Video marketing has fast become a necessity for your online business, and for good reason. Traditional sales messages have been losing their effectiveness, but when video is employed, it is the hands-down winner for catching and keeping the attention of your website visitors. If you’re not converting enough visitors into subscribers and subscribers into customers with your standard marketing messages, your slumping sales will perk right up when you add video to your arsenal.

Here’s a bit of reality for you: You only have seven seconds to capture the interest of your website visitor with a headline that reaches out and grabs their attention. Every word in that message counts. When a visitor reads those words and clicks off the site, you’ve just been given the “seven second death sentence.” Imagine getting that dozens if not hundreds of times a day! Death by a hundred clicks. Yikes! The way to overturn that business-killing decree is to suck your reader into your sales message right away. Adding video to your landing page is one of the most effective ways to do just that.

Video is compellingly convincing in getting people to buy. In fact, according to a recent Online Publishers Association report, 80% of U.S. online video users have watched an advertisement in an online video, with 52% of them taking action after watching that video. The number of them that looked for more information was 28%, with 19% clicking a banner ad that accompanied the video, and 16% buying something as a result of the ad. This is a trend that studies suggest will continue.

It’s even been revealed in further studies that video can be up to 70% more effective than print media alone. The reason for that is simple: when you add a “real person” to the video–namely you–the degree of trust your buyers experience goes up substantially. If your business is primarily online, the “trust factor” is imperative if you want sustained sales and continued growth over a long period of time.

Aside from using video commercials and mini-infomercials to sell your products and services, putting your own satisfied customers on your site in the form of video “success stories” will pump up your profits in a powerful way. Their testimonials will help build more trust with your target market, and when you combine that with a great offer, quick delivery, and top-notch support, your success is close to automatic.

But using video just on your website alone is really only half of the picture. Because video has a higher perceived value than a report, an eBook, or even a print book, people will be more willing to provide something substantial in exchange for it, especially if it’s about a topic they’re interested in, or it provides a solution to a problem they might have. You can offer such a video to your site visitors when they opt-in to your mailing list, and you can also sell and charge premium prices for video products that address the needs and desires of your target market.

If you’re ready to bring your online business back to life, or step it up to the next level, then begin today by using video on your site and in your product line. Your conversion rates will be higher, and so will your profits! Just remember to utilize the same strategies as you would with sales copy: Sell the benefits, and include a strong call to action. Make clicking on your “Buy” button an irresistible proposition for the majority of your website visitors.

Kathleen Donaghy is a filmmaker, photographer, speaker, video marketer, and online entrepreneur. When not working on one of her documentary films, Kathleen can be found sharing her 6 years of internet marketing experience and her uniquely creative graphics and videos with members of “Video Opt-in Profits.” Join them at http://VideoOptinProfits.com

Kathleen Donaghy, The Video Marketing Chick & Documentary Filmmaker