Mastering video banners for websites

Let’s face it—there’s nothing smoother and more captivating for a website than having a video banner. It’s the perfect merge between storytelling ability and creativity for any website. But how do you go about designing the perfect video banner? In this blog, we’ll go over 3 tips for creating video banners that will leave an impression with anyone who visits your site.

Choose a unified color scheme

Nothing is more visually displeasing than mashing together a bunch of stock videos for a video banner. Sure, we use stock video—every time we’re held at gunpoint and told to use clips from Shutterstock. Other than that, we wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole. You video should be a unified representation of your company—it should blend your company’s colors like a unified piece of art. It’s hard to do that when you use stock video or when you don’t spend time color correcting the video that you take.

For instance, when designing a video banner for Café Blue Dream—a CBD café in Amesbury, Massachusetts—we emphasized their main color everywhere in the banner.

Limit the size and length

Please don’t film a 45-minute documentary about your business and upload it to your site as a video banner. Pretty please. With sugar on top. The average website visit tends to be under 15 seconds. That means you have mere moments to make a positive impression and to give them a reason to want to stay longer. A shot captivating set of video shots is much better than trying to cram a video PowerPoint into a website banner.

Additionally, you’ll want to be cognizant of the size of the banner video. A banner video is a quick way to slow down your website if not done correctly. You’ll need to optimize the video for web design—keep it around a few megabytes and under 30 seconds in length—or else the video is likely doing more harm than good.

Only use quality shots

Throughout our series of blogs, we’ve repeatedly mentioned that you can often film a quality video using cheaper equipment like a newer iPhone. We recommend investing in quality equipment for a video banner. Let’s face it, everyone who visits your site will see that banner video—so don’t let them see resting bitch face content. Only include shots that look visually impressive, as lower-quality shots can weigh down the video as a whole.

Shaky footage should be discarded (and stabilizing shaking footage often looks just as bad), shots with inadequate lighting make your video look like a horror movie trailer, and please for the love of all things holy don’t include audio for a video banner. Nobody likes to hear sound upon visiting a website. The following video—filmed during the golden hour of the morning—uses the early morning sunrays and slow motion to amplify the awe-inspiring nature of the footage.

Video tells a story. And if done well, it can be the perfect way to build a connection with visitors to your website. By following these 3 simple tips, it should be relatively easy to create a video banner that reflects your company—from its goals to its aspirations—and creates a lasting impression with your site’s visitors. At the end of the day, isn’t that your website’s purpose?

Tell the world your story

Need help with video marketing services? Get in touch with us.

Mintleaf is a creative marketing agency located on middle street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It serves the greater Seacoast Region and specializes in videography, content marketing, social media and web design.