How to Make a Welcome Video for Your Website

I was recently working with a client on mine on the welcome video to his website.

He is a lovely man in his sixties who does incredible mindfulness meditation trainings. When you meet him in person he is just the warmest, most real person you could meet. A bit cynical but so loving. The real deal.

But the welcome video he has up now comes across differently. It’s a bit stiff, earnest, salesy. He was using a lot of platitudes. It just didn’t feel like him.

So, we’ve been reworking it.

And it made me think that maybe it might be useful to share my perspective on how to do a welcome video for YOUR website.

First of all – why bother?

A lot of reasons. Here are a few:

  1. Vibe: People aren’t buying faceless corporate brands so much these days – they’re buying from people. A video let’s them meet you. This is true regardless of what you do. They want to meet you. They want to get a sense of your vibe. They want to feel a real person behind it all. They want some kind of relationship.
  2. Welcoming and Orienting: In a video you can sort of play ‘host’ to your website and ‘show them around’ – quickly let them know what they might find there.
  3. Directing: Very importantly – you can also tell them the ONE thing that you want them to DO while they’re on your site. This is critical. This will almost always be for them to give your their email address in exchange for some gift.

How long should it be? No more than 3 minutes.

Here’s the vibe I think you should be bringing to this video: do not bring the intention of selling, convincing, positioning etc but of welcoming them to the site. You’re just happy they’re there. You’re going for a mix of chill, happy, welcoming and informative. Don’t think of the video as a chance to SELL them but to help them find their way around the site and to DIRECT them to the most important thing they can do – sign up for your free ebook thing. You’re being helpful, not earnest, if that makes sense.

Imagine this: a friend of yours tells you that you have to meet his friend. So, you wander over to his house and knock on the door. When he answers he looks you intently in the eyes and says: “Are you searching? Searching for greater happiness, serenity, inner strength, and more inspiration in your life? Maybe you’re asking the ultimate questions, like “Who Am I?” or “What’s the Purpose of Life?” Maybe you’re yearning for awakening, enlightenment, the ultimate truth in self realization, and haven’t found it just yet. Or maybe you feel a subtle emptiness in your life, that you want to be free from some old emotional pain or patterns. If this describes you, then I want you to know that I can take you from where you are right now, to where you want to be in your life.”

How would you feel?

Wouldn’t it seem weird?

Instead of getting welcomed, it’s almost like you’re ‘mugged’. You’re marketed to. You’re barraged with very personal questions.

Scenario Two: They warmly welcome you in, offer you a cup of tea and show you around the place. They make you feel incredibly welcome and get right to ‘how can I help you?’

And this is what you want the Welcome Video on your home page top contribute to.

In essence, you’re saying, “hey, I know you’re ____ kind of person struggling with _____ kind of problem – and I want to help you get to the most useful possible on my site that can help you the soonest. I don’t want you to waste one second.” You’re already offering them guidance. You’re already earning cred as a trusted advisor. Don’t pitch them – guide them.

Here are a couple of examples of welcome videos for the full weekend Radical Business Intensive workshop I run and also one for the day long Marketing 101 for Holistic Practitioners workshop I lead.

And, of course, you can always take a look at the welcome video for this site.

But you’ll find your own style.

Here’s a template you can use:

Hey there,

Welcome to my website. I’m not sure how you found it but I’m glad you did. And I’ve got a free gift for you – which I’ll tell you about in just a second. My name is ______ and for the past ________ years I’ve been helping _______ kinds of people who are struggling with _________ and ________ and do my best to help them get a bit closer to __________. Mostly that’s through __________. But I just wanted to say hi and tell you a bit about what you can find on this website. Above this video you’ll see _______# of links.

(describe what they can find at each in a short sentence or two)

So, the free gift! If you look to my left you’ll see that I’m offering a ________ called _______ which I think should give you a really good sense of my work. All you have to do is type in your name and email and we’ll take it from there.

Thanks again for popping by – and I hope one day we might even meet in person!

A few other key things:

  1. Lighting. Good lighting is a must. Don’t have it seem dimly lit or shadowy. It should seem like it was shot in a grungy basement of your parent’s place. Maybe for a blog video. But not for your welcome video.
  2. Background. Don’t do it against a wall. It ends up looking like a mugshot. Do it somewhere with some background and depth to it.

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