Adding videos to portfolio sites: Why it matters and how it affects your visitors?

Your website is a shopfront. You draw the visitor in and you want them to look around and eventually buy what you are selling. This stands true for websites of all kinds. The onus of luring in the visitor and keeping them engaged is on you. Depending on what you present and how you present the value to them, they will part with their money and time or part ways with you. That is how markets work and that precisely is how your site on the internet works. 

But what separates a great website from a good one? What makes the visitor stay for more and trust the website owner with their money? The answer to that has been covered in several blogs. But given that we are a video player company, we want to go into the specifics of how adding videos to sites affect visitors and turn them into customers. This blog will be specifically about videos on portfolio sites but generally applicable to most other kinds of websites.

What we mean by portfolio sites

Our definition of portfolio site: Website that showcases your past work and achievements in hopes of acquiring new work. You might be an agency or a freelancer, a programmer or a painter,  chances are you have seen and/or own a website. You can go crazy with the visuals and the storytelling to stand out and keep your target audience engaged. And if done right, your site might show up first if people start looking you up on the search engine. This will get more eyes on you and if everything is aligned well, you will get a customer who is willing to pay you for a gig.  

What most portfolio sites include

Images and words. Some sites include gamified experiences, others can be a simple white page with all works listed in bullet points. There is no set rule for how a portfolio site is supposed to look. But the whole purpose of the site is to let people know what you do and how good you are at it. So, people go to extremities to either simplify complex ideas or complicate the simple ones. The portfolio site has a personality too. If it is an agency, the site will speak how the brand is positioned. If a freelancer, the site is pretty much expected to reflect the personality of the person who owns it. So, what goes on the site really depends on the taste, preference and personality of the brand or the person it represents.

Who needs videos on portfolio sites

While everybody wants something cool to stand out about their sites, extremely complicated user experience flows are not everyone’s cup of tea. Most stick to a general homepage which for most freelancers is the about us page, the work page which can also be a case study page, services page listing the services people can pay for and a contact form. 

The past work/ case study pages that detail down what you’ve done and achieved for others is at the core of the trust building exercise that this portfolio site is. While most people stick to screenshots, project images, a problem-solution breakdown and testimonials to establish their work, adding videos on this section is a great tool to engage the audience and give them the information in a more digestible format. 

Video storytelling and founder-led stories

Businesses succeed when customers relate. Sometimes this relation is purely intangible. It is not tied to the extra soft sole of the sneaker but the grit of the migrant founder who persisted. This is an outcome of storytelling. And given video is the go-to media format for most content consumption, it is only natural that most of the storytelling is happening through video. Be that on Youtube, Instagram or even LinkedIn, freelance folks looking for gigs are blasting their stories for reach and engagement. 

Why should videos on portfolio sites serve just one niche?

Videos are for videographers. At least that is the perception for most. And it makes sense because:

1. Videographers, singular or teams, have videos to showcase
2. They want video clients and they need to show their expertise in videos with videos on their sites

While that’s true for videographers, we need to look at videos more as a medium than the product being sold to understand the value it brings to portfolio site owners.

The power of videos

Regardless of which niche you serve, videos are a storytelling medium. Let’s fix on that for now. It does not matter if you make videos or crochet, write erotica or deep technical documentations, you have a process of how you work. And when dealing with past projects, you found ways to incorporate those processes to go from zero to one. And since you are already documenting and showcasing those works on your site, a video where you talk directly about the project, your process and the struggles is way more valuable than just mockup images or large paragraphs of you did this and you did that. Having a video testimonial where your client is smiling and goes gaga over you is way more valuable than a text block which could have been written by anybody and attributed to the client. 

Unlike on Youtube or any user-generated content site, your video does not have to compete being the most professional one either since the audience is on your website. Good audio and a well-lit environment is a plus when the story is on point and adds value for the visitor. Go for the straightforward problem-solution arc or the Nolanesque play with timeline, a video on who you are, what you do and why you should be hired is way more engaging than stock images of handshakes and people pointing at whiteboards. 

How to add videos on portfolio sites?

Depending on which platform your site is built, adding videos to websites is a straightforward process in most. It is a media asset and most site builders have media libraries where you can upload videos and then add them using their default video players. 

Another way to add videos on websites is embedding a video which is hosted somewhere else. Many site owners upload the video on Youtube and then embed that on their website. For most, that gets the work done. It is indeed a free and simple way to add videos. But there are drawbacks which affect sites. Read this article for more info.‍

These straightforward solutions are great if you are a beginner and the branding aspect of you or your agency is not your topmost priority. But if you want a professional looking video playing experience that ensures your audience is not distracted and your video is on-brand, you must go for Sato Player.

What is Sato Player and why teams use it for videos on portfolio sites?

Sato player is a no-code video player that empowers designers and devs to host videos, build custom and branded video players and embed it anywhere they want. Anyone can create a video player and change how it looks and feels to match their brand. It has more than 80 customizations to control how the video playback behaves and the video player looks. It also has advanced marketing features which increase video watchtime and convert visitors to paying customers. It is compatible across all website builders including Wordpress, Wix, Canva, Webflow, Framer and Notion among others. 

But why do you need a custom video player?

The same reason you buy a domain and not carry businesses out of the website builder’s subdomain. For the same reason some of us own an email with our brand suffix rather than a @gmail or @hotmail.

Why teams use Sato player

Brandable

Sato Player is deeply customizable. You can add your brand logo and colors. This means it can be branded 100% to look like a conscious part of the brand design rather than sticking out with an unbranded interface. 

Distraction-free

Youtube embeds are known for their suggestion engine and unfortunately that is a massive distraction for website visitors. The last thing you’d want your visitor to see is an advertisement or unrelated video that takes the attention away. Sato keeps you at the center. No ads, no distractions. 

Simple video hosting

You can directly upload and store videos on Sato player and add it to the players you build.  This simplifies the content delivery process as you need not stitch up a solution to store videos somewhere else and then host them from someplace else. It can all be done and served from within Sato player.

Autocaptions

You can generate captions for your videos with speeches from within Sato player. This adds a layer of accessibility for audiences who watch the videos on mute. This also reduces the extra task of transcribing the video manually and then adding it to the video during post-production. With Sato player, you can get the transcription generated using AI in minutes.

Call-to-actions

The video in your portfolio needs to lead the viewer somewhere. Often it is one step deeper into the funnel. If you end your video or add cues in between the video to drive action, you can use Sato player’s call-to-action feature. This lets you direct your user to an external link. And in your case, this can be a calendar link to set a call or a lead form. 

No matter what you do with your portfolio site, it cannot be denied that adding videos on it will only amplify the experience you want your visitors to have. A video is a storytelling tool and using it well is instrumental in building your brand. And to ensure that video playing experience is on-brand and sticks with your target audience, Sato player is where you host videos and build truly unique video players in. 

Ready to add videos to your portfolio? Start with Sato Player for free.  

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