Wellness Business Tips: 3 Ways to Use Video in Squarespace without YouTube!
Squarespace is making it easier than ever to use video on your website, and I will show you how to use it to your advantage on your wellness website!
I’ll walk you through the process of how to do this below, but if you prefer watching a tutorial, be sure to view the companion video on my YouTube channel.
First, a little background information
If you're new to Squarespace, you might not be aware of the fact that you could always add video blocks to your Squarespace website. But they had to be linked to a YouTube or Vimeo video. There was no way to upload a video directly to Squarespace that wasn’t hosted elsewhere.
What’s changed?
Squarespace now offers 30 minutes of video storage on every plan!
This means you can natively store short videos in Squarespace that you don't have to record or pay to have hosted elsewhere.
You can upload a video directly to your website.
If you're in the wellness space, this is a great feature, and I have three tips on how to take advantage of it.
If you are a Health Coach, Wellness Coach, Nutritionist, Yoga or Pilates teacher, Personal Trainer, etc., your website is hopefully a key area to drive customers and visitors to your business to book your services.
You may have felt that using video on your website was limited to pretty backgrounds to get viewers’ attention.
As a wellness entrepreneur, you have a lot more available to you in using short videos to help your visitors know what you're offering and to get to know you.
Tip #1: Welcome Videos
Consider using a short video as an introduction or a welcome to your website, business, and brand. You can include this on your homepage, on your services page, or even on your about page.
A short video, where you're speaking directly to the camera, gives visitors a way to get to know you, to see your face, to hear your voice, and to hear you share why you do what you do, what services and programs that you offer and how you can help them, what your mission is, what your values are.
It's a great way to make that personal connection.
People can feel like they know you better, and hopefully, this will encourage them to continue going through your website to learn more about you and what you offer.
I would recommend that you keep these videos short. One to two minutes is plenty! ⏰
You're not telling your life story.
You want to give them an opportunity, besides reading a bunch of text, to learn about you and engage with them with a personal touch.
Tip #2: Highlight Classes/Services
The next tip is to use video to highlight clips of your programs.
For example, if you're a yoga teacher or a fitness instructor of any kind, this would be a great way to highlight videos of you actually instructing a class and see you in action.
You give potential clients a glimpse into your classes and how you are as a teacher so they can better understand if it’s a good fit for them.
Video is also a great way to enhance your class descriptions. In addition to a traditional text description, a short video (even 30 seconds long) can show them the class and give them a much better sense of what to expect.
What if you're in health and wellness coaching or, say, a nutritionist?
In this case, you can show them a video demonstrating a recipe or some quick tips, or speaking about a current trend in your industry.
Regardless of what service area you’re in, think of video as a way to highlight your programs and offerings by giving visitors a taste of what you offer in a unique way.
Tip #3: When to use longer videos
Should you use longer form video or not (anything longer than 5 minutes.)?
First, remember you only get 30 minutes of video storage. It's gone once you use up that 30 minutes, so use it wisely!
Typically, you won't get too many people visiting your website who will sit through long videos. Attention spans are not very long anymore.
However, there may be certain situations where it might be beneficial.
For example, you can put together a 10-minute video excerpt from a class or program that you offer or highlights from a speaking engagement you participated in.
Another option would be sharing video testimonials people have provided if you have them. Hearing testimonials directly from clients or students instead of simply reading them lends some authenticity and sincerity that may help you stand out from the crowd!
That said, be cautious about using longer videos. If there's some really great content that you'd want to share for free on your website that you believe will help differentiate you and engage visitors, then this would be a good opportunity to do that, but don’t go overboard. Be intentional about what you choose to use it for, and remember that one longer video is plenty.
Now you know how you want to use videos, Here’s how to add them to your website.
Tutorial: How to add videos to your webpage
Before we dive into the tutorial, I want to mention that you can still link to YouTube and Vimeo videos in the video blocks on Squarespace. That's still an option, but with the natively stored videos, you have a bit more customization available to you that I'll show you in the tutorial.
two quick and easy ways that you can add video to your webpage.
The step-by-step instructions follow, but if you want to see it in action, please watch the tutorial section of the YouTube video!
1. Add a video block
Go to the section of your page where you want to add the video.
Click add block.
Choose video.
Move the blank video block to the place you want it.
Click the edit button.
Add your video either by uploading it directly or adding a YouTube or Vimeo link.
Optional: Add a custom thumbnail image
Optional: Add a description that will show up underneath your video.
Customizations you can make with an uploaded video only:
When you directly upload a video, you can customize the following:
You can mute the video.
If you have the video set to mute, you can also set it to autoplay.
You can also loop the video so it plays on repeat.
You also have three options to customize the video controls:
None
Minimal
All
My recommendation is that unless you're going to be auto-playing that video, set the player controls at least to minimal so people actually know there's a video. Otherwise, it may look like a static image.
2. Add a video using auto-layouts in sections
Go to the page where you want to add a section with video.
Click ‘Add a section.’
From the section menu, select ‘Videos.’
Choose the section layout that you want to use.
Edit the text
Add your videos
This is a great option to use if want a nice layout already done for you that you can make simple edits to and be on your way in a few minutes!
Wrap-Up
I hope that with those tips and quick tutorial, you'll feel confident about using video to your advantage on your wellness website. Be sure to check out the list below of other articles you may like, and if you’re just starting your website-building journey, grab my free planning guide!
