimisation

We’re conveniently based near Birmingham in the West Midlands and have video production and digital media facilities in Warwickshire and Worcestershire. We work for clients all over the UK and Europe.

For a friendly, no-obligation chat, call Stormnet Media today on 01527 280 100 or use our contact form – we’re looking forward to hearing from you.

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How to optimise your YouTube videos

5 Tips to optimise your web video on YouTube

YouTube is now the world’s second biggest search engine. This means that you can use video to help drive traffic to your website. However, many people are ‘missing a trick’ in as much as they don’t optimise their web video properly. This can mean that they miss out on valuable traffic.

OK, so how to you optimise your YouTube web video?

Optimising your web video is easier than you think. There are just a few simple steps that will help to make sure that your video is a hit.

1. Use the word ‘Video’ in your title

This sounds like an obvious one but so many people don’t do it! When people are searching for videos they tend to put the word ‘video’ in their search term. For example, instead of ‘car maintenance’ people search for ‘car maintenance video’ – so use the word video as part of your title.

 2. Put a link to your website in the description

The description you use for your video should be keyword rich and relevant to the video subject. Use a snappy description and a call to action so the viewer knows what to do next. Include a link to your website at the start of the description so that viewers have somewhere to get more info.

3. Tag your video with relevant keywords

The tags are an important part of the optimisation process, so make sure that you use relevant tags. Try to think of words that people will search for. We suggest using something like the Google keyword checker tool to see what people are actually searching for. Sometimes it’s best to go for less competitive longer keyword phrases.

4. Make your video inclusive and accessible

Using sub titles is a great way to ensure that people who have a hearing impairment can understand the content. You can get your video production company to create the video with sub titles or you can use some free software such as YouTube’s captioning system.

5. Choose a compelling thumbnail

We’ve all been in a bookstore and chosen a book based on the picture on the cover. It’s the same with online video – people will choose to play your video if the thumbnail image is compelling or interesting. So choose the thumbnail image wisely – it can make a huge difference to the amount of plays you get.

Here at Stormnet Media we use a number of different ways to distribute video content. YouTube is a important part of any video SEO strategy and a well optimised video will drive traffic and boost sales.

If you’d like help with any aspect of video production or video SEO then we’d love to help you. Give us a call on 01527 910050 and let us show you how.