What a great homepage video in 2020 looks like

I define a homepage video as a 1-2 minute, well-produced highlight edit that tells website visitors:

• Who you are
• What you do
• Why you do what you do
• Who you do it for
• Why they should care

You can only expect website visitors to spend 15-45 seconds on your site, so if you can get them to hit play on a video within that first 15-45 seconds, you can imagine them clearing the 45 second hurdle by the time your video finishes.

If you've been following me for a while you know that I start with Zoom and go from there. Zoom and video calls in general have completely changed my business and I'm continually finding uses for video calls in the videos I make.

A natural fit for Zoom footage in homepage videos.

I was approached by an acquaintance who asked if I would be interested in creating the Mamas Talk Money Summit homepage video this year. He told me that they weren't super thrilled with last year's video and asked how I would approach it.

I knew they would be PERFECT for a Zoom-themed video.

Now I do not want to spend an entire post talking about why someone else's video is bad, but I'll talk about my approach.

Here's the 2019 video that we DIDN'T MAKE:

Here's our 2020 video!

As I was talking to the client, there were a few things I wanted to focus on for the 2020 version.

Personality!

The 2019 video doesn't feature anyone SPEAKING. This is a video promoting speakers and talks and a community to learn from. Everyone is helping each other to create better money outcomes. Let's show some people speaking!

Chelsea is all about community and creating a safe space for moms to share their money struggles and ask questions. It's important that viewers can watch this video and think "I want to be friends with her!" or "She's totally right! That's what I think too."

Chelsea and I each conducted 5-10 interviews. We talked to both speakers AND attendees. Getting this mix of "experts" and "regular Janes" is important because you want to create a good mix of credibility and accessibility.

Whenever I work on event videos, I start with a few basic questions:

• Why is it so important for you to attend this event?
• What would you say to someone who is considering attending this event?
• What are 3 words you'd use to describe the event?
• What's one thing you learned from the event that you'll immediately apply to your life or your business?

This gives us a baseline and we can ask more specific questions from there.

A lot of the responses were something along the lines of "I want to better manage my money so...

... my family doesn't worry about money."

... my daughter doesn't grow up the way I did."

... I have the the freedom to spend more time with my family."

Based on these answers, I thought it was important to include family photos. Luckily the interviewees were totally on board. Look at these adorable families!

You have to put yourself in your viewer's mindset. If they just learned about you, do they see themselves in your tribe? Tug at the heartstrings a little bit and create that emotional response. Emotional responses are what they'll remember long after they leave your website.

Fun!

Chelsea talks about this event as a virtual pajama party. They had a logo animation made and I immediately asked if the animator could also create a fun background that we could place the Zoom videos on. I love how it turned out!

Why I love interview-based videos

The 2019 video had no voiceover and no one talking on camera. This approach can work for the right client and message and distribution.

For instance, 85% of videos watched on Facebook are watched on mute. So if that's your primary distribution, it makes sense to go with a 30 second voiceover-less video.

But for a homepage video for a personality-driven virtual event, you should highlight the personalities.

A homepage is lower in the funnel than social media. Know that your audience has the appetite for a longer video.

Who to interview

The most successful interview-based videos include LOTS OF PEOPLE. When you include lots of interviewees it shows:

• Diversity of age, ethnicity, location, etc.
• Diversity within the organization think - don't just interview the CEO and the higher ups. Talk to the entry level employees, customers, affiliates, etc. too.
• A montage of testimonials in a short amount of time. More happy customers = more social proof

A nice byproduct of including lots of people is you don't need a lot of b-roll! If you have just 1 or 2 people talking, you'll need something else to look at instead of watching the same person(s) talk over and over.

Where is that b-roll going to come from? Paying for the stock footage that's loosely related? That may look awkward and get costly.

When you include 5, 10, or even more people, you only see them for 5 to 10 seconds at a time and you can include more a-roll (people talking on camera, the opposite of b-roll) this way.

It's fun to watch them say similar things and complete each other's sentences. You can find and create neat parallels and complementary sound bites when you put different combinations of people together.

A note on running time

Our video is nearly twice as long as the 60 second 2019 video. In this world of shorter and shorter videos I'm here to tell you that it's okay to have a long-ish video!

Your video should be as long as it needs to be. Include many interviewees. Give them time to to talk. As long as what they're saying is interesting and relevant, don't worry if you cross into the 2 minute mark when everyone else is telling you to stick to 30 seconds.

Good videos have a beginning, middle, and end. As long as you can sustain the momentum and interest, if that video that comes in at 2:45, go with it!

Hope this helps you create a great Zoom interview-based homepage video!