“The Richard Smith Team”22503 Katy Freeway Suite 28, Katy TX, 77450

Phone: (281)994-4240 Fax: (281)840-6881 C/O: Richard Smith

“The Ten Commandments of Installing Video on Your Web Page” by Richard Smith

There is no one single thing you can do to turn "Website Tire Kickers", into "Website New Clients" than putting your own personalized video message on your website.  But, before you run off and put something up just to "have it done", you must follow some critical guidelines to maximize this incredible strategy. There are Ten Commandments you should definitely follow when it comes to placing video on your website. Your website will drive visitors away faster than the speed of light if you break one of these Commandments. Getting people to stay at your website longer, make more inquiries about your Real Estate programs or service, and even refer a greater number of their friends to you is much easier if you simply follow the Ten Commandments.  To place video effectively on your website, follow these Ten Commandments: Commandment #1 - Avoid having your video start automatically when visitors arrive at your website. This is very annoying.  Customers may very well leave your website if it starts blaring noise as soon as they arrive. It's a lot harder to look around to try and figure out how to turn off your audio than it is to simply leave your website or hit the back button. Commandment #2 - Make sure your video looks professional! Be sure the audio and visual are both good otherwise, you will appear to be an amateur. Make sure your background is not cluttered and there is no extraneous noise.  For about $150.00 you can purchase a great camera!  Commandment #3 - Keep promotional videos short! Your main web page is not the place for long video.  A good length for your home page video is between 30 and 90 seconds and the message must be concise, direct, and easy to interpret. Keep in mind, television commercials are only 30 seconds long and manage to convey their messages clearly; use them as a model when making your video. Commandment #4 -- Practice, Practice, Practice!  If you are using a script, read it out loud several times and change it to suit your personality as needed. People will usually know if you are just "winging" it.  Prior to recording your script, be sure to have other people listen to it and offer their criticism. Then remove extraneous words; reduce the length and change wording to better convey your message. 

22503 Katy Freeway #28 Katy, TX 77450 Ph: 281-994-4240 Fax: 281-840-6881

“The Richard Smith Team”22503 Katy Freeway Suite 28, Katy TX, 77450

Phone: (281)994-4240 Fax: (281)840-6881 C/O: Richard Smith

Commandment #5 -- Smile! Always smile and appear friendly on your video. People want to work with people who enjoy what they are doing. Be sure to convey your passion for your loan business to the viewer.  Commandment #6 - Avoid putting too much video up on any one page of your site (unless of course you have a page dedicated strictly to past videos.) People won't choose a play button at all, if there are too many to choose from.  Commandment #7 -- Let your personality shine through. You are making a video in order to let people get to know you. Fortunately, they want to learn about who you are. Television is filled with reality TV shows. American viewers are intrigued by other people's lives. Let them get to know you, your family and your pets. (Several of our scripts do this.) Commandment #8 - Make sure your video actually has a point! While this may sound redundant, people often put video on their website for no other reason than simply because they can. If there's not much of a point to your video, it won't make any difference to anyone how fancy it is.  Commandment #9 -- Tell people how to view your video! Simply having a play button available on your website isn't going to be sufficient. Let people know what to expect - what's it about, how long it is, what they can expect to hear - and, obviously, where to click to start it playing. Research has shown that people will refrain from listening to a video message if they fear it may be too long. Let your visitors know if it's a long message so they will be prepared for it.  Commandment #10 - Perform a test run on your video! Don't assume that simply putting video up on your website will increase sales. Test it out, get opinions from your visitors, friends, and family, and then do split testing. After adding your video, figure out if there is an increase in conversions. You'll never know if your video messages are helping or hurting your website without a measurement of your results both before and after its addition.

22503 Katy Freeway #28 Katy, TX 77450 Ph: 281-994-4240 Fax: 281-840-6881