Musician Website Quick Fix #10: Embed Video

Guest post from musician website and marketing platform Bandzoogle.

We often talk about “hub and spokes” here at Bandzoogle, which is the concept of making your artist website your “hub” of online activity, and using your social media “spokes” to draw people back to your hub.

The idea is to bring people into an environment online that you own and control (i.e. no ads/distractions), where you can sell merch directly, get fans signed up to your mailing list, and turn them into super-fans with engaging content on your website.

It’s no secret that video is one of the most popular content formats online. So a great way to keep fans engaging with the content on your website is by embedding video on your site. Sound obvious? You wouldn’t believe how many artist websites we come across where the “Videos” section is simply a link to their YouTube channel. What this does is send fans away to a different website where there are countless ads and hundreds of other links to click. In other words, they’ll be watching Ninja Kittehs in no time, and you’ve lost them from your website.

In today’s music industry, a fan’s attention is the most precious and scarce commodity. Don’t waste it!

Embedding video on your website also allows you to curate the content. As much as it’s great that your fans record videos of your live shows with their cellphone cameras and upload them to YouTube, you can use your website as a filter to display only your best quality videos.

Where to place Video on your website

Video is important enough to have its own section on your website. Create a Video section, then make a video gallery with your best videos. If you have too many menu options already and want to cut down on navigation buttons, you can create “Media” section which then has galleries for both Photos and Videos. But if you have the room on your navigation menu (if you have a total of roughly 8 main menu options or less), give “Video” its own section.

Other sections of your website where you could embed video:

Homepage: You can display your best or most recent video right on your Homepage for new visitors to your site to see right away. Keep this to 1 or 2 videos maximum for your Homepage, you don’t want to clutter it up with too much content (for tips on creating an effective Homepage, check out “6 Essential Elements for Your Band’s Website Homepage”)

Shows: You can display 1 or 2 of your best live videos in your “Shows” section along with your listing of upcoming gigs.

Blog: Of course, you can and should use videos in your blog posts whenever you can.

Press: If you have a digital press kit on your website, be sure to include 1 or 2 videos that media/bloggers can embed with any reviews/previews that they write about you and your music.

Looking for video ideas? Here are 10 different types of videos you can use on your website:

1. Official Music Videos
2. Live Videos
3. Trailers/Teasers for a live show, tour, new album, etc.
4. Cover song videos
5. Video messages for fans
6. Interviews in media
7. Videos from tour
8. Videos from backstage at shows
9. Video from rehearsals
10. Video from studio sessions

Previous Website Quick Fix posts:

• Musician Website Quick Fix #9: Add a Digital Press Kit
• Musician Website Quick Fix #8: Use a Contact Form
• Musician Website Quick Fix #7: Add Social Links
• Musician Website Quick Fix #6: Host Your Own Blog
• Musician Website Quick Fix #5: Add A Mailing List Sign-Up
• Musician Website Quick Fix #4: Make it easy to listen to your music
• Musician Website Quick Fix #3: Focus on one Call-to-Action
• Musician Website Quick Fix #2: Lose the Intro Page
• Musician Website Quick Fix #1: Turn off auto-start music

Hypebot contributing writer Dave Cool is the Director of Artist Relations for musician website and marketing platform Bandzoogle. Twitter: @Bandzoogle | @dave_cool