The Psychological Impact of Videos And Gifs on Your Landing Page

You probably don’t need to be told about the value of image based web content in general. It’s fairly well known among content marketers that images receive more social shares, and that they are more engaging than plain text content.

What you may not realize is that moving images can have an even deeper psychological impact than still images. As a result, many web designers and content marketers are choosing these for their landing pages over still photos and pictures. Here are the reasons why making this choice can be ideal when it comes to appealing to people’s psychological responses, and encouraging them to convert.

The Psychological Impact of Using GIFs

A GIF is a moving image that plays in a loop. Here are just a few of the things that you can accomplish using GIFs on your landing pages.

Quickly Convey an Emotion

Chances are, you have used some kind of emotional draw to get people to your landing page. Maybe you have tapped into their anger emotions by implying that they might be getting ripped off if they are patronizing one of your competitors. Perhaps you have tickled their sense of greed with a great offer. You might have used some other emotion such as fear, humor, happiness, or shock.

When your potential customer gets to your landing page, you want to continue delivering the message that was in your ad, and you want their emotions to carry over as well. Adding a GIF to your landing page can be a great way to accomplish this. Try to visualize the following and see what emotions you discern:

• A man looking over his glasses and shaking his head disapprovingly
• A teenage girl rolling her eyes
• A look of happy surprise coming over a woman’s face
• An angry looking man tearing up a contract
• A happy college student opening their wallet to reveal a lot of cash
• A person looking at their bank account online and realizing their money is gone

Surely, you could think of more than a few ways a GIF containing any of the above could be used to add an emotional impact to a landing page.

Guide The Visitor’s Eyes Towards The Call to Action Button

Have you ever seen a blinking neon arrow on a sign in front of a store? What was the first thing that you did when you saw it? If you mind works like many people, chances are you looked where the arrow was pointing. GIFs can work in the same way. Of course, you don’t have to use something as obvious as an arrow. A GIF with a smiling woman turning her head towards your call to action button could work just as effectively.

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Use Repetition to Improve Understanding And Convince

There’s a good reason that people use repetition in commercials. It works. Repeating something over and over again helps drive that thing into a person’s permanent memory storage. It also helps people to understand the idea that you are trying to put forward. For example, if you sell a product that helps people to manage their inboxes, a GIF demonstrating how they can clear out a crowded inbox in less than a minute, running in a constant loop could pay off very well.

You can also use the repetitive, looping nature of GIFs to highlight the most appealing part of the product or service that you are selling. Imagine a GIF on the landing page of a housecleaning service that shows an overworked couple walking into their home to find it completely cleaned, or picture a GIF on the web page of a microbrewery that portrays somebody opening a cold bottle of beer on a hot day.

The Psychological Impact of Using Video

Obviously it’s not necessary to define video for anybody. However, it might be helpful to go over the three ways in which videos can be used on landing pages. They can be embedded for the visitor to play if they wish. They can be set to autoplay (usually not recommended, especially if there is sound). Finally, a video can be used as the background of a landing page. Well, the data is out there. Video has a significant impact. In fact, you can hire a research company that will show you, using real data, the impact of videos on landing pages.

Videos Increase Trust

This has been proven so often, that it now is accepted as fact. Videos on your landing page result in an increase of feelings of trust. Consider product descriptions vs. product demonstrations. Product descriptions are great, but if you really want people to convert, you’re better off producing a video. The same thing applies to testimonials. A positive quote from a customer is a great thing to have on a landing page. A video of a customer discussing their positive experience is even better. Video simply  makes things appear to be more credible.

Videos Increase The Likelihood That People Will Convert

One of the most important psychological impacts of using videos on landing pages is quite simple. If you have a video on your web page, people are more likely to answer your call to action after viewing that video. This is because you can use video to put people in a desired frame of mind. Think about it. This isn’t a technique that only works when people are trying to sell something. How many times have you watched a moving or triumphant video and felt an emotional drive to take some kind of action? Most of us have experienced this on multiple occasions.

A Video Makes it More Likely That People Will Stay on a Landing Page Longer

A few things happen when people spend more time on your landing page. The first, and most important, is that they are more likely to answer your CTA. The second is that you see a reduction in the bounce rate on your landing page. This is also a bonus. The psychology behind this is rather simple. Moving images are attention-getting, especially when there is some sort of plot and character development.

Videos Increase Impact

This fact is especially compelling when you consider the new trend of videos as landing page backgrounds. Video, even without sound, accompanied by the text on your landing page can increase the impact of the story that you are trying to tell. It can provide a visual backdrop that boosts your branding effort, and that increases the appeal of your offer.