One item on my short ‘To do’ list for 2015 was mastering the use of online video.

Here are some recent studies indicating why that is important.

The first is from Liveclicker, an e-commerce firm whose clients generate more than 12.5 million video plays per quarter. In a survey of their clients, 88% reported an increase in conversion rates when video product pages were offered, compared to non-video pages. Further, the average order value for shoppers who viewed a video on a product page was at least 50% higher for most of their clients.

Moreover, for sites where videos were on more pages, both the conversion rates and the order value increased even further, as much as 79% and 68%, respectively, over sites using video less. In short, the more video, the better.

And remember the never-ending ‘longer’ versus ‘shorter’ message debate? For those keeping score, in Liveclicker’s review of conversion rates of product videos, ‘shorter’ won — videos less than 30 seconds converted 89% higher than videos longer than 180 seconds.

Another online video marketing firm, Invodo, adds more evidence of video impact.

Across its client base, online shoppers who view a video are almost twice as likely (1.8 times) to buy. Invodo finds that on average 12% of visitors to an e-commerce page with a video will view the video (65% to its effective conclusion). How many do you think open your envelope and read the entire contents?

I’m willing to take a safe leap here and posit that the same lift can be produced with fundraising videos online (and any other calls to action). The e-commerce folks are training and reinforcing consumers into a habit-forming purchase behavior — “Check out the video!” Fundraisers should jumping aboard.

The impact of online video on purchase behavior is important not just to online fundraisers. Given the data indicating that many donors check out the website of a nonprofit or charity before making a donation — including in response to a direct mail appeal — the opportunity to lift response to all appeals by effective use of video is huge.

Here are the Liveclicker and Invodo studies.

Tom

P.S. Has anyone out there in nonprofitland actually tested video vs non-video conversion? We’d love to hear about it.