In today’s crowded online marketplace, driving visitors to your website through pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimisation and good website design has become essential. But simply driving traffic to your site is only the beginning. Converting visitors into customers is the key to online success.

The secret is to understand the customer's motivation and to deliver the right message in a precise, powerful way. And a new online marketing tool from Video Persons does just that.

By placing a streaming video of a moving, talking person anywhere on your website, visitors are quickly engaged and your key message is delivered immediately and in person.

With online attention spans being notoriously short, the first few seconds of a visitor’s experience of your website are vital and a Video Person can help keep you one step ahead of the competition. As well as greeting visitors and delivering sales messages, the Video Person could also point out buttons or features of your site’s navigation, encouraging visitors to click through to relevant pages.

The process involves filming an actor or representative of your organisation. Video on your website offer their own network of state-of the-art production facilities throughout the USA and abroad. Their Recording studios utilise the latest digital equipment, lighting, professional actors, script editors and technicians.

After shooting, the video is edited as required, encoded and then placed on high-speed streaming servers for fast delivery to your website, typically within seven days of being recorded.

You will have full control over where, when and how the movies play on your website. Your Video Person can be fixed on the screen or float so the movie will always be visible as the visitor scrolls down the page. Changes can be made easily and in real time, using your own online control panel, which also provides access to usage reports. By monitoring visits, video play times and click-throughs, you will know that your Video Person is delivering results.

For visitors who may not have their audio enabled, or where translation into various languages is needed, close captioning can be provided. This is created and edited in the control panel and simply scrolls alongside your Video Person.

And accessibility issues have also been taken into account. The Video Person movie will not play if a screen reader is detected, and can always be turned off by pressing the escape key.

Another application for the service combines Video People technology with PowerPoint presentations. Clients can now present PowerPoint slides online, introduced by a Video Person, thereby holding the viewer’s interest and attention for longer; a far more effective way of delivering a message or enhancing a learning experience.