You can say a lot about the content of a web page, but the bottom line is that it must do two things:
1) Quickly show visitors that you're offering what they're looking for.
2) Quickly show that they can trust you to deliver.
It's a great idea to use headlines and images to let people know at a glance that you're offering what they're looking for. But nothing delivers trust the way face-to-face interactions do. While you can't physically look someone in the eye and shake their hand online, you can give them a HUMAN face and speak to them directly.
This is the purpose of VideoPal: to provide visitors with a more human experience. In this review, I'll talk with you about:
1) Quickly show visitors that you're offering what they're looking for.
2) Quickly show that they can trust you to deliver.
It's a great idea to use headlines and images to let people know at a glance that you're offering what they're looking for. But nothing delivers trust the way face-to-face interactions do. While you can't physically look someone in the eye and shake their hand online, you can give them a HUMAN face and speak to them directly.
This is the purpose of VideoPal: to provide visitors with a more human experience. In this review, I'll talk with you about:
- What VideoPal is.
- Additional features.
- Competing software.
- My review of VideoPal.
What is VideoPal?
VideoPal is software that puts a video overlay on your website, providing a human (or animated character) greeter for your visitors. Since it feels like the person or character is not inside a video (due to a transparent background), you remove some "distance" between the visitor and your message.
VideoPal lets you put YOUR MESSAGE into the mouths of animated characters or real people through "text to speech" technology. Simply type your message and choose the model you want speaking and you're ready to use the software. It even offers some pre-written scripts to get you started.
Or if you prefer, you can upload audio or record your voice on the spot. This audio will then be used to give a voice to your VideoPal greeter.
Optionally, you can create a video of someone in your business to be your VideoPal spokesperson. Record them speaking with a green screen background and VideoPal will REMOVE that background to give you the spokesperson effect seen in the animated image here.
You could also record any standard video and NOT remove the background, though this defeats some of the purpose of VideoPal.
The greeter or spokesperson stays on screen even while your visitor scrolls down your site. This allows you to make sure your message is delivered. Of course they do have the option to stop or close the greeter, leaving your visitor with the necessary control.
VideoPal lets you put YOUR MESSAGE into the mouths of animated characters or real people through "text to speech" technology. Simply type your message and choose the model you want speaking and you're ready to use the software. It even offers some pre-written scripts to get you started.
Or if you prefer, you can upload audio or record your voice on the spot. This audio will then be used to give a voice to your VideoPal greeter.
Optionally, you can create a video of someone in your business to be your VideoPal spokesperson. Record them speaking with a green screen background and VideoPal will REMOVE that background to give you the spokesperson effect seen in the animated image here.
You could also record any standard video and NOT remove the background, though this defeats some of the purpose of VideoPal.
The greeter or spokesperson stays on screen even while your visitor scrolls down your site. This allows you to make sure your message is delivered. Of course they do have the option to stop or close the greeter, leaving your visitor with the necessary control.
Important Features of VideoPal
- You can choose to add a button or email capture form on top of the greeter. This helps you drive the actions you want. Optionally, you can add a countdown timer to a particular date in order to create a sense of urgency.
- You can choose to autostart the greeter's message, or leave it up to the visitor to click on the greeter for its message. This is important because you may not want to force the audio / message onto visitors. You can also show a mute button, useful in case you do choose to autostart the message.
- Messages can be up to 2 minutes long.
- You can choose from real humans speaking pre-written scripts. There's no lip syncing in this -- it's really them speaking, welcoming visitors, encouraging email signups, etc.
- You can choose a delay before the message starts, or only have it start when someone starts to leave your site.
- You can choose what corner it opens up in.
- You can choose to close it after it plays.
- You can choose to only show it once per visit so your visitor doesn't keep getting the same message.
- Want a message in a different language? Just choose the language when doing text to speech and it will convert it for you!
- You can choose to run a video (from YouTube or Vimeo) after the greeter's message in the same location. This is a great way to introduce a video, maybe providing a teaser on what it's going to cover to make sure visitors give it their attention.
- You can place your VideoPal on other websites. This is huge, especially for affiliates to use on affiliate products. But it has plenty of other uses as well. Here's an example.
Competing Software
VideoPal isn't the first software to put a spokesperson overlay onto your website in order to connect with visitors.
- One competitor gives you the power of human and animated character speakers as an overlay. But the buttons / lead captures don't look as good, and it limits how many times per month it will run. This starts at $19.95/month and lacks many of the extras included in VideoPal.
- Other competitors will create a green screen video (for a transparent background) of a model walking onto your site and speaking with your visitor. But this starts at $299 for a 30-second script. VideoPal lets you record someone in house on a green screen background (or hire this out inexpensively on Fiverr) and then removes the background for you. No more need for paying $299 or more ... for every spokesperson!
- VideoPal offers BOTH of these services combined in one package, and then adds extras like the ability to run YouTube videos after your VideoPal speaks and to place your VideoPal on other websites. (There are some exceptions, like Google and Amazon.) VideoPal also works on all devices and I don't know if that's true of the competition.
At the time of this writing, VideoPal is just $39 ... ONE TIME. Now there are some upgrade options, but you get all its primary functionality for the one-time fee.
BUY NOW!
My Review of VideoPal
VideoPal basically combines the features of two other services that have been around a long time and makes them far more affordable. It gives you the power of video in a format that sticks with your visitor as they scroll down your web page, so they don't miss the message you're trying to convey. Yet it leaves them in control to turn it off if they like. (And leaves you in control of whether it autoplays.)
The transparent background can also help shorten the distance between you and the visitor. Either use an animated speaker, or record someone with a green screen background and the software removes background for you. This is incredibly valuable, putting quality results into anyone's hands!
I also love that you can harness the power of video by simply typing a script (or uploading an audio). Your VideoPal then speaks directly from that script and you effectively have a video. This takes away the excuse about not having the time to create a video.
Then it combines video with a call to action button or a lead capture form. Get people onto those mailing lists!
I also love that VideoPal will simply make your website stand out. Since almost no site uses this, it WILL make people notice. After that, it's up to the power of your message. (This is why I encourage you to buy through me to get a professional script for written FREE for your business.) But there's no question that visitors -- who are blind to so many sales messages -- will see your VideoPal.
I also love the ability to place VideoPal onto other websites so you have the chance to introduce what you're showing someone. You can even grab their email addresses while doing so!
Bonus Tip: you can even get an instant URL like this one where the only thing on the page is your VideoPal speaking. You could use a screen recorder like Screencastify or Nimbus to record that portion of the page and voila ... you have a video you could upload to YouTube!
The things I don't love about VideoPal:
So really the goal is to find what works best for YOUR business. But one thing's sure: VideoPal helps differentiate your site from almost every other site your visitors have been to. On the internet, this is critical for breaking through the noise. If you can get to your point quickly with your VideoPal, you have the chance to be heard and have the visitor take action.
I hope this gives you a good overview of the pros and cons of VideoPal and helps you determine if it's a good fit for your marketing needs!
The transparent background can also help shorten the distance between you and the visitor. Either use an animated speaker, or record someone with a green screen background and the software removes background for you. This is incredibly valuable, putting quality results into anyone's hands!
I also love that you can harness the power of video by simply typing a script (or uploading an audio). Your VideoPal then speaks directly from that script and you effectively have a video. This takes away the excuse about not having the time to create a video.
Then it combines video with a call to action button or a lead capture form. Get people onto those mailing lists!
I also love that VideoPal will simply make your website stand out. Since almost no site uses this, it WILL make people notice. After that, it's up to the power of your message. (This is why I encourage you to buy through me to get a professional script for written FREE for your business.) But there's no question that visitors -- who are blind to so many sales messages -- will see your VideoPal.
I also love the ability to place VideoPal onto other websites so you have the chance to introduce what you're showing someone. You can even grab their email addresses while doing so!
Bonus Tip: you can even get an instant URL like this one where the only thing on the page is your VideoPal speaking. You could use a screen recorder like Screencastify or Nimbus to record that portion of the page and voila ... you have a video you could upload to YouTube!
The things I don't love about VideoPal:
- The lip syncing with the human VideoPals isn't good, so it's clear that person isn't really speaking, which hurts the effort of having a human connect with your visitor. This is why, if you want a real human speaking to them, it's better to record someone with a green screen background and have the software automatically remove the background. This way there's no lip syncing involved.
OR ... you can have the built-in human VideoPals speaking from their original scripts, where they're welcoming visitors, encouraging them to sign up for your email list, etc. There's a different script for every human speaker. - The animated characters, which do a better job of lip syncing, aren't a good fit for all websites because they're more playful. You wouldn't see this on a serious corporate site. But for sites where the animated characters make sense, they sure make it easy to get a spokesperson in place quickly!
- This software has very good text to speech. Check it out here. However, text to speech still has a ways to go before it will be able to capture people emotionally like a good speaker can. For raw information, it's fine, so I love that this software makes it available. And I love that the text-to-speech can make your spokesperson available in many languages. Again, this is also a good (fast!) way to produce videos for YouTube, especially informational ones. But depending on your needs for a website greeting, you might consider a recorded human voice coupled with an animated character, or the video recording of a real person on a solid color background.
If you're an affiliate using VideoPal on affiliate products, the text to speech might be perfect because of its speed in rollout across many products. However, please note that a few sites are able to block VideoPal from running on top of them. So far I've found that this includes Google and Amazon.
So really the goal is to find what works best for YOUR business. But one thing's sure: VideoPal helps differentiate your site from almost every other site your visitors have been to. On the internet, this is critical for breaking through the noise. If you can get to your point quickly with your VideoPal, you have the chance to be heard and have the visitor take action.
I hope this gives you a good overview of the pros and cons of VideoPal and helps you determine if it's a good fit for your marketing needs!
