Alternatives to a Popular but Ineffective Method
Adding videos to your senior living website will drastically change the way potential customers perceive and interact with your brand. Craft & Communicate can help you ensure that this change enhances your brand’s reputation and encourages seniors to join your community.
Why are videos not always beneficial for senior living websites?
Videos within website heroes are known for catching viewers’ attention but may not always maintain their interest.
Want to make a great first impression with videos?
Think about the last time you visited an impressive website. Below the navigation bar, you likely saw a full-width, high-resolution illustration or photo taking up plenty of space. If this image was behind a layer of color and text, it was a hero.
Most website heroes function best with a simple layout containing written content that briefly explains the problems your services solve before a clear call to action (CTA), which is a helpful way to increase conversions by encouraging users to click a button or link that allows them to speak with you or your associates through a phone number, email address, or contact form.
The type of image you choose may depend on the services you offer. For instance, if you offer independent living—a type of senior living that requires minimal care and maximizes residents’ leisure time—a lively illustration of seniors enjoying their favorite hobbies may be best. Memory care providers, on the other hand, often benefit from photos of dedicated caregivers comforting residents with memory loss or helping them solve mind-strengthening puzzles.
Regardless of the subject(s) you choose to include within your hero, we recommend that a video should never take its place for several reasons.
Why should we avoid using videos as hero backgrounds?
Most videos do not play automatically on mobile devices. Because mobile devices contribute to more than half of all website visits, this means that most of your viewers will only see a static image anyway.
Even if visitors can see the moving background of your hero, its motion may interfere with the rest of the hero’s content. Notice the difference between the following two snapshots of a single hero featuring the same video of The Bluffs of Flagstaff captured seconds apart.
What if you still have excellent videos to showcase on your website?
If you would still like to take on the challenging but not impossible task of placing a video within your hero, be sure to follow the steps below.
- Carefully arrange the text and buttons of your hero in a way that does not block important parts of your video’s foreground such as people, animals, or automobiles from desktop viewers at any time. Try to place them over backgrounds such as walls, skies, or fields instead.
- Make your web design responsive by doing the same for viewers of tablets and phones; since video backgrounds will not auto-play on these devices and should not offer user controls, you will only need to edit your design to accommodate a still frame.
Feel free to include other regular videos throughout your site that can be played, stopped, re-wound, or fast-forwarded from any device and are not restricted by the overlaid design elements of heroes. Each video should receive its own section below or alongside a heading and possibly some additional text.
Websites and videos are among the most important aspects of senior living marketing and advertising. By creating a complete, well-planned site for your community that speaks directly to seniors seeking a welcoming community and responds to their needs, you can build awareness of your community and enrich the lives of countless seniors.
- Lauren, C&C Digital & Print Designer
