Did you know that you can boost your conversions (doubling them!), reduce the number of users who bounce from your homepage (by at least 7%), increase sales and lower your support costs (by half) just by using screencasts?  This was recently discussed in the Business of Software forums.

Boosting sales:

AppBeacon.com are an iTunes competitor, Justin (CEO) wanted a frontpage video as users were telling him that they weren’t ‘getting it’.  He wanted more users to stay and get involved choosing iPhone apps on his site.  We created a screencast, it is on his frontpage, after introducing it he said:

“My bounce rate has decreased about 7 percent per day. Since having the screencast up, the site’s sign up rate has doubled.” – Justin (CEO AppBeacon.com)

Note that Justin has a clever bit of javascript for first-time visitors that pops a friendly ‘cloud’ onto the screen asking if you’d like a demo, this really drives up the number of video-views he gives to first-time visitors.  More detail.

LiveDrive.com offer a hosted FTP service with integrated Windows drag n’drop support.  The CEO (Andrew Michael) had created his own long screencast and noted that his signed-up trial-user rate went up dramatically leading to more sales (the figures were all private).

He asked us to create 5 videos (4 screencasts + 1 mobile video) which told a better story more quickly, they’re on his homepage and Demos page.  You can also see his original longer demo at the base of the Demos page.

Stories For Support:

AcumenPI run Coursework.Info, the largest coursework student site in the UK.  They were losing over a day a month to support requests on the single topic of ‘how do I cancel my paying subscription?’ from less-web-savvy users.

We created a 5 minute walk-through screencast, after introducing it their support load dropped dramatically.  I don’t have figures, they were kept private, I do have a quote:

“The video has been a big help. Our users really appreciate us going the extra mile, and it has greatly reduced the amount of time we need to spend holding their hands. Job Done. Thanks!” – Chris Newson (MD)

You can see the video on our Examples page, it is 7th down, the support page in their site is only available if you’re a paying subscriber.

HowSociable.com is a free brand-metrics measuring web-app run as a demo app for Inuda.com.  I created an introduction screencast as the first ‘real’ production for ProCasts (mid 2008), CEO Jon says:

“Adding a ProCasts screencast to our front page increased activated email conversions by 25% and reduced support requests by half” – Jonathan Markwell – CEO

AdblockPlus is often the most-downloaded extension for the Firefox web-browser.  Wladimir (author) was having to answer questions from new users about support and configuration.  As a bit of open-source support (and free advertising!) we created the homepage video for them.

“I added this video to the front page of adblockplus.org and I hope that far fewer people will be confused now about what Adblock Plus is and how you “make it work”.” – Wladimir

If you click through to YouTube you’ll see that it has had 24,000 views (approx. 600 per day) in just over 5 weeks with 55 five-out-of-five ratings and a string of very supportive comments.

Summary:

We’ve seen increases in sign-ups (100% increase), sales (anecdotal but realistic), reduced bounce-rates (7% reduction) and support-load reduction (50% reduction) simply from the introduction of well-made screencasts.

If you’d like guaranteed results quickly and painlessly then talk to us and we’ll make professional screencasts that fit your needs.  We have years of experience with screencasting and know exactly what does and doesn’t work.

The UK’s Guide to Skills and Learning has published a long eBook.  On page 164 (no permalinks – see criticism below – you have to type 164 in the little search box at the base of their viewer) there’s a 1-page article by a Matt Pierce on the use of screencasting for IT training and support in large organisations.

The article notes that in-house training material can be produced by 1 screencaster (be they internal or external) which can then be delivered by a single internal email to everyone in a large organisation.  The article also suggests that 1 person can make screencasts that trouble-shoot and provide support and that these videos can be distributed on an internal network.

The article does note some obvious use-cases but fails to point out how to get started with screencasting (why not mention some common tools like CamTasia or BBFlashBack?).  If you’re in a large organisation and want a weighty tome that might add support to your pro-screencasting argument, take a look.

I do feel compelled to criticise their delivery mechanism.  They have licensed some sort of real-book Flash engine – the pages render in pretty 3D and distort as you move the mouse just like a real page would.  Lovely.  But slow.  My dual-core 2+GHz machine runs very slowly whilst I try to zoom.  Ads appear next to every page.  Things blink at me.  And there aren’t any hyperlinks.  Could someone show them how to write a simple pdf eBook please?

Let me say – waking up to discover that our screencast for newly-relaunched US ecommerce site Ztail is featured in their TechCrunch coverage is really rather cool.

We deliberately added the screencast into YouTube for them so it could be easily added to blogs and news-outlets for increased coverage.  Initially they used Vimeo (but strictly-speaking that’s against Vimeo’s T&Cs) and then switched to YouTube so the peak viewership was recorded at Vimeo (but that’s now deleted).

Ztail host their own copy on their home-page.

Ellen worked with us to re-write the script using AIDA and other techniques to pique the viewer’s interest and keep those that could benefit from Ztail’s service watching through-out.

I’m very proud to say that we’ve been given the Screencast of the Week (twitter) award by TechSmith, makers of the excellent CamTasia (our main screencasting tool).  The award is for our Adblock Plus video, we made it as part of our open-source advocacy drive.  It is viewed 600 times a day in the adblockplus.org website and has 39 five-out-of-five ratings.

“I liked this screencast for several reasons. Ian made great use of Camtasia Studio’s SmartFocus feature – he used it to focus your attention on certain areas of the screen and show greater detail.

The audio quality is great on this screencast which is important as viewers are generally intolerant of poor audio. The background audio music was a great touch and added polish to the screencast. And, Ian has a great voice for narration! The screencast runs 1:32 and is short and to the point. Perfect!”

Our video has also been given 3 awards by YouTube for making highly-popular content.

We’re rather chuffed to say that our screencast that explains the open-source Adblock Plus plug-in (Washington Post) is the 15th most popular video in YouTube’s Sci/Tech category this month.  We created this screencast with Wladimir (Adblock’s author) to explain how the plug-in works, how to get it and how to get support.

This screencast is second only to a screencast by Google on Privacy which puts us in with rather forward-thinking company.

With 600 views a day (we’re guessing 16,000 views for this month) and 36 feedbacks of 5/5 this screencast is a great way for us to give back to the open-source community and to help explain this very useful plug-in to potential new users.  It also reduces Wladimir’s support burden as more users know what to expect when they install it and how to get help in the forum if they have questions.

We’re also honoured in two other categories, in total:

• #15 – Most Viewed (This Month) – Science & Technology
• #64 – Top Rated (This Month) – Science & Technology
• #57 – Top Favourited (This Month) – Science & Technology

The quest for the ‘quiet PC’ is always a challenge for any audio engineer.  A standard PC has several fans, each of which contributes background noise that a sensitive microphone will pick-up.  It is easy enough to remove the background noise in post-production but the ideal situation is to keep your source signal as clean as possible.

My sE2200a is a wonderful mic and annoyingly my case fan has been showing its age, over the last few months it has noticeably become louder.  My quest for the best solution took me to Noctua.at, they produce high-end fans.  My choice was the NF-R8, reviews are always positive.

Using my sE2200a and Audacity I recorded the original case noise-level (-30dB) and the improved noise-level (-36dB), for this I ran Audacity on my MacBook with the mic placed at the back of the PC.  The PC and mic were kept in exactly the same position between the tests.

The 6dB noise reduction comes with the use of the Low Noise Adapter (L.N.A.), the earlier review suggested that this was the most effective to reduce noise (the Ultra L.N.A. is too wimpy).  The L.N.A. is just a resistor that sits in-line with the power-supply.

This fan is the first I’ve mounted using rubber screw-replacing ‘vibration compensators’.  These are the same shape as screws but are long rubber fixers that you pull through the case – they cut down the vibrations that the fan could transmit into the case.

All in I’m very happy with the NF-R8, the reduction in noise is quiet evident and this means even clearer recordings for me than I’d achieved before.

Over Christmas I’d spoken to Wladimir Palant of the Adblock Plus project, Adblock (you guessed it…) strips ads from within Firefox.   Some of his users had trouble understanding how the plug-in worked and how to get it installed.  We offered to do some open-source advocacy where we’d explain how to get started and find help for Adblock Plus in just over a minute.

Richard and I put time into developing a brief, scripting, storyboarding, animating and screencasting this short tutorial and we’re really rather happy with the result.  A higher quality version is listed on our usual Examples page, we decided to go with YouTube since it makes it easy for a viewer to embed it in their blog for advocacy.

Wladimir has a nice entry about our work, I’ve also covered it as has Richard.  This screencast is our 3rd for open-source advocacy after Django in Under a Minute and IE8 vs Firefox 3.  The open-source advocacy effort builds upon the fact that I’m a co-founder of ShowMeDo and have created over 130 tutorial screencasts about open-source.

Screencasts are an effective tool for converting first-time visitors into signed-up users.  Improving your conversion rate is an often-overlooked part of the sales process yet you can save money and lose fewer visitors to competitors by embracing this technology.

Companies like Google and 37Signals have educated users to expect screencasts – have you profited from their benefits?

Your first-time visitors are often in a hurry to find the right solution to their problem – if you don’t effectively communicate all your benefits and answer their questions, the user could well return to google and find your competitors.

The symptom is high bounce-rates – you can easily improve these bounce-rates using a front-page screencast to teach your new visitors why you are the solution to their problem.

Don’t buy more traffic when you can easily convert more of your existing visitors into users!

Why do visitors like screencasts?

1. Nothing to install – they can watch passively and learn a great deal
2. No evaluation process – you demonstrate all they need to see
3. No need for annoying sign-ups or tool installation – they see it all working presented by a clear, calm, confident voice

“With technology advancing it is often better to see (and compare) new tools in action. … screencasts make it so easy to see what’s changed.” – Matt Sarjent (Senior Programmer) (source)

If the screencast demonstrates a solution to the user’s needs then they’ll want to know how to get involved.  You can further improve your conversions by showing them exactly how to sign-up to your service with a strong call to action – this removes another potential barrier to getting them involved and makes for more satisfied users

“My bounce rate has decreased about 7 percent per day. Since having the screencast up, the site’s sign up rate has doubled.” – Justin (CEO AppBeacon.com) (source)

The improvement in sign-ups and engagement-time give you a clear financial incentive to investigate screencasts.  Adding the video into your site is straight-forward, you can also track viewing metrics to understand how often the video is viewed:

“Within an hour, I had the video up on the site and had people watching it.” – Justin (CEO AppBeacon) (source)

Would you like to learn more about screencasting?  Watch our examples to see how other companies have lowered their costs by using screencasts to convert more visitors into users.

Justin of AppBeacon had a problem – too many users bounced from his site and didn’t learn how to find new iPhone and iPodTouch apps in his improved alternative to iTunes.  Before Christmas he wanted a solution that would decrease bounces and increase sign-ups.

On December 23th he tweeted asking for a professional screencaster hoping to get a new screencast in place for the Christmas season (the new one would replace his original).  Crazy short timing!

Justin found ProCasts through Google – even though I’d planned to take the Christmas week off I could see the sense in delivering his screencast before Christmas.  iPhones were bound to be popular presents and indeed the iTunes store saw a 413% increase in traffic on Christmas Day compared to last Christmas.

In the space of 48 hours we agreed a script and I delivered this finished video for his frontpage on Christmas Eve – just in time for Christmas!

Justin has written-up the process – here’s the main benefit:

“My bounce rate has decreased about 7 percent per day.  Since having the screencast up, the site’s sign up rate has doubled”

He kindly adds:

“I would strongly suggest that anyone needing a screencast consider using Ian at ProCasts [my emph.].  He was very professional and provided great feedback and suggestions for making the screencast better.  I really appreciate his dedication and effort in getting the AppBeacon screencast completed before Christmas.”

The iFart application was featured – not by intent!  It appeared during the take and I already knew that it was a very popular app (techcrunch).  I figured that Justin could use the iFart appearence for marketing – and indeed he did (and despite the lack of votes this sent him several hundred visits alone):

“…I got some traffic from social media sites pointing out this little embarrassing situation.  I realized that this was actually going to help drive some traffic to the site.”

Do you need a professional screencast?  Do you want to get more sign-ups, more customer trials and educate more users about your software?  Get in touch and we’ll help you out.

In CamTasia 6 we are forced to use .mp4 as our web-friendly output format, this replaces the venerable .flv format from CamTasia 5 and earlier.  This has caused some upset in the forums.

Update – In September I have a new blog post with updated mp4 flv figures.

I’ve already covered how to convert CamTasia 6 mp4 screencasts to flv, what concerns me is the availability of mp4-enabled players.  Do enough users have an mp4-compatible player?  If not, how many see nothing when presented with an mp4 screencast?  I’ve raised this question in the TechSmith forums.

Troy Stein, CamTasia’s Product Manager, provided some explanation but didn’t offer solutions.

“When we saw the results of MPEG4 output in our early CS 6 development work, we knew that FLV had a short shelf life. The MPEG4 files have better quality, often smaller file sizes, better playback on portable devices and produce faster than FLVs”

Currently over 98% of installed Flash players support Flash 7 and the FLV format (source: Adobe Flash Player Version Penetration, updated September 2008).  The same statistics show support for MP4 (via Flash Player v9.0.115 or better) is  limited to 89% of installed players.

This means that 11% of visitors cannot view MP4 content vs 2% of visitors who cannot view FLV content, as counted by Adobe.  The MP4-compatible version of Flash was released in 2007 (zdnet) and had over 80% penetration by July 2008.

Since Adobe’s statistics were recorded in September 2008 I wanted to see whether the results still held true now in January 2009.

I verified these statistics against real-world sites using December’s visitor count – I checked ShowMeDo.com (large screencast-based video education site, I’m a co-founder), IanOzsvald.com (my own blog, tech-savvy readers) and ProCasts.co.uk (this site) using the installed Google Analytics.

Monthly visitor counts are:

• ShowMeDo.com 100,000 (3 years+)
• IanOzsvald.com 1,500 (3 years+)
• ProCasts.co.uk 300 (6 months)

Counting the percentage of visitors who have Flash Player 9.0.115 or better we see:

• ShowMeDo.com 86%
• IanOzsvald.com 84%
• ProCasts.co.uk 96%

Using real-world sites that focus on a Western (US+European) tech-savvy audience we see that 85% of the majority of these visitors can see MP4-enabled content.  The other 15% probably can’t view the MP4 videos – they just see a link to the raw file or an error in Flash.  I’ll wager that many tech-focused sites see similar statistics – over 80% penetration but less than 90%.  If the tech-focused sites see less than 90%, how much worse does it get for general-folk-focused sites?

Possibly we follow jimb’s solution and support two versions of the video simultaneously.  Alternatively we export using mp4 and convert to flv until these percentages improve.

Perhaps someone else has an alternative solution?